Tufted landscapes (and the struggle behind them)

It's been well over 6 months since I picked up my tufting guns, but I'm so glad I did this summer. While this particular fiber art medium is still very new to me, I'm starting to get the hang of it and slowly developing my own style. 3 sets of tufted diptychs are ready to ship & hang in your home, and here's a time-lapse video showing a peek at the process. 

While learning to work in any new medium or figure out the nuances of using a new tool can take time (and lot of trial and error), it’s what keeps me going. I need to learn new things, always. Tufting seemed like the next logical step for me once I started expanding on my needle felting work and doing mixed media fiber art a few years back, but tufting has been a rocky road so far. I love that I can work larger and faster, but I am having a hard time accepting that the detail level that I’m able to achieve with punch needle, needle felting, and rug hooking, is just not going to be possible with a tufting gun (or at least not at my current skill level). I had to rethink my ideas and adjust accordingly.

Some of my other struggles when it comes to tufting are purely comfort-related. It’s a very physical art form - you are on your feet for hours and hours, the tufting guns are heavy and they take a toll on hands and wrists in a way hand-work doesn’t seem to effect me. Plus, it’s loud and messy, and I like to keep my studio neat, even though the whole point of a studio is to have a workspace where it’s totally acceptable to have a mess. It seems silly that these drawbacks are part of what’s kept me from tufting for half a year, but I’m just being honest.

I was considering selling my tufting guns and frame, I hadn’t used them in months, they were new and in good condition (and too expensive to just sit here and not be used). I wasn’t looking forward to setting up the frame and having whatever project take over my studio for days on end. Although I may eventually eliminate tufting from my studio I needed to give it another chance, a REAL chance, a chance to be it’s own thing and lead the way to a new style, a chance to change my expectations. It can’t do what I want it to do but it can do a lot of other very cool things. I need to embrace those things.

All 3 of these diptychs have a completely different style, though the subject matter is very similar. One is focused on two-tone gradients, one it’s very abstract and blocky, and the last has a bit of a stained glass or paint-by-number feel. I like all of them for different reasons, and it’s enough to push me to keep trying and keep tufting. I hope to add more tufted pieces to the website later this summer, but for now shop the small collection online.

Once Again Sam Turns 14!

My small business turns 14 years old this weekend. 

I was having a hard time wanting to celebrate because last year was a really tough one. I know each year can’t be the “best ever” but 2022 was the first time in 14 years it was noticeably quiet and things seemed to fall short or fall through altogether. My best guess for the cause was recession-related and algorithm changes, but who knows. Then I started thinking about recessions - this business was actually born DURING a recession, when I was was dealing with a pay cut, just like everyone else I worked with, if we were lucky to keep our jobs at all. It was a tough time economically for all of us, but with a $25 a month crafting budget, and a table (not a room, not a studio, just a table!) I started Once Again Sam in January of 2009 as a creative outlet and to see if I could make some extra money to buy shoes & yarn. That’s all I was after. Big dreams, right? 

Within a year, it became a profitable side hobby. In 3-4 years, I earned as much making things as I did working full time, and at year 5, I flip flopped my hobby with my career and went full time with Once Again Sam and part time with interior design and have been doing that ever since. Between the two “jobs” I work a lot of hours each week, but I truly enjoy what I do and feel blessed to be in this situation where I can pursue both dream jobs. 

So 2022 was a tough year, but if I look back at how far this little business has come, I can’t be too down about it. I’m extremely lucky to be able to do this for a living, I enjoy every minute of it (that’s not 100% true - I really hate load-in / load-out for craft shows) and I’m thankful for each and every one of you for being here and for your support over the years, however many years, months, weeks, or days you’ve been following along here. I appreciate you more than you know. THANK YOU! 

Please treat yourself to 20% off anything on my website this weekend with coupon code OAS14.

Year in Review: 2019

I’m about to celebrate 11 years in business as Once Again Sam and 2019 was another great year. Although it wasn’t a record-breaker like last year, I felt like I had way more opportunities and more fun in the last 12 months than compared to 2018. I factor so many things into “was it a good year?” so even though my total sales dipped by about 10% compared to 2018, I still count this year as one of the best yet.

The biggest changes I noticed this year was that Etsy Sales were way way down, but craft show sales were up, so thankfully it mostly balanced out. If you had asked me last year, I would have predicted the exact opposite - craft shows seem to be drying up and Etsy seemed to be holding steady. My crystal ball was wrong about 2019! A big win this year is seeing my Wholesale reach continue to rise because it’s by far my biggest financial investment since 2016. So nice to see it paying off longterm!

2019 brought lots of new milestones and opportunities - here’s a look at some of the highlights:

Teaching Opportunities: I taught 12 needle felting workshops this year (through Greenville Center for Creative Arts and SkillPop) and that included a total of 159 students. I had about 10% of those students return for a second, third, and even a fourth class. Either I’m a terrible teacher or they’re having a lot of fun learning this magical medium! I also taught my first hand painted jewelry class (at the Artisphere ArtLab) and I’m thinking about adding that to my workshop offerings next year.

27 Commissions: This is certainly a new record for me! I don’t count any of the custom handmade jewelry because honestly, 75% of the jewelry I make IS custom and/or made to order. I consider a commission to be a needle felted landscapes made from the customer’s photos or needle felted animal portrait. 27 commissions over 12 months is way more than I realized until I went back and looked at my records from this year. This is a tiny sampling below.

5 Magazine Features: Thank you again to Belle Armoire, TOWN, Local Life, Country Living, and The Pioneer Woman for featuring my work this year!

4 Exhibitions: I was honored to have my first large-scale long-term exhibition this summer at Greenville Center for Creative Arts. My 100 Day Project was part of the Fiber Paper Scissors show and it was truly one of the highlights of my year. I also had a fiber art landscape piece in the GCCA Members Exhibition, 2 in the the Friends of Lake Robinson juried exhibition, and a triptych at the Artfields Exhibition in Lake City, SC.

2 Grants: I have Metropolitan Arts Council to thank for not one but TWO grants this year. They helped fund my material costs for the 100 Day Project and Exhibition in the early spring, and then the second grant came in the fall which I used to take a rug hooking course at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC.

1 Artist in Residence Opportunity: My second consecutive residency with South Carolina State Parks occurred in May at Edisto Beach State Park, and as with the previous year, that time away surrounded by an abundance of natural inspiration was another high point of my year. Read all about my experience in this blog post.

So it was a great year, as you can see! Taking time to reflect on the last 12 months on an emotional level, artistic satisfaction level, and pure numbers level, is a huge help in planning my next year and beyond. It’s easy to see what’s not working and it’s easy to see what worked way better than I expected. I’m starting to truly understand that one of the big reasons my small business has lasted this long and continues to grow each year is because I’m extremely diversified. I work in multiple mediums that appeal to completely different customers and I sell on multiple sales platforms so if one is suffering, I can wait it out or move on. A dip in Etsy sales this year didn’t actually matter in the grand scheme of things, which is a relief. If I had all my eggs in that basket, it might have hurt way more than it did. Same goes for last year with craft shows - I didn’t do as well in that arena in 2018, but I hung in there, tried again this year, and had fantastic results.

I’m so grateful for every single compliment, opportunity, sale, like, share, email, feature, and student this year and every year. All of these things - small things, big things - they all add up and they all matter. From the bottom of my heart - thank you!

Lastly - if you’re into stats and am curious about the journey of this handmade business, I’ve posted several reviews and recaps from previous years.

They can be found here:

Year in Review: 2018

Year in Review: 2016

Year in Review: 2015

Year in Review 2014

2018 - A Year in Review

2018 has been quite a year. I didn’t realize I’d hit so many milestones all at once, but I suppose that’s fitting because it’s my 10th year in business, which in itself is a milestone.

This year was my best year in some respects, but it was also a hard year at times. Some things fell through that I previously counted on, other opportunities found their way to me that were totally unexpected. It all worked out in the end!

10,000 Etsy Sales:

This major milestone snuck up on me. I remember when I first opened my Etsy shop in 2009 (and started Once Again Sam simultaneously), I obsessed over every sale until I made it to 100 sales, which took about a full year. After that, I stopped worrying about the number and focused more on where I wanted to go with this handmade business. It’s been an incredible journey on Etsy and I hope to see 20,000 sales one day!

100 Craft Shows:

That’s 100 set ups, 100 teardowns, 200 precise packings / re-packings of the car, thousands of miles on the road, good hotels, bad hotels, perfect weather, horrible weather, early mornings, late nights, and who knows how many hours talking to customers & other vendors. It’s a hard life. I admire people who do festivals full time, but I’ve learned over the last few years that I don’t want to be in a different city every weekend. I have drastically cut back on the number of events I do now, but all of those experiences at various craft shows and art festivals have taught me so much about my product, my customers, and myself.

Record Sales:

I had a sales goal for the year, and I made it, but just barely. Every month I checked that we were on track to make that goal, and most of the time we were, but not always. I love a good “stretch goal” - something that pushes you to keep going, keep trying, keep making.

Record Number of Wholesale Orders & Stockists:

2018 was the first year I did multiple wholesale trade shows, and it paid off. With Etsy Wholesale closing up mid year, I had to hustle to make up for that loss, and when I look back at the number of wholesale orders from the year that came in solely from tradeshows and contacts made there, it’s easy to see this is a worthwhile investment for my business.

Largest Commission:

I took on my biggest commission (both in quantity and in size) this year for a local company called Kentwool. I created 75 custom landscapes for them in the spring, then in the fall, I took on my first extra large needle felted landscape commission which was 24” x 36”. That was double the size of my largest piece previously!  I never would have attempted something that big on my own, but now I feel empowered to work at whatever scale I want.

Largest Fiber Art Collection:

In May of 2018, I had the honor of being Artist in Residence at Poinsett State Park, and during my time there I created 40 pieces inspired by my surroundings which were then exhibited at Art & Light Gallery. Never before have I created such a large series around a specific location, and I really enjoyed the challenge. I enjoyed it so much I’m doing another residency next year and have an even bigger exhibition opportunity lined up for the summer. That’s all I can share till next year!

10 Years in Business:

It doesn’t feel like a long time to me, but I have come to realize a lot of Makers and small businesses simply don’t last that long. I’m one of the lucky ones! I think one big factor in why I have lasted this long and made every year better than the last is because I do a variety of things. When I’m sick of needle felting, I bounce back to jewelry. I’m not stuck in a single medium. I also never gave up my day job, and continue to work a few days a week as an Interior Designer, which gets me out of the studio and uses a totally different part of my brain. I’ll admit I don’t have much free time anymore, but I’m doing things I want to do with my time, and that matters far more to me.

Commissioning Artwork FAQ

Commissioning a piece of original art may be intimidating if you've never done it before. There’s so many unknowns. Will it look like what you envisioned? How much will it cost? How long does it take? Is the artist you have in mind currently taking on custom requests?

I wouldn’t want any of my customers to feel this way or to rule out custom orders because they’re unsure about the process. Commissioning art can be an enjoyable experience so I thought I’d share how I personally handle commissions and answer some FAQ. A huge part of my handmade business is custom work, so I welcome special requests!

Q: I’m interested in commissioning a wool landscape painting. What do I need to do?

A: Send me a message via Facebook, Instagram, Etsy, or contact form to get the conversation started. If you have a photo you’d like me to use as a reference for the piece, please include that. We'll work out the size, frame choice, deadline, and go from there. Pricing depends on size and complexity of the piece, but a good ballpark budget number for custom felted landscapes is $2 per square inch. For example, an 8x10 scene would typically run $160, which includes the frame.

Q: I saw something in your Etsy shop or Instagram that I liked, but I want it in another color (or a slightly different design, size, etc.).

A: No problem! Nearly all of my jewelry can be customized, and often times the fiber art can be recreated or tweaked to be a specific size, alternate color range, etc.

Q: Do I pay before or after the work is done?

A: 99% of the time I’ll request payment upfront. This goes for jewelry, fiber art, or any other custom orders. Once I’ve received payment, your order will be added to my list and I complete them in order of payment received (unless there’s a specific deadline previously discussed).

Q: Does a custom order cost more?

A: Not necessarily! The price is usually the same, but it may take a few days longer to create, depending on the request and if I need to special order materials.

Q: Do you offer proofs or photos prior to shipping a custom order?

A: I typically don’t do this for custom jewelry, ornaments, or smaller items. However, for the custom wool landscapes, I’m happy to to show you progress pictures upon request.

Q: Do you offer discounts on bulk orders? 

A: When it comes to jewelry, yes, I'm happy to work with you on the total price if you're ordering 10 or more pieces. When it comes to the fiber art, the price is firm. Needle felting is a very tedious process and this is the reason my fiber art work never goes on sale online or at events.

 Q: The piece I wanted to buy has already sold. Can you make another?

A: Probably so! I don't mind recreating pieces (although they'll always be slightly different than the original because they're handmade). If you see something that's sold, get in touch and I'll let you know if I can recreate something similar. 

A quick run down of do’s and don’t when commissioning art:

DON’T commission artists to knock off other artist’s work. It’s not cool, and it’s no fair.

DO ask artists for references or examples of past work if you’re unsure if they’re the right person for the job.

DON’T expect the artist to deliver the finished piece in person, even if they’re local.   

DO ask for progress images if you’re particular about the composition, materials, etc.

DON’T be afraid to be specific if you have a certain size, look, or deadline in mind. Share that with the artist from the start so they can accommodate your wishes.

DO allow the artist to do what they do best and embrace their process. The finished piece will surely look different than what you had in your mind, but hopefully it’ll be even better than what you imagined.