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Tagging your work (hang tags and price tags)


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Hi all - I guess I have two questions really -

 

 

1) when you go to shows, how do you like tagging your pottery when using hang tags and/or price tags? I don't really like putting a sticky tag on the bottom of my piece just because I don't like my clients having to feel uncomfortable picking it up to look at the price on the bottom; the other issue is a lot of the times, the sticky tags don't stay on, and come off. The other issue, I like the idea of hang tags, but a lot of my items are decorative, and don't lend themselves well to a place to attach the tag?

 

What/how are your preferences for marking your items so that they are easy to read, stay on your pieces in between shows, and are easily viewable?

 

 

2) Packing up, setting up - how do you pack your pottery to travel? I was wrapping mine in unprinted news print sheets which works well for protection but the downside is it takes a LOT of time to unpack and set up, as well as pack back up when leaving. I was wondering what all you guys do when you travel to these arts/craft shows? What is your preferred method to pack all of your pottery? Obviously it needs to be well protected so it doesn't break - but sometimes I keep thinking, there must be a better, faster way?

 

Thanks everyone! Can't wait to see what everyone has to say!

 

Charlene

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i do not do many shows or drive very far to them but i find that cutting reusable cardboard separators and inserting them standing vertically into cardboard boxes between items of a similar size and shape works well. the easy part for me it that i have a bandsaw all set up and ready to cut whenever i need it. most of my shapes are so similar that i can put eight into a long clay box (standard ceramics box) with separators made from pizza hut boxes. each piece stands on its side and rests on a double layer of cardboard in the bottom of the box. that is just enough weight to handle. they are reusable for years, once cut.

 

taller, round items fit into boxes from the liquor store. they come with dividers in various sizes. i use crumpled plastic bags so i can put one vase, 8 inches, on top of another in the same slot. crumpled plastic grocery bags hold air if you do not squeeze all of it out when you use them. if you look at the fancier grocery supermarkets you will find recycling bins full of clean bags. most of them are clean, i haven't found anything nasty yet. styrofoam picnic plates separate larger flat pieces and foam egg crates were a favorite of a potter i knew long ago. all of these are fast and reusable.

 

good luck whatever you choose to do.

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I use the plastic bags the daily newspaper comes in to protect pottery in transit. I just slip the item in the bag and set it in a plastic bin (half-height not full size to keep weight manageable). The plastic prevents the wares from each other. For larger items, I use the plastic bags from the grocery that are used for veggies and produce. I tried using newspaper, but rewrapping at the end of the day was time-consuming and the newsprint tended to tear and wear out after several uses. I've only had a couple of breakages . . . mostly packing errors on my part. I do a dozen or so shows a year.

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Since I'm still a young potter (7 years) and didn't know any better I started out hanging my business card , or dropping it in the pot, on everything I display for sale. I have pots in 3 gift stores and everyone really likes the colorful business card attached. I put the price on the back of the card. Just got in 500 more cards from Vistaprint for $12.47. I cut pieces of curly Christmas ribbon to hang the cards with. That's a pain cause my fingers are so big. Just an idea though.

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Thanks everyone for the responses; currently I use the "business card idea" also to price things and most of the time it works ok, but it is hard sometimes to keep it with the item. Most of my items are Raku or Horse Hair and small/decorative so they don't really have handles, or places to tie something to, so in those cases I tilt the card up against the item, but then find that people piock things up, move things and things get shuffled around and out of place. So, most of the time it works - other times, seems like I get a huge mass of business card chaos!

 

 

Thanks also for the packing ideas; I have thought of boxes from the liquor stores; had not thought about using the band saw to cut my own custom dividers, etc. The paper is just becoming to time consuming, and I was repacking everything in "small" sized home depot cardboard boxes, but I am finding also that after a few shows, the main boxes, although small, aren't holding up well. SO, I am thinking I need to go to a plastic/tupperware or Rubbermaid type container?

 

C.

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2) Packing up, setting up - how do you pack your pottery to travel? I was wrapping mine in unprinted news print sheets which works well for protection but the downside is it takes a LOT of time to unpack and set up, as well as pack back up when leaving. I was wondering what all you guys do when you travel to these arts/craft shows? What is your preferred method to pack all of your pottery? Obviously it needs to be well protected so it doesn't break - but sometimes I keep thinking, there must be a better, faster way?

 

Thanks everyone! Can't wait to see what everyone has to say!

 

Charlene

Heres my way last year-

http://ceramicartsda...g-pottery-fast/

the photos are gone from my post as I always need to dump a few photos from my file to post new ones (file size fills up fast even with small Jpegs)

The description may be enough if not I can add photos if you request them

Things like bubble wrap take up to much space for me so its roll ends for wrapping between layers or pots as well as wrapping for sale (white newspaper unprinted )

Mark

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For tagging my work for pricing at shows, I just color code them ... I use a color sticker on the outside of the work and have a cheat sheet telling me how much they are ... that way I can say "all red are x, all blue are y, etc" and it's all there for the customers to see without picking up so they can eyeball shop if they want without feeling like they HAVE to pick up the ware. Larger pieces I normally have an a-frame card with price and the such. pretty simple, but saves hassles.

 

As for packup and shipping, I found some bubble wrap bags that work amazingly for shipping, you can get them from uline and they come in rolls. you can stack and pack rather fast and it's reusable without making a big pile of mess you need to sort through. I also use them for sales I need to ship to a customer, Normally do bubble wrap bag I can tape, then pad the box with news print (local asian store has stacks of free papers they get daily in various languages (Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Etc) so it's a cheap filler.

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