Maydel for Professionals

I’ve been a professional crafter, and I know how difficult it is to make a living (or even a profit) from a handmade business. It’s even harder if you work in three dimensions and don’t have licensing or selling prints as an option. That’s why a large part of Maydel’s mission is to help craft professionals thrive, which we do through our Bundle programs (see below), teaching space, wholesale offerings, tambour trade discounts, and resources for professionals.

Maydel Bundles

We source and deliver all of the supplies people need for your class, event, or project with one click so you can focus on designing and teaching.

Perfect for:

• Remote classes or events, where each participant needs to receive the materials separately
• Artists whose physical, geographical, or financial limitations make it difficult to purchase and prepare project supplies
• Pattern designers who want to be able to offer kits
• Instructional craft content creators looking for an alternative to ads
• Craft authors (including self-published) who want to further support their books

What’s a Bundle? What makes it different from a kit?

A Bundle is a collection of all of the supplies someone needs to complete one of your projects. A few ways they’re different from kits:

• Fully customizable: Though the customer just clicks one button, the supplies are listed in the customer’s cart individually, which means they can change or delete anything they want, such as colors, fabric choice, size of hoop, etc. 
• Button/link can be anywhere: You can include a link to a Bundle wherever you offer instruction. Put it in a blog post, a YouTube video description, an Instagram link tree, an email, or right in a PDF pattern.
• Open to everyone*: It doesn’t matter if you have an audience of 5 or 500,000—the Bundle program is open to any artist making original work.

Benefits of Bundles

• Easy setup: Monetize projects without having to manage inventory, shipping, or customer service. Just fill a shopping cart with items from our catalog and click to create a link. 
• No minimums, no limits: Bundles are put together from our regular inventory, so it doesn’t matter how many you make or how many we sell.
• Non-exclusive: We don’t require exclusivity or new work. Receive passive income from the work you’ve already made, without interfering with the sales or marketing channels you already use.
• Get discovered by new customers: We regularly feature Bundlers via our email and social media channels. Maydel Partners (see below) are also prominently featured on our website.

How it works

1. Read the information on this page to get started.
2. Optional: create an affiliate account so you get to share the revenue from your bundle sales.
3. Use the Bundle Creator to generate links to your bundles.
4. Place the link(s) anywhere you provide instruction or interact with your audience. 
5. Share the news with your customers, students, followers, and friends.
6. When a customer checks out with one of your Bundles in their cart, receive a portion** of the net total purchase***, including items that are not part of your Bundle!

Maydel Partnerships

For professionals who want to sell their patterns, classes, or other instructional materials on Maydel.com, we also offer a curated partnership program.

What we look for:

• Experience teaching your craft successfully to others, whether 1-on-1, in small groups, or online via tutorials or videos
• A tendency to stretch yourself creatively, and/or push the boundaries of your medium
• A unique creative/visual point of view
• A demonstrated understanding of the history of your craft and the context of your designs
• Projects that can be completed by beginning and intermediate crafters
• A willingness to adjust instructional materials to make them more accessible to people with different abilities
• A willingness to market cooperatively with Maydel and our other Partners
• Attention to detail

What we offer:

• Revenue shares that are higher than the industry average (much higher for professionals who partner with us exclusively)**
• Fulfillment, customer service, inventory management, and all other operations involved in selling and delivering your products
• Further monetization of your existing projects, with no obligation to create anything new
• Prominent features on our website, email and social media channels
• Coaching and resources on everything from pricing to accessibility

Want to be considered for the Maydel Partnership program? Sign up for email notifications here.

Mutual Support Affiliate Program

Some folks don’t want to create Bundles but do want to support Maydel (and earn a little cash/store credit while doing it). If that’s you, consider becoming a Maydel Mutual Supporter. Just fill out the registration form here and once you’re approved, you’ll have access to your own affiliate portal where you can create links, download images, and keep track of your earnings. All Mutual Supporters earn a 5% commission on total net purchases*** made after someone visits Maydel.com with your unique referral link.

The Maydel Mutual Support Affiliate Program is open to:

• Individuals
• Publishers and Media
• Schools
• Non-profits
• Bloggers and Influencers
• Any other mensches who support our vision of cooperative thriving

The program is not open to bots, link farms, or any other entity/site that uses automated, spammy, fraudulent, or other shady methods to try to earn commission revenue.

*The program is open to anyone creating original work, as long as you’re willing to accept our rules, which include no copyright infringement or offensive content. We’re also not interested in working with anyone whose artwork or speech demonstrates hate, intolerance, or any form of dehumanization, including white supremacy, chauvinism, ableism, ageism, or excluding people based on their size, color, immigration status, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any other protected category.

**Exclusive Partners receive 90% of pattern/instruction sales, and 10% cash/20% store credit of supply sales

Non-exclusive partners receive 90% of pattern/instruction sales, and 5% cash/10% store credit of supply sales

Bundlers receive 5% cash or 10% store credit

***Net total purchase equals the total sale amount minus shipping, taxes, and coupons or discounts.

Teach at Maydel

Are you local to the Chicago area, or planning a visit? Would you like to teach at our Ravenswood space? Our studio is available to needlework and craft teachers leading groups of 12 or smaller. We especially love to work with teachers who have deep knowledge of their craft both in terms of technical skill and historical/cultural context.

Teachers are welcome to set their own hours and pricing for classes. Maydel charges a small fee to cover overhead and if needed, staffing. Teachers also earn a commission for any purchases made by students (including class kits), which often covers the cost of using the space. Please get in touch if you’d like to learn more.

Wholesale

Maydel offers a limited selection of products for wholesale purchase, including Pony needles. Please see this page for more information and to apply for a wholesale account.

Tambour trade discounts

Are you a tambour embroidery teacher, designer, couturier, costumer, restorer, or other needlework professional? Maydel offers trade discounts of 15% on orders of tambour embroidery products of $150 and above, including Langlois Martin sequins, Bob Haven x Maydel tambour handles and tambour hook needles. The discount program is also open to students enrolled in a relevant professional program such as fashion or costume design. Please contact us to open a trade account.