Once you’ve made a few pieces and you are hooked you will discover that people are selling their needle-felted pieces and you will understandably wonder if you can make any money and if so how to make money needle felting. This is especially going to happen when you find yourself knee-deep in finished felted projects and not know what to do with them.
Yes, you can make money felting fuzzy things. I know many crafters who make a good living selling their items and the kits and their books online. I don’t think it’s the easiest way of making a living. And you may need some form of support either from a partner or other work while you’re building up your brand. I think therefore is and against doing it which I’ve discussed below along with how and where to sell your items.
There is a big difference between making money from needle felting and earning a full-time income from it. There are lots of questions that you need to ask yourself such as do you really want to do this full-time? Would you lose your enjoyment of it if you had to? And would it damage your health constantly needle felting? And then there are the more practical questions such as how would you go about making money? Could you make enough money? And where do you sell your items?
How To Make Money Needle Felting
Top 6 Things To Do To Make Money Felting
You can make money from needle felting.
- Sell Your Fuzzys
You can sell your felted items in various places as mentioned below. - Work on Commission
Rather than creating lots of things you can get commissioned work. This way you will know you are going to sell the item and not spend time on things you may not sell or may not sell for a while. Having a contract and a deposit is a good idea here. - Create and Sell Your Own Kits for Others to Make things
This is very popular. If you can design and make up kits for people to buy it give your business another dimension. - Online Tutorials
This is a possibility, however, there are lots of free ones online so doing free ones to gain trust may be more beneficial. - Books or E-Books
Creating and selling Books or eBooks will not only give you added income but some possible income as well. - Offline Courses
You can create and run courses locally, this will also give you the opportunity to sell wool, books, and equipment to your students.
What Made Me Think About Selling My Needle Felted Items
My first request for a pay commission for needle felting was from my sister. I made the mistake of showing a picture of a fantastic Raven that a very experienced felting artist had made and was for sale on Etsy.
It didn’t occur to me my sister would want it, although it should have. While she doesn’t actually like the texture of wool, she’s very into things like ravens. Although she probably wouldn’t have paid what the lady who was asking which was if memory serves in a range of $1,000 or so she was quite willing to pay for it. Obviously, I could not do another one with the same design as the lady did due to copyright so I’d have to create my own design from scratch. Yipes!
This thing was way-way out of my league. It was huge. It used skills I didn’t even know about. I’d only just learned to make teddy bears and was having difficulty making the cat. However, my sister said she was quite happy to wait. I did say it could be a very, very long wait since the raven was done by somebody that does thousands of hours of needle felting a year and has years and years of experience.
Also, there comes a time when you have a little bit of experience under your belt and you find yourself inundated with projects that you’ve got no space for. Or you just enjoy making it and you’ve decided you want to advance to the next stage. It’s natural to want to share your work with others and only fair that you are compensated for it.
So, Where Do You Go From Here?
I looked into the possibility of selling my work if I needed to because I live on a tiny property and there’s just no room for the projects I’d made or would make. As it happens most of my projects seem to disappear to other people anyway.
How To Price Needle Felting
First things first, I wanted to know how to price my needle felting projects. Was there a standard method or did everyone do things differently? After a bit of searching online I found this formula:-
It’s interesting because it’s not how I would have thought to do it. My idea was to use the formula
Cost of materials + time x time value + plus any other costs = price
However, this lady does it completely differently.
Top 5 Places To Sell Your Needle Felted Projects, Kits, and Books
Etsy
This seems to be the number one place to go for selling any of your craft things online whether it be needle felting or another craft. Most crafters will use Etsy as their base.
It’s my view that although you can sell things via Etsy without any other support system it will limit your sales. This is because he has huge with lots of lots of people selling goods different things. So the chances of someone finding your work aren’t that high. You need to also brand yourself away from Etsy to draw people into Etsy to sell your items.
To do this you need several other things which I’ve mentioned below.
Your Own Website
A good way to sell is to create your own website and E-commerce to sell your items on.
Facebook is popular with crafters selling their work. They usually share in groups and on their own pages. I recently heard from other bloggers although not crafting bloggers that Facebook has not become such a good place these days for businesses.
Amazon
If you’re selling kits or wool you might like to consider either Amazon or eBay for selling your items as well as Etsy and Facebook.
Craft Fairs
I don’t think it hurts to get your name out there via craft fairs. When I go to craft fairs I chat with the vendors. many of them so they don’t actually make that money that much money at the actual craft fairs. It’s more about getting their brand name out there and getting known. Also, getting their cards out to people. So it’s well worth considering if you can do that.
I don’t have transport so I’m unable to do craft fairs.
Local Craft Shops or Marketplaces
If you have somewhere locally where you can put your items for sale it may be worth considering doing this. Some people have tried this for Success while others have had problems. Not all the shops look after your items. This would be on a sale or return basis.
Do You Need A Website To Sell Your Felting Projects?
I think it’s essential to have your own website. Not one of these freebie setups or ones where you’re in a group with other sites, but your own website via WordPress and using a domain name. They’re not that difficult to set up these days and with a bit of learning most people can do it.
The reason behind this is that you’re branding yourself and your business and to do that you need your own online real estate. Also, it does not pay to totally rely on other businesses to sell your work. It is quite common for them to their go under or change their rules or what is seen.
It is Vital to Brand and Self Promote
Once you set up and you have enough items to sell, unless you are selling by commission only, it’s a good idea to start to self-promote. You can do that via all the things mentioned above such as craft fairs, Facebook, etc. And also, possibly Instagram and some people like to use Twitter. For crafters, I’d say the other main area to self-promote is Pinterest. This platform is very very popular for crafters. It’s quite easy to do although it’s not as good as it was in the past.
The Fors and Against of Making Money Needle Felting
You need to do a lot of felting and be felting all day to make any money unless you’re doing larger pieces or have made your name and can increase your profit margin. One of the main issues that I found for crafters of all kinds is that people just do not value the hours taken to do the work and I’m not always willing to pay the amount asked. In addition to this, other felters who may not need the money may sell their work more cheaply than you.
If you are creating unique pieces that are quality then you will eventually break through the market. It takes a lot of time effort and persistence and there is a lot of competition online.
They should not stop you from pursuing your dreams it’s just something to be aware of. Lots of people do successful craft businesses online including needle felting.
Become an Authority In Needle Felting
Becoming an authority in your subject is important or at least being seen to be an authority in it if you are running a felting business. A good idea would be to diversify from simply making things. Many crafters also provide kits including all materials and instructions. Some also do books. Whether this is ebooks or full proper books on Amazon.
You may also like to create needle felting groups or do tutorials in your local area offline. A teacher automatically has authority.
It really depends on how passionate you are about needle felting and how much time you want to put into it. Unlike many online businesses, this is far from passive.
Certainly, look into it further and find out more about it from different sources.