I had a good show at the Carolina Pottery Festival yesterday. This show is in my home town, only 8 miles away from my house and the booth fee is $100 I think. Anyhow, I had good sales, not a lot of sales but still enough to add up to the best show of the last three I have done. (Finally!) (Yay!)
Of the 90+ potters in this show I am one of two with the most expensive pots. Also, and I'm not bragging here, but I'd say I am in the top five of the best potters in the show too. I am mentioning all this just to say that there is a hell of a lot of competition in the show with pots that are of fair to average quality and most all of the items at this show are priced very low. I'm fine with people making what they want and charging what ever they want for it. It's my responsibility to be true to myself to make the best work I can and to price it for what I feel it's worth.
It took me an hour before I made my first sale. It was for a nice vase that was $130. I had watched a few potters near me wrap up pots for customers from the beginning of the show. They were selling like mad. Their prices were 40-50% less than mine. I continued to sell pots over the day, slowly, not like mad, but slowly, and it all added up to a good day.
I often question my prices and my work. But when it comes down to it, what I'm making, and what I am charging is right. I cannot compare my pots to those people who sell mugs for $18 or $24 or have a 3 piece canister set for less than $100. They are making different work, and for all I know have very different financial needs than my own.
One of the questions I am asking myself is how do I get my pots in front of the right people. What shows or exhibitions do I need to do that will be worth my time and effort and produce some profits? There were probably over 1000+ people who came through the show yesterday. Of that number, just fewer than 20 bought my pots. Many of them liked my work and gave me very nice compliments, but only a small percentage paid their hard earned money for my pottery. (Thank you!).
I have a big show in two weeks and I'm nervous about it because I've never done it before but I am hopeful about it too because it's in a big city and it will hopefully bring out customrs who appreciate the work I make. I'm also debuting a new booth set up and a new stratagy for displaying my work. Fingers crossed that it comes off well.
Anyhow, I just wanted to write a little about my experience yesterday. I think a lot of you enjoyed the posts I did previously on craft shows so I thought this would be good. Here are the links for those posts: CLICK and CLICK
There are several key issues that I touched on here that could be expanded upon. That will be for future posts.
Okay, tomorrow is a big day for decorating. Get ready for more hydro abrasion!