For some of us, the lure of all things crafty is simply too much to resist. We’d do anything to spend our days felting, origami-ing, paper mache-ing, woodworking or cross stitching. You love nothing more getting your creative juices flowing and relaxing with a favorite pastime. With the emergence of crafting businesses, more people than ever are choosing to shun the blue chip corporate world and turn their focus to their hobby. Many crafting entrepreneurs have chosen to make their love for chunky knitting into a money making venture.
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If you are keen to go down the craft business route and be your own boss, you need to consider which craft you are going to specialize in. Just because you might be handy with a needle and thread, does this mean that you can produce high quality shop worthy personalized cross stitch cushions? Take a look at these four essential crafts that you should try before you commit to one business idea.
Sewing
A huge pastime for a century or more has been the craft of sewing. With the dawn of sewing machines and a recent explosion for fashionistas to love all things vintage, the idea of using your sewing skills to reduce, reuse and recycle has never been more on trend. If you are handy with a sewing machine, can follow garment patterns as well as design your own creations, you might be able to set up your very own vintage clothing boutique. By picking up vintage clothes in a charity shop and giving them a modern twist, your garments could become haute couture. That old Chanel dress might look gorgeous already but what about an alternative and more modern neckline to make a one off piece? Sewing is the perfect way to unleash your creativity and make some money in the process.
Paper
Papercraft has seen a surge in popularity in more recent years. You could choose to master the art of quilling. With some thin strips of paper and a hot glue gun, you could be creating relief pictures made from curled up pieces of colored paper. You might want to make framed pictures, greetings cards or simple postcards with your quilling technique.
Alternatively, you might like to have a go at paper cutting. With a range of cutting knives, some thick paper, a metal ruler and a pliable board to cut onto, you could begin to follow a template or two to cut out a scene. When you become more confident, you can design your own scenes, and even take bespoke orders, and sell them. Whip them in a frame, and you have the ideal gift. If this seems a little too labor intensive why not check out the latest crafting craze, to have even more fun with your cutting machine? Using nifty little Foil Quill tips that attach to your machine, you can create the most vibrant, unique and inspiring foil cut designs to add an extra level of sophistication to your paper cutting repertoire.
If you prefer something a little more complex and finicky, you might be keen to give the ancient art of origami a go. An ancient Japanese craft to make animals, plants and objects out of folded paper, you can recreate these old designs and sell them to people hungry for an oriental gift. Cranes, lotus flowers and birds are the most simple to recreate, but the designs can become wildly complicated, taking weeks to complete. Origami masters are few and far between, but if you can become even a tenth as good as these amazing crafters, you can make a fantastic startup from this ornate skill.
Mosaic
If you’ve ever tried painting by numbers, you might have a sound idea of what it takes to mosaic. Drawing out an image and then filling the gaps with broken glass, old crockery and tiles of different colors can allow you to create a 3D style collage. If you are a big fan of Greek art and ornate mosaic art, this could be right up your street. You will need plenty of space, and you can’t mind getting your hands dirty for this craft. While labor intensive the mosaic patterns and images that you can create will be breathtaking and can command a lucrative price, making this an interesting craft business proposition.
Pottery
Forget the notorious scene from Ghost, and think about actually taking a pottery class. Throwing down a hunk of clay onto a potters wheel can be therapeutic and hugely relaxing. After learning the basic techniques of how to create vases, pots and dish shapes, as well as kiln firing and glazing, you can begin to make your own ranges of pottery. With a bespoke style, you can create sets of finely glazed vases or more rustic cups to sell to your customers.
While you might think that it is quite a leap to give up your current job to commit to a hobby full time, plenty of creative folks takes the plunge each year to make their craft their craft business.