Books:

Discovered! 505
Odd Enterprises

Hidden Dollars

How to Make
Money at Home

Small Business
of Your Own

You Can Own
a Business

Only a few months ago, Helen Dillard, a naturally artistic young lady, decided to paint a necktie that would represent her husband's business. He is co-owner of a flooring company.

At the time she and a friend, Betty Hunt, were enrolled in a textile painting class.

Mrs. Dillard decorated a gray satin tie with ten rolls of varied patterned and colored linoleum as it stands in the store. As the painting progressed the young artists found themselves admiring the tie even more than they had expected.

Mr. Dillard wore the tie to work and came home that evening jubilantly proud of his clever wife and with six orders for ties from his customers. Each tie was to represent the individual business, the design to be left up to Mrs. Dillard.

TODAY THE young women have more orders than they can handle, have made well over $100 since they opened for business and are having the time of their lives.

They have painted on ties such varied representations as the local newspaper, groceries in general, the Ford Motor Company emblem, a variety of farm produce including sugar beets, watermelons, onions, and cantaloupes, and, to top it all, a rancher's prize bull. He looks alive enough to feed, water and fence.

One of the most attractive ties they have painted was for the manager of the airport. From a photograph they painted on a medium blue satin tie a replica of his private plane in authentic colors and balanced the design with traces of white clouds and clever motion lines to indicate the speed of the plane.

Orders pour in for ties whenever one of the wearers attends a convention or even a local club or lodge meeting.

When asked where she gets ideas, Mrs. Dillard answers, "Ideas are everywhere. I've become so tie conscious that when I walk down the street I can't see any farther than a man's Adam's apple.

"Any business or social group suggests ideas and the possibilities are almost inexhaustible since one man often orders several ties, each representing a different interest."

The women recently made a tie to advertise a nationally distributed flooring material, and presented it to the local representative. Soon after his return to headquarters in Denver the artist team received an order for twelve similar ties.

Already, sprouts of a mail order business are beginning to be evident. Ties have been sent to Denver, Oklahoma, Pueblo, Rocky Ford, Cheraw and Brooklyn, New York. Also, the reward of practice is beginning to pay dividends as the designer and artist say they can recognize the more professional appearance of their most recent designs.

"Men are wonderful customers," they agree. "They aren't fussy. They are always pleased and don't quibble about the price. They like to have their names showing and something to indicate their position in life. We give them both.

"Also, men are always so pleased with their own tie that their enthusiasm is contagious. Everywhere they go they show off their tie and aren't bashful about saying where they got it."

The ties sell for $5, which the artists feel is reasonable, since the design is created especially for the individual. The ties cost on an average of $1.50 to $2 and approximately six hours are spent designing, painting and pressing each order. Each tie is marked "a betty and helen original."

THE GIRLS use stencils only to be sure that each part of the design is in its proper position on the tie.

"There is no room for mistakes," Mrs. Hunt points out.

However, in the next breath she reverses this statement and tells of the time she was painting a tie for a professional painter. Her object was to design a paint bucket on the large part of the tie. When the pattern was nearly completed she accidentally splashed a drop of paint just above and to the right of the bucket. With failing heart she put the tie aside as a lost cause. But the more she looked at the bright daub of paint the better she liked it. Then in a flurry of inspiration she made the daub bigger, brighter and splashier and balanced the design with a paint-dunked brush on the opposite upper left. Another irregular outline of paint around the customer's name and the tie became one of the most attractive.

She also remembers the time she was painting a tie for a sugar company employee. Just as she finished painting a miniature sugar sack, another drop of paint seemed to come from nowhere.

"Luckily," she recalls, "the customer was a bookkeeper." After a few frustrated moments she decided to put an ink bottle, pen and ledger over the drop of paint. And "nobody was the wiser."

She still does not recommend the casual or accidental type of design, however. The damage to your heart is too high, a price for even such a striking "betty and helen original."

The new business enterprise started with an outlay of about $15, which included several plain color ties, some textile paints, stencil paper, blotters, glass top tacks and a supply of velour paper.

The partners pool their ideas and design sample ties on the velour paper to show to prospective customers. The paper may be purchased in sheets of 2 by 1½ feet for 20 cents per sheet. It comes in red, green, gray, blue and wine.

The women have found that for advertising, the brighter ties are most popular. The design usually determines the color of the tie used.

THE PATTERNS are planned for a variety of businesses. Sometimes the young women are personally acquainted with the manager or personnel of the store or office, but often they just take a chance.

"The men are usually delighted with the advertising idea," Mrs. Hunt says. "They are used to paying much greater sums for often less effective advertising. Besides with our offer, they get a very acceptable tie and, as the socialites say, a conversation piece! For how much less could you expect to win friends and influence customers?"

The ties are painted from the sample design from which orders are taken.

The usual type of stencil is not used. Mrs. Dillard sketches the entire design. Then Mrs. Hunt traces the pattern by placing a piece of stencil paper over the sketch. With a stencil knife she then carefully cuts around each part of the design with the exception of a tiny particle which will act as a hinge so that it can be bent back away from the body of the pattern for painting the first coat of the design.

A medium thin white coat of paint is applied to each figure of the design as it backing. This practice is followed, the women say, because otherwise the colors would not be true. For instance, yellow applied to a blue tie would appear green without the white first coat.

They warn, however, that paint should not be too thin as it will "bleed," especially on satin. Experimental mixing should be done until just the right consistency is obtained, neither too thick nor too thin.

THE DETAILING of the designs is done entirely free hand. Corrugated card board about 2 by 2 feet is used for a drawing board. To this, a blotter of the same dimensions is sewn or tacked. The tie or velour sample which is being designed is held at the top of the board by a clamp and along the sides by glass topped tacks. These tacks are unusually sharp and fine and do not leave impressions in the tie when they are removed.

Rayon crepe is the favored material for hand-painted ties. However, nylon is satisfactory. The ties can be safely cleaned with solvent.

Both Mrs. Dillard and Mrs. Hunt are mothers, the former having three children and the latter two, and both manage to do their own home work and also follow their profitable hobby.

BUSINESS PLANS for the future are not too well established as yet although the partners are sparkling with promotion ideas. One is to send out a card to a prospective customer with the slogan, "We heard you were fit to be tied." Then explain that a tie designed especially for him could be obtained by contacting either Mrs. Dillard or Mrs. Hunt. They also plan to solicit business in neighboring towns and to enlarge their mail order business if possible.

Mrs. Dillard cites an example which she believes shows that there seems to be no bounds to their marketing possibilities or places. It seems recently they frequently saw an interior decorator on the streets. Immediately they had a wonderful "idea" for him and made a completed tie without consulting him. When the product was ready for market, the customer seemed to disappear mysteriously from the streets. The girls carried the tie around with them for several days almost giving up ever locating their prospective customer. Then one day they saw him painting the interior framework of a large display window.