Sunday, November 15, 2009

A Quick Thank You!

A Quick Thanks to the folks at Bethany United Methodist Church where we were able to hold our Fair on Saturday! More details later, but for now just saying if we asked for something it was there in a jiffy!

Our donation drawing for 3 baskets with items donated by Artisans members raised the amount of the donation to the Bethany Children's Ministry, was $131.00! Thank you to the Artisans that donated items, and visitors to the fair who donated!

With all of us working together, this show was a success. We look forward to our next one which we hope will be around Mothers' Day. More details on that later!

No More Meetings till January!

Just to remind everyone again, there is no meeting November 17th, as well as no meeting in December!

We'll see everyone again the third Tuesday in January, at the new meeting place of La Madeleine near Hwy 10 and Sam Houston Toll way. More information will be posted and sent around in January.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Houston Artisans First Show and Sale


Align Center
first fall show on Saturday, November 14th
Bethany United Methodist Church
3511 Linkwood,
Houston, Tx 77025 map to church
The show will be in the church gymnasium from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm.

No entry fee! 3 baskets of items donated by Artisans will be raffled off during the day. Total proceeds of the raffle for the baskets will be given to the Bethany Children's Ministry

Please follow this link for all the information on the show!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Article about Artisans of Houston


I've just written a new article about "Artisans of Houston" !!! It has a slide show too! Please check it out on this date, as it is featured on the front page! Go to www.Indiesmiles.com
If you miss it will be in the left section column and you can scroll down to see it!
Linda ;)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Reminder of Next Meeting!January 19th

We will not have a meeting late in November or December. Our next meeting will be in a new location! We're going to be able to meet in a private room at the La Madeline's French Restaurant and Bakery near I 10 and Sam Houston Parkway. January 19th, the time will still be 7:00 pm.

La Madeline French Bakery and Cafe
770 W Sam Houston Pkwy N, Ste 100
Houston, TX 77024
713-465-7370

Hope your holidays are merry and bright! If you are an artisan but not yet a member of our team, it would be great to meet you at our show on the 14th of November. Details in the postings above.


*If you have receipts for reimbursement for the November show, please bring them to the January 19 meeting .

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Reminder Monthly Meeting

October meeting for Artisans will be held at Uptown Cafe Express at 7:30 p.m. We generally gather in the smaller room to the side of the restaurant. Hope you can join us. If this will be your first Artisans meeting, reading the post entitled Artisans 101 may be helpful.
CAFE EXPRESS
7:00 pm
1101 Uptown Park
713-963-9222
77056 - In Uptown Galleria area.


We will be discussing a change of location for meetings beginning in November.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Sunday, September 27, 2009

ResinObsession Needs You or Someone you know

ResinObsession is the leading resin jewelry supplier to Etsy resin jewelry superstars. Resin is used to embed photos for the popular photo memory jewelry. ResinObsession is moving in a new direction creating resin silicone molds. Because of this growth I am in need of an assistant and am hoping someone in the group might know someone, that might know someone, you get the idea. Here is the ad:
Home based ecommerce auction & website craft business looking for part-time contract person for shipping orders, updating social sites, answering emails, packaging products and listing items on auction sites. General internet and computer skills needed. Hours are flexible, no nights or weekends. Ideal person would be a high school student in an early release program, Moms wanting school hours or person wanting to re-enter the workforce. Starting pay is $7.50 an hour. Champion Springs area of Louetta & 249. Email resumes to cindy@resinobsession.com or call 713-598-0330.

Thank you. Hope to see you guys soon, Cindy

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Forms needed to apply for Booth

Here are the forms to save, print out, and use to register for a booth at our coming show:

A Fair To Remember.

Information and Guidelines (.pdf)

Registration Form (.pdf)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Ning Chat Time Change

Our Tuesday Night Ning Chat is changed from 7:00 to 9:00 so it doesn't interfere with dinner time.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Artisans will Meet Next:

Our next regular meeting is in 2 weeks Sept. 29th at 7:00 pm, Cafe Express
The discussions and decisions for getting our fall show ready will continue. If you have not reserved a booth, this will be your last opportunity before the deadline of October 1st.

Even if this is your first time to attend a meeting, please come along. At our meeting on Saturday , September 12 th we had 4 new members join the team. :) Dues collected are going to be used for things such as advertising for our show.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tuesday Nights at Ning

Saturday was a large afternoon meeting at Cafe Express! Next Tuesday will be our regularily scheduled evening meeting. If you can come into the chat but not drive to the face to face meeting, come in at the regular 7:00 time. One of the members at the meeting will log in to the group, hopefully soon after 7:00.

Ning discussion area for Artisans of Houston
This is a private group by invitation only, but if you have attended meetings, are going to have a booth, etc. you can get an invitation by letting in touch by making a comment. Such as cottoneyedjo.etsy.com has not received an invitation to Ning. You must live in the great Houston area to qualify.

Most of the other information about the upcoming event will be available only within the Ning group for members of Artisans of Houston. Please try to attend one of the next two meetings, if you would like to participate in the show. Several members at the meeting confirmed and prepaid a booth at the November 14th show.

We are going to schedule a weekly chat at Ning on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 until the show has happened. If you are working on a committee like Publicity and would like to schedule a chat for another evening please check the discussion thread about scheduled chats.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Houston Artisans will be having an Art Show November 14th

Not too many details to share on our blog, but more information will be available in our Ning discussion area. We would like folks to try to join in the chat next Tuesday evening(September 8th, 7 pm). If you are interested in having a booth, please make every effort to attend one of the next two meetings, on September 12th or 15th. More details about those meetings are available in an earlier post.

Please save the date. If you are an Artisan looking for a fall show, this is our big event we've been discussing at the meetings. More information will be available on the Ning site after the upcoming meetings. Such as the hours of the show, price for booth, etc. We want our show to be successful, and are discussing having drawing for a donation basket. The theme of the basket is yet to be determined but will be something like Holiday Giving, or Celebrate the Holidays! Since the show will be before Thanksgiving, so your items for sale could be fall, winter, or non seasonal.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Tonight was our first chat in Ning Group!

Tuesday nights at 7:00 pm are our face to face meeting time. A couple of us tried an online chat in the Ning group this evening. It was fun, and no long drive to get to our favorite meeting place!

Perhaps we could select a better time for everyone to join in, but Tuesdays at 7 is easy to remember. Hope you'll try to join us sometime!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Bloggy changes

Making some changes to the layout and design here! Please leave any feedback for instance:
Like the colors?
Easy to read?
Should things be in a different order?
Want more features?
Anything else you can think of, I want to know!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Weekend Meeting!!! on September 12

CAFE EXPRESS
7:00 pm
1101 Uptown Park
713-963-9222
77056 - In Uptown Galleria area.


On Sat. Sept. 12, at 2:00 p.m., we will have an extra September meeting for further planning. Hopefully those who have difficulty making the night meetings will be able to attend. We also hope to assist members in learning how to use some of the computer tools such as blogging to augment their participation in the team.

The regularily scheduled meeting will take place the following Tuesday evening, September 15th at 7:00 p.m. Please check out Artisans 101 if this will be your first meeting.

We have finalized a date and location for a local show that will take place on November 14th.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Artisans of Houston Meeting Notes August 18th, 2009

We made plans for our first A of H Show.

We all agreed that our first show needs to be simple and low cost since it's our first.

The preference for a date is November 14th, with Nov. 7th as the alternate date.

We are checking into some Churches in good traffic locations, including Bethany Christian at Westheimer, west of Kirby. Jo is checking into this possibility with a friend, who attends Bethany.

If anyone knows of another Church/Synogog, or other like place that we should check into please let us know.

Having our show inside will make it much easier for most of us - not having to bring canopies and worrying about the weather will help tremendously.

However we would like to continue to grow and have bigger shows and gather a following in the future by presenting good shows from the beginning. We want to get the interest of people who love quality, handmade, original and unique pieces and are able and willing to pay what it's worth.

We also agree that advertising will be the key. We will work to reach as many people as possible through radio, television, and printed news. For the good of future shows we will invite our guests to add their email addresses to our future email list that will advertise shows each year.

On Sat. Sept. 12, at 2:00, we will have an extra September meeting for further planning. Hopefully those who have difficulty making the night meetings will be able to attend.

Please make it a point to join us each month on the 3rd Tuesday evening, 7:00pm at he Cafe Express in the Galeria area!!!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Meeting Reminder

Hi Artisans!

Our next Artisans of Houston meeting is Tuesday, Aug. 18th.

We'll be meetiing each month on the third Tuesday, unless otherwise stated.

CAFE EXPRESS
7:00 pm
1101 Uptown Park
713-963-9222
77056 - In Uptown Galleria area.

If you are new to our group, please read the entry Houston Artisans 101 to see some nuts and bolts of our team and to see where we keep track of meetings and events.



Please bring some of your crafted pieces to show-n-tell.

We'll share marketing ideas and info on upcoming Houston area Artisan events.

So bring your 'lovelies', your ideas, info and questions.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Artisans of Houston

There has been some discussion of having weekend meetings during the day. If you are interested in attending one, please leave a comment indicating whether Saturday or Sunday would be more likely for you to attend.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Recap of this Evening's meeting and decisions

Members casting a vote this evening or by a proxy ballot in email, unanimously accepted the Mission Statement for Houston Artisans! The dues set at $25. were also agreed to unanimously.

Some possible locations were discussed for a fall event. If you know of a festival, church or other facility like a personal home or clubhouse that could be used please go into the Ning group to share with other members.

Our next meeting will be August 18th. If you have a laptop, and can bring it, they have wifi available.

- Cafe Express
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 7:00pm
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 713-963-9222
- 77056

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Mission Statement Feedback Requested

In the meeting today (Sunday July 12), we had discussions about organization and a Mission statement for the Artisans of Houston group. Here is a suggestion.


Artisans of Houston is a group committed to furthering the cause of personally designed, handcrafted arts in the Houston area. We are small business owners promoting our individual businesses internally, externally, locally, and internationally. Success will be achieved through networking, advertising, making use of online resources, and organization within the group, with the goal of holding our own art shows.


Membership fees of $25 are planned to support the above goals.

We hope you will become an active, participating member of Artisans of Houston. We'd like any input you have to give on any point discussed above!

Discussion will be held at the meeting on Tuesday July 21 at 7 pm, and a consensus reached. Please attend, or reply to this discussion, to share your thoughts on this!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Two meetings in July! One on a Sunday afternoon.



Sunday July 16th at 2:00 pm at our same Cafe Express
~ you are invited to come discuss ways to promote your shop at Etsy using a variety of computer networks such as Twitter or utilities such as Google Analytics. If you have a laptop with wi-fi, Cafe Express has it too. If you haven't learned your way around Ning, or are still trying to figure out the difference between Facebook and Flickr this could be the chance to ask.


Next regular meeting for local Mini Team July 21st

If you are interested in joining us at the next meeting of our mini street team please come to Cafe Express (the Uptown location) at 7:00 pm on July 21 (3rd Tuesday evening). We try to use the side room to make it easier to hear information being shared. So far 3 tables have been moved together, so look for us!
- Cafe Express
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 7:00pm
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 713-963-9222
- 77056


If this will be your first meeting, look down to early post of the basics of team meetings. Check out Artisans of Houston 101 . It is a good idea to bring some things with you, business cards, your calendar, and some of your creations. If you have a laptop with WiFi please bring it. There are several ways that we can use one at the meeting, to help you receive invitations to discussion group, help with adding google analytics to your shop, or perhaps something you don't know how to do...

Unless the meeting is canceled or changed, this is about all we have to share online this month.
Our meetingshave been in the evenings, as many of our members have other jobs during the day. We are currently discussing the inclusion of Saturday or Sunday meetings. To make it easier for members to plan ahead, we've set the third Tuesday as a standing date for team meetings.


Thursday, May 14, 2009

Next meeting for local Mini Team May 19th

If you are interested in joining us at the next meeting of our mini street team please come to Cafe Express (the Uptown location) at 7:00 pm on May 19th (Tuesday evening). We try to use the side room to make it easier to hear information being shared. So far 3 tables have been moved together, so look for us!
- Cafe Express
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 7:00pm
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 713-963-9222
- 77056


If this will be your first meeting, look down to early post of the basics of team meetings. Check out Artisans of Houston 101 . It is a good idea to bring some things with you, business cards, your calendar, and some of your creations. If you have a laptop with WiFi please bring it. There are several ways that we can use one at the meeting, to help you receive invitations to discussion group, help with adding google analytics to your shop, or perhaps something you don't know how to do...

Unless the meeting is canceled or changed, this is about all we have to share online this month.
We had several new members join us in April. Our meetings are in the evenings, as many of our members have other jobs during the day. To make it easier for members to plan ahead, we've set the third Tuesday as a standing date for team meetings.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Monday, April 6, 2009

Next meeting for local Mini Team April 14th

If you are interested in joining us at the next meeting of our mini street team please come to Cafe Express (the Uptown location) at 7:00 pm on April 14th (Tuesday evening). We try to use the side room to make it easier to hear information being shared. So far 3 tables have been moved together, so look for us!
- Cafe Express
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 7:00pm
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 713-963-9222
- 77056


If this will be your first meeting, look down to early post of the basics of team meetings. Check out Artisans of Houston 101 . It is a good idea to bring some things with you, business cards, your calendar, and some of your creations. If you have a laptop with WiFi please bring it. There are several ways that we can use one at the meeting, to help you receive invitations to discussion group, help with adding google analytics to your shop, or perhaps something you don't know how to do...

Unless the meeting is canceled or changed, this is about all we have to share online this month.
We had several new members join us in March. Our meetings are in the evenings, as many of our members have other jobs during the day.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Shan's Shinies is now Acute Accent!

My new store, Acute Accent, is now open. Hopefully I'll be listing things fairly regularly for a change, it would be nice anyway. I've got new business cards to hand out at the next meeting, isn't that exciting. ;)

http://AcuteAccent.etsy.com

Also, I am using the team tag "houstonartteam" on any new items I am listing, but I did a search on it and only my items and one from Jo showed up. I put it in my shop announcement, so join in, everyone!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Houston Artisans 101

Note: To join Artisans of Houston, just come to a meeting! We have a form with some basic information for you to fill out, and we have a $25 annual membership fee (paid when you join, and in subsequent years in September).

Nuts and Bolts
  • This blog is for keeping track of upcoming meetings and events.
  • Team tag for ETSY shop listing is houstonartteam Nice to suggest searching the term in shop appearance. :) The Artisans tag should be added in addition to other street team tags such as teametsytx. You may find this tag used by members on other sites such as Artfire as well.
  • We meet face to face and do team emailings .To get the benefit of these things, you must participate. Other team members are willing to HELP, but are not responsible to do things for you. We are all busy adults.
  • Bring lots of business cards to the meetings to give to other team members, you are also encouraged to bring examples of your handmade items. We don't sell at our meetings, and time to share work is limited, in general done after the business meeting. A notepad is a great idea. Meetings will move to
    The Forum
    777 N Post Oak Rd
    Houston, TX 77024
    Meetings are scheduled for the 3rd Tuesday of each month to simplify planning for all of us.



It gets long, but does add information, so if you're curious...
Our group started as an Etsy team for the Houston area in the spring of 2008, but is now an independent Houston area handmade arts and crafts trade association.
  1. This blog is to keep members in touch with team news, and also to help people find our team.
  2. At the meetings (which will be posted ahead of time on this blog) we meet and greet, and discuss current business, share events for selling that are coming, bring contact information, and alert each other to ways to improve our online shops.
  3. Although we'd like for people to attend every meeting, Houston is spread over a huge geographical area. So in addition to the blog, we get people's email addresses and add them to a distribution list. Messages to remind about upcoming meetings, or vote about a topic that came up for discussion. Decisions are generally made by members attending that months meeting, rather than polling everyone.
  4. We will be meeting at The Forum,777 N Post Oak Rd, Houston, TX 77024. Meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, beginning at 7 pm.
  5. New members are sent an invitation to post to this blog. Attendance of at least one face to face meeting is required for that to happen. Blog administrators reserve the right to remove that invitation for inappropriate posts. We encourage members to post, and include tags as a part of their post.
  6. Generally, we do not email to answer questions posted to this blog. We also welcome members who do not yet have an Etsy shop.
  7. Our meetings begin at 7:00 and our new location at the Forum is not a restaurant, so if you need supper at that time, feel free to bring food in to eat at the meeting. Most of us leave by around 9:00, but you can leave earlier if needed. :)

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

It worked!

Cool, it worked fine. :0)

New Handmade arts site

Hi everyone,
I wanted to let you know that there's another site similar to etsy that is only for handmade items. You can see it at www.artfire.com and my shop name there is www.hausofglass.artfire.com (I hope I got that correct...it may be @artfire.com instead of the dot).
There's a place where I can copy and paste a "taster" of my glass onto blogs, and other sites and I want to try it here to see if it actually downloads the pictures. So bare with me if it doesn't work.

here goes...
Store not available

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Next meeting for local Mini Team February 17th

Tonight's meeting of Artisans of Houston had several first timers! We had a great time discussing some individual needs or interests. As an outgrowth of the discussion, we'll be looking for an "internet cafe" for our March meeting. If you have a laptop with wi-fi capability, be sure to bring it in March. If you don't have a laptop, but would like to learn how to do a listing, write a blog post, or other computer related task, you might want to bring along a cd with picture of item to list, or for a blog posting. If you'd like to reccommend a location with wi-fi, be sure to post a comment!

Next month, we'll be returning to Cafe Express,

- Cafe Express
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 7:00pm
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 713-963-9222
- 77056

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Next Meeting for our Mini Team

Our next Artisans of Houston meeting is Tuesday, Jan. 20 at the same restaurant:
- Cafe Express
- 7:00pm
- 1101 Uptown Park
- 713-963-9222
- 77056 - in Uptown Galleria area.

Turn on Uptown Park, then turn into the Uptown Park Center, and Cafe Express is the 2nd or 3rd bldg in center.

Don't forget to ask Pam about her daughter's wedding! ;)