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"If you can make the canyon look that natural," said one friend, "you should be able to paint anything."

Painting anything is just about what Gloria Carlson has been doing ever since. But she paints on wood, now—not paper. And she sells every piece she paints.

As she cleaned the brush she'd been using to paint acorns on a little wooden nut dish, Mrs. Carlson went on to say that she believes every housewife needs some diversion from the everyday humdrum of living. "There's great satisfaction and relaxation in working with a paint brush," she said. "As you work with paints, your ideas of what to do with them grow, and you are absorbed. When you look at your finished design, you have such a refreshing sense of accomplishment that you take up your routine work with new vigor. Try it!"

HOW DID Mrs. Carlson turn to decorating woodenware pieces?" She'll tell you that she always liked and admired the grain in wood. "After doing that print of the canyon so successfully, I thought it might be fun to try a similar picture on a piece of wood," she says. "But my practical nature made me want to paint on something that could be useful as well as decorative! I remembered seeing some hardwood finished plates advertised in a store catalogue, and ordered one of these. I had a friend whose birthday was coming soon and thought a nice present would be to paint a favorite canyon scene of hers on the plate. It took me two afternoons to paint that plate, but when the job was done I was very pleased with the results. My friend was delighted!"

Fired with enthusiasm, Mrs. Carlson bought more plates and proceeded to decorate them. Then she tried some salad bowls, salt shakers, jewelry and cigarette boxes. She gave the finished products away to friends for anniversary and birthday presents. Word about Gloria Carlson's painting spread and pretty soon people from town began asking if they could buy some of Mrs. Carlson's woodenware. Consequently, painting isn't a hobby with this housewife anymore. A little business has emerged which has padded the family income. Mrs. Carlson's decorated woodenware now sells in three shops along U.S. highway 40; it is bought mostly by tourists who carry the items away with them to all parts of the country as a memento of their visit to Colorado.

Want to know how to market your artistic talents? Need advice on where to start? If you've been asking yourself these questions, then Mrs. Carlson's recent experience may have some answers for you. The important thing, she says, is to get your work into shops. You can't make very much money just selling to friends and relatives. True, when you sell direct to shops you don't make as big a profit on each item as when you sell to an individual customer. You'll find that most shops add twenty to fifty per cent to your price tag, so you have to allow for this when you quote your price to a shopkeeper. The home craftsman may consider this mark-up out of all proportion to the time and energy expended on turning out the item—but a shopkeeper has to pay rent, salaries, other expenses, so he needs this mark-up. The shops Mrs. Carlson sells through add twenty per cent to her price tag.

MRS. CARLSON is quick to say that the most receptive market for a handmade product is a small shop which specializes in custom-made merchandise. While it helps to have an "in" with a shop, you can sell on your own. Mrs. Carlson says she never has had any trouble getting her items accepted. "The first placing I did was with a complete stranger—the Hamilton Gift Shop in Craig which is about fifty miles from where we live," she says, "They've been taking my things for almost two years."

Mrs. Carlson suggests that a beginner in the selling field list the gift shops and specialty shops in town, and tells you to visit each one. "Be sure to take some samples along with you," she advises. "Point out the special appeal of your product—the quality that you feel will make it sell readily to the type customer the shop attracts. Stress the fact that what you have for sale is distinctive! Everybody in business is interested in an individual idea, so you are doing a shopkeeper a favor by bringing an attractive item to his attention."

Mrs. Carlson uses good judgment in selecting places of business to approach. For example, her items are created with a gift market in mind, and because so many of them feature regional designs she looks for a tourist trade. "A shop along a heavily travelled highway is a good outlet for this type of item," says Mrs. Carlson. "At first you may be asked to leave your things on consignment (which means you get paid when the item sells); but this is the quickest way to learn what people want, and like, and buy."

One shopkeeper told Mrs. Carlson he would be glad to take her things, but the shop just didn't have any available equipment on which to display them. Undaunted, Gloria Carlson was quick to say she would supply a showcase. This meant going out in search of a secondhand case (because Mrs. Carlson could not see her way clear to buying a new one.) But she found a suitable case, scrubbed it and refinished it; and when the case was set up in the shop she personally arranged the display so as to show her items to best advantage. Providing a showcase with her items proved so successful in this particular shop, Mrs. Carlson now does the same thing in another shop.

MRS. CARLSON'S studio is a lap board with a piece of wax paper pinned on it for a palette. She works on a part time basis. With a husband and two children to care for, Mrs. Carlson feels for the present she cannot give more than two or three hours a day to her "business." "There are some days when I don't get to do a bit of painting," she says. "When certain things come up on a ranch everything else has to wait. Perhaps it's mending a fence that some tourist has driven through by mistake, etc.—but generally speaking I do try to do some painting every day. If you are in business you have to deliver your orders on time and the only way to do this is to adhere to a working schedule."

There is nothing highbrow about Gloria Carlson's woodenware. Her items are specifically intended for the average home. Because her pieces are not run off a factory-production line in quantity but are painted individually, small variations in the items are almost always apparent and add to their charm. Among typical and interesting pieces she features are salad bowls, usually decorated with vegetables; apple bowls, with apples or fruit; nut bowls with acorns, pine cones, oak leaves or balsam. Plates have every kind of design, from American beauty roses to horses or stock brands. A modernistic giraffe or an old fashioned corsage of forget-me-nots or a mountain sunset often appear on a match box cover. Mrs. Carlson's woodenware pieces range in price from $1.25 to $4.50, depending on size and time spent decorating the pieces.

INTERESTED? Well, here's how you can get started on a project similar to Mrs. Carlson's.

All you really need to begin this craft work is a few tubes of artist's oil paint in the basic colors. Mrs. Carlson started off by buying burnt umber, ivory, black, flake white, crimson lake red, chrome yellow, Van Dyke brown, and permanent blue. These tubes of paint cost about fifteen cents each. You need a couple of brushes, a jar of shellac, and a little turpentine. And, of course, the piece of woodenware you intend to decorate.

Now that Mrs. Carlson paints on a big scale, she keeps several sizes of brushes on hand. But she stresses that a beginner can manage very well with a couple of camel's hair brushes, size 0 and 1. A sable brush which tapers to a fine point comes in handy for outlining and small details. You can buy these brushes for twenty-five cents and up, but it doesn't pay to economize too much on brushes. For applying shellac, Mrs. Carlson uses a flat brush about 1½-inches wide. "Buy the best possible brush for shellac, or the hair mark will show," warns Mrs. Carlson. "This brush may be cleaned with soap and water; but use turpentine for cleaning the camel's hair brushes."

You don't have to be a skilled artist to begin painting woodenware. "I never had any art instruction—other than regular grade school class work," says Mrs. Carlson. "If you don't do free hand drawing, you can copy your designs from magazines, from wallpaper, from almost any picture. You can even use stencils, if you wish. I never do, though. I prefer free hand drawing."

Most of Mrs. Carlson's designs spring from her imagination. Occasionally, she picks up ideas from a Western highway magazine—copies of which always feature excellent color pictures. Another way of getting likely subjects or views for woodenware items is to load your camera with a color film and go for a walk through the countryside. A color snapshot is a great help when it comes to painting scenes. Study the picture for details of form and color and you'll make your painting really lifelike!

There is one point to keep in mind when painting woodenware, Mrs. Carlson cautions. Your paint must be thinned to the proper consistency—about like coffee cream. "But," explains Mrs. Carlson, "when painting pine needles, for instance, I don't thin the paint that much or the needles would run together."

There are many instruction books available which are designed to help the amateur artist become more adept and give the beginner added interest and more fun while painting. The Campana Art Company of Chicago puts out many inexpensive books on learning to paint with oils. Most hobby and craft shops carry these books. Another good book, recently published, is "Paint It Yourself," by Howard Ketchum, which tells you how to use color and decorating designs. Mrs. Carlson, herself, has never used instruction books, "I let my personal experience guide me in my painting," she says. "I feel experience is the best teacher."

IF YOU prefer to start your project from scratch, you must buy your woodenware in the "rough"—that is, woodenware that has not been finished with a heavy coat of wax. You can purchase such items in craft and hobby shops and the household departments of large stores and from mail order concerns.

"When you buy commercially waxed items," explains Mrs. Carlson, "added work is entailed. It is necessary to remove the wax before starting to paint. I do this by giving the item a good scrubbing with kerosene, using a round brush with about one-inch stubby bristle. Then I wash the item in warm soap suds. The piece has to dry thoroughly before being sanded and shellacked. Of course, if you can pick up some of these commercially finished pieces at a sale, you can afford to take the time to prepare them for painting."

Woodenware items come in birch, basswood, and maple. Prices vary depending on grain in wood, size, etc. Bowls, suitable for salad, fruit, nuts, are apt to range in price from sixty-five cents to $1.75, in the "rough."

MRS. CARLSON suggests that you select a small object for your first project. An individual salad bowl is a good piece for a beginner. Your bowl has to be sanded before you begin work on it. This helps to accent the grain and smooth the surface. You may use a No. 00 sandpaper to do this. Next, wipe the bowl clean of all grains from the sanding, and then apply a coat of shellac or varnish. To assure a smooth finish, dip your brush completely into the shellac or varnish and remove excess fluid by pressing the brush against the side of the container. Then, work from the center of your item outward, applying the shellac in quick, light strokes and covering the entire surface.

"This initial coat takes three days to dry thoroughly," warns Mrs. Carlson, "and it should be that dry in order to get the best results. My next step is to block out a design free hand, usually in the color that will be the most prominent in the design. From there on things just run their course. Sometimes I use enamel paint (which dries faster than oil and gives a glossier finish) and when I do, I wait two days for the enamel to dry before applying the final coat of clear varnish or white shellac. But when I use oil paint for the design, which I do when there is a great deal of shading and blending of colors, it takes longer for the design to dry—at least three days. Then a final coat of shellac is put on. The last step is to use a good grade of paste wax and rub until the item has a soft glistening finish."

"All my hand-painted woodenware is washable with warm water and a mild soap," Mrs. Carlson tells her customers.

But how will I decide what design to paint on a bowl? the beginner rightly inquires. Mrs. Carlson's answer to that question is: look around you and choose a subject that interests you. "It's hard to say just how any design is born," continues Mrs. Carlson. "Ideas come out of almost any daily experience—in the things you see outside your window, in a printed neck scarf, a magazine picture." Beginners usually worry too much about selecting the "right" colors for designs. This experienced artist feels you just naturally use proper color schemes if you pick colors from your surroundings.

Colors typical of modern furnishings may be used in modern pieces. For colonial effects, use the colors commonly associated with colonial times. For children's items, feature bright colors such as you see in toys.

ONE OF the most difficult things for the home craftsman to comprehend is the question of the price tag on an article. There is no point in spending a lot of time and energy and then selling an item at a loss because you don't know how much your cost has actually been. Gloria Carlson suggests you keep strict account of the time spent in painting your item and the cost of your materials. "And don't forget to allow something for wrapping paper, too," adds Mrs. Carlson. "Actually, you have to be the judge of what your spare time is worth to you. If you set it too high you won't sell much, if too low you are cheating yourself. The average hobbyist feels that seventy-five cents to $1 an hour is what you ought to count on for your time when you are new at a craft. When pricing my items, I always ask myself: would I pay this much for an item like this? My answer helps determine my price tag."

As soon as you have a few active accounts, it's time to look for materials wholesale so that you can cut down on your costs. You'll find jobbers listed in the classified section of your telephone book from whom you can buy limited quantities of the materials you need. You save a good bit under the retail price when you buy from these men.

"Be sure to keep a record of all your sales," advises Mrs. Carlson. "You may not be concerned with tax problems in the beginning; but it is well to know when you are making a profit, and you should know what your customers buy and how much. No need to keep an elaborate set of books—just get a small order book at your dime store; date every order, write down the name of your customer, where the order is to be sent, what the item is, the price of it, and any special instructions from the customer. Don't trust to memory!"