Are Sales Way Down Everywhere?

[clay lover]

Is every one suffering? Galleries here are DEAD, shows are at their worst in 15 years.

I'm in small galleries in small towns. Is business better in larger galleries in cities? Got to do something .

[Marcia Selsor]

No. The Archie Bray Foundation unction brought in over $500,000 in one evening.

[Chris Campbell]

These past couple years have been very tough for most potters I know.

 

It's hard to keep making pots when nobody is buying but this is also a good time to develop a form, try a new technique, work on a comprehensive line, improve your images, get an entry ready for jurying into the Potters Council Show, refresh your website, clean the clutter from your studio, vacuum your kilns, grind shelves and re-wash, read pottery books and magazines, visit museums, come up with a new marketing plan, start an etsy store if you are so inclined, look into selling wholesale, seek out Christmas and Holiday Shows, plan on holding a home show, call old galleries to see if they want to trade out old work for newer items, call galleries to see if they need more, write an article for a magazine and take images to use with it, build a new website, start a blog, improve your accounting system .... there is just a ton of stuff to do during down times that pay off big time when things get busy again.

[clay lover]

Yea, what she said.

 

That's what I'm doing. Going back through all the things I did just 1 of, really liked it, but didn't develope the form more, old workshop notes, really working on the ideas from the instructor. Making what I want to make, not what the next sale will go for.

Fortunatly,, I've paid for all studio start up costs. I will be running more classes, and planning for Christmas, surely than there wil better sales opps.

[artpottery]

I know the shows are hurting, but I had my best spring studio show here in 3 years. I think audiences need to be "targeted" and the time of year for shows is most important. Before mom's day, graduations, June weddings, was "the ticket" for me this year.

If we each continue to educate the public about the value of American studio potters and why buying from us, and choosing a special handcrafted gift is so important---we will grow the business for each of us.

Free advertising, whereever you can get it, from brightly colored easy to follow street signs, to local newspapers,...to emails.

Go for and hope for a better show to come with great marketing!

Of course this is not possible all over the US...i am in the DC suburbs, largely untouched by this recession.

Best of luck. Susan

[GEP]

I think the answer to the question "are sales down everywhere?" is definitely yes. But I also think the situation is better is metropolitan areas whose economies have been more stable during the recession, and where there are many diversified avenues for selling. I live in the DC area too, and sadly many nice craft galleries, some that have been around for 20 yrs, have gone under. But there are still some that are going strong, maybe not as robust as before, but with plenty of strength to continue. As for art festivals, in this area they have been fairly steady throughout the recession. I had one iffy show in 2009 right after the stock market crashed, but since then sales have bounced back very well. Another nice thing about living amongst an educated, professional population is that the "buy local, buy handmade" idea is easy to promote. People here get it.

 

Sometimes I wish I had been working during the heyday of the eighties and early nineties, when craft selling was really profitable! But then again, sometimes I'm glad I wasn't, because I don't mourn the fact that times have changed. My perspective does not include an "easy money" attitude. These days a successful business requires shrewdness, efficiency, lots of planning, and endless marketing work (basically I agree with everything artpottery said). Which means my business is built on business fundamentals and not on a good economy.

 

So maybe someday the stars will align and another "easy selling" era will be upon us. If that happens, I plan to NOT take it for granted. And to stockpile lots of cash!

 

Mea

[soursop]

It's really good to hear this from all of you right now. I am in the middle of a huge push to make Ceramics be my bread and butter. I have tried a few time before, and failed, and in doing so was forced to go back to my "other" career (Landscape design and installation). It's been not only heart breaking, but physically damaging to my body to do this, but each time I have failed in the past I have learned a lot about why my approach had failed. I guess in a way the failures have been what I needed to step back and analyze WHY. This time things are different. I am basing my approach not solely on what I want to make, but also what my customers buy.

 

Now, I realize this is exactly the "worst time" to be trying to make a career change in many people's eyes (my parents), but I look at it differently. Like you mentioned Mea, and others before, "sales are down everywhere" and that goes for landscaping too. I wasn't getting rich doing landscaping, the market had slowed to a complete crawl. Home prices are down, so no one looks at landscaping as an investment anymore, it's more self indulgent I guess, and generally speaking, not a cheap indulgence.

 

Living in Hawaii, I realize we have two giant advantages and one big disadvantage to living here. The two advantages are that 1. we have a steady stream of visitors who are looking for any excuse to buy something and 2. we have a huge percentage of millionaires that reside or visit their 2nd home here. However, the big disadvantage is that the economy is crap, and it was this way long before the recession hit. What that means is that local support for "handmade" is not what it is in many other parts of the country (and that is sad to start with if we are to compare ourselves to Japan or Europe) So this has led me to change what I make. I started out making production work- mugs, bowls, plates, water tumblers, large salad bowls, platters, etc. This led to my first failure. No one wants to lug home a huge bowl or even small bowls for that matter, and as I said the local support just isn't enough to carry me on it's own. As a result, and admittedly at my fiancee's convincing, I now make things that make great "gifts". I hate making jewlery, but my fiancee' loves it, Wall hangings, Wall Vases, Soap dishes, Vases, Tiles, and yes I keep my bowls, plates and mugs and tumblers, because they sell, but just not as fast as the other things. In addition to this I have invested the time needed to develop a line of architectural ceramics. I am going to be printing a brochure in a few weeks to be sent out to the "millionaire" crowd on our islands, as well as their designers, and architects. I feel this is a crucial point in my future success, because all though it was hard taking the 2 months off to develop a line, they are my large ticket items, and although I probably won't be selling them by the hundreds, they will be a great boost when an order comes in for them, and will help to carry me.

 

I'm really excited about this new approach because I feel I have taken the time, again at my fiancee's pushing (do you get that I am indebted to her? Us guys can be so hard headed some times:) to understand my market and adjust my products around it. I haven't lost myself or "sold out"(completely) to do it, since all my pieces are still done in my style, I haven't jumped to blues, greens, reds and other bright colors just to sell my work, I have kept it mine, but adjusted for what my market will buy and I guess that is what is necessary to do in these tough economic times; take time to reevaluate your work AND your customer base. Are you still making the things your customers want to buy? Has your clientele changed? Has their budget? Are there other avenues your work could take that are a bit more out of the box, but worth the investment of time to complete?

 

Again, you all are the ones making this happen; your making your living from the clay you sculpt each day, I'm not just quite yet, though very close and on my way, so please, call me out if I'm off point, but I do think these are pretty general "business" principals, we as artists just get more attached to our products than most other businesses and so that is perhaps why changes to suite the times are tough.

 

Any thoughts are appreciated.

[clay lover]

Well. I am making what my customers want to buy, $10 soap dishes. If I had not planned for that mentality, I would not have made my booth rent last weekend. But that's not what I want to be making.

 

In my area we have %14 unemployment and no appreciation for 'handmade' if you can get it at Wal Mart cheaper.

 

How do I go about finding galleries in larger cities? I'm 4 hours from Atlanta, same from Raleigh, NC, Savannah ga, or Charlotte NC . What's the first step? I know next to nothing about those cities.

[soursop]

Sorry claylover, got no experience with the east coast/south, all I know is west coast and beyond. I know what you mean though, that it isn't what you want to be making, trust me, what I have mentally committed to is not so easy on my eyes. I.E. it's not what I want to or ever envisioned myself making. BUT, and that's a big BUTT, I think making a living doing what we love during the biggest economic hardship since the great depression is better than saying "Oh well,"....... instead of selling my ware to those who might otherwise seek a mug or bowl or (fill in the blank) from Walmart......"I guess I should go apply there for a job."

 

Trust me I hear you. I live in a land that is visually stunning and and endlessly inspiring, but where the average local assumes spending $12 on a plate lunch is not only acceptable, you are to be looked down upon if you don't, but a $12 water tumbler is outrageous and down right offensive, "You can get that for 3 dollars at walmart". I live where my main market are those passing through the rows looking for geckos or turtles or hibiscus flowers on, well, anything. I still can't bring myself to do it (even though it is probably 2 dozen inquiries per day when I put myself out in the public arena......"Nice work, but do you have anything more....., um, Hawaii?), and I don't know if I ever will.