Master Your Craft : Strategies for Designing, Making, and Selling Artisan Work

Do you want to create unique, brilliantly designed works of craft? Make the most of your studio time? Develop your artistic "voice," skills, and career?

Then this book is for you.

Written by award-winning textile artist Tien Chiu, Master Your Craft: Strategies for Designing, Making, and Selling Artisan Work provides sharp insight into the creative process, from the first spark of inspiration to careful contemplation of the finished piece.

Perspectives from 22 master artisans fuse with industrial product design techniques and the author's own craft experience to offer a powerful framework for designing, making, and selling your work.

Master Your Craft outlines a powerful process for designing and creating beautiful work. It enables you to:

• Discover inspiration even in the most mundane things
• Brainstorm unique designs
• Refine your designs into visually powerful, useful work that is practical to make and sell
• Transform your creative process to work more enjoyably and effectively
• Take your design and construction skills to the next level
• Identify your distinctive personal style
• Create a career for yourself, either as an artist or an artisan.

Packed with advice from master woodworkers, glass workers, ceramicists, textile artists, metalworkers, and more, Master Your Craft will enable you to create stunning pieces and - if you choose - develop your craft into a career.

Tien Chiu is a nationally recognized, award-winning weaver with more than twenty-five years of experience in fiber arts. She's also a high-tech project manager and process improvement specialist, giving her a deep understanding of the creative process in industry. She applies twenty years of industrial process analysis, along with her extensive artistic experience, to create her stunning textile art.

Tien teaches about the creative process in craft and coaches people on revolutionizing their work at creatingcraft.com.

Christopher H. Amundsen is the Executive Director of the American Craft Council.