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 R unning your own crafts business sounds like a dream come true. But if you want it to pay the mortgage, you’ll need to be patient.

According to the Crafts Council, there are 23,000 contemporary crafts businesses in

the UK. But with stiff competition from cheap imports, businesses typically produce a profi t of just £5,000 a year. And many owners have a second job to pay the bills. So how have successful craftswomen made it work for them?

Patience is a virtue, says Norah Kennedy, a basket weaver from Stroud in Gloucestershire. She made her

Joining the WI may have unleashed a creative streak in you, but could you make your handiwork pay? We asked the professionals how they turned their hobby into a business

Words by KATH BURKE

Cashing in on your craft

Norah Kennedy says you need to be patient

fi rst basket in 1982. Yet it took her another 10 years before she was making a living full time from craft.

‘I was a herds-woman – I used to look after cows – and when I got married I gave that up,’ says Norah.

‘There used to be a basket maker in Swindon. I went along to his workshops once or twice a week and gradually got into it. I used to just sit in the corner and I struggled. I just battled away.’

Now she spends three-quarters of her time teaching at Denman and other venues. Otherwise she’s at home – just her and her radio – making willow baskets, garden sculptures and Christmas decorations.

Fellow Denman College tutor Melanie Blaikie, who teaches jewellery-making, advises students to keep their day job at fi rst. ‘I thoroughly recommend starting small and testing the water,’ says the WI Associate.

‘In this economic climate, employers are ready to consider someone working three or four days a week,’ she says.

Melanie has been making her own jewellery since she was threading milk bottle tops into necklaces at the age of two. She started out as a diamond valuer at DeBeers and designed jewellery for Tiff any, but her real love is pearls. She was researching how to make silver clasps

I feel very fortunate in

what I doNORAH KENNEDY,

WILLOW BASKET WEAVER

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WI Life May & June 2013 37

Melanie Blaikie recommends starting small and testing the water

Helen Heath-Martin: ‘The WI has helped me enormously.’

HOW TO GET CRAFTYQ START GRADUALLY Consider going part-time fi rst. Q�KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER Find out why they buy a product like yours, how they choose one producer over another and how they like it delivered.Q�GET PRE-ORDERS before you launch.Q�WORK OUT YOUR PRICES What do you need to charge to make a profi t, and how much are customers willing to pay? Should you be in the lower, middle or higher price bracket?Q�NEGOTIATE WITH YOUR SUPPLIERS Find out what deals established producers are getting.Q�BE FLEXIBLE with your business model. Consider off ering your product in diff erent ways, or teaching and writing about your craft. Q�LEARN TO SELL Know how to sell your product face-to-face before taking the business online.

for her pearl jewellery when she discovered a cheaper alternative to traditional silversmithing. Silver clay is a paste made from pure silver powder mixed with water and gum - and starter kits cost only £35.

‘It’s so easy to work with and you can make jewellery on your kitchen table,’ she says. ‘I thought there must be other people like me who wanted to make silver jewellery and didn’t know about silver clay.’

Melanie ran her fi rst silver clay workshop in 2004 from her home in rural Suff olk. Today her diary is full. Yet she still chooses to work half the week at the local council because she enjoys the contrast.

Undercharging is one of three classic mistakes she sees among her students. The other two are procrastination and lack of promotion, she says.

If you feel that the prospects of making a living from your hobbies are faint, don’t lose heart. All the craftswomen we interviewed said that with a realistic approach and commitment to keep developing your craft and your business skills, you can make it work.

Milliner Helen Heath-Martin has been touched by the level of support she received from her fellow members at Litton and Hinton Blewitt WI, Somerset Federation.

‘The WI has helped me enormously,’ says Helen. ‘It’s amazing the clientele you can work up with their help, and with friends and family recommending you as well.’

Since moving overseas, to Panama, Helen has become an associate WI member, but she still runs a hat hire business in Sherborne, Dorset.

members at Litton and Hinton Blewitt WI,

‘The WI has helped me enormously,’ says Helen. ‘It’s amazing the clientele you can work up with their help, and with friends and family recommending

Next time you’re having tea with the Queen, don’t be too surprised if she’s wearing a Helen Heath hat. Helen was inspired to train as a milliner in 2008 after hearing a talk at her WI, Litton and Hinton Blewitt, Somerset Federation. Since then she has been unstoppable. Her confections have won a raft of awards – one was chosen by Bob Champion as best hat in Aintree’s John Smith's enclosure and other best hats include Salisbury races (twice), Cheltenham, Taunton, Bath and Wincanton. To learn her craft, Helen attended three training courses taught by the late Queen Mother’s milliner; studied a year under Kylie Minogue’s hatter; and then did a six-month internship for an Ascot Ladies Day legend. (For afi cionados, that’s milliners Rose Cory, Noel Stewart and Louis Mariette.)

‘It has all snowballed from that original WI talk,’ says the

former WI Life cover girl (Issue 38, September 2011).

Helen used the business skills she developed in a previous job selling mobile phones to Orange to negotiate great deals with her suppliers.

Helen Heath Hats offi cially launched in May 2012, when Helen’s Somerset cottage became too small for her growing hat collection.

Friends invited their friends from the horsey world to the grand

opening and Helen put out the word to local businesses, WI members and the media.

She also made the launch party pay for itself by selling jewellery on the night.

‘I knew that hat sales would be few but that people would probably come with £30-£40 to spend on jewellery,’ she says.

She was delighted when she sold 80 per cent of the stock she bought in on the night – which paid for for more stock as well as settling the bills for the launch party.Q�www.helenheathhats.com/

I feel like this is what I was meant to do all the time

HELEN HEATH-MARTIN, MILLINER

HATS amazing!