Crafty business

Making jewelry. Recording an album with some friends. Filming a horror flick for fun. Students create art all the time, but how can they make it profitable?

Whether it’s music, visual art or crafts, local artisans are crafting homemade art every day – and making money off it, thanks to Bloomington businesses that sell and consign these products.

Boxcar Books, 408 E. Sixth St.

Boxcar Books gives its patrons far more than new and used books. The store offers opportunities for DIY enthusiasts to consign art such as postcards and posters and even sign up for monthly art exhibits. For local writers, it is also offers a haven where “zine” writers can sell their work through the community center, which has a specific section just for the mini magazines.

“Whatever you can write a zine about, they write about,” said junior Amber Hansen, a shiftworker at the store, who said she sees a wide range of people buying handmade goods, including vegan punk bracelets “made locally by Mr. Evil Bobb himself,” according to the label.

Cactus Flower 322 E. Kirkwood Ave.

For a selection of handmade jewelry, students and Bloomington residents can head over to Cactus Flower, where weekend floor manager and junior Sara Baldwin said they carry rings, earrings and bracelets from local brands like Cheeky Minx (formerly Willow Shines) and Tizo Designs.

While there are a few handmade clothes, mainly women’s dresses, the vast majority of the store’s local crafts are in the jewelry section, Baldwin said, like earrings from Fiona, pieces from Oshe Designs and Kristiana Willsey’s accessories, made from unique materials like jacks, toy cars and puzzle pieces.

“It’s important to give artists a venue to bring their stuff to the public,” Baldwin said. “Bloomington is a town where people are always supporting each other.”

FARMbloomington 108 E. Kirkwood Ave.

Besides the locally grown produce used in FARMbloomington’s cooking, daytime manager Amber Turner said the establishment sells handicrafts in their store section, like handmade plush toys made by barista Meredith Hubble and “skillet holders.”

“They actually look like little sweaters for the handle of a pot of pan,” she said.

Over in their bourbon bar, the Root Cellar, they showcase local fine art such as paintings, photographs and live bands, Turner said. Anyone can come into FARMbloomington with something to sell, and if the product fits with the folksy, down-home feel of the store, FARMbloomington will sell it for 50 percent on consignment.

Landlocked Music and TDs CDs and LPs
202 N. Walnut St. and 322 E. Kirkwood Ave.

To pick up and sell records by local bands, people can check out Landlocked Music and TDs CDs and LPs, both of which sell consigned CDs by local artists from all genres.

“There are a lot of people who support different bands and they want to buy the album they didn’t buy at a concert,” Landlocked Co-owner Heath Eyers said.
Both Eyers and TDs CDs and LPs Manager Michael Anderson estimated their stores sell more than a hundred different local titles.

For Eyers, consigning these bands’ music is also good business sense, as the members make some of Landlocked’s best customers. And while modern technology may make it easier to produce an album, that doesn’t mean they have to be good. Landlocked doesn’t discriminate: They consign for any band that asks, leading to a wide variety of music.

Over at TDs, Anderson said his store sells local musicians’ albums just to help them out.

“We don’t make any money off local artists,” he said. “We just want it to be available.”

Lola Rue & Company 531 N. College Ave.

Over at Lola Rue & Company, owner Lisa Orme offers consigned handmade items from furniture and jewelry to clothes and tote bags, not to mention a large collection of vintage items.

“It’s not your mom’s everyday arts and crafts,” Orme said. “It’s a lifestyle store.”
The store also hosts classes that teach people how to make certain crafts themselves.

She is selective in what she allows to be sold or consigned in her store, allowing only things that fit into the “funky, vintage feel.” Orme said she can see and feel the difference between a homemade item and an imported version.

“Somebody’s made it, they’ve created it,” she said. “There’s no life in the imported piece.”

Plan 9 Film Emporium 213 N. Walnut St.

For free movies by local filmmakers, residents can head over to Plan 9 Film Emporium, where anything in the local film section is rentable for no fee.

“We will take it if you bring it in,” said Co-owner Dave Walter. “We definitely try to help out the local guy.”

Walter said the lack of monetary gain is usually balanced out by the increased exposure: Many more people rent the free movies. And thanks to technological advances, making DVDs is easier on every level, he said, from the actual camera work to designing a cover.