America’s Wal-Mart Mentality, or Sticking Up for All Artists Everywhere

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*steps onto soapbox* —’cause I tell ya, I’ve had it…

You all know what I mean; get it the cheapest that you can without caring where it comes from. This method of consumerism sucks for people like me; artistic, creative, mindful, with original ideas, and with excellent craftsperson skills that deserve to be compensated. This mentality is part of the reason our economy is in shambles…we lost a lot of manufacturing jobs which inturn means, Americans have lost ways to take care of their families. I’m sitting here creating my own job, but I can’t make a living if I don’t sell bags.

Too often have I heard “your bags are so expensive”. What? Oh, really?

What am I supposed to do with that? Why in the hell would someone say that in the first place? So, am I supposed to lower my prices so you can feel good about getting “a deal” and I get the shaft from earning a living? No way, man. That is not about me. My skills have value. The creation of a bag design takes hours. Should I be doing that for free? Would you tell an architect or a lawyer to give away their time for free? I don’t think so.

All of this is about values. What do you value? Let’s do a little 5th grade math, shall we:

A bag made in another country that looks like 2000 others where the person(s) doing the sewing are paid a $2 (which goes VERY far in other economies, mind you) gets bought for $4 wholesale say, and is marked up above the usual 50% retail, and sells to you in an American store for $11. Wow, what a deal.

Let’s take my lunchbag: There are less than 600 Lorraines floating around the world. I know, I’ve sewn EVERY single one over the last 4 years. I make $8.33 on each one. Add materials and overhead and I can’t even sell my bag at wholesale for under $20. Then the retail markup is 50% which puts the bag at it’s current $40. 600 bags x $8.33 = $4,998. Divide that by 4 years = $1,249.50 per year I’ve made sewing lunchbags. Now I ask you…How far does that get me in our ecomony?

So, now here we are; You-with your $11 bag, feeling all smug and superior, the Other Country seamstresses who make $2 a bag are feeling pretty good because where they live $10 a week is excellent money, and Me-who makes less than $9 per lunchbag (when one sells). Care to rethink why my bags are “so expensive”?

I work harder than anyone has any idea about. Rarely do I get compensated for the hours and hours and weeks and weeks that I have put into my art. That is going to change here pretty darn soon. I know there are people out there that care about where they spend their money and who they buy from. I hope they find me. I have Faith about my abilities earning me an honest, well-deserved living. It has been my American Dream for as long as I can remember.

Do yourself a favor—the next time you have the urge to ask an indie-artist-creative type why there “such and such” costs so much, don’t. Value their work and the time it took them to make it. And maybe take a little time to think about whether it matters to you where your items come from, or how they are made.

*steps off soapbox* 😉

Purple Lorraine in SELF Magazine!

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Photo credit: Barbie McConkey

Edit post: The writer of the feature felt horrible about the website address mixup so she requested if they could feature her on a NYC morning show! I was so flattered and impressed with her integrity that I agreed, of course. See that blog post here: Lorraine on NYC TV

Well…here it is. That beautiful Dos Chicas bag is in a national magazine. It looks great, only problem is that they gave the wrong website address to buy her. No wonder I wasn’t getting more web traffic.

I was reeaaallly upset for a day about this…I had expectations of course…Kelly Ripa is on the cover, so for sure I would have liked for her to visit my website. Doubt that will happen now.

Oh well. Hi, Kelly.

I’m my own Valentine

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The last few weeks have been busy. Spending most of my days in my tiny studio, which is slowly getting too small. As the bags are born and new ideas hatch, I have less room and constantly have to move one unfinished project if I feel inspired to work on another. I had been feeling sorry for myself; crowded, I don’t have big work spaces like some of my artist friends, I have a recessed (can) light bulb out that needs to be changed, and blah blah blah.

Today I got over myself. I looked at my messy space and fell in love. Piles of oilcloth sit ready for being created into something, my new daytimer is still waiting to be transitioned into with all the piles of notes, addresses from christmas card envelopes, two address books, and business cards, storage is sparce, my portfolio lies in pieces and piles waiting to be brought together into one book.

The gift I gave myself is that I noticed these manifestations of what’s been in my brain now sprawled and spilled all over the four corners of this little place where I would rather be than anywhere else on Earth. And it is good…

Happy Black History Month!

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My mother-in-law gave me a cookbook written by Maya Angelou last year, “Hallelujah! The Welcome Table”. Not only is it filled with recipes, she has stories surrounding the recipes; social engagements where she first tasted them, her own cooking experiences, or her family’s culinary heritage. The stories are marvelous and magical. The recipes are an added bonus. I have made a few of them and we like them very much. My favorite for now is ‘Suffocated Chicken’.

My favorite story is called, “Independence Forever”. If there is a better story about American entrepreneurialship, a brilliant woman, and tenacity please, someone let me know.

Single Mother.
Kiddies to feed.
Idea,
Action.
Business savvy.
I want to be that brave.

Every Day is like Saturday

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I wrapped up ’07 with two huge opportunities that knocked on my perveribal door: A Swiss publishing company asked permission to reproduce an image of my Lorraine Lunch Bag for an upcoming student design book! I am always skeptical of these approaches at first; thanks to my childhood that had me ready to put up my dukes at any time. So, being the thinker that I am, I took a day to mull it over and decided yes, I would accomodate, on one condition; the copyright symbol would appear after or near Dos Chicas. They agreed. We signed the contract. Expect a report later this year as the book is slated for publication in August. I get a copy. woooooweeeeee

The second amazing thing was a surprise phone call from SELF magazine in NYC. They were doing an article about healthy lunches and wanted to have a few “samples” of the Lorraine for a photo shoot. !!! Again, I had a day to think it through, and decided yes. I had one day to get them made and shipped to make the deadline. Done. Look for that beautiful bag in the March issue coming up here pretty soon. Very Cool.

I am ordering oilcloth and cutting and sewing to get ahead for what I hope will be a lot of orders. Wish me well and send me good energy vibs. Maybe I should go have coffee with my cousin!

Arts Walk

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My Fall Arts Walk window is ready to be seen! I installed My Great Oilcloth Study at Inside Vintage-Downtown Olympia. Thanks Hana!

Here’s a few pictures:

Stalled Process and Volunteering

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my light project hit a major snag. i need to research electrical currents more. so, while i am preparing for my art show, i need to reconfigure my strategy and what in the heck i am going to do. i need to get on it…i have under 2 weeks.

T has been volunteering for a few years at Volunteers of America with their “Project Warmth”. She knits adorable hats and blankets from donated yarn to help people keep warm in those cold Colorado winters. I am so proud of her!

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