I started Peptogirl Industries in 2005 and have been doing craft shows and selling online ever since. Jewelry has always been my main seller. I’ve tried different items but always seem to cycle back to jewelry. I got bored with beads a few years ago and started crafting almost exclusively with items that aren’t normally found in jewelry: guitar picks, buttons, bottle caps, vintage spools of thread… I’ve also started designing embroidery patterns and have added a few craft kits to my line. I’d like to start doing more illustrations and prints soon. Whatever I create, I strive to create items that are cute, kitschy, and fun.

What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? I’ve always been crafty but I didn’t really fit in with traditional crafters because I was interested in creating things that were fashionable and cute. After college, I found myself with more time for crafting. Coincidently, I also found a plethora of web sites and forums filled with other crafters like myself.  I was so inspired by others’ businesses and web sites that I knew I had to start my own.

I worked full time as a web developer but was laid off this year due to the economy. So, I don’t have a day job at the moment but I’m looking ;)

What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them? Coming up with ideas is my favorite. I enjoy executing the first few but I often get bored after that and move on to the next design. I also have tons of ideas in my head that I haven’t had time to execute yet!

What’s the best thing about what you do? I love networking and meeting other crafters. There are so many amazing, creative minds out there and so many nice people. It also feels great when a customer tells you how much they like something you made. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. The worst? Taxes! I hate paperwork and accounting but it’s just something that has to be done.

What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? Keep your shop full if you want to make sales. It sounds like common sense and it’s so simple! It can be difficult to keep your shop full at times but I’ve noticed that it really does make a difference. The more items you have in your shop, the more potential customers have to choose from. I always get sales right after an Etsy update. It works!

How do you stay inspired? I’m a very visual person so I’m inspired by everything around me. I read blogs, check out Flickr photos, visit a craft store. I also jot down ideas in a notebook, even if I don’t have time to execute them yet. When I have some down time where I’m not feeling so creative, I refer to my notebook for previous ideas and start executing.

What are your creative influences I’m inspired by colors and textures, other crafters, thrift shopping, and fashion trends.

www.peptogirl.com

I am Samantha, one of the members of the Sweet Dreams Cooperative. I am 17 years old and in 11th grade at Lincoln High School. We are young women between the ages of 14-19 who live here in San Francisco. We work as a team to create several products: lavender eye pillows, dream pillows, yoga mat bags, sachet and zipper pouches. All products are hand crafted. We are a vendor to stores around the city, in West Marin and in Pescadero. As coop members we participate in all aspects of Sweet Dreams: product design, inventory, production, marketing, sales etc.

What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? Turning Heads Sewing & Fashion Design Program mentored students to start our sewing cooperative. The craft business is fun and it’s interesting to create something out of nothing. Attending school is our day job.

What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst? The best thing is working with others in a team. The coop is always fun and always challenges me to do better. The worst is traveling from school to the Turning Heads studio because Lincoln is across the city and buses are unreliable.

What are your creative influences? Making products that are useful, practical and needed.

What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? The best advice was to make a business plan and the importance of market research. Before we developed our final yoga mat bag we went to Yoga Tree in SF and interviewed the retail buyer. This was very helpful! The best advice has been always measure – it is most important!

How do you stay inspired? Learning about business is inspiring. Also in the coop we are inspired to grow as a team and to grow productively.

Anything else you would like to tell us about your business? We are passionate about what we are doing and thank you for this opportunity to be in Bazaar Bizaare.

www.keepturningheads.org

My name is Jen and I make t-shirts. I made my first screen on my kitchen table with a sad face and x’s for eyes with the words no fun. I made t-shirts for all my friends then I decided to try and make them for other people friends. Then for strangers friends. Tattoos and Scars makes t-shirts for people who like to wear t-shirts.

What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? I was inspired by animals and heartbreak at first. I figured other people felt the same way. So I put them on t-shirts. My day job is teaching 4th grade in East Oakland. My students especially like my BUDDY t’s because I call most of them buddy, too.

What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them? Executing them. I feel very accomplish when I can transform and idea into something I can see and hold in my hands. And when it comes out exactly as I pictured it or designed it, that’s even better.

What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst? The best thing is teaching people and kids how to screen print and showing them how easy it can be. The worst part is how time consuming the whole process is when you’re working by yourself. I get lonely in the garage and it’s cold in there.

What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? Best advice I’ve been given, you should try and sell your t-shirts. The first person to ever by a t-shirt from me was given a hug. She is a very nice lady.

How do you stay inspired? Hmmm, good question. I think what I try to do is pay attention to what’s going on in my head. Especially if I get fixated on something like, bikes or koalas. I have to figure out why I can’t stop thinking about them. How are they connected? How do other people feel about this/that? Can I put it on a t-shirt? Will it make someone smile?

Anything else you would like to tell us about your business? Tattoos and Scars wants you to like them. But understands if you don’t wear a t-shirt all the time. We wear them a lot. The name came from a line in a book, Tattoos and scars, you have to know someone fairly well before you ask about these.

What are your creative influences? Even Hecox, Jeremy Fish, talking animals, bikes, boobs, different types of lines and usually the neighborhood I’m living in. I just moved to Oakland from San Francisco, so my ideas are shifting to what I see around here. Today I saw about 900 strollers and 2 prostitutes. There has to be a t-shirt idea in there somewhere.

www.sethasang.com

What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? I just recently quit a day job to focus full-time on the bug business through the holidays. It’s scary not to have a steady pay check but absolutely exhilarating to be doing what you love. My background in entomology, business, and love of craft inspired me into the craft business.

What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them? I love executing ideas because the final product is so fulfilling when you actually see your idea physically in front of you – a Rhino beetle sitting on a miniature toilet is so much more fun in person than in my head. I have hundreds of ideas (some very strange) waiting to be executed, but so little time. I am still waiting to make a diorama of the Beatles, made with Rhino Beetles. Just need to find a mop top hair weave that will fit a beetle.

What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst? The best thing is I get to be around and work with the things I love – insects -  24/7.  This may be someone else’s nightmare, but it is a dream of mine realized. The worst thing, I believe for most crafters too, is the paperwork. We would all rather be crafting.

What are your creative influences? The natural world. All the amazing vendors at craft shows.

What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? Always seek the advice of other crafters. They are going through the same experience as you are and hearing their ideas and advice is priceless.

How do you stay inspired? Taking a break from the bug studio and going for a hike. This is where you can get on your knees and get a little closer to the characters in my art.

www.bugunderglass.com