As artists of physical mediums, be it painting, woodburning, caligraphy, fibercrafts, or any of the hundreds of others, we pride ourselves in the hand-crafted nature of what we do. The mediums we use and the canvases we apply them to can all be traced back to where they originated from. We used tried and true techniques passed down for generations. It may even be that we scoff at the idea of using computers to enhance what we do. Personally, I think that limits us as we can still create in a way that embraces tradition but takes advantage of the modern tools we have at our disposal.

It’s the end of the year and that means it’s time to start thinking about New Year’s resolutions, self-improvement, and organizing your life.

If you ever find yourself at a market and you are looking at the different wood-burned pieces you may notice that some pieces look more uniform and consistent; like they came out of a factory.  Other pieces look more rustic and rough like someone burned them by hand.  If you have seen this, your eyes are not deceiving you, the former was probably done with a laser engraver whereas the latter would be done with a hand tool.

When I started this business one of my goals, like most things in my life, was to uphold a level of quality that I expect in the products and services that I seek out myself. This comes from a lifetime of being an overachiever and always having to do “just a little better” than the last time. This can be a double-edged sword as you can tweak and tinker until you’re blue in the face but eventually, the product needs to ship. Here I am going to share with you some of the goals I set for myself when it comes to the quality of my products and the consistency of my process but still get things out the door.

I came up with the idea to create this series when I was looking back on the past two and a half years as a small business owner, thinking “What are the things that I wish someone had told me about starting a business.” Creating is a full-time job in and of itself and running a business is like adding another full-time job on top of it. Hopefully, this series will help guide you through some of the preliminary steps. Full transparency: if I recommend any products I will include affiliate links so, if you decide to buy any of them, I will get a small kickback. Don’t fret, though, that has not swayed my opinion and every one of the products I recommend is something I fully endorse because I use it myself.