IRON WRIGHTING, BLACK SMITHING, with custom pieces costing
a grand each. Any university extension, adult high school has a sculpting
class where they send off your clay work off to the foundery to become
a brass sculpture. Then you smith the rest. If smithing is your
hobby and you live in a brownstone, don't tell your landlord! SMITHING
can be done in a rented home, in a dettached garage but only at 2 in the
morning when neighbors sleep as you need a fire source. Neighbors may sleep
through, ergo tolerate a SMELTER, (FIRE OVEN), charcoal and bellows but
they sure won't tolerate the hammering. 
If
you think that you could make thousand dollar weather vanes like these,
it would be worth it to rent a farm out of town. ALTERNATIVE: give designs
to a village smith down in the rural South, ship them to New England where
they'd sell by the dozen to folks in Connecticut and the Hamptons.
CEMENT POTS, I had a friend who had a business
doing cache pots ( Martha Stewart hefty type planted pots.) His pots had
a swirly Renaissance design and he called his biz "Stolen from the Vatican."
Hilarious guy, ran around with the super rich who were clients for his
stuff..DuPonts and such. If you have a small cement mixer, you could do
something along those lines. Wholesale them to landscapers or sell them
planted at the local FARMERS market. Give bigtime pricey decorators a dozen,
planted, for a special price, so they don't have to haul trucks, dirt,
plants and get their fingers dirty. $250 a pot, planted should do it. 
These are big pieces, with big price tags. 
You want to check out EVERY single page of designs (bathrooms, walls, cement tables, kitchen dividers, free standing bars, architectural details, ) at http://www.cementics.com/portlandcement.html
ODD DESIGN BRICKS, Landscapes would go crazy to
have some new choices.
New mixtures of cement, straw and dyes can create unusual bricks, useful
for cottages. Guest rooms. Charming Work sheds. Patios. Faux Rustique Pavers. 
CARPENTRY. Everybody needs certain items, like
bathroom shelves and kitchen cabinets. Where you stand out and deliver
is giving them something they can't get at IKEA. RUSTICITY is appreciated
these days. GOOD WOODS, sandblasted grains for shelves in the bath, maybe
the grain brought out, enhanced by being drystroked with country white
paint, what do they call that? Pickled! A great look. Armoires in this
finish are KILL. Ask your sandblaster which kinds of wood accept sand blasting
best. Investigate COB blasting. Shredded Corn cobs are used lately. Use
RICH REDDISH STAINS to bring out wood's beauty. 
SHABBY CHIC is in! Beat up, ANTIQUE
FURNITURE is found at thrifts, garage sales and no matter what color it
is, it is re-painted in a cottage white enamel. It is antiqued by removing
paint from corners. Called DISTRESSED Here is a detail of a distressed
vanity bench. 
THIS BUREAU has not been distressed so it's not truly SHABBY CHIC yet.
"GET OUT THE WHIPS AND CHAINS MABLE!"
AND OLD WROUGHT IRON pieces are incorporated in furniture. 
Such pieces are available at demolition warehouses.VERDIGRIS is the best
color though this ochre yellow works.
GOOGLE the words "SHABBY CHIC" Google will
give you an education on funk found. Art Trouveau. Find books
on this style of decor used at ABEBOOKS.com
Get the books of JOCASTA
INNES. at that used book website with ten thousand vendors. The
books are usually a buck each.
OLD MIRRORS - You find them at thrift
stores, garage sales. You can make a frame yourself. Repaint them with
the shabby chic tones. Pastels or white, and always DISTRESSED. Or use
primitive colors of enamel. Antique the finished item, maybe with Brown
oil paint mixed with old fashioned soapflakes. 
MOSAIC MIRRORS done with vibrant glass is another high cash drawing
artform. To imagine it, at its best, see the exquisite design and work
of a genius, Tamaris
Landsman 
Her website has many designs, many even prettier than this one!
http://www.tamarislandsman.com
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~~~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
PAPIER MACHE MASKS - Turn old newspapers, glue, varnish and paint into
100$ bills. Easy to do, see the MASK MAKER CLASS,
http://www.deepcreektimes.com/kids/june2002.html
Do PAPIER MACHE OVER BOXES. I observed Gemma
Tacogna
and Jeanne
Valentine, the two premiere gals in this
field, both in Mexico in the sixties. I saw their work secrets. Take a
lot of newspapers. Wet & squnch them up into a ball. Let wrinkled up
ball dry in sun. Pull the ball apart. The papers are wrinkled. Pull them
semi flat and now tear, don't cut, tear into 2 x 3 strips or squares. Take
glue, paste, flour water and stir until you have some thin paste, like
cream. Wet a strip or square of paper, stick down on box. Overlap strips
or squares. Wrap around edges, into interior of box. Let dry. Paint outside
and inside with flat white tempra or water paint. Let dry. Now paint design,
using flat tempras, school type paint. If you do a face, make it smooth
as silk with white paint, don't use wrinkley paper there. Regarding BOX:
You don't have to paint interior, or you can. You could put fabric in it,
glue it on, or paint inside. On outside, you can set phony jewels with
string gooped up with paste, glue string around each jewel to hold it.
Paint w. colors. Varnish with any good, clear varnish. Mix detergent soap
with a little umber brown paint. Brush on, especially in crevices. Let
dry a short while, then with soft cloth, rub off, leaving a little 'antiquing'
in the crevices. Made of acrylic paint in burnt sienna, soap flakes and
water.
WELL boys, have we whetted your whistle?