The Business of Polymer Clay
Sjpolyclay
If any of you here are interested or involved in sales of your polymer clay art
work, please read the thread of posts here on "Embellishment". There are
questions and ethical issues involved about which I would very much like to
have your input, whether you agree with me or not. I am confused, and more
information is the only cure....
Thank you.
Sarajane Helm
http://hometown.aol.com/sjpolyclay/index.htm
scott & irene
penny, in for a pound, eh?
I don't really feel qualified to debate the specifics of Embellishment, as I
was not there, so I didn't see what the whole arrangement was, what the
guild display was like, none of it. I've never participated in the sort of
event that Embellishment apparently is -- what is it? Retail booths and
classes and demos and what else?
I do know that when I'm at a show, and there are people there selling their
wares and who have not paid a booth fee, it rankles. It usually occurs at
an outdoor show, and the person in question is walking around with a box or
basket of their work. The very fact that they don't have an actual booth
makes their presence have less of an impact, but it's still not right.
I think it's a great idea to promote polymer clay as a medium, but, forgive
me for saying this, it's not my priority. I go to a show to sell my work to
make money to pay my bills, simple as that. My customers are buying what
they do because of what it is and what it looks like and how it makes them
feel, *not* because it's made of polymer clay. Some of them don't care,
they just know they like it. I'm not trying to get other people to try
polymer clay (though I encourage them to do so if they seem so inclined),
I'm trying to sell my stuff.
Embellishment is apparently an event where one of the purposes *is* to get
more people to try polymer clay. So I wonder why so many people are there
to sell their polymer clay work? That may seem a stupid question, but
perhaps I don't get it because I have never felt compelled to collect other
people's p-clay work. I would attend such an event, but I wouldn't sell at
one. Kinda like preaching to the choir, ya know?
One of the great things about this medium is also one of the things that can
work against us. It is so accessible to anyone, that, as Sarajane posted,
"people like to make their own."
Anyway, I suspect I am rambling a little... I don't know if this clarifies
anything for you, Sarajane, but it's a complex issue, and there seems to be
a difference between your description and Meredith's of what was being sold,
and, as I said, I wasn't there. I do agree with you totally about the
unfairness of selling without having paid for the right to do so. <treading
carefully here> But I question whether you can attribute your decrease in
sales to the sales that were made at the guild booth.
Good night,
Irene in western NC
to email, remove first x from address
--
http://www.pobox.com/~good.night.irene
Jeanne A. E. DeVoto
<sjpol...@aol.com> spake unto Usenet and said:
>If any of you here are interested or involved in sales of your polymer clay art
>work, please read the thread of posts here on "Embellishment". There are
>questions and ethical issues involved about which I would very much like to
>have your input, whether you agree with me or not.
Here's my take:
Assuming that the Embellishments organizers were aware and permitted
the sales at the guild's booth, I don't see a problem with the guild's
actions. If other artists who paid for a booth have a beef, it's with
the show organizers.
Do they have a beef? Maybe, maybe not. I guess it depends on whether
the sales at the Learning Station booth took away from other artists'
sales, and I don't know enough about the show to say whether that
happened - I know a couple of people said sales were disappointing, but
was that why? Hard to tell. Also, on the general principle that getting
information about our medium out there is a good thing for business,
the overall activity of the info booth may well have benefited artists
in the long run - even in the short run, given that they were directing
people to the polymer artists' booths.
Some discussion sounds in order here. Is it possible to have the best
of both worlds, and an arrangement that would increase sales for
everyone and make everybody happy?
--
Morning people may be respected, but night people are feared.
The Polymer Clayspot <http://www.jaedworks.com/clayspot/>
Polymer Clay FAQ <http://www.jaedworks.com/clayspot/polyclay-faq/>
Sjpolyclay
>was that why? Hard to tell
Very true--and I DON"T blame the guild members who thought they were getting a
good deal for their efforts...I don't think they were thinking about it from a
professional viewpoint. Unlike the organizers who should know better. Maybe
they don't.... or don't care....
What DOES bother me is that I thought I was in competition with ten polymer
clay art merchants who were listed as paid vendors---then I find aout there
are, say another ten who are teachers, and doing sales, and yet another ten who
are volunteers and doing sales. I would NEVER have "paid to play" at a show
with thirty polyclay vendors.
And that's very likely why the other twenty vendors did not pay for booths. How
many will pay next year? There is only so much customer money to go
around....and I don't like being given false information when planning shows,
which I think this "hidden" competition does.
Sarajane Helm
LINDA JACOBS
like Irene & have never been to Embellishment.
I'm an exhibitor at the Southern Christmas Show here in Charlotte, NC.
Fortunately I live close by & do not have to pay for a hotel room, but I
do have to pay $850 for my 100 sq ft booth space. I also have to pay
parking every day, pay for electricity & phone, etc. It's a long
show--12 days, & ends up costing me quite a chunk of change. So far I'm
the only almost 100% polymer clay booth, & I draw a crowd. One year a
booth selling bread dough ornaments was set up directly across from me,
but it didn't appear to hurt my sales too much. I just had to explain
the difference more often.
If I knew there would be a lot of fellow polyclay vendors I probably
would not do all this work & pay all that money. That would be my
choice. But if others were able to sell without paying a the fee that
would be unfair whether or not their sales cut into my profits.
Perhaps we polyclay artists are too generous with our expertise. Those
of us who make a living at this may cut off our own foot in an attempt
to "legitimize" our art form (not that I truly think of it as anything
but a legitmate art form!); I know that at shows I "spill my guts &
tell everything I know" but the people who try to duplicate what I do
never get the same look. It's something like handwriting. But if we
convince everybody it is so easy they can do it themselves, where does
that leave us?
Linda J
shelly crossen
Button Show." It features classes in beading and polymer clay work and is a
large trade show made up by vendors from magazines, bead stores and
suppliers, polymer clay artists, and others. Last year it was in Sacramento,
California. This year it was in Portland, Oregon.
I have watched this thread for several days now, and understand Sarajane's
anguish. As an analyst, I see it boiling down to two issues: one, that space
was provided to the polymer clay people for "free," and second, that she
didn't make as much money as she had hoped. Blaming the Learning Station
seems to be the venue for venting the anger and frustration. I would like
to put this thread to rest, and want to comment on these two issues.
First, What is the definition of "free"? The fact that an actual check
didn't pass hands? The volunteers at the Learning Station collectively
donated hundreds of hours of their time. I personally attended five
"Embellishment Committee" meetings with the Portland Bead Society, each
lasting two to four hours. I then helped set up, man the station, welcome
visitors, and tear down. I provided supplies and promotional materials. I
contributed at least 75 hours of my time to making Embellishment a success.
I could have stayed home and worked and billed out at upwards of $75 per
hour. Some of the volunteers, most of whom came from Seattle (which is over
300 miles round-trip away), came for three or four days. The Insect-Inspired
Exhibit was put together by a committee of at least a half of dozen people
who donated their time and effort in organizing, collecting, bringing and
setting up the display cases, displaying the entries, tearing down, and
finally mailing back the entries to the entrants. There was a full-time
demonstrator (not teaching, just demonstrating). The clay used for the
demonstrations was provided by Accent Imports at no cost to the polymer clay
community. The volunteers also helped put up and take down the Embellishment
exhibits. I personally escorted interested people to other polymer clay
artists and vendors. All together, I would say that the volunteers put in
around 300 hours of their time. And if you calculate the value of their
time, even at minimum-wage rates of $6.00 per hour, that is $1,800 worth of
"free" booth space.
Second, most of the sales were by the volunteers who are not professional
artists. Some of these people's inventory fits in a shoebox, and although
the work is nice, it's certainly not in the category of professional
full-time artists. (I personally made all of $25.) Allowing them to sell was
their reward for their hard work and devotion to publicizing polymer clay.
The Learning Station helped to showcase the versatility and further
legitimize the medium. It showed the cohesiveness of the polymer clay
community. It familiarized the interested public with the National PC Guild
as well as the two local northwest guilds. It generated a lot of excitement
and people wanted to see more, and they sought out the other vendors. As for
there being too many polymer clay artists: There must have been fifty bead
vendors there, some of them carrying identical inventory. They didn't seem
to have a problem with competition.
There was enough diversity and variety to to allow everyone to find
something in the convention hall to satisfy their taste. Each polymer clay
vendor there has established their own style of this artform, and not all of
these styles will suit everyone. And people are fickle. What they loved last
year might be passe this year and hot again next year. People buy what they
like, what they can afford, and what they perceive as value for their
dollar.
Shelly Crossen
President
Columbia Gorge Polymer Clay Guild
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Sjpolyclay <sjpol...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:19990729104038...@ng-fr1.aol.com...
Cecilia Determan
LINDA JACOBS wrote:
> Perhaps we polyclay artists are too generous with our expertise. Those
> of us who make a living at this may cut off our own foot in an attempt
> to "legitimize" our art form (not that I truly think of it as anything
> but a legitmate art form!); I know that at shows I "spill my guts &
> tell everything I know" But if we convince everybody it is so easy they
> can do it themselves, where does that leave us?
>
> Linda J.
It leaves you in the same boat as any other
artist..painter...cross-stitcher...quilter... You create works of "art"
that are "yours" that others cannot duplicate; you sell classes/books. No
matter how many painting/illustration classes Grandma Moses/Norman Rockwell
might have given...."theirs" are the ones we want!! No "teacher" ever gets
shot in the foot [although some students do go on to become more recognized
than their teacher ;o) ..]....just my two cents worth about sharing
knowledge......Cecilia Determan whose Hot Off The Press books are still
selling...;o) and now back to the issue of paid/donated space....
Ulrikeusa
I can relate to Sarajane's feelings, but I like Shelly's argumentation, too.
It seems that there is more PC "competition", and people have more choice.
However, there was another aspect in SJ's very first post under the title
"Embellishment" which concerned me somewhat: Are Polymer Clay sales really
down in general?
I don't "do craft shows" on a big scale, may be 6 or 8 more local ones a year.
There just was one this weekend, and I noticed that my best selling item was a
bracelet for little girls that I sell for $ 10.--. In general, I did not do too
well, where as another PC artist seemed to be doing very, very well - however,
her designs and her prices (oh, they brought tears to my eyes!) were very
different to mine. She seemed to clearly be producing large amounts of the
same item in the same design as opposed to my two or three items per design.
I was truly disappointed, but I feel that this is something that can happen in
the free market, and that I just had to bring across that my designs were much
more complex and my crafts were "limited editions". Ultimately, though, I
think it's a matter of taste. And may be the audience liked the other PC
artist's work better or may be she had a better location ....
What I am wondering though is - how do other people here in the group feel - do
you guys think interest in PC has gone down, people don't buy it that much any
more?
Thanks for your input.
Ulrike
scott & irene
>What I am wondering though is - how do other people here in the group
feel - do
>you guys think interest in PC has gone down, people don't buy it that much
any
>more?
Here's how I see it:
Asking if interest in p-clay has gone down is kind of like asking if
interest in glass has gone down, or interest in watercolor paintings, or
interest in batik or pottery or leatherwork or photography or... well, you
get my drift.
I don't think interest in p-clay has decreased BUT I *do* think interest in
the usual canework-slice-jewelry has gone down. You can buy that stuff in
KMart, for gosh sakes.
If you feel your sales aren't what they should be, perhaps it's what you
make, not the material (please! I'm not trying to hurt feelings! just being
typically blunt me). If you are making cane-slice beaded jewelry, you will
probably appeal to a much younger crowd (who don't usually have much
disposable income). Go to the library and check out the jewelry the models
are wearing in some of the nicer magazines. Not the teen models, the
Adults. Look at the imagery *and* the construction style (two different
things there). I doubt you can find an adult female model wearing a
seed-bead and flower-cane-slice choker.
One thing I've heard is to keep your work "on trend." That doesn't mean do
gargoyles or sunflowers or chili peppers or whatever else is hot, but to
notice Lifestyle Trends. These days people stay home more, they work in
their gardens, and having personal space, sometimes with religious
connotation, is important to them. If you want to appeal to this type of
person (who, in my experience, are the ones with $$ to spend) then consider
making things that fit into that lifestyle. Polymer clay-covered salt and
pepper shakers, candlestick holders, cabinet door knobs, vessels, lidded
boxes, clocks, desk accessories, etc. My best sellers at every show are my
light switch plates.
Jewelry might need to be more elegant, maybe even have some vaguely
spiritual or mystical imagery. Don't hit them over the head with it, be
subtle.
Caneworking is way cool and very fun, but it's also what everyone knows
about polymer clay. The best compliment I get at shows is when people say,
"I'm familiar with polymer clay, but I've never seen it like this!" Maybe
it's time to try new techniques.
Finish your work professionally! Sand! Buff! Trim neat edges! Make the
back of a piece look as beautiful as the front!
In your booth... too many things in too many styles is hard to look at, hard
to absorb. Try to have a "look" so your work flows. The artist you
mentioned... did her work seem to have an identifiable "look"? I found also
that Focusing on a handful of items makes me able to make them better. When
I tried to make lots of different things with lots of techniques, I was too
scattered. If you are going to use several techniques, combine them in a
way that is uniquely You.
Wow, where was I? Ulrike, I don't know what you make, but I hope this helps
and doesn't hurt any feelings.
Patricia Edmonds
I've found that my sales ( and others, if all the complaining is to be believed) have been down in general at shows, in the recent past. I do both pc and kiln fired clay items, (functional items, decorative items and jewelry with whimsical animal motifs) and although sales are steady, they aren't what they were a couple of years ago.
However, there've always been fluctuations in the market...The early 90's were great, but I live in St. Louis and in the years of '93 and 95, the 'great flood' years, sales were really down. Then up, then down. I'd hate to think anyone would get disappointed and quit because their sales are down for a few shows, or even a year, or not continue when starting selling because you may not make as many sales as someone else. I've heard acquaintances bemoaning the fact that they don't make as much as I do in a show when in fact, it's their first of second show...I'm in my 20th year of selling at craft shows,and have a large stock, so I don't think there's any real comparison to be made, but they don't seem to see that. I DO, however fail to see the justification (or intelligence) of continuing to attempt to sell the same items year after year after year, complaining all the time about how your things don't sell ( I have a friend whose ex has been "selling" blacksmithed items for about 12 years and is the basis for this commentary :-) ) Obviously the wares don't appeal, and if such a person wants to continue to do shows, an adjustment obviously is in order....
off my little soapbox for now :-)
pat
Jackdaw
Irene, you are a very sensible person. I think the above advice is
pertinant to ALL crafters. It is possible to get stuck in a rut and
not move on.
Jackdaw
Cecilia Determan
LINDA JACOBS
In the past I have been run off my feet at juried shows when other
artists have slow sales, & i believe part of the reason is my price
range. I produce very expensive one -of-a-kind artworks priced from
hundreds to thousands. I also have hundreds of items that take me under
5 minutes to make. The small items pay the booth rent, the midrange
items produce the profit, & the high ticket items get the attention &
are the gravy.
So far I've had only one "bummer" show. It was a 1st time event,
poorly advertised & poorly attended, on a weekday. The space only cost
me $20, and I only sold $125, but I did better than anybody else.
Linda J