Making a living carving? Thoughts? Advice?

Hi all, been browsing the forums for inspiration for several years now, I wanted to ask about making a living carving though.

I've been carving bone for a few years, have sold several pendants around town, most of them off my neck or bartered them off at trade shops, etc.

Until recently I was employed full time/successfully for a online sales conglomerate, blah, blah, blah, things have come to an end and I spent the last 10 years working in an industry and with skill sets that really don't transfer anywhere else, so while it was good while it lasted, I'm kind of stranded now!

In June of next year, my family and I are moving to the Big Island. Admittedly, compared to a lot of the work on these forums, my work is amateur, I can carve and lash a mean Hei Matau, but unfortunately so can about 1,000 Filipinos, and the eBay market seems pretty flooded with mass produced stuff.

I've always just carved as a hobbyist, never thought about trying to earn rent with it, but with our move to Hawaii next year, I'd love to be able to set up a small shop and make a few hundred a month so we can live a happy, but modest lifestyle.

I've recently started carving stone, I'm really, really loving the medium, I picked up a cheapish piece of black jade (Didn't want to ruin a nice piece of greenstone if I was going to end up just butchering it!) and it really seems like something I could get into.

I guess to boil my point down, is there any way for a moderately skilled carver to make rent doing this? I'd like to get a few dozen pieces carved up before my move and see if I can get a few feet to display on someone's wall down on Alii drive. I was just wondering if it's worth the time and money invested I guess.

If anyone has any tips, advice, etc. on making a few bucks doing something you love; I'd love to hear it. I had also considered other crafts, I was raised in a construction family so can do about anything in a decent shop, though I seem to have really fallen in love with stone and I'd like to someday get into glass blowing as well.

p.s. - to any stone carvers that might happen upon my post here, the stone I've been carving as of late is DESTOYING my rotary bits! I'm not even sure where I got the diamond-tip set I've been using the last week, but they look pretty cheap in the first place and now the grit is all but worn off. Is that a problem with cheapo bits, a hazard of working the medium or perhaps something I'm doing wrong? Too much pressure, etc.?

Thanks all for your any help you can send my way without giving away too much top-secret trade information!

DJ, welcome to TC. Some of your questions are generic for any craftsman trying to sell their wares, but some are more specific to carvers. You may want to post your question in the Carving Forum also.

Best wishes on your new venture :)

Two schools of thought; art for, 1. Pleasure and, 2. Profit.
#1, go please yourself.
#2, it's a business and like any business, you have to have a demand and a supply, you can create a demand, (marketing) or you can fill a existing demand. Then you have to be able to preform. I have seem a few people here on TC create a demand and then for many reason, not preform, almost worse than no demand. My point is if you want to make money doing anything, it takes business skills first.
Best of luck and be true to your art.

When you figure it out - let me know!

Greetings djwirk,
I think it's great for you to want to make a few bucks selling your art, but it will be difficult to find any single plan that will tell you how to do it.
Best thing is just to get the tools you need as you need them and just start carving your butt off and offering your stuff up for sale. We Always need more artists around. Post your stuff with progress shots along the way and you will be getting feedback most likely. Don't ask for it and it will come.

There are several threads here that will help you as far as technique and tools.
HERE is the Main one you want for info about stone and jade carving tools as well as tips and tricks.

HERE is one for all tool info for Wood tikis and general stuff along those lines

Here is One more for stone carvers tools and info.

So read these assignments along with the rest of the TC reading and you will be chillin in no time.