Crafting a Fabric Arts Business

Description

Launching a creative arts business in today’s market can be a profitable yet challenging endeavor. As a creative entrepreneur there are many decisions to be made about your brand and the products you offer. Learn about many opportunities that exist for building and growing your business including publishing, licensing, and partnering with manufacturers and influencers.

Amy will share her nearly 25 years of experience in the sewing and fabric arts with an eye toward inspiring and educating those with the entrepreneurial spirit. Her discussion focuses on product development, manufacturing, and licensing, sales channels including catalogs, home shopping networks, bricks and mortar independent retailers and chain stores, wholesale and retail trade shows, collaborating with industry influencers, working with technology including online classes/webinars/videos, and social media marketing.

What You’ll Learn:

• Recognize different sales channel opportunities
• Marketing tips to build and monetize your community
• Product Development Strategy and Processes
• How to collaborate with others in the industry to increase sales & reach
• Making use of current technologies to increase profits
• Strategies to engage your community
• Funding tips for expanding your business

About the Instructor:

Amy Barickman, founder and owner of Indygo Junction, The Vintage Workshop and Amy Barickman LLC, is a creative leader in the sewing and needle arts industry. In 1990, Amy founded Indygo Junction, a sewing pattern and book publishing company, to showcase the work of leading fabric and needle arts designers. Amy has a passion for all things vintage and has an impressive collection of textiles and handmade fabric art. This collection is the inspiration for much of Amy’s work including the 15 fabric lines she designed for Red Rooster Fabrics. Amy recently launched her Crossroads Brand with denim fabric and patterns and will introduce a cotton line with RJR Fabrics in summer 2015.

With a knack for anticipating popular trends and new talent, Amy has discovered more than 40 innovative artists and designers, a list that is ever expanding. Amy’s ability as a collaborative entrepreneur and creative architect has allowed her to design and market an impressive list of patterns and book releases, having released 1000 pattern titles and published 80 books, including recent releases Amy Barickman’s Vintage Notions: An Inspirational Guide to Needlework, Cooking, Sewing, Fashion and Fun, Indygo Junction’s Fabric Flowers, and The Magic Pattern Book.

Through her blogs, websites and e-newsletters, Amy inspires countless crafters to explore their own creative spirit and experiment with the newest sewing, fabric and crafting techniques. Keep up with Amy as she shares her ideas and inspiration at www.amybarickman.com and www.IndygoJunction.com and www.freevintagegraphics.com.