If you are interested, I saw a new series on TV this afternoon, ‘Make it at Market’ 4:30 on BBC1. It followed a wood turner and a ceramicist just starting out in business and gave them advice and tips on marketing and building a business. It will be repeated 7:15am tomorrow on 2 and there’s another one 4:30pm on 1, and on Friday too. It’s presented by one of the Repair Shop crew.
It was on Monday and Tuesday too, hopefully They will all be on iPlayer.
15 Likes
I watched this too - it was really interesting. There was another episode which gave the lady who made the wicker animals advice to make her business more commercial, just by extending her range to ‘real’ animals rather than fantasy creatures, they said that would open up her markets considerably.
I know that some people are very much emotionally attached to the things they make, and wouldn’t want to change what they do just because someone else says they should, but I always find it fascinating to hear what others think about a business, and how it could, in their eyes, be improved. It shows you that there’s always something new to learn! I will be tuning in regularly!
6 Likes
Oooooh sounds really interesting. Just found 3 episodes of it available to view so will be watching these tomorrow… and taping the rest. Thanks for highlighting this
4 Likes
Watched the first episode on catch up yesterday, very good I think the lady was so receptive and hope she does well.
4 Likes
Oh that sounds interesting, I will see if I can catch a repeat! Thank you. x
3 Likes
Thanks for the heads up!
2 Likes
The ceramicist from yesterday is local to me, she does great work considering she only started about a year and a half ago now, and does so much work too! (it was the same when she was trying out painting and drawing before this - obvious talent for anything creative).
I agree with you though @HeidiMeier, I imagine sometimes it’s quite difficult when someone asks you to suddenly change something about your designs or making process, especially if it means losing something that you feel makes your items special. It’s probably the same when we’re giving out advice on here to help people get more sales - the hard balance between getting sales and being profitable, and making what you want for a price you feel is worth it.
2 Likes
I’ve not seen this but heard about it a lot on Art Fairs Buddies on FB. Seems to be a lot of upset in the main about how bad the advice was regarding pricing.
Pricing is of course an emotive subject. Some people just love to make and see things move on while others really do need to change a reasonable amount to make some sort of living. Few of us manage to survive purely on craft work alone.
Whichever category we all fall into we need to be accepting of other’s preferences on their pricing strategies.
I think it’s a great programme. I’ve only just discovered it so am watching it all on catch-up. I agree the pricing seems unrealistic from where I’m standing, but the whole show is worth it for the inspiration. Having felt like giving up for a while now, I’m now wanting to try again!