For a little over two years, I've been running Inklore, which sells hand-printed linen housewares and accessories. I recently began adding a new line of work to my shop: paper products (like the card above).

I began printing on paper out of a simple desire to work with a new material. When I was thrilled with the results, I decided to pursue it as another facet of my business.

It made me wonder why other artists develop new product lines, so I asked a few of my friends to share their stories. Here, three vendors explain how and why they ventured into new creative territory.

Annie Howes of Annie Howes Keepsakes, which sells DIY pendant kits:

I started with paper products as a graphic designer. Print was my primary form of production. I have a background in graphic design and a BA in Visual Communications Design and had been working in print for about 15 years.

I was making and selling jewelry online and in craft fairs using original print material and Chiyogami papers, but I received more inquiries on how I made my products look the way they did than I made sales.

It dawned on me that I had a lot of supplies sitting around my studio and if I could make it easy and affordable for people to learn how I made my pendants, while also supplying them with the top quality materials they would need, I would have a valuable and unique product to sell. This combined my skills as a graphic designer, a jewelry maker, and as a warm glass maker.

How did I get it to sell? I packaged it in an attractive container and it basically sold itself. The concept was fresh and unique, the product was attractive and unique, and the tutorials were highly effective at teaching the techniques that worked so well for me.

My entire business now consists of creating kits and offering quality supplies, such as handmade glass, that are somehow related to the basic kits I sell: Glass pendant kits, Scrabble pendant kits, and Resin Pendant Kits. With the skills I pass on to the customer in my tutorials, jewelry makers and crafters alike can explore the medium and make fun and unique jewelry items.

Allison Cecil is the owner of Monkeys Always Look, which sells vintage silverware garden markers, terrariums and more. Allison talks about how she got into making jewelry.

I knew that the popularity of the product I was selling (silverware garden markers) was going to die down and, coupled with the increased competition, I knew that the ability to maintain my sales goals and income was going to diminish. I knew that I needed to develop another product line.

How I got to the metal smithing was that I was cutting out some shapes from spoons and just loved the sawing and soldering and getting my hands dirty! Plus, I really love the stamping part of the garden marker side of the production.

So stamped and cutting things out of metal was a natural transition for me and my business. And that's how it happened and I'm so happy it did. I'm having a blast making the jewelry.

Lampwork bead maker Susan Sheehan talks about how she went from photography to working with glass:

My switch from photography to glass was based on an old cliché: creative block.  I couldn't seem to bring myself to take yet another flower photograph and make it look interesting enough to be a note card.

Frustration sent me off to a glass bead-making class to jumpstart my creativity.  I was immediately hooked. It took about two years to slowly move from one medium to the next in my business, but it was worth it. I find selling glass beads is easier.

My target market is me, which makes many decisions almost intuitive.

Readers, are you thinking about a new direction for your work, or a new product? Do you have any stories to share about venturing into new creative territory?

Samantha Hirst is the artist behind Inklore, a block-printed housewares and accessories company, based in San Jose, CA. Her work is all block printed and sewn by hand. In addition to managing the Inklore website, she also writes a journal that follows her work and the lifestyle blog, Good Measure.