Becomng professional

[Chicken lady]

I have a lot of unglazed black and white work “painted with fire”, it’s part of what sets me apart from the rest of the show. Prices range from $10-$75. I had a few sales at each end, nothing in the middle this weekend. What I made money on was $10 trinket dishes that could have been made by a ten y.o.

Nobody actually wants to pay for time and skill. Everybody stops to admire. Then they buy a cat dish.

i bought a small, flat rectangular tray (relish tray? Sushi? Hors d’ouvre?) And 4 matching little plates (saucer sized) for Dd for Christmas - $62 just the plates - assorted and unmatching ($30) for me, and 2 mugs ($18 And $20) not one of them had a cat on it.

[Tybee]

Nobody actually wants to pay for time and skill. Everybody stops to admire. Then they buy a cat dish.

I am one of those stop and admire and then pick up something small. It is totally a matter of affordability. I want to pay for time and skill, but it is not in my fixed income retirement budget, so I just admire.

Customers can be limited in funds, or space, or both.

[Chicken lady]

What bugs me is that faced with a choice between a small $10 or $12 art piece representative of my work and a $10 item I knocked out in 15 minutes demonstrating to elementary school kids, they pick the $10 item - because it has a cat on it!

my Dd was appalled at the trinket dishes. Then a woman went by and said “oh! I can’t leave without a couple of these cute little dishes!” After she left Dd gave me an incredulous look and I just shrugged and said “they pay for the booth.”

As a person who loves beautiful things and knows broke - I try really hard to have enough low end pieces that I don’t run out. Maybe too hard - I can get the jump from $10 to $50 but not often from $10 to $15.

[iris lilies]

I am in the demographic where I can buy higher end pottery, and sometimes do, now that I have a use for it. I use it in floral designs for flower shows and etc. I buy a nice piece sbout every 2~3 years. The last one was $250. It had no cats on it. . Flower show ladies like abstract stuff.

[sweetana3]

I stop at every booth or stand to see cat items. May or may not buy them but they stop me in my tracks. Sometimes that is what is necessary to get the other items attention.

[Float On]

A tip from our accountant he always told us every year to get rid of the bottom 10%.
Funny about the cats what we always heard was "do you make a glass cat?" or "oh I'd love to buy this but I have a cat." We actually did have another glassblowing friend who ended up having a pretty successful career with her little sleeping cat sculpture and I knew of a couple of ladies I'd run into in Philly at the big wholesale show who's entire line was blown cat vases. I actually did buy a really nice pottery little bowl and plate set this summer....for my feral cat. Darn possum pulled the plate off the porch the other night and chipped it.
I think my most expensive pottery purchase was a large vessel that looks like a woven basket for $800. But I also buy a lot of pottery star ornaments for $5-6 each. I like to put them on christmas gifts as part of the wrapping bling. Are you making star ornaments? People love little misshaped pottery bowls so as silly/boring as you think they are I'd still make a bunch of them and as you say they are the bread-n-butter and pay the booth fee. They are great for candles, sauces, rings, etc...
Part of the price point thing is the type of show it might be and the time of year. October was always still personal shoppers - people adding to their collection. November was getting into the buying inexpensive for others gift crowd.

[Zoe Girl]

I just went to an art show. lots of amazing artists. My sister bought a wreath she really liked and talked with the artist. I bought a bracelet for a friend made out of stones I liked. I saw a lot more I liked but not really anything I could use in such a small apartment. However I tried to talk to artists when I could.

I saw a lot of junk, a million snowmen that looks more like mas produced stuff from China than handcrafted. That kinda bothered me, but I assume that is what people need to do to pay for the booth. I wish I had made a list of things I was looking for so I could buy some things, however we did pay a small entrance fee to support.

[Chicken lady]

Oh yes, I will keep making the cat plates. Even though I feel about them like the snowmen that were mentioned. I will not make little Japanese tea bowls anymore because they don’t sell well at a price that pays for my time and effort. And they are too small to put cats on. I am going to put cats on my fiestaware colored bowls that are just plain (The already made ones) because they are definitely my bottom ten percent. And then not make any more of those also. The heavier earth tone bowls sell better.

the booth next to me had a lot of flower themed things which didn’t sell well because of time of year, but she also had tons of snowflake and star ornaments, so she was pretty much selling those and showing off her other work and getting a mailing list for spring shows.

I do have a signature ornament that sells pretty well, and that will be in the studio gallery for the next four weeks. the hippos are trending right now as well.

[nswef]

How wonderful Cl that you are seeing a pattern of sorts and are able to make plans for what to produce next. Paying the booth rent is valuable even if the objects aren't your favorite.

[Teacher Terry]

I think that this time of year people are looking at small items as gifts for co-worker's, etc so don't want to spend a lot of $.