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| Name | Terri Fisher |
| Business Name | Smiling Cat Studio |
| Business Website | https://www.etsy.com/shop/smilingcatstudio and http://www.smilingcatstudio.com/ |
| What do you make? | I make linoleum block prints, embroidery hoop art, jewelry from my reclaimed art, and graphic illustrations. I also enjoy painting and collage, but those haven't made it to my shop yet except as reclaimed art. Clearly, I need to reign it in a bit! 🙂 I've been working on focusing my efforts towards cat art since that has been my best seller. I've decided that focusing my topic rather than my medium will help give my shop a more cohesive feel. |
| Country | USA |
| City, State | Southwest Virginia |
| Social Media Links | https://twitter.com/SmilinCatStudio http://instagram.com/smilingcatstudio/ http://smilingcatstudio.blogspot.com/ http://www.pinterest.com/smilincatstudio/ https://www.facebook.com/SmilingCatStudio |
| More About Me | My goal is to be able to take my handmade business to the level where I can quit my current part-time job. I am happiest when I'm creating, and most unhappy when I'm slogging to work away from my studio! My first degrees were in computer science. I worked as a software engineer for 7 1/2 years before deciding that I wanted to make something more tangible than a computer program. I returned to school for my architecture degree. I loved the creativity of the studio exercises and working with my hands on models and drawing with pencil and paper. I was less enamored of the AutoCad/computer jockey end of it and was more interested in historic preservation than designing new buildings. I also met my husband in studio, and, well, neither of us ended up becoming architects, BUT we are using our creativity restoring old homes. I'm the author of 4 history books. I've been a small museum director. I've been a grant writer. I'm on our local non-profit community foundation board. I play the clarinet in our community band. I have a vintage shop on Etsy to sell items family items we've accumulated. I am the primary caretaker for my mostly independent 94-year-old grandmother who recently moved nearby. So, yes, I have lots of opportunities to be derailed from creating a successful handmade business. And you can tell by my social media links that I've been neglecting them for a while. But, something's got to change and I'm making the effort to steer those changes in the direction I want to go - towards a successful handmade business. |
| My areas of expertise that apply to handmade business: | Writing, computer skills, retail, graphic design, photography |
| terri@smilingcatstudio.com |
