Home Shopping Network : Craft Makers Decking the Walls of Living Rooms, Dens, Churches With Wares for Christmas
Janice Garcia started making arts and crafts projects because she was bored. Now she does it because it’s profitable--her once-a-year Christmas boutique pulls in $30,000 in sales.
With 40 to 50 vendors and a mailing list of more than 6,000, Garcia’s business in Canyon Country is one of the largest privately run boutiques in the San Fernando Valley area, taking in an average of $10,000 a day for the three days it is open in December.
“It’s grown into something unbelievable. People stand in line to get in,” Garcia said. She is expecting 2,500 customers to come to her boutique at a local church this year.
The appeal of handmade items has become big business for those who sell the supplies, and those with nimble fingers who turn ribbons, fabric and little fluffy pompons into clever decorations. Crafters create because they love to and, although the profit on handmade goods is small, maybe 10% to 30%, this “underground economy” is still of concern to tax and licensing agencies.
From early November to just before Christmas, holiday boutiques and bazaars spring up across the Valley. The exact number is hard to judge because they are often unlicensed, and they bloom for 2 or 3 days at the most.
Supplies Expensive
Most women who sell their handmade goods (there don’t seem to be any men who run boutiques) say they don’t expect to get rich--supplies are expensive, the work is time-consuming and customers want bargains.
Garcia, 48, started crafting 8 years ago because, she said, she “just needed something to do” after quitting her post office job. That Christmas, she and four neighbors held an impromptu open house to peddle their wares. And though she “didn’t do it for the money,” the money wasn’t bad--$500 in two days. “It went so well, I said, ‘Hey, I can do this.’ ”
Crafty Ladies, one of the oldest boutiques in the Valley, began 13 years ago with four friends “who just wanted to get together and do crafts.” Their boutique has moved from a home to a woman’s club, and now to a church in Granada Hills.
“You can’t charge enough for your time,” said one of the original members, showing off a tufted duck that she made to sell this year. “I call my craft projects my therapy.”
Cyndee Burditt, 29, said she is just happy to make enough money to be able to stay home with her three children. Burditt, a skilled seamstress who has been sewing since she was 9, said she expects to gross about $2,500 between September and Christmas by selling her hand-painted T-shirts, sweat shirts and dresses.
“It’s my hobby turned into my business,” the Granada Hills woman said.
“You can’t be paid for the hours and hours of work that go into these things,” said Mared Scutti as she gently touched a handmade plaster Santa Claus on a table in her Chatsworth home. The Santas, which vary from 4 to 12 inches in height, take her 8 to 10 hours to make and sell for $12 to $20.
“If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t do it.”
Step into Scutti’s home and you step into an Early American Christmas. A fragrant bowl of potpourri ($6.50 a bag) scents the air, and hand-dipped candles (80 cents to $1.25) add color to a corner. Various centerpieces, from table-top Christmas trees ($22 to $40) dripping with handmade ornaments to baskets of dried flowers, vie for attention on an old trestle table, while a papier-mache reindeer ($22) grazes on a windowsill.
“I don’t really do it for the money,” said a Santa Clarita woman who asked that her name not be used. “I do it because it’s fun. I enjoy it. The fun is in the making of the crafts.”
‘Lot of Wear and Tear’
The woman, who was busy stuffing pillows, noted that putting together a successful boutique is “a lot of wear and tear on your body, your house and your family.”
She said she works all year cross-stitching pithy sayings on her fabric-backed, lace-trimmed pillows, which sell for $17 to $30. She said she thinks the popularity of home boutiques has dwindled in the last few years because “it’s a lot of work putting them on and you don’t make that much money.”
However little the profits, taxing agencies, of course, want their cut of the proceeds, although most agencies consider short-term boutiques small-time stuff barely worth investigating.
The California Franchise Tax Board has always been concerned about unreported income, said board spokesman Jim Reber and, 2 years ago, helped establish California’s “Project Fair Share,” a seven-agency task force, to try to close what the federal government estimates is a $2-billion tax gap--that difference between what people owe and what they actually pay.
“We have been aggressive in attacking this problem,” he said. “Street vendors also have an obligation to pay sales tax and to report income that they earned.”
Compliance Sought
But these people are admittedly low on the tax hit list. “Obviously, we’re looking to see everyone comply,” Reber said from his Sacramento office. “But we don’t have the ability--nor would people tolerate us--to move in a Gestapo-type force. We’re looking for those who are flagrant and intentional” in avoiding taxes.
A person who makes maybe $300 at a boutique has little impact in terms of income tax, “but a 6 or 7% sales tax on that amount can be significant,” he said.
Not all cities require a business license, but selling without a permit from the state Board of Equalization, which collects sales tax, is a misdemeanor. Charles Cordell, assistant to the deputy director for business taxes for the board, admitted that it is difficult to enforce tax laws on small business operations.
“On a statewide level, the tax loss from small sellers is great, but it is not cost-effective to go after someone who is only making $100 or so, especially if they do it only once or twice a year,” he said.
Cordell said there is no estimate of how much sales tax might be lost in this “underground economy,” but “it is a growing concern because it seems to be an expanding activity. As it grows, the aggregate potential tax loss grows.”
‘Little in Taxes’
Eight field representatives and 50 auditors keep count in the San Fernando Valley, according to Clyde Gretzinger, Valley district tax administrator for the Board of Equalization.
“On an individual level, boutiques amount to very little in taxes,” he said, noting that the retail cost of materials alone tends to cut back on potential profits for people who sell homemade items without a resale license. If people turned their boutiques into bigger businesses, they would have to purchase a resale license to make it worth their while.
He noted that tax reps regularly check sellers at swap meets for the proper permits and they investigate complaints. Those most likely to blow the whistle are local merchants.
“You’d be surprised how well retailers police the unlicensed sellers,” Gretzinger said.
Most successful boutiques have similar operating procedures. The organizer receives a 15% to 20% sales commission from vendors and sometimes a registration fee of from $30 to $60 or more for larger charity-sponsored bazaars.
“That helps cover postage, advertising, flyers, wear and tear on the house and inconvenience to my family,” said one woman. “We have to eat out a lot the week of the boutique and there are certain rooms we can’t use” because they are filled with sales merchandise.
There are other drawbacks. When Garcia began, she crammed tables in every nook and cranny of her house, including the patio and pool area, and often had lines of waiting customers snaking down the street. She said her neighbors never complained (many said it was the only time they saw each other besides voting days), but after hordes of people traipsed through their bedroom, her husband “couldn’t take it any more,” and Garcia moved her emporium to a church. In exchange, she donates half of her 20% commission, after expenses.
On the other hand, Scutti, a warm and bubbly 54-year-old Brooklyn transplant, and her husband, Alexander, a film set craftsman, welcome talking to the many visitors.
“I love all the nice things people say when they come into our house,” she said. “That is our satisfaction, that people are happy to see our work.”
Occasionally, a dishonest customer sneaks in. One woman recalled the year that a vendor found five price tags in a bathroom waste basket, which meant that those items were probably stolen. Sometimes price tags are switched and occasionally things are broken, but few sellers reported getting bad checks. Garcia, among others, makes her vendors sign a release waiver agreeing to stand their own loss, whether it be theft or damage.
Country crafts--tole-painted wood decorator pieces, stuffed country geese or ducks--are always big sellers, as are inexpensive magnets and Christmas decorations. A popular item several years ago was a plunger decorated to look like a duck or a goose.
Higher-priced items may include porcelain dolls that sell for more than $100 or handmade quilts for $160 to $800. In many cases, the prices at boutiques are less than the same items would sell for in retail stores, while other things are higher because they are time-consuming to make.
“There are a lot of things here you can’t find in department stores,” said Lindy Sherman, 31, of Encino, laden with several bags of merchandise purchased at Valley Beth Shalom’s Hanukkah Boutique. “The prices are usually better on some things, like jewelry.”
Sherman said she doesn’t go to many boutiques, but likes this one because “I like to feel I’ve supported the temple.”
Laura Duran of Granada Hills visits boutiques mainly to check out the handmade Christmas decorations. “I wish I was this handy,” she said while holding a $12 wreath in one hand and fingering a $4.50 ceramic angel with the other. “I love the idea of handmade ornaments.”
‘Southwest Bandanna’
Garcia’s hottest item is a “southwest bandanna,” a fringed and beaded scarf that takes several hours to make (30 minutes just for beading) and sells for $12.95. In one weekend, she sold 64.
Candy, jams and jellies and occasionally baked goods are popular at church and synagogue bazaars, but many home boutique operators stay away from edible items because strict health laws forbid selling food made at home.
David Siken, a senior environmental health officer with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services in the Van Nuys office, warned that “it can be illegal to make food at home and sell it.”
He said there is a fine line between someone offering customers coffee and cake while they shop, and packaging and selling homemade food.
“We get calls all the time from people who want to manufacture and sell food on a regular basis. They say everyone raves about their homemade cookies or cakes and tells them they should sell it,” he said. But they can’t make and sell food from their kitchen--only from a commercial facility.
Liability Waivers
However, he said the health department would only investigate if it came to the department’s attention through a complaint.
“I used to refuse to sell anything edible” because of possible complications, one woman said. But this year she accepted two women--one selling candy, the other jams--who said they have the proper permits. But just to be on the safe side, she makes them sign liability waivers.
A side benefit to turning craft making into a business, said several women, is that it can become a family affair. Garcia has gotten a lot of help in the past from her eight children and neighborhood girls, who work in exchange for gift items. Her youngest daughter, who grew up with her mom’s crafting, has started making and selling her own items (this year candy trains and airplanes, among other things) and refers to herself as “Crafty Junior.”
A Santa Clarita woman noted that she and her husband have become closer since he started helping her not only with her boutique, but in accompanying her when she sells at other shows. And Scutti and her husband often turn buying trips into mini vacations.
Surprisingly, many of these women do not give their handmade items as gifts. “I feel funny doing that,” said one crafter. “I would rather sell my pillows to other people and use that money to buy gifts I can’t make. If I buy something they don’t like, they can always return it, but it’s hard for them to give me back a pillow if they don’t like it.”
Others say that they like to keep their businesses separate from their personal lives or that handmade gifts are not always appreciated.