As some of you know, I have a fine art painting habit which takes me to up to 20 events per year. As we all know, art shows are rediculously expensive when you note the entry fees, entry preparation costs, travel expenses, booth fees, sales tax collection and income tax filing requirements.. Since I sell nothing but originals, getting to the point of my work being self supporting has not yet arrived despite my years of doing summ outdoor events..So when my nearly full-time part-time day job evaporated when it became inconvenient for my former employer to allow me to have the time to do summer art shows on the weekends, I had to come up with some sort of an income stream to replace the money I was making at Home Depot (they treat and pay their average employee like a roman galley slave and most of their products come from the people's republic...buy from the other guys)....So I started to make and sell scented soy jar candles. I make an all-soy candle with no dyes or other additives and I put it in a very plain package. They have been well-received. I do several events with the candles where my wife works the candle booth and I work the art booth. The promoters for these events are very accommodating and will often place us side by side. These events are usually in the early spring and early fall. Then I do a crazy 12-15 weekend season where my wife and I are doing 1-3 events per weekend. This runs until the 2nd or at best 3rd weekend in December. Then it's sleepy time/art show applications until spring.The fall craft show season is a whole bunch of one day events for the most part which have table fees of less than $100. Many are churches, synogogues, and high schools. Average attendance is under 5000 people But, I think I had a great fall season thanks to all my repeat customers, phone orders and wholesale orders...if any of you are out there reading this, Thank You! I am sure that I made more in 15 weekends than I did doing art shows all summer.. Especially if you look at net profits after expenses... No overnight travel, lower mileages, lower cost of goods....Along the way, I noted some things:1) the local craft show scene is awash in wearables. I see a some of the 'jewelers' that I see on the summer show circuit plus the next crop of summer show 'jewelers' at these events. I also see a lot of folks trying their hands at women's wearables. The jeweler all complain that there are too many jewelers at the events. I ask them, well, what are you going to make to sell which will get you out of the over-supplied category. They all expect the other folks to get out off the business for them so they will be one of the few survivors. Makes sense to me....2) Buy/sell is officially prohibited at most events, but the events are awash in it. I did an event in Delaware which has a lot of documentation requirements to participate, including submission of raw material receipts, workshop images, paperwork, restrictive contract..... So I get there and someone has bought a 10 space suite of booths and is vending a total obvious buy/sell paradise. Then I look around and see multiple 3-4 booth 'suites' which are more of the same...The promoter is surprised when I complain and later asks how to spot it..... It's a good event for me and it's her first year doing this event as chair, so we do a little touristing and chat. Hopefully, she brings the hammer with her next fall and does a 'Carrie Nation' on these folks before ejecting them. There was no stomach for it this year.3) times must be getting harder for the promoters. More and more of them are allowing 'consultants' and 'vendors' into their events to fill the available spots. There are no end of these folks...cosmetics, candles, jewelry, fashion, and food.... the number of franchisees and consultants is increasing...again, the focus is on the female customers who make up the bulk of the attendees who buy anything. One promoter simply announced that it was too hard/too much trouble to screen out buy/sell, so they were no longer trying..As long as I am making a profit, I will keep doing these events, but there will soon either be a reckoning in the wearables division, or one group will fade, with another eager group to take their place (more likely). The promoters would be hard pressed to fill their events with original craft if all the jewelers and wearables makers dropped out..
Oh, forgot to address the other insult: I am a serious fine artist. I currently have six blue ribbons from juried art shows and about 10 other juried fine art show awards.
As a painter who sells nothing but originals (and I have sold over 350 originals in the past 8 years), I think I can safely say that I am a serious traditional fine artist.
Most fine art painters, who are making a living on the circuit today, in my small area of the world, tell me they are making their living selling prints. They also say they could not make a living without selling prints. I don't make and sell prints. I don't sell prints.
So, I have to make ends meet or come close. That's why I make candles for my fine art off-season. I used to have a day job, which got sacrificed when my employers would no longer grant me the time off to do my art show event season. So, I do believe I am serious about my art. I also believe that I must do what's necessary to further that ambition.
Further, art and craft are a business. Unless you have representation and great margins on your net sales, you have to treat your passion in a business-like manner. So, I constantly look at my market and trends in it.
Hence my concerns about promoters at fine art shows gutting the fine art components of their shows in preference to maximizing profits by filling all booths with less than fine art. Their actions show a lack of thought for the future if they are serious about continuing in the juried fine art show business. But they do show they are all about making money.
Christine, i am sorry if a detailed reply taxes your reading comprehension and synthesis skills.
My craft business supports my fine art efforts until such time as it can support itself. I do what I must to pursue my creative avocation -> vocation.
I am successful in my craft business side because I put the same care into it as I do my fine art. I understand my small geographic slice of inexpensive shows and I appear to have met the needs of my increasing customer base and fledgling wholesale offshoot.
Plus, I buy smart and make a premium product in a plain package with as many American made materials as I can source. Costs minimized, great product, understand the business. But the local craft show scene is awash in cheap jewelry, wearables and buy/sell.
I also know my art shows. The fine art show scene in this area for shows below the "Top Shelf Level" is also awash in non-fine jewelry and fashion, but not as much buy/sell. Promoters are still making their money by filling spaces with this stuff and they are eroding their fine artist base without concern b/c there are always more wearable vendors to fill their shoes.
The promoters don't hear the wearable folks and the artists saying the shows are overloaded with non-fine jewelry and wearables owing to the fluttering cacophony of $20 bills deafening them from booth fees at a full show. Their events are morphing into fashion shows with an arts and crafts component.
Please become a promoter and start a series of juried fashion shows. If you become the Pied Piper of wearables, perhaps you will improve the quality of the fine art circuit and become rich beyond your wildest dreams. Then juried fine art shows might return to being more about art than fashion.
Mark, you're right about the glut of Buy/Sell goods, but frankly your post is too rambling and self-indulgent to be taken seriously. It's interesting that you can rationalize the soy candle sales while retaining an image of yourself as a serious artist.
So obviously this is not a popular opinion with women's fashion purveyors at art and craft shows. But please consider starting a counter- thread on your blog rather than here. It really wasn't the subject of the original post, just a portion.
I personally have issues with the glut of 'jewelry' in both art and craft shows. But I am also seeing folks who sew their own designs or have their own designs sewn by others ..... Or machine knit or....
Where do you draw the boundary?
Fashion is fashion and should be on fashion shows. The shows are out there; but are selective.... More, it seems than most craft shows and more than a lot of art shows. I'm not certain when wearable fashion became a staple of the art show circuit, but when it comprises 30-40% of an event because it is parsed out into multiple disciplines; it's an issue for me as a traditional fine artist and crafter.... Depending on the season.
What is your definition of fiber arts? It used to have a definition which discriminated between fashion clothing by designers and visual art. Just like there's a divide between tie-dye and batik.
There's room for fiber art in an art show, and in a craft show with the craft show limits being a lot looser. But I certainly have issues with a show balance that has a 30-50% amount of women's wearables content. Just because someone breaks that broader category into small parsed pieces doesn't make it any better to tradional crafters. I wish I had the programs of events I attended when I was younger-as an observer rather than as a participant.
The glut of the amount of women's wearables is a recent creeping phenomena. But it had made it much easier for promoters to fill a venue with paying participants. Unfortunately, like the proliferation of casinos, it has hurt all the players by spreading out the available pool of money for artists and artisans. This we hear the jewelers and women's wearables folks in general complain (and I hear it at every show) about how there are way too many exhibitors at art and craft shows catering to women with items to wear. Fashion is fashion whether you string it, sew it, or paint on it. If its wearable, it's fashion; and there's too much of it at events to provide a reasonably balanced show.
This opinion always gets the 'jewelers' ( non-precious metal and non-precious/semi-precious stones fabricators ) and a portion of the fiber artists who make nothing but stuff displayed on womens bodies (wearables) all bent out of shape.
In art shows, rather than fashion shows, only a small portion of the broad fiber arts exhibitors category qualifies as art. The rest is wearables.
You wouldn't want a fashion show all loaded up with painters selling framed paintings wired up so you could hang them around your neck or off one shoulder calling them fashion items. By the same token, designer clothing and 'jewelry' (wearables) should be far far fewer in numbers at art shows and certainly scrutinized more closely at craft shows. I rarely see painters, sculptors, glass or other traditional artists and crafts people complain that their particular herd is over-represented at an event. But I do hear it from 'jewelers' and womens fashion people at events all the time. It is degrading a lot of shows and causes fine crafts people and traditional crafters to seek venues where those categories are being limited by the promoters.
It's a problem with people who don't do fashion to see so much of it invading shows where it was not so very prevalent 10 years ago.
Mark, thanks for your overview but I'm a little confused about what you consider "wearables"? Are you talking about fiber artists who make hats and handbags, scarves and shawls? Jewelry makers? Tie-dyed tee shirts? Are these actual artisans or are they some of the Buy/Sell that everyone, including me, dislikes? BTW, adding soy candles seems like a good decision and also a creative one, good luck with those too, and thanks for your thought provoking critique.
I've done the show in DE that you speak of twice (probably 2008-2009). Those people were at the show then and we complained to the promoters both years. The show makes such a big fuss about their application process. It's pretty bad when all of the "pictures" in these booths are in plastic sleeves and still have the manufacturer/wholesale company name on it....
Apparently, the show USED to be a huge deal for the area and there was a waitlist to get in with both buildings full of spaces. When I did it, they spread us out and had a lot of gaps. Best of luck to you!
Very thoughtful post. Since I compete in an oversupplied category, i read your first bullet with interests, as it touch on some of my thinking these last few weeks as I gear up for the next season.
I'm tired of post that moan about what's wrong, with fingers pointing at all but self. Good for you as you explore new paths. Cheers.
Comments
As a painter who sells nothing but originals (and I have sold over 350 originals in the past 8 years), I think I can safely say that I am a serious traditional fine artist.
Most fine art painters, who are making a living on the circuit today, in my small area of the world, tell me they are making their living selling prints. They also say they could not make a living without selling prints. I don't make and sell prints. I don't sell prints.
So, I have to make ends meet or come close. That's why I make candles for my fine art off-season. I used to have a day job, which got sacrificed when my employers would no longer grant me the time off to do my art show event season. So, I do believe I am serious about my art. I also believe that I must do what's necessary to further that ambition.
Further, art and craft are a business. Unless you have representation and great margins on your net sales, you have to treat your passion in a business-like manner. So, I constantly look at my market and trends in it.
Hence my concerns about promoters at fine art shows gutting the fine art components of their shows in preference to maximizing profits by filling all booths with less than fine art. Their actions show a lack of thought for the future if they are serious about continuing in the juried fine art show business. But they do show they are all about making money.
My craft business supports my fine art efforts until such time as it can support itself. I do what I must to pursue my creative avocation -> vocation.
I am successful in my craft business side because I put the same care into it as I do my fine art. I understand my small geographic slice of inexpensive shows and I appear to have met the needs of my increasing customer base and fledgling wholesale offshoot.
Plus, I buy smart and make a premium product in a plain package with as many American made materials as I can source. Costs minimized, great product, understand the business. But the local craft show scene is awash in cheap jewelry, wearables and buy/sell.
I also know my art shows. The fine art show scene in this area for shows below the "Top Shelf Level" is also awash in non-fine jewelry and fashion, but not as much buy/sell. Promoters are still making their money by filling spaces with this stuff and they are eroding their fine artist base without concern b/c there are always more wearable vendors to fill their shoes.
The promoters don't hear the wearable folks and the artists saying the shows are overloaded with non-fine jewelry and wearables owing to the fluttering cacophony of $20 bills deafening them from booth fees at a full show. Their events are morphing into fashion shows with an arts and crafts component.
Please become a promoter and start a series of juried fashion shows. If you become the Pied Piper of wearables, perhaps you will improve the quality of the fine art circuit and become rich beyond your wildest dreams. Then juried fine art shows might return to being more about art than fashion.
Mark, you're right about the glut of Buy/Sell goods, but frankly your post is too rambling and self-indulgent to be taken seriously. It's interesting that you can rationalize the soy candle sales while retaining an image of yourself as a serious artist.
Where do you draw the boundary?
Fashion is fashion and should be on fashion shows. The shows are out there; but are selective.... More, it seems than most craft shows and more than a lot of art shows. I'm not certain when wearable fashion became a staple of the art show circuit, but when it comprises 30-40% of an event because it is parsed out into multiple disciplines; it's an issue for me as a traditional fine artist and crafter.... Depending on the season.
What is your definition of fiber arts? It used to have a definition which discriminated between fashion clothing by designers and visual art. Just like there's a divide between tie-dye and batik.
There's room for fiber art in an art show, and in a craft show with the craft show limits being a lot looser. But I certainly have issues with a show balance that has a 30-50% amount of women's wearables content. Just because someone breaks that broader category into small parsed pieces doesn't make it any better to tradional crafters. I wish I had the programs of events I attended when I was younger-as an observer rather than as a participant.
The glut of the amount of women's wearables is a recent creeping phenomena. But it had made it much easier for promoters to fill a venue with paying participants. Unfortunately, like the proliferation of casinos, it has hurt all the players by spreading out the available pool of money for artists and artisans. This we hear the jewelers and women's wearables folks in general complain (and I hear it at every show) about how there are way too many exhibitors at art and craft shows catering to women with items to wear. Fashion is fashion whether you string it, sew it, or paint on it. If its wearable, it's fashion; and there's too much of it at events to provide a reasonably balanced show.
This opinion always gets the 'jewelers' ( non-precious metal and non-precious/semi-precious stones fabricators ) and a portion of the fiber artists who make nothing but stuff displayed on womens bodies (wearables) all bent out of shape.
In art shows, rather than fashion shows, only a small portion of the broad fiber arts exhibitors category qualifies as art. The rest is wearables.
You wouldn't want a fashion show all loaded up with painters selling framed paintings wired up so you could hang them around your neck or off one shoulder calling them fashion items. By the same token, designer clothing and 'jewelry' (wearables) should be far far fewer in numbers at art shows and certainly scrutinized more closely at craft shows. I rarely see painters, sculptors, glass or other traditional artists and crafts people complain that their particular herd is over-represented at an event. But I do hear it from 'jewelers' and womens fashion people at events all the time. It is degrading a lot of shows and causes fine crafts people and traditional crafters to seek venues where those categories are being limited by the promoters.
It's a problem with people who don't do fashion to see so much of it invading shows where it was not so very prevalent 10 years ago.
Mark, thanks for your overview but I'm a little confused about what you consider "wearables"? Are you talking about fiber artists who make hats and handbags, scarves and shawls? Jewelry makers? Tie-dyed tee shirts? Are these actual artisans or are they some of the Buy/Sell that everyone, including me, dislikes? BTW, adding soy candles seems like a good decision and also a creative one, good luck with those too, and thanks for your thought provoking critique.
I've done the show in DE that you speak of twice (probably 2008-2009). Those people were at the show then and we complained to the promoters both years. The show makes such a big fuss about their application process. It's pretty bad when all of the "pictures" in these booths are in plastic sleeves and still have the manufacturer/wholesale company name on it....
Apparently, the show USED to be a huge deal for the area and there was a waitlist to get in with both buildings full of spaces. When I did it, they spread us out and had a lot of gaps. Best of luck to you!
Megan
Very thoughtful post. Since I compete in an oversupplied category, i read your first bullet with interests, as it touch on some of my thinking these last few weeks as I gear up for the next season.
I'm tired of post that moan about what's wrong, with fingers pointing at all but self. Good for you as you explore new paths. Cheers.