General Craft & DIY discussion

Do you sell your craft work? Do you really make what it is worth? What are some of the issues you face doing it?

Next Saturday, I'm going to go to my first craft sale in 5 or 6 years. Back then, when we lived in MD, I used to go to a few each year to sell my bowls & made pretty good money, but it's the part I hate the most. I'm not a salesman & hate standing around smiling for hours chatting with people.

Finding the right place to sell is tough. Each sale has a different character. My bowls are higher end, usually selling for between $20 & $150, averaging about $50. That's more than people are willing to pay at typical junk sales, so going to them is a waste of time. I guess I'm weird, but I'd rather give a $50 bowl away than sell it for $10.

I had my best luck at Ladew Gardens, Brandywine Museum, & the EH Hunt Club sales which all tended to attract a richer crowd. At Brandywine (Wyeth paintings) I had to be judged & approved as an artist, not a craftsman. (Pretentious? I sure can't define the line between the two.) The one year I did all 3 sales (4 days), I made enough money to buy my big bowl lathe, so it's worth suffering through a decent sale.

I've tried selling my bowls here in KY, but haven't had a lot of success. One store didn't move them very fast & it wasn't worth the trouble for either of us. They charged a 30% commission. Another store in Frankfort bought them outright & doubled the price to the public. They were a PITA, though. I quit dealing with them after a couple of incidents that just ticked me off. I haven't found any other places to try, but I haven't looked real hard, either.

KY has a big craft market, but most sales are done through the craft council & they require that I have a business license which I won't do. It's not the $75/year, but filing taxes quarterly that puts me off. That makes my hobby too much like work.

This sale is at the fire hall in Shelbyville & is run by the Ladies Auxiliary. I'm not sure if the crowd will support my bowls or not. It could. For $30 & 8 hours of time, it's worth a shot since I have a couple of dozen bowls kicking around now. I'll have to pull my table & display shelf out & clean them up today. Both are probably full of dust & dirt, so could use a good washing.

I worked as a professional artist for years when I lived in MT. That is a very good area for 'fine art', paintings, sculpture, drawings, pastels and I had work in a couple of galleries and did several art shows every year as well as dog/horse/livestock shows. Most of my income actually came from commissioned portraits and usually the contacts were made at these shows. Over the years I'd developed a pretty reliable small business with it, paid the booth expenses plus a big percentage of the dog and horse show expenses I had as well.

I've been to several of the 'art and craft' shows here in KY but it seems to be primarily crafts here. I did a walk-through of a couple of the big shows when I first moved here and at one show ... 200 booths or more, there was exactly one booth that had 'fine art' ... everything else was crafts of some kind, with a few photography booths.

Crafters may do well at the shows in this area but it is definitely not the venue for artists.

I don't know how anyone makes it as a professional artist. That would take all the fun out of it for me, but I know several. One makes metal sculptures, awesome stuff out of scraps. He made a big chicken, a giant walking rooster, that we got to see when my son got married.

I'm not sure this link will work for everyone, but it's one of the last pictures in this album of the wedding, so scroll left & you should see it quickly.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...

Bowls sell by size, more than anything. I can make a few bucks more if it's fancy wood, color, or form, but size is the biggest factor.

I made a natural edge one out of green Sugar Maple that was 1/16" thick, but only about 6" in diameter. I priced it at $60 & it was worth $100, IMO. It even had all the bark around the edge, some 1/2" tall & you could see light through it. To get a piece of wood that can handle that & get lucky enough to do it is an odd occurrence.

I had a bunch of others 10"-12", 1/4" thick with a finished edge or 8", 1/4" thick with a natural edge for the same price. The rest went steadily, but no one would buy the little one. The comments were rude & horrific, proving that no one had a clue about how bowls are made or how cool that little bowl really was. I'd about given up that anyone would buy it when someone finally did. He was in awe of it.

Bowls 20" & larger can go for $400. I've sold 2 for that amount. Actually, I got $200 & the store that bought them sold them for $400 to tourists.

Jim wrote: "Bowls 20" & larger can go for $400. I've sold 2 for that amount. Actually, I got $200 & the store that bought them sold them for $400 to tourists. "

I've seen some incredible woodwork here in KY ... some of the handmade musical instruments are amazing as well. But it is the crafts that do well here, not sculpture or the fine art so much.

Galleries are one of those necessary evils of an artist's life. You need them to get the exposure, but most of them charge between 30% and 50% of the selling price as their commission. Many of them require a contract saying that you will not sell your work out of your studio direct for less than their prices and the ones that don't require a contract will drop you if they find out you are selling privately at a lower price.

With 'wall art' you not only have the hours you put in on the painting, you have the cost of framing so it is ready to hang on the gallery wall so sometimes you're lucky to actually break even on a gallery sale.

My goal for this next year is to get one or two pieces professionally scanned and on-line at one of the print-on-demand art sales websites in lieu of a gallery. A lot of artists are going in that direction and I think prospective buyers are getting much more comfortable with on-line purchases. You still end up with just a percentage of the purchase price, but that is for prints, so you're never 'discounting' your originals and the artist doesn't have the huge up-front investment that used to be necessary to have prints published pre-digital print making.

Bowls definitely don't do well on the Internet. It's OK for people that know my work & I do sell a fair few that way every year, but not for those who are just browsing. I've spent some real time trying to photograph them & put them online. I have a light tent & fiddled a lot, but they just never show in a picture the way they do when you can hold them. The smooth finish, feeling the natural edge & even the smell can make a huge difference.

The last is kind of a joke. All the bowls are finished so there is no natural wood smell, but I found that wiping them with a wax finish makes them show better. I happened to use one that had an orange scent to it one time & it gets positively commented on all the time. Even though I tell them what it is, it makes no difference.

Jim wrote: "Bowls definitely don't do well on the Internet. It's OK for people that know my work & I do sell a fair few that way every year, but not for those who are just browsing. "

That is 'somewhat' true of my artwork as well. The very delicate and detailed pencil studies I do simply do not reproduce with as much eye appeal on line as they do in real life. Color images are more likely to sell, which I suspect is true of the wooden bowls you do, some pottery and some things like the handmade musical instruments I've seen locally. The exquisite 'touch' with these things have a lot to do with sales.

One reason I hate sales is what I spent a few hours this week doing - getting ready. I had to pull out the table & shelf. Washed both, then put another coat of paint on the shelf.

Tonight I had to find my table cloth & other sale stuff. Then came the chore of pricing the bowls. I got Erin to help me. Hopefully they're right for the market. Then I packed them all up for transport.

I need to print out another sign at work, too. I don't have a color printer at home any more. I'll get there an hour early, likely leave 30 minutes after it ends. That's a lot of extra time to figure in to costs.

It's about 6:30. Time to get ready to go to the show. Wish me luck!

Hope you have a good show and do well with sales.

It was a bust. Very light turn out, so no one did well, but I only had a handful of people stop to chat. I sold one bowl so made expenses, but it certainly didn't pay for my time. I did get lunch out of it, but left an hour early. I was the 2d to leave. Oh well.

That's too bad ... I've had a few of those shows myself and it is always disappointing.

Some days you're the dog, others the tree. Seemed a shame to waste a nice day, although next week is supposed to be gorgeous.

I talked to Mom this morning about the Club & St. James Xmas sales. They're big ones, both real money makers. Both were a bust this year, too. One artist we know only sold a few cards. She brings a van load of furniture & paintings. Didn't sell any of that, so a bad loss for her. That area has a lot of money, old money, too. She usually does very well.

A neighboring vendor yesterday said she's done 14 shows this season & none have done well. She made money at 5, broke even at 4, & lost money on the rest. I think she'll count yesterday as a break even day since the table fee was only $30 & she made that back, but not much more.

So, I guess some of the issue was the economy, but I don't think this was the venue for my bowls, either. I need to sell further in toward the city. I'll look into something like that for next year. The big problem there is a lot of that is under the Craft Council's thumb.

I've heard from several artists I'm still in contact with back in the WY/MT/CO area that are still doing the art shows and it has definitely slowed down over the last few years. But you do have to 'find' your venues that work for your particular craft ... here in KY everyone is looking for crafts, not paintings or sculpture.

I keep saying I'm going to get ambitious and get some racing/Thoroughbred pieces done and take them to some of the galleries in Lexington or Louisville a couple of months before the spring racing season starts but it probably isn't going to happen. I do think if I could find one gallery that had good exposure I might be able to use that to drive online website gallery sales.

The one place I may actually investigate is the gallery at the Horse Park in Lexington ... not racing specifically but a little of everything.

Sorry to hear it wasn't exorbinantly profitable Jim!

But just think, now you get to keep all your lovely creations for yourself!

I can't keep them all, Foxtower. No room! Erin told me she needs Xmas presents & is broke, so I'm donating to her cause. Maybe that will draw in some of the SCA crowd.

I haven't sold crafts, but I am beginning to think about doing so.

I need another job and crafting /art I know about.
I do plan to start slow.

Takes money to make money.

I seem to manage to spend far too much money on most hobbies, too. It's easy to do. Some times a cheap tool is just frustrating & there are a ton offered that aren't really needed, if you know how to do without them. I see that a lot in the woodworking tool catalogs. Some is a gimmick, but others are really nice to have - once in a blue moon. Some are easy enough to make.

I saw a sanding pad the other day for $60. It probably works fine & something is certainly needed when you're sanding with a powered hand sander or the work will get marred by the bench top. It's also nice to be able to set the tool down quickly after it's been turned off & not have it run off. I've been using an old bath mat, the kind that looks like a small, thick towel for years. It works perfectly.

I sell my crafts on etsy and locally. So far, it's been a varied success. Trying to get the word out more, but also trying to list more crafts. ._. etsy shop is www.etsy.com/shop/beadedhavenforever

Hey there everyone, I've got a craft to promote. ... I recently published an illustrated beginner's guide to knitting. It's chock-full of info on the history, the tools of the trade, the health benefits, and it presents you with illustrated step-by-step instructions so that you can easily master this intricate and ancient craft of knitting. Check it out and leave a review if you enjoyed it. Have a good one, everyone!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/order-h...

Christian, that link points to personal Amazon orders from 2011, not a book.

I used to sell jewelry at craft fairs and conventions, but wasn't making enough money considering the hassles of set-up, sales permits, booth fees, and the like. Now, I do the occasional bit of silversmithing on commission for people who I know, and some sales of cheaper jewelry online. It doesn't pay the bills, but it gives me a little bit of pocket change to throw around.

Here's the online shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/salvagedsword

Nice, Maria. Any time a hobby can pay back some of its costs, it's a plus.

uh, no for that.