Welcome to the 101010 project, the brainchild of Robin Norgren of Well of Creations and My Creative Peace, both on Etsy. Every weekday for the next 10 days (well, 11 if you count the wrap up day :) I’ll be featuring one artist participating in the 101010 Project. You can find my responses if you hop over to these ladie’s blogs!
About the 101010 project, Robin writes:
In 2010, hundreds of women met through an online e-course offered by Kelly Rae Roberts called Flying Lessons where all were challenged to take their business ideas to their fullest potential. Many of those women took the challenge and have transformed their businesses, juggling successes and failures alongside managing family, friendships and personal lives.
In 2012, the 101010 project was birthed as a way to tell the stories that have come out of running these independent businesses in light of hard economic times. Beginning May 1, 2012 you are invited to join the FIRST SET of 10 women from that 2010 e-course who will offer candid information about their businesses through the vehicle of 10 questions.The Hazelnut Cottage blog will feature the first of these 10 artists, who are each answering one question on my blog: What do you need to STOP DOING in your business?
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Please welcome Kelly Thiel!
Kelly Thiel
Name of Business: Kelly Thiel Studio
Years in Business: 10
Kelly’s Bio: An artist and a mother of two young girls, Kelly Thiel lives in South Carolina, USA creating award-winning clay and bronze sculptures, as well as doing art journaling and mixed media paintings. She just finished building a new studio at her home, and is dying to log some real hours in there! Kelly is doing her best to live life to the fullest and enjoy each day, with her art and her family.
What do you need to STOP DOING in your business?
I need to find a way to stop spending so much time on the smaller items I make for wholesaling. These items help to bring in money, but they eat up all of my studio time, so that I can never move on to bigger projects. There are so, so many things I want to create in the studio, and only a fraction of them will ever get made at this rate! In some ways, I like making these smaller things, because I can work out ideas or colors on smaller pieces before moving on to a bigger piece. But what ends up happening, is that I suddenly need 30 small pieces for a show or an order, and then all my time is suddenly sucked up making small pieces and none of the other sculptures in my head ever get started.
My husband has pushed me for YEARS to get an assistant to help with these things. And I think I will eventually do it. I’m excited by having help in the studio; getting them to help with some of the small tasks involved in making the pieces, so that we can make more of them faster. Sometimes I work better too, when someone is there with me, creating.
I think that once I have some forward momentum, and things are getting busy again, I will start looking for an assistant. It will be hard – I know I’ll have to find the right person to share my studio with – but in the end, I think that it will be right for the business.
To find out more about Kelly, find her at:
kellythielstudio.com
kellythielpottery.blogspot.com
twitter.com/kellyTpottery
facebook.com/KellyThielSculpture
To read up on all 0f the 10 questions posed and answered by each one of the participants, come on over to the site of the 101010 Project! :)
