By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter

The QatArt Handmade Community continues to encourage its members to keep developing their art skills which will serve as a key to grow their business, founder Dominika Bozic told Gulf Times.
Speaking at the bi-monthly Handmade Market in Katara yesterday, she stressed that acquiring the needed knowledge and expertise provides lots of opportunities for QatArt members to become successful entrepreneurs.
“So far everyone in the community is saying that this activity is very valuable for them to grow small business and to bond with other artists,” she said.
At Katara, around 30 of QatArt’s 68 Qatar-based members showcase their handmade and homemade products to visitors and regular customers.
Bozic noted that her members produce their products and make the designs in Qatar. Materials are bought locally but sometimes, others order items from abroad or get it from home during their vacation.
To help its members harness their skills, QatArt organises monthly marketing workshops. Next month, it will hold a workshop on the ‘art of pricing’ to teach artists how to price their work.
“We are all artists and we make something but we don’t know how much we can charge,” said Bozic. QatArt will have one more Handmade Market this month before it closes shop for the summer months. The group is expected to take a break starting April but will continue holding different workshops in studios at Katara.  
Besides organising workshops, QatArt also helps promote each member on its social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It created Whatsapp and Facebook groups to communicate more often with its members and address some of their needs.
“It is networking and there can also be collaborative work between members and it is really a friendly environment,” added Bozic. “We also share information about certain events such as bazaars and how to participate in these events.”
She reiterated the importance of having constant communication in the group since they come from more than 30 countries.
The group is planning to have its own website which will serve as another platform in promoting the members and their products. “Maybe to have like a gallery with the work of each member or maybe in the future, an online shop,” Bozic said.
She also urged residents to join their workshops and try “crafting on their hands.”
On how she sees QatArt in the coming years, she said that she hopes the group will be recognised as “really a valuable thing in Qatar.” One of its members told Gulf Times that she finds the Handmade Market interesting, an activity where she learned how to deal with different people.
Nayera, who manages Yaya’s Treats, sells homemade desserts with different varieties such as brownies, cream cheese, Nutela cheese cake, and banana toffee, among others.
“This is something that I love to do and I think there is positive feedback from many people that they like what we have and what we are selling,” she said, while expressing optimism that QatArt and the Handmade Market will become bigger in the
future.