Monday, September 15, 2008

Peddling

Today was an interesting day.

I met with Pat for lunch; she brought me the stuff she showed to the gallery in Santa Fe, and they came back with a wonderful letter from the gallery owner, suggesting specific things to try to help me weave a little more adventurously. How good is that?!

Then I went to The Suter Art Gallery; I had left two shawls last Friday to see if Andrea would consider having them in the gallery shop. Just coincidentally, I had the stuff from Santa Fe, so we talked about them and she selected one from Friday and three from Santa Fe. I now have three outlets and four pieces at my newest outlet. Yay!

Then, leftovers in a bag, I went to the Red Gallery to pick up the cotton scarves Jay wanted to see; these are going to be submitted to the guild local area exhibition in Westport this week.

I felt like all day I was walking from one place to another around Nelson delivering/reclaiming my "merchandises", feeling like a peddler. And though it doesn't feel that way just now, I am regrouping and trying harder to sell, without necessarily making new things specifically for each outlet. Idealy, I'd like to make pieces, deliver it to one gallery, and sell it from there (soon-ish), but I'm still learning the characteristics of each place and the changes in fashion and traffic, so I feel less, umm, scheming about trying differnt outlets for different pieces. And they are far better off in one of these places than on the floor in my stash room. But at some point, I would like to start withdrawing some of the older pieces, and move on.

It's all a learning experience.

4 comments:

  1. I don't think what you were doing was a negative thing, in any sense. What you've been doing is learning through trial-and-error what the market wants. You're in the business of making items to sell, that's part of it. I'd like very much to get there one day myself, and I'm sure I'll find trying to peddle items rather than being commissioned or having people ask to buy items they like difficult.

    It's wonderful that you're getting feedback - that's invaluable.

    (I'm amused that my word verification is eatss - it's about 10 minutes to lunchtime!)

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  2. Oh, thank you, Geodyne. Nelson is a small place, however, and I don't want some of my pieces to be known for not selling, I think. But I need to learn about each gallery and what's more, we're rather reliant on the tourists, so things are never the same from summer to summer (which, strangely, is when we sell woolly things!)

    Oooops, better let you go have lunch, then!

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  3. Hm...you definitely don't want to be seen as 'dead wood'!

    I'm familiar with the tourist phenomenon, having worked in the industry for almost a decade, long ago. Do you find that it's the colourful, striking things that go first?

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  4. Yes, which is why I don't sell a whole lot. And works that fit the visitor's preconception of "handwoven". Price range vary, though.

    I don't want to change the way I weave in order to sell. I don't, for example, want to go brighter just for that. Because for one thing I don't work quickly enough to have many "brands/styles".

    Having said that, I want to keep all options open. Am I being contrary? I'm just thinking a lot about colors, I guess, Geodyne, because of the color courses I've been attending, and have been thinking about my idea of "pretty" vs "art lover's" notion of "interesting".

    Hummm.... I've been up since 5-ish and my eye sight can't focus, so I'm just psycho-mumbling...

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