Exhibiting at a high-end craft show can be expensive, grueling – and a very effective way to promote & sell your work. 4 SDA members accepted the invitation to do a recent American Craft Council show in Baltimore. They lived to tell the tale and share some advice here.

03/23/2012

The Agony & Ecstasy of Competition Entry

by Lynne Bruning

eTextiles evangelist & digital diva Lynne Bruning asks hard questions and shares the answers she’s found while navigating the rapids of competition entry. Let her insights help you cut through the chaos and caveat about getting your work out there.

09/30/2011

SURTEX Stories: 4 Student Competition Winners Get Seen In NYC

by SDA Digital News Editor Leesa Hubbell

SDA Member Melodie Flook (at left) was among 4 student/ designers who won SURTEX 2011 designext competition – and a booth of her own at the NYC trade show. Find out what it’s like to be there + get good backstory on 4 textile design schools in the US, CA & UK.

07/21/2011

A World of Natural Dyes: The ISEND Experience

by Elaine Lipson

Experience the International Symposium and Exhibition for Natural Dyes (April in France) through the eyes and words of SDA member Elaine Lipson. An editor/writer/artist, she brought back images that capture the feeling of being there while also recapping the main issues addressed and offering some suggestions for future ISEND confabs.

Read how textile entrepreneur Laura Foster Nicholson uses Spoonflower.com, a print-on-demand fabric service, to satisfy her pattern compulsion! Then come to SDA Confluence conference (June/Minneapolis) and let both Nicholson & Stephen Fraser, co-founder of Spoonflower, inspire you to express your vision in prints.

If you want to make a living making art, it takes business savvy as well as creativity. Invest in your future, support your vision and boost your skills by registering for this Confluence pre-conference workshop led by internationally recognized master dyer Mary Edna Fraser. PLEASE NOTE: This workshop has been cancelled due to low enrollment, but you can still read art of business insights by MEF here!

Get free media promotion of your event or product by learning to write an effective press release–and develop a list of promising publications and editors to which it can be sent. SDA Manager of PR Della Reams tells how. (Guidelines for submitting a press release or story pitch to the NewsBlog can be accessed by clicking on CONTACT in the header at the top of this page).

11/03/2010

On Campus with Kaino: Get Your Student Work Out There!

by SDA Student Representative Kaino Hopper

Good student-level work is missing from art shows, galleries, runways and competitions. Why?

We hesitate.
We are afraid.
We don’t make the time to enter.

We have got to be brave!
Here is how and why we should begin looking, creating and entering…

08/29/2010

Kickstarter Case Study 2: Thumbs-down!

by Glenn Robinson

Kickstarter isn’t always “in the bag”. Glenn Robinson, environmental activist and creator of Bags for the People, gives the straight dope on a failed Kickstarter campaign. Get acquainted with Kickstarter by reading the companion piece about the Textile Arts Center and their Kickstarter success. Then read Glenn’s take on how you can kickstart a fundraising project yourself.

08/28/2010

Kickstarter Case Study 1: Thumbs-up!

by Owyn Ruck

Kickstarter is a web-based fundraising site that is, according to their tagline, “A New Way to Fund and Follow Creativity.” Find out how Owyn Ruck of the Textile Arts Center of Brooklyn created a successful campaign to support grant writing expenses that will jumpstart this new resource for textile arts education.