We had 2 good speakers at the E&E lecture on Wednesday. Katie and Roxanne graduated 2 years ago from UH and both are practicing artists. Roxanne does mostly small framed art pieces, including paper cuts of butterflies and Katie does mostly machine embroidered panels of domestic items, along with teaching machine embroidery.
They both said they worked in a manner that delivered what the small gift shop could sell - ie smaller items to suit the domestic interior. Katie said that when she was doing her degree, Antje had criticised her work for being too twee - she depicts items like cupcakes and sets of wellingtons in applique and machine embroidery. However, she also observed, "in the commercial world, twee sells". While I can see the appeal of this type of work, it makes me cringe, and fortunately I don't have to sell my work to support myself. Katie, in particular, said she could identify which customers would buy her hand made craft items - "women between 30-65, well dressed, with big rings, and designer handbag". So, in other words, middle aged, middle class women. This exactly describes what I don't want my work to be, because I don't want to appeal to this type of person. I have an absolute horror of my work appealing to high maintenance women who have more money than sense, and occupy their leisure time shopping for pretty (and unnecessary) things.
It reminds me of when I started the Contemporary Applied Art course and we had some "get to know you" exercises. One of the group questions was "what are your main hobbies?" I was absolutely shocked that, on an applied art course, most of the girls' main hobby was ..... shopping! Not art, drawing, painting, sculpture, or anything creative. Shopping. So does this indicate most of the people on my course are going to become the purchasers of the few graduates who actually practice art? So we are just educating people so they can become shoppers? Probably! How cringe-making!
So this brings me back to musing over what I want to make. Definitely printed fabric. But not little panels for the wall. Dear God, please NO. Definitely something about the hand drawn. Definitely something about the repeat, but not sure how yet. Something in the field of the quirky, interesting, domestic routine. Probably something in the line of furnishing fabric, with patterns that may fit specific rooms like the kitchen, but to be used in a practical way. I might use patterned fabric tryouts embellished with stitch, for panels, but this is a practical use of sample fabric, not the intended end product. I would want metres of my fabric being used to cover furniture etc, not tiny samples being produced for a pointless panel. And the subject matter needs to have the emotional appeal to me, making it fun, quirky, and unusual. At the moment I am working on imagery from marmalade making, because it is a strongly manual process which gives me the mental satisfaction and flow by all the hand work, and it is done simply because my husband enjoys the end product.
However, Katie was very free with pragmatic advice on how to make art/craft financially successful:
Unique Selling Point - who are you competing with? You can't fight big business so:
Make it unique
Be yourself
Interact with customers - you are part of what they are buying
Small customers can lead to bigger commissions
Don't copy others
Know where your product fits - Katie's is vintage, domestic, mundane and twee
Twee sells
Varied product ranges - cupcakes, wellingtons, pet portraits
Different products at different times of year - Christmas/valentines
Gift market important - hearts papercuts sell at Valentines
Sales and discounts in off season
Track own sales
Track spending income/outgoings
Lots of things tax deductable therefore this is important.
Display items sensitively - singer sewing machine, colour co-ord
Price according to market - hairclips for 5-11s cheap and cheerful;
Start cheap and work your way up.
Pay yourself enough
Ensure you use good suppliers
Support other small traders - mutual promotion of Singer repairs/embroidery classes
Go to business courses
Website presence - needs pictures and people like work in progress
Running own business is hard work. Needs multi-functionalism and self motivation.
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