I was listening to a podcast on a long drive and it made me wonder what the ratio of show cost to sales is for my shows. Last year was my first year doing shows and I've done many more shows this year than I did last year. This is just some basic math which takes the cost for the show divided by the sales I had for that show.
Most of the shows I've done are in the 10-15% range. I've done two shows this year that cost significantly more. Both of those shows I felt like I wasn't getting my moneys worth. The first one was a 5 day show (over 2 weekends) that had a ton of foot traffic, that just wasn't buying. I've been told that show was good in the past, but all the vendors were saying that sales were way down. The second was a 3 day show that I had to travel for. It was significantly better last year, but this year they had a tent sale that competed with the vendors. These shows were well run, but ultimately I was struggling with the return. They are the highest % below too - 28% and 19%. The 28% doesn't account for the fact that it was 5 very long days and the 19% doesn't account for my travel fees. I'm going to add up the travel fees and add that in.
I see a lot on various threads that your sales should be 10x your booth fee. If I take out those two shows then I am getting that on average. I still have more shows to do this year and I'll keep looking at the numbers as I do. It's going to shape how I approach shows next year. I also want to figure out a way to figure out time as a factor into this measurement. My local market is 6 times a year and is only 5 hours. Other shows are much longer and it can feel like they drag.
I feel like artists often don't want to think about the business side of things, but having metrics and using them to improve is really important to growing your business.
I sold out of all of my mushroom jewelry boxes. In making some more I decided to add a flange inside to make them just a little better. I also made the lip a little wider. These still need holes, but they need to setup a bit more first before I do them.
At my last fair I sold out of all my birch mugs and nearly sold out of all the small plates too. Here's a dozen more that are now drying that will be available soon. Work has been really busy the last couple of weeks so I have less time in the studio. Have to really prioritize what I'm making.
A while back I was in Hobby Lobby and they were having a super sale on their Eternal Bliss Yarn. I bought like a dozen skeins in Olive and Taupe. They have been in the way for like a year in my yarn room/photo booth/guest room. After my surgery I was having weird cold spells and I decided to crochet a blanket so that when I was cold it would keep me warm.
I used a 25 mm cook (it's massive) and made myself this blanket. The yarn is super soft. It's nothing more than a giant granny square and I tried to change colors on a row change. I'm really happy with how it turned out, but it totally needs to be blocked. I have nothing that will block anything this big, any ideas?
My experimental turkey is my favorite piece in this kiln. I think I need to make some more turkeys so I can play with them some more. Peacock + turkey = awesome.
I did also learn some things about doing resist on Laguna 60. My favorite glazes to use when doing the resist are the Amaco Celadons. I love how the lighter celadons look on Laguna 60, but they don't provide enough contrasts on the tan clay. In the future I will be sticking to the darker colors when I use this clay like Deep Sea, Storm, Mulberry.
Gobble, Gobble! I started glazing these turkeys and it hit me - these would be a perfect match with the peacock technique. I only had 3 so I decided to go drastic on the third one - and it's my favorite.
Snowmen are also back. They always look so uniquely individual even though they start out the same and have the same glaze colors.
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