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Man, what an impatient lot you guys are. 
Heck, I didn't get home until about 8:30. By the time I fed the dogs and the wife, it's now. I still have to unload two cars tonight. 
Anyway, we had beautiful weather, and a very slow day sales-wise. Not just us, but everybody at the show that I talked to (and I talked to quite a few of the sellers) had a slow day. Didn't matter what price point their products were at, it seems that nobody sold much at all today. Had a lot of interest in my stuff, and more compliments than I can count, but I only sold one pen and one bottle stopper today. I took in less than 25% of what I made yesterday. So the moral of the story (as I've been told numerous times researching this endeavor) is ya never know when the good days and the bad days will happen. As I see it, I was ahead of the game by the end of yesterday, so anything I made today was just gravy. I would have liked more gravy, of course, but all in all we're both happy with the outcome of the show. (LOML played an active role both days, and her help was very appreciated.)
I did have a lot of people ask for my business card, and I do believe I'll get my website set up soon for online ordering for the occasional show attendee who decides a few weeks later that they just must buy that piece they saw me displaying at a show. I also had a nice chat with the show's promoter, who also runs the del Mano Gallery. He knows and works with some well-known turners like John Jordan, Michael Hosaluk, and Kelly Dunn, and is very knowledgeable about the wood art business. (He told me he just sold a 5" or 6" hollow form for $30,000. It was by John Jordan, as I recall.) He gave me some good insight on pricing (reinforcing things I'd already heard about selling oneself short, but not being too proud of your stuff either) and overall encouragement. (He didn't get much of a chance to look at my stuff, so I didn't get some of the direct feedback I would have liked.)
Also, as it turned out, my booth was set up in the middle of the street in front of an art gallery, and the owner of the gallery approached me about either wholesaling some of my work to her, or putting some in her shop on consignment. It looks like she wants to buy my stuff for less than I'm willing to sell it right now, but I do see it as another potential outlet for sales in the future. (By the time I include overhead for doing public shows like this weekend, it may actually be more profitable to wholesale some stuff for less to a variety of galleries. Galleries can also present a different set of opportunities advancement-wise, compared to the street fairs. Still not sure if I want to try playing that game, though.)
So...despite relatively slow sales, we considered the weekend a success, and are already planning to do the next show by this promoter (del Mano Productions), which will be November 10 and 11 in Pasadena.
Thus ends the adventure.
Heck, I didn't get home until about 8:30. By the time I fed the dogs and the wife, it's now. I still have to unload two cars tonight. Anyway, we had beautiful weather, and a very slow day sales-wise. Not just us, but everybody at the show that I talked to (and I talked to quite a few of the sellers) had a slow day. Didn't matter what price point their products were at, it seems that nobody sold much at all today. Had a lot of interest in my stuff, and more compliments than I can count, but I only sold one pen and one bottle stopper today. I took in less than 25% of what I made yesterday. So the moral of the story (as I've been told numerous times researching this endeavor) is ya never know when the good days and the bad days will happen. As I see it, I was ahead of the game by the end of yesterday, so anything I made today was just gravy. I would have liked more gravy, of course, but all in all we're both happy with the outcome of the show. (LOML played an active role both days, and her help was very appreciated.)
I did have a lot of people ask for my business card, and I do believe I'll get my website set up soon for online ordering for the occasional show attendee who decides a few weeks later that they just must buy that piece they saw me displaying at a show. I also had a nice chat with the show's promoter, who also runs the del Mano Gallery. He knows and works with some well-known turners like John Jordan, Michael Hosaluk, and Kelly Dunn, and is very knowledgeable about the wood art business. (He told me he just sold a 5" or 6" hollow form for $30,000.
It was by John Jordan, as I recall.) He gave me some good insight on pricing (reinforcing things I'd already heard about selling oneself short, but not being too proud of your stuff either) and overall encouragement. (He didn't get much of a chance to look at my stuff, so I didn't get some of the direct feedback I would have liked.)Also, as it turned out, my booth was set up in the middle of the street in front of an art gallery, and the owner of the gallery approached me about either wholesaling some of my work to her, or putting some in her shop on consignment. It looks like she wants to buy my stuff for less than I'm willing to sell it right now, but I do see it as another potential outlet for sales in the future. (By the time I include overhead for doing public shows like this weekend, it may actually be more profitable to wholesale some stuff for less to a variety of galleries. Galleries can also present a different set of opportunities advancement-wise, compared to the street fairs. Still not sure if I want to try playing that game, though.)
So...despite relatively slow sales, we considered the weekend a success, and are already planning to do the next show by this promoter (del Mano Productions), which will be November 10 and 11 in Pasadena.
Thus ends the adventure.
