Good morning, I have a later start today so not rushing off to work until 9 gives me chance to catch up. Brenda thanks for the contact details I have popped off an e-mail for the forms, the gallery is only 8 miles from me and they have some activities there I might be able to go to so thatās good eautiful landscapes too, especially love the cool wintery one, so serene
Fab little abstracts Stephie, love the colours in the top one especially, I wish we all lived closer too would be fab to have a get together
Very pretty landscape Jeanie, love the delicate pinks
Lovely roses Kelly
Fab Stargazers Hazel, I love to look at lillies but donāt like the smell or hayfever that comes with them
Just watching the news and the Picasso painting selling for over 100million - ooh if only!
Wouldnāt that be fun we would not stop chatting. But I feel sadly we are very far afield for a getogether ā¦ Great that some of us have met other folksiers thou - I met Gerda (Gerda Bags) at a fair last month. She saw I was going to be a fair near where she is so came along especially. I have also met several people from FB who recognised me at fairs.
Waving āGood Morningā everyone.
Your birds are amazing Max
I have a couple of new pictures to list today so Iāll be back in a while.
Morning allā¦glad you have sent off for details Max, always handy for the future, even if you donāt have time this time around.
Love the birdsā¦
My first listing today.
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I have just listed these miniatures in my shop ā¦
The ship is a bit different for me, but I like a challenge and when I painted one of these the other week in sold in miniature so i thought Iād try again
Morning Margaret and Hazelā¦lovely miniatures Hazel.
I am trying to be good and read through Jeanās book before trying out any of the ideasā¦(I doubt if I will last long thoughā¦ha ha)
Brenda, the reason Iām hesitant about Jeanās book is that I fear she may have gone a bit too ādrippyā and abstract for my taste. Iām waiting for some reviews to appear on Amazon. I notice itās not possible to look through the book as is often possible.
Sorry to hear the Plus account, and Folksy, arenāt working for you @HazelRayfield. The changes weāve made have been to try to improve how the site works and make it better for sellers and buyers, so itās obviously not good to hear they havenāt worked for you. Which ones do you think have had a negative impact on your sales?
Also, as you sold really well here last year, would you be able to pinpoint when the sales started to decrease? I wonder if it could be linked to the Facebook changes too, as many people have seen a drop in their reachā¦ although that would affect all your sales rather than just your Folksy ones.
Thanks Tessa that is a really useful post. I have some batik wax that I bought last summer at the yarndale festival but still need to find time to use it. I was asked to do a silk painting as a commission recently but turned it down - I donāt have the confidence with silk to do commissions yet, need to practice a LOT more!
I am sorry to sound like Iām moaning but its more frustration really, as I said earlier, Iām not a quitter and I do believe there is an ebb and flow when selling anything - I have never done very well in the run up to Christmas for example and yet January can be great for me.
As you ask, I have just looked at my sales sheet - used to be in accounting so its in me to keep records and crunch numbers ā¦ so of my total āonlineā sales for 2014 35% of my sales came from my Folksy outlet, this year so far it is 10% and actually looking at the numbers it started to fall from the summer last year so was really only 10% since then. There has been times when it was 80%. My actual sales are up on last year for the current quarter by 40% so Iām happy Art In Wax is popular and regarding Facebook there is where a lot of my sales come from, and direct from my own website, so I donāt think facebook changes have affected me badly at all.
I am very proactive in my marketing, I am a web developer when not being an artist !!! I twitter, Facebook, I have an app to folksy there too, my own website has lots of links to my Folksy shop, I blog about all my outlets equally, I stumble (I notice this link is not longer on folksy), I pin ā¦
I think one factor in my increased sales generally is that I sell a lot more of my miniatures now, Dolls House Art In Wax has become a bigger part of my sales, with people having travelled to fairs I am at, to meet me and see Art In Wax in person having seen them online. I havenāt included my fair or offline sales in the figures naturally. And I AM still selling large pictures too Folksy obviously has a miniature art following - you only have to read here, how Brenda, Max and Stephie are doing well
I donāt know if any of the changes you have made have affected my sales Camilla. I did use to sell via the forum in the early days, that seems to have changed, I could put up a picture and it could be sold in minutes, that still happens on FB and in other groups I am in but not here. So werther less buyers are on the forums ? Also I have had a couple of people ask me to take things out of my shop and buy direct because they had an issue at check out this was a while ago now so I donāt have details.
Thank you for your interest, as I say it is very frustrating ā¦ I donāt know where to find out when my plus accounts ends, Iāve looked in my shop setting but canāt find out, but unless things pick up I canāt realistically renew.
well would you believe it @folksycontent1 the ship I listed this morning has sold ā¦ but not via folksy, the customer asked me to go direct, she has bought from me before and I asked her to use folksy as it was listed but she said she would rather not and go direct ā¦ iām happy with the sale, in fact I need to get off line and go to the posta office as I have others to post today
well, some of you asked for the book reviewā¦so I will try to be as honest as I can.
IF you donāt have any Jean Haines books, then I would thoroughly recommend getting this one or one of her other ones, as they are all very inspirational.
Howeverā¦this new one is very much like the others and so there isnāt much in it that isnāt in the others, apart from new paintings to drool over. The techniques in it are exactly the same as in the other books and so unless you really want the book, I would say it is not worth spending your money. It doesnāt teach you anything that you havenāt learnt from her other books. I am pleased that I bought it but unless you donāt mind spending the money, I feel it is not worth getting. I hope that is fair and doesnāt put you off if you really want to get it.
Thanks Brenda, thatās really helpful. After reading that Iāll delay any idea of getting a copy until Iāve actually had a chance to look inside it when I can see it in a bookshop. It might be worth it for the new paintings to drool over, or maybe not.
Incidentally, off topic but important, has anyone any experience of dealing with anorexia. I have a dear friend who is battling with this at the moment, and is losing weight quite quickly. Eating only 800 calories a day and exercising most of that off. Itās so difficult to see someone literally starving themselves potentially to death. I wondered if anyone has ever come across this before and if so how did you deal with it?
gives me chance to catch up. Brenda thanks for the contact details I have popped off an e-mail for the forms, the gallery is only 8 miles from me and they have some activities there I might be able to go to so thatās good 
we would not stop chatting. But I feel sadly we are very far afield for a getogether ā¦ Great that some of us have met other folksiers thou - I met Gerda (Gerda Bags) at a fair last month. She saw I was going to be a fair near where she is so came along especially. I have also met several people from FB who recognised me at fairs.
