As I reflect on the year just passed, the highlights will include the birth of my first grandchild, the Detroit Tigers making it almost all the way and a very healthy Christmas Season, creatively speaking.
I started out strong delivering felted hats, handbags, Fair Isle baby hats and felted booties to The Pear Tree in Dixboro, MI and also to Agora on Waldo's Hill in Antwerp, OH. I had been to the Pear Tree before and know the shopkeeper/owner quite well, no concerns there. Agora on the other hand was a new venue for me and I didn't know quite what to expect when they contacted me about selling my creations there. I was flattered of course and looked at their website, which was lovely, and so went to work knitting and delivering two adult hats and coordinating handbags and four sets of baby hats and booties.
When we arrived in the town of Antwerp, we were a little under-whelmed as it appeared to be, like many small towns in America, rather ghostly in appearance without much going on. There was a Subway Restaurant, where we had lunch, and a rather interesting general store/bulk food market but not much else. The coffee house (Agora on Waldo's Hill) was the only bright spot in an otherwise depressed community. It's in a restored Victorian House with coffee shop and pastries downstairs and two rooms for rent upstairs. Very charming and the owner was delightful and welcoming.
I commenced to show her what I'd brought, saying that she needn't keep all of it, just what she thought she could sell there...she has a small room designated as a gift shop. She said she'd like to keep all of it on consignment and I agreed, reluctantly.
On the way back home I realized I had just left an enormous body of work in the middle of nowhere and I couldn't help but question my decision to do so...my husband was also pretty dubious about the whole thing.
In the meantime, the East End Studio and Gallery in Marshall, MI where I've sold my work for the last two years, successfully, was clamoring for more and I had to scramble around to come up with something for them.
So, I guess the lesson learned last year was stick with the tried and true and don't be too flattered or greedy and sign up to do more than you can accomplish in a busy selling season. I still haven't received a check from Agora or The Pear Tree but it's still early January and I'm hopeful that the money will start pouring in any day now...
Comments
Thanks, Susan...I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I have many of the same concerns you do, as far as theft and fees, etc. In the town I moved from, my work was in the cafe / gift shop where I worked, so I could kind of keep an eye on it...even so, several of my baby hats were stolen and it was on me as they were consignment pieces. Have you tried selling your handspun yarn in a yarn shop? Okay, thanks again, will let you know what happens.
Knitting is a difficult field to work in. People still do not take it seriously.
I have had to pull items of mine from one gallery due to theft and an increase in the percentage the gallery took. I made out better in a coop - unfortunately now closed - because it was run by the artists themselves, so they had more interest and understanding than the average "shopkeeper."
It is almost impossible for me to place my handspun yarn anywhere on consignment because of the threat of theft. I do have a gallery that is run by a spinner/ weaver interested in my yarn, but I have not tried it out yet.
I hope your new location works out well for you.
Thank you so much for all these great responses and the dialogue that we created. I've just moved to a new, more exciting area ( artistically speaking ), and I'm anxious, with some trepidation, to get out there and start shopping my work around. So far, I've been too busy working on the house, etc. to spend much time searching for prospective venues but plan to get going on that soon. I think I'll be better equipped to negotiate now after all your help and advice...thanks again.
Thanks, Jacki...yes, either that or start a knitting "sweatshop"...ha! Maybe I could recruit some of the Knitwits!!!
This is very interesting. Christina, I think I would stick to your tried and true places that you know do well. Then, you don't have to worry.
Thanks, everyone...I'm thrilled with the response my blog has received, not to mention all the good advice and moral support. I did send an email to the coffee house in Ohio to determine what sold over the Holidays and inquire about if and when I might expect a check. She wrote right back and said that only one pair of booties had sold and she'd send a check but wanted to hold on to everything for a couple more months to see if they'd sell. I thanked her but asked if she would just mail everything back to me as in my experience, if it doesn't sell at Christmas, it won't sell afterwards. Plus, I could use those things in other shops where I have a proven track record. She agreed and said she'd get right on it, so I'm happy about that.
One of the locations where I do sell my stuff is the coffee and gift shop where I work. They do quite well there but it's frustrating that the owner (my boss) won't buy wholesale. She'll buy wholesale from other local artists but not me. I've even brought in a wholesale price list for her but still no deal. It's really irritating because I've had several baby hats disappear and too bad, I'm just out of luck...she doesn't offer to reimburse me for them. She takes a 25% cut and always pays me right away, which is nice. I have my knitted things arranged where I can see them from my post at the register now, so that helps me to keep an eye on them but I still worry that something else be lifted when we're distracted.
Recently, I had to re-felt a hat to make it smaller for a potential customer in the Ann Arbor area. This involved shipping it back and forth and removing and re-attaching an embellishment. I was worried that after all this, she wouldn't buy it but she did. The shop owner said she was tempted to add the shipping charges to the price of the hat but didn't have the heart...thanks again for a great discussion!
Christina, If you have that queasy gut feeling, then I would request from the shop owner to ship back your goods as ones intuition is always right!!!!2-d work is so different. I always thought and still do, who was the Idiot that started the whole thing about consigning ones work to a gallery and then they want fresh work when they did not sell the work you brought to them. I had been very fortunate up till last year when I came to find out a very elite gallery that I was in for years in Naples Fla., that boasted selling $85,000 sculptures closed without informing me. The short of it was that, the person who is now leasing the space wanted to return my work. I always paid ship down and they paid ship back if a few did not sell. But this jerk who owned the gallery prior would only pay for 1/2 shipping costs back and when I got my art back all 12 frames were damaged as well as water damage marks on the dust cover.
They loved me when I was selling like hotcakes for them but abused me and my art when they decided to close and not contact me. Michael Windfeldt has no integrity and would advise anyone to steer clear of him.
I have pulled out of all Galleries except for one who are local to me as I can check up on my art. These people are artists themselves, I trust them implicitly and have been with them for 15 years. They have become friends. If they sell a painting they send a check, none of this 30 days later stuff. I have been approached by many other galleries but have decided not to allow myself to be abused. Just because a gallery has a splashy website means nothing.Yeas I am flattered but flattery does not sell my art. Always, Always ,speak to other artists in that gallery before you commit your hard labor and product to anyone.
Further more, out of state galleries are too hard to keep on top of as they can be gone in a flash.
Just beware my friends as my heart would ache for anyone who's work has been stolen or abused by a shop or gallery.
Just stay vigilant!!! that's all I am saying.
Actually, I do my own high end framing for my work for both the studio and gallery sales. What I meant was that I really don't want to sell my unframed work wholesale to an outfit that's going to use Hobby Lobby type framing on it. I don't really have the time or frankly the inclination to go to a conference like that, but thanks for the thought-provoking comment nevertheless.
cc if you go let me know. we can meet up for lunch
cc if you want to see what the "high end framers" are looking at and what you have to compete against I suggest you go to west coast framing conference in las vegas the 19th of this month. It would be a real eye opener as to what you have to do to get their attention. I Have gone for the last few years and find it worth my time to see trends in art (commercial, decorative, and corporate). go to web site west coast art and frame conference. I take classes in printing and framing to help me sell my art.
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