I think you are right to try a peer or buddy system for Folksy.
The makers on the monthly challenge are the best for support, if they have time to help others as they are on the frontline of selling.
Making wise maybe closer collaboration with Heritage Crafts?
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A Folksy selling tent at Contemporary craft festival Bovey would be an amazing idea!
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Thank you for your reply. I hadn’t heard of Heritage Crafts but have just taken a look at their website. Looks like a good resource for craft.
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Me too, I signed up for their newsletter.
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I can relate regarding the yarns. I have to spend between £17 and £33 a skein for merino and merino silk. Which is why most of my knitwear is acrylic yarn. Is there still a market for really high end yarns?
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Glad you found Heritage Crafts website useful. They have a presence at the Craft fair in Bovey Tracey in Devon every year.
We just bought a plank of english cherry for over £200, timber prices are crazy since the Russia/Ukraine war. but the UK grown has been high for sometime.
It makes it hard to cost your wood art. People think wood is cheap still. I suppose the far east fair trade wood import fool people in the pricing.
No wonder the woodworking skill base is on the decline.
I have some special hand planes that I’ve made, with laminated steel blades that are very unique, but I have not posted them. Barbara thinks they look amazing and would make a heritage piece.
All our crafts are important to our future generations, once the realized virtual reality needs some real world items to use. A return to the Arts and Crafts movement possibly. A spin off for Make it at Market as a TV programme?
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I can totally relate to the pricing difficulties.
When I first graduated, I was selling directly through galleries (usually at a commission of 40%) This was in 1995 - my small bottles were selling for around £30 and large bowls between £150 - £200. No quibbles, people were willing to pay.
Then I took a career break to have my children, gave up my studio and when I came back to it, I only had space to set up my small kiln at home.
So, I started out again, smaller ideas, smaller prices and I’ve never quite managed to get back to those glory days. I’ve been successful with the lower value items but I do feel like a machine, churning them out. As ever, I must find the time to create some higher value items and see if I can get a collection back into the galleries again!
I must admit, I do prefer selling online as I get to keep more of the profit. I have had lots of small galleries contacting me over the years to sell my lower priced items but I would have to change my whole pricing structure to accommodate that, so I usually decline.
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Hello… I’ve been away for a while but it’s lovely to drop in!
Having recently graduated with a painting and printmaking degree, I can tell you that it doesn’t make the pricing debate any easier to navigate. Degree or not, my lecturers advised against charging too much “until you are established” whatever that means!
I have managed to sell a painting for a three figure sum at an exhibition, but doing it online is a tough call. I have recently been awarded an exhibition at a local gallery but I will have to double my prices to meet their commission. The industry expectation is that once you gain gallery representation, you match your prices in all outlets that you sell. But bricks and mortar gallery pricing is unlikely to go down well online, so it has created something of a dilemma.
The best advice I’ve been given about pricing is to ignore what everyone else is doing and charge what feels right for you! I know that’s not very helpful!
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I would say that is very wise advise, @ChrisStoneArtist
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I love Make South West!
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Congratulations on your degree! @ChrisStoneArtist My work is sold in a limited number of galleries, and as part of the written terms and conditions of selling my work they ask for parity of pricing across all platforms. I have also found this to be the case when taking part in curated exhibitions. Some also ask for exclusivity within a geographic area, ie if your work is with their gallery they don’t want it also to be in other galleries within an X mile radius of theirs. You just have to decide whether all that is acceptable to you. But I have found that a good relationship with a gallery is worth working at and I like the balance between online and gallery customers even though maintaining price parity is sometimes challenging. Best wishes!
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Thank you. Yes, I’m sure there are great benefits to working with a gallery, but I will have a lot of thinking to do about the impact it may have on other aspects of my business. I haven’t had the conversation with them about pricing yet and I haven’t signed anything. But they are a prestigious gallery who represent some very good artists, so it feels like an opportunity too good to pass over. My hope is that the exposure I get will mean I can justify parity of pricing moving forwards.
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For online sales, perhaps you might think of painting particular sizes or subjects, or working in a particular medium for online sales, so that you can price differently from gallery work. I tend to save larger work for galleries, not least because of the cost and fragility of posting larger ceramics to direct customers.
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Thanks, I think that might be the way forward. I got the gallery gig on the strength of mixed media work I did for my degree show, some of which is already framed and needs to sell at a good price so I can recover the framing costs. I might give them exclusivity on that and keep the watercolours (which are a bit more “traditional”) for online sales.
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Congratulations and well done @ChrisStoneArtist
Many years ago I was asked if I would like to put some bears into a shop but it was at Hornsea which is around 45 mins drive. In the end I decided against it as I no longer drive and would need to visit at least once per fortnight to change stock. Her rates were pretty good at 25% commission but I didn’t want to add that amount onto all of my bears so that they were the same price online.
A few years on and I wish perhaps I had taken the offer up, my way around it would be to make separate stock for the shop so that I wouldn’t need to increase my online prices however that would mean I wouldn’t have the time to make for online selling as well.
It is a difficult one, but a great opportunity for you and more exposure for you as an artist. Your work deserves to be in a gallery. Well done on all you have achieved recently.
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Congrats on getting your degree Chris.
It is tricky balancing prices with what galleries sell for, the galleries I sell through all charge different commission, so I tend to make sure the stock they have is different. Some of my gallery customers have become regulars to my Folksy shop, so despite the commissions it is worth doing.
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I feel that any series like this one can give a false positive. Often they are filmed at events and do not doubt they refer to the programme at any event. This would make what they are selling more desirable as a buyer can say bought this from A who appeared on a BBC series. It makes the product more legitimate as the guide price has been accepted.
I had a few of my bags years ago showcased in Haute Handbags by Stampington magazine. Showcased with the article at an event and they sold really quickly. Also gave a copy of the article.
Hope it makes sense what I mean.
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Thanks for your kind words. It’s always lovely to say hello to your bears on social media!
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Thank you. Yes, I’m convinced it will be worth doing.
AH thank you Chris, those bears love all the attention 