This is the second year that I've participated in this fund raising Arts and Crafts show for this Presbyterian church here in Tucson. As with last year, there are always a lot of people walking around and looking but few buyers. I had a fairly good show this year and for a one day event, did ok. I had 3 people who bought things from me last year, come back this year to buy more. That made my day. How many other people on this list participate in church art shows and do you find that they are worth the effort?
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Good topic and useful information, Merry. I love a quickie where you can pop in for the day, sleep in your own bed and still bring home a nice little profit to pay some bills. Mostly artists who do art fairs can't do these events, but the ones that are run like a gallery, in the right neighborhoods can sometimes make some money. However, as the holidays it is probably important to have something that is "giftable." A friend of mine went to a rather expensive show last December (I suggested he not do this) with pricey work (I told him to have items under $50 that would make gifts, he didn't heed) and his total sales were $65. Please do the math first folks!
About the only options we have here in Indy are bazaars and school shows in December. Good luck as you finish the year. I would have done the same thing you did re: gallery show.
Kathleen - glad to provide a chuckle for you! BTW, we will probably go back to that church show next year, but after 6 years of doing that show and then getting invited to be artists for the Holiday Gala kickoff at one of our galleries (our best selling gallery), we did decide to take at least a one year break.
Honestly, I can't complain about a 6 hour event where we average more $100 an hour and we can take turns going home for lunch since it's all of 3 miles away, we just decided after 6 years of doing that event to take a break. We'll see what next year brings, but we've also heard from our Gallery and while we only sold a few items during the Gala event, evidently they are out of stock on a couple of our best sellers now. So, it's all good.
That being said, this one event is the only little bazaar we have left in our schedule, the rest were weeded out very quickly. It's just not our market so we're trying a few new things for November/December 2011 including an "invitation only show" at an exclusive club, 2 gallery events, 2 art shows and one little boutique. Not a lot of options in Seattle this time of year so we're trying to make that best decisions on where we spend our time.
Hi Merry,
I did a few church bazaars when I had just started selling my jewelry and ran up against the same types of issues that Ruth talked about. We stopped doing them fairly quickly (however if I made $800. at a 1-day church bazaar I'd probably be back! Tee Hee Ruth). Here in Indianapolis these types of shows are usually held in the basement with such poor lighting that even with our show lighting it often felt like a mole by the end of the day. School craft shows here are similar, sort of a combination of crafty things like hand-made kitchen scrubbies and a few more artistic things. Also the people who attend don't really want to spend much.
Thanks. That's a great idea.
Merry - this is a good time of year for you to start checking out shows in Arizona. As you attend the shows you'll be able to get an idea on which ones are better suited for your art and hopefully find the rights ones to invest your time in. Walk a few shows, talk to a few artists, look at the Art Fair Calendar site, Sunshine Artists, AFSB, etc. and start determining which shows are worth trying.
Ruth thanks for the comments. I've actually heard a lot of this myself. I'm not at the point where I can stop the day job but I need to rethink where I spend my valuable time doing shows, so that I'm not wasting my time. And yes there were a lot of hobbyists are this show.
Our first year we did several bazaars at either schools or churches and for the most part found that they just didn't work for us. We had one left on our schedule in 2010 that we dropped this year, it's a church that is 3 miles from the house and over the 6 years we did the event we averaged about $800 in sales, for a 1 day (6 hour) event on a weekend when we had absolutely nothing else to do. So, 3 miles away, very inexpensive show to do and one that benefited a charity we supported, we were willing to do that event and may go back every other year in the future. Last year our sales really dropped, we had a lot of shoppers pointing out items they bought in the past and weren't really even looking at the new items, so we decided to take a break from it as we feel we saturated that market. This year we replaced it with a Gallery event.
Why don't they work for us? Because those shows attract a lot of hobbyists and while it may not be true for all areas of this country, we certainly see a much higher percentage of hobbyists this time of year. People who are trying to sell enough at low ball prices to sustain their hobby for another year.
I have to admit, the hobbyists drive me nuts. I see their prices and think how can you possibly make a living at that? Oh yeah, you’re not, you’re just paying for your hobby. It drives me nuts when they totally under price their pieces and then we get the continual question, why is your jewelry so much more expensive than so and so’s? Then we get the questions from the hobbyists themselves, how can you make a living doing this? What shows do you do? Where do you buy your supplies? Where do you get your ideas? Where do you buy your tools? Do you have a wholesale account I can leverage? Do you teach classes? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Just to be clear, I am not talking about those artists out there who have yet to reach a level of sales where they can quit their day jobs or those who due to family obligations or other life circumstances can only do a few shows a year. I’m talking about those who do 1-5 shows a year just so they can afford to replenish their supplies and continue on their merry way and price their work just to replenish their hobby fund.
OK, that was probably a much longer answer than you wanted, thanks for letting me rant a bit!!