It is almost six month into the 2017 calendar and this had been my experience so far.
I choose at the start of the year cut my post on a different forum on Facebook and other outlets. I came to that conclusion that I recognize that art fair industry it is a spiral and should work in craft and sales techniques. I hope that last another 20 years but I do not know. My friends that been doing show longer than me are seeking for a safe way out.
I was doing postmates for the past years to supplement my income as I wait for art installation to pick up because I understand how art show business can be cruel. I had been bless that my art installation service has taken off and I had been doing at 10 hours a week of art installation and doing less postmates. That is not a lot money but when your expenses are almost none and no show schedule for the week it is welcome income. I even went as far as telling an artist friend I will prefer doing 20 hours of installation than shows. He told me you should see it this way that will allow you to do the shows that you really want to do and skip shows that you feel on the fence.
What I want to you to understand is that we all have bills to paid every month and having other source of income other than the art fairs is very important because we are in different era. If you look at people that come to shows you will notice the lack of younger people. The younger people are purchasing edgy work and more SCFI or animation type of work. I will guess is because they want escape our reality and not remember a bad experience when they go home. Happier and more relaxing work appeals more people than well intellectual work (at least at the art fair) in my opinion. I personally see some younger people purchasing my work to my surprise which is very traditional. With that observation, my sales are ahead from last year or simple terms I doing better than last year.
Why should I care you may ask?
Two years ago I was doing whatever I can to stay at float and feel up beat. A set of artists make me feel like it was my fault that was falling behind. I find myself treat as an outsider and looser. Talking to veteran art fair friends had change my approach to every single show. Best advice do everything in my power to come prepare to sold out. Focus in correcting mistakes that you had done in the past. Keep yourself near to my booth and engage every person comes into my booth with out doing hard sales. Have a clean presentation. The most important thing, you need know that you did everything in my power to have a good show and if did not happen is not your market not your work or your crowd did not show this time if you had done well before at the event. You may feel sad but is not because a bad show is because your way home you wonder how to cover the bills. You should understand that is a problem that all artist have in common at least once a year. Those people that will make feel that is only you and only with that problem they are just b.s. you. The reality is that you do not want a set bad shows in row during starch of three months because that is the road to the poor street house.
With that said, the other thing that keeps coming up: our gross sales comparison and we do not talk about our net sales. We envy the artist making big bucks but I believe we should worry about how much net I make at the show, my personal bills and my cogs can a lot less than other artist sales. You do not know the bills, struggles and needs that person had. That is why I always answer it was good or bad for me.
At the end it a risk we engage and we should do everything we can to have good show and move on. Be happy that others are doing well because that is the hope that you seek. Enjoy the ride because we have a great life even we may not have a lot. Please have another source income or ways to move your work or use your art skills to create income other than shows. Do not forget to have a savings account.
Comments
Thank you, Connie. I know my work differs a lot from what many of the members here offer ... at least those who participate regularly. I struggle at times that my work is good enough at all, good enough to be HERE, and so on since I seem to be the only one doing more of a craft than art. Sometimes I wonder if there are any others here at AFI that do work that is more like mine (craft end of the art spectrum) and less like fine art.
Diversifying our offerings keeps many a small business going. Always being on the lookout for new ideas helps a lot. I turn over all the stones in my path, talk to people who have divergent ideas, attend seminars, subscribe to email newsletters, read and follow podcasts with business ideas. Just like when we advise new artists to go out of their way to attend art fairs to see the diversity of this business, this is "free" learning ... so glad you are here, Cindy, sharing your ideas and showing how one small business does it. I'm very familiar with that bad feeling in the stomach.
Etsy continues to evolve, and it does seem to be a kind of wild place ...
I agree with Connie that we don't talk about this often. No matter what a person does for a living, it's important to have multiple income streams.
I have done craft shows and have had an Etsy shop. In recent weeks I have begun to have that infamous "pit in the bottom of my stomach" when I think about the future of Etsy, in particular my future with them. It is just a sense of impending doom. I know that sounds melodramatic. I am not trying to be melodramatic. It just seems more and more I am reading first hand reports of being shut down with no explanation or at least only a vague reference to some infraction. Some refer to selling on the Etsy platform as renting online space and I suppose it's a lot like a brick and mortar renting retail space. Sellers are at the mercy of Etsy and other platforms like it.
So I am now working on a standalone site. This will give me freedom to sell in my shop what is prohibited on Etsy. For example, in my shop I have coaster holders for sale. According to Etsy's TOS, they must be altered in some way. I have the listed in an altered format but would love to be able to sell them as is ... in the color they arrive in, which is usually black and they can go quite well in homes they way they arrive to me.
I'd also like to be able to sell other accessories to what my main product is. Things such as candles to go with the candle holders, cloths to dust the chalk painted pieces, etc. I am prohibited from selling these on Etsy unless I make or alter them.
So the standalone is another source of revenue, separate from Etsy and I envision offering only a limited selection on Etsy. Just enough to keep open the wholesale side I have been approved for.
Craft shows are still out there and I am doing a few a year. I have tried to become more selective. Rather than doing 4-6 one day shows, I am looking for 2 or 3 day shows and do fewer shows. Also trying to plug into indoor shows more so the weather is less of a factor. I would love to find a local market where I can rent a booth to sell my stuff. I am looking for the kind that well kept and not flea market type places.
I am also posting on my new website about how I offer services to paint décor and furniture for others. Sometimes people have what I call "littles" which is decorative items (vases, lamps, bowls, candle holders, etc.) that have good lines but the colors are outdated. They may have furniture that is in the same sort of dysfunction .... it is in good repair but the colors are outdated. All they need a new/fresh look from some decorative/chalk paint and wax. I am willing to do this for others who are either not physically able to do it or have the discretionary $$ to pay someone else to do the "dirty work."
Anyway, I agree it's a great idea to keep eyes open for a new income stream.
Well, what is Postmates delivering and what do you do?
The art installations is a great idea! You've got the eye and the skills especially after your years working at the framers. You could add referrals to framers and advice on how to frame to your services. Or are you already doing that?
Postmates is a delivery service by an app. The installations are via word of mouth. I basically get calls from random people via referral, interiors designers, galleries and my old job. I basically hang artwork for people at business and residential. It had better year after year.
Always enjoy your posts in your broken English. This is not a dig. I figured out how you express yourself. Let us call it "Oscar-ease"
It is a tremendous balancing act--doing art and trying to make a go at it.
I emphasize with where you are coming from.
For me, it is a whole different thing.
I decided early on, when I was 30, that this was how I was going to make a living and pay all my bills. I have done it for 42 years, I am truly blessed.
The best thing I can tell any photographer who wants to make a living in our biz is that you have to have a passion for the "image". When you produce a great one it will make you serious moola. In my limited time I have produced more than 25 great images, and they have helped me sustain a lifestyle that I early envisioned.
To put it in perspective, when I was in the Army in Hawaii in the early seventies I saw people set up up under banyan trees selling homemade candles.
I asked myself, would it not be cool if I could sell my photos the same way. Set up for a day and then take the money and run.
I figured it out, I am living my dream
Lots of good tips and insight as usual, Oscar. Always glad to see your posts as they bring up a lot of ideas that we don't speak of to each other. I well remember being in the van, heading south for the Florida shows with a terrible feeling in my stomach, worried about bills.
I remember regularly being sick and vomiting the day before the Ann Arbor Art Fair (which was always our best) in anticipation of the show. We depended on it a lot. But OMG, we made it for a long time.
Multiple streams of income is really important. Not having debt is important. Working smarter, not harder is really important. Two years ago I did a podcast with Carroll Swayze on this topic and it covers many of the ways she has kept the bills paid and the artist lifestyle alive for many years. Click here if you're interested in hearing one artist's tactics.
Oh, and by the way, I started these websites in 2003 as a way to network more, bring people to art fairs and help artists learn from each other, and create another stream of income for us. There are many, many ways.
And because you are one always learning and always trying to improve and reach out to people I have a copy of McKenna Hallett's workbook, "The E's of Selling" that includes flashcards to help you make the sale, that I'll be sending you soon.
What are "postdates?" and can you tell me more about your art installation business?