TCR: How did you get involved in working with Fiber?

CLV: My second career as an artist snuck up on me. I've been doing needlework projects since the age of four and studied fine art as a minor at Lafayette College. My first quilted wall hanging "Nana Sue's Garden" is a view of my in-laws' backyard at the Jersey Shore. It brought my love of sewing to an art form and I had finally "found" my medium.

Fortunately, people liked my style, and when they asked for pieces, I had already done the research and knew the square footage rate that quilt artists use. With the first order, I sat down and wrote a business plan with incremental goals and price increases to coincide. Each month I make a point to review it and continue to add new objectives.

When Trudi Clark asked me to create "Gardens of the World" for her Philadelphia Flower Show booth, I switched to painting the background of the six blocks with acrylic on cotton. And I relied heavily on my embroidery and embellishment skills to add quite a bit of dimension to the piece. It's since gone on to hang in a juried museum exhibition at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

TCR: How have you pursued your career?

CLV: The best advice I can offer is to make opportunities to show your artwork. Establish a small group of artists who either work in the same medium as you do but with differing styles, or a group that work in different mediums but with the same theme. Put together a group portfolio and offer it to art centers and retail galleries as a pre-package exhibition. Look into non-traditional, but highly trafficked spaces such as corporate lobbies, libraries, government buildings, and bank lobbies.

TCR: Who is the market for your work? What is your strategy for reaching them?

CLV: > People mainly buy or commission my artwork to hang in their home or office. My husband and I spend several weeks a year cruising on our sailboat Fandango. Since my type of fiber artwork is very portable, I work on it while we voyage. When we're tied up at a dock and I'm sewing on a piece in the cockpit, passersby often stop and ask what I'm doing. I invite them aboard to look through my "Gallery Book" while I keep quilting or embellishing. The book is similar to my Web site. Each piece has its own page with its photograph, the title, date, and dimensions, the owner and his/her city and state or country, and the story behind the piece. So have the inspirational photographs, others have fabric swatches and items sewn on the quilted wall hanging.

TCR: How does your business break down in terms of percentages of sales that come from   different venues?

CLV: > Personal contact, 50 percent; Internet, 35 percent; and galleries and museums, 15 percent.

TCR: Have there been major turning points in your career?

CLV: The organizers of the annual juried exhibition "ArtQuilts at the Sedgwick" asked me to join the committee to assist with publicity. When I took on this responsibility, I approached it the same way as with my art quilt business. I wrote down a series of goals for the types of publications that needed to become aware of Art Quilts as a valid collectable art form. I started with magazines and newsletters in the quilt world, moved on to publications like The Crafts Report. I am now focused on those in the "contemporary art" category. Each article I write for "ArtQuilts at the Sedgwick" ends with a byline that refers readers to my web site.

After September 11, Karey Bresenhan, president of Quilts, Inc. asked art quilters to create a commemorative piece for her "AMERICA: From the Heart" exhibition. About a third of the artists donated their artwork to a silent auction. Since my "Half Mast at Anchor" was in this group, I offered to host the auction on my Web site. Those 92 quilted wall hangings raised over $25,000 for the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund.

Karey convinced C&T Publishing to produce a book of the exhibition and donate all the proceeds to the fund. In the first three months of publication, the AMERICA book raised an additional $24,000. Karey has also arranged for the exhibition to tour the country. Because of my involvement with the AMERICA exhibition, I've been asked to curate a similar one sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica later this fall. Right now I'm working out all the logistics on shipping fiber art internationally. It's a big undertaking, but it is also a wonderful opportunity for more people to become familiar with Art Quilts as a form of artwork.

TCR: Do you see any business challenges specific to artists working in fiber?

CLV: Yes, the perception is that it is fragile. On the back of each piece, I have a label explaining how to care for it. It's extremely important that it is not hung in direct sunlight. But as you know, sometime customers won't heed your advice.

My first commission piece "Crescent Moon over Siesta Key" was custom made for a foot-wide divider wall in a great room. It was one of those "has to match the couch" pieces and had to be a certain dimension, but they gave me free rein with the design. You can see a swatch of the sofa fabric and the story behind the quilted bell pull on my Web site.

The top half is hit each morning by the strong Florida rays so the client installed UV filters on the window. Before shipping it off, I sprayed several coats of Quiltgard TM by The Burrow Groups Inc and packed the can in the box along with directions. Every six months, I send them an e-mail reminding them that it's time to dust it gently with a lint brush or lightly dab it with scotch tape, and then re-spray it.

TCR: What has been the most difficult thing you have encountered in you work?

CLV: Keeping up with the commission demand. When someone wants a custom wall hanging, I take a deposit and let him know where he stands in the queue. He can track the progress of the items ahead of his in the commission section on my gallery page

TCR: What, in terms of business insight, have you learned to do or not to do over the years?

CLV: As a computer network engineer for 15 years, I essentially sold computers and services. So marketing and the rhythm of how to close a sale are now second nature to me.

When people start asking more questions about the artwork itself, I know that it's a "buy" signal. The more I let them answer their own questions by rephrasing their questions into another question, the more likely they'll talk themselves into owning an original work of art.

However, I've also learned that when people ask specific questions about the various techniques or the places that I have exhibited the artwork, it may be motivated by a desire to create their own quilts. Of course, a savvy fiber artist could turn this issue into an opportunity to "sell" a workshop or write a consulting contract to assist the emerging artist.

TCR: How has the Internet affected your business?

CLV: My Web site is my number two sales avenue, a close second to showing people my work in person. Since my artwork has quite a bit of texture, dimension, metallic and iridescent sparkle that cannot be shown adequately on a computer screen, it always surprises me when people order or commission a piece without have truly "seen" my artwork.

"Jumeriah Mosque," a building that's in the United Arab Emirate is a prime example of a commission that came about from the customer's viewing "Gardens of the World" on my Web site. After looking at the "Hagia Sophia" and "Luxor Temple" blocks, she realized that I could create landscape artwork from her part of the world. She was also impressed by the detail views of the elaborate embroidery on the palm fronds and the beading on the fountain.

TCR: What is the next step for you?

CLV: We're getting ready for an extended cruise of the Eastern seaboard and the Caribbean. As we voyage, I will continue to create my artwork and fully intend to sell it along the way. A dream of mine would be to settle in the islands and open a small gallery/studio.