Monday Interview with Alison Kurek of Silent Mylo Studio

This week Alison from Silent Mylo Studio joins us!

Please tell us a bit about yourself?

I'm an artist since birth and I think it's in my blood.  I tried to make it go away more than once (I have a BS in Business!) but it just keeps coming back!  I've been selling at art shows for about 20 years now and have recently decided to try to make a go of being "almost" completely self employed. I'll let you know how it goes :-)

   

What do you create?

I have a pretty wide range of items -- from large, mixed media paintings, to prints, to small gift items like magnets and ornaments. 

 How did you come up with your store name?
My original Etsy shop name was AlisonEKurek. I changed it to SilentMyloStudio a couple of years ago. I have a bratty tuxedo cat named Mylo who is the model for my cat paintings. He seems to have acquired a bit of a cult following (I sell a LOT of cat prints :-) so, when Etsy gave us the chance to change our shops names I choose SilentMyloStudio. 

How does Buffalo influence your work?

I’ve joked that the long Buffalo winters force us to be creative and I really do think that’s true .In addition to that, Buffalo has a VERY strong arts community. We have a world class art museum in the Albright Knox, a fabulous resource in the Burchfield Penny, local galleries and groups such as 464 and WNYAG, regionally know and well attended art festivals and shops that want to sell the work of local artists. We're pretty lucky to have all of that -- not all cities do.

What is the best thing about having a etsy shop? 

The wide geographical reach. I’ve had a handful of local sales, but the majority of my sales go out of the area -- quite a few to California and Texas -- and even a few to Australia, England, Finland, Germany and Israel.

How do you promote your work to the world? 

About 80% of my sales come from direct, face to face sales at festivals. Another 15% comes from shops and galleries. My online sales last year were only about 5% of total sales -- a number I am working to increase! I'll be the first to admit that my marketing skills are lacking! My big marketing plan of last year was to hand out flyers at shows that listed all of my online contacts. It worked to some extent. I made a few online sales and gained a number of Facebook followers -- but I know I can't stop there. I've been making more of an effort with my Facebook Pages the last couple of months and have noticed increased activity on them -- more Likes, more views, and comments -- and will continue to build on that.

What is the hardest part about selling online?

What's probably bothering me the most these days is the inconsistency of views and sales. I had a very good (well -- very good for me :-) start to 2013. January 2013 was was up 300% from January 2012 -- and February was okay too. But then if just stopped! My views plummeted and I went from every other days sales to NOTHING for the month of March. It's like my shop dropped into a black hole! Ha ha! Can you tell I'm a bit frustrated?

Where can your work be found locally?

Village Artisans on Main Street in Williamsville carries a large selection of my work -- and you can find some of my items at 464 Gallery (Amherst Street, Buffalo) and the TR Inaugural Site (Delaware Avenue, Buffalo) as well.

Do you have any up and coming art shows/craft shows that you would like us to know about?

Yes! I'll be at the Small Press Book Fair on Saturday, April 6th at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, 453 Porter Avenue in Buffalo as well as the Artists in Buffalo Spring Gift Show at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Friday and Saturday, April 26 & 27, Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo

Do you have any advise or suggestions for new sellers to etsy?

Keep on plugging away! Post good photos; use Etsy resources to learn about tags and titles, and find ways to promote yourself and your shop beyond Etsy.

Where can you be found online? 

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SilentMyloStudio

Blog: http://alisonekurek.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtistAlisonEKurek

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SilentMyloTuxedoCat

Fecebook: https://www.facebook.com/alison.kurek

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisonekurek/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alisonekurek

*next week we get a chance to catch up Erica from P&E Collectibles!

Following your path...

                                                                                              Following YOUR Path...

Many people dream about working for themselves
and the freedom, enjoyment and satisfaction that
come with it.

Of course, there is a lot of hard work, stress, and
doubt and, sometimes, it still results in failure.

We've all read the success stories about people who
reached the goal of successfully working for themselves. Many of us have drawn inspiration and motivation from them. But...

What fun is it when you know the outcome before you read the story? Where's the suspense?

That's what this blog is about; following the journey of a few brave souls who, along with us as readers, don't know the outcome. We'll be watching how things unfold in real time (or very close to it). The joys, frustrations, doubts and successes of fellow Etsians trying to make their way.

This blog will feature a few shop owners who are kind enough to invite us along on their journey. We'll update you on a regular basis about the things they are facing, and how they are moving along - in their own words.

Followers of the blog will get a chance to offer support and encouragement to each of the shop owners and we all get a chance to learn and grow from each other.

I am still looking for 2 more shop owners who are willing to share their experience - please contact me if you are interested.

Introducing: Sarah from  Wonderstrumpet

Name: Sarah Trumpp

Craft: I paint, sew, needle-felt, sculpt, fold, spindle, and mutilate, and I change my focus as often as I change my clothes. I try to infuse everything I make with either guileless joy or utter oddity.

Experience: I have been making things for myself, my friends, my dolls, and my mud pies since I was a kid, but I've only been making with intent to improve on things consistently in the past five years or so.

Leap of Faith: I had been a medical transcriptionist working from home since 2002, hating it since about 2004. I originally opened my Etsy shop in 2009 with the intent of getting it set up so that I could quit my job, but I never listed anything. I was petrified of failing, so I didn't even start. 

 In 2011, I started wonderstrange.com with four
other artists, and, even though I didn't have a lot of time to make stuff and therefore didn't sell a lot, I still was able to see that there were actually people out there who liked what I did. A couple of the wonderstrange artists left, and the three of us who remain decided to make the jump to Etsy (we still blog on the site and give away free lineart, but we deactivated the on-site shopping cart). 

I opened a tattoo shop out of my home in December, and I have been tattooing rarely and working on art the rest of the time, so opening the shop was the push that I needed to quit the day job and go for this full time.

What's at Stake: ...my own inner critic will force me to go back out to working some soul-sucking drudgery if I can't manage to make enough money with the art and tattoos to at least pay the bills.

I guess my soul is at stake at this point.

What Gives You Confidence: Honestly, I'm not yet at a place where I'm confident, as sad as that sounds. I am still hoping that the faith my husband has placed in my ability to make this work isn't unfounded, and I'm trying to force the confidence.

Goals for 2013:
1. Force my short attention span into a few definite discernible "lines" - products that obviously go together.

2. As trite as it sounds, make money. List more so I can sell more. I have a bunch of shows lined up, one per month from April to October, as long as I get past the juries. If I don't get past the juries, that will be on the goal list for next year.

    

         Coming Soon....

The Jury's out - going through the juried process of craft shows

Show Time - another month, another craft show

Highs and Lows -  reflection on the last few weeks