Creative Woodworks & crafts 2004-09, страница 31

Quality Workmanship

One of the basic rules I learned long ago is to bum your failures (if your spouse will let you). Glaring mistakes in one piece on your table will bring all of your other work under suspicion. \ have always operated on the principle that 1 may be making twenty pieces from a design, but each customer is most likely buying only one and that one should be made as well as 1 can make it.

Size

People who like crafts tend to buy a lot of them and soon fill their shelves and walls. While there is always a market for large, well made, unique pieces, smaller, less expensive pieces will sell in much larger quantities to the dedicated craft buyer. I have also found thaL many people who love natural wood spend a lot of time at my booth praising my work, but still can't justify $50 or more for a bigger piece; however, they will spend $10 for a smaller piece and tell their friends about the bigger stuff. I also usually have a higher profit margin on the smaller pieces, so everyone wins. The other advantage is that I have learned to shrink many designs; they are more challenging to make and will often sell at the same show the next year in the smaller format.

Chrlstmas-themed items, such as this Christmas tree puzzle and various ornaments, have been good sellers for years.

going to sell to make sure that 1 have extra items appropriate to tiic venue.

Last year, at a fund-raiser for my daughter Kathleen's gymnastics club, wc made a number of gymnast Christmas ornaments. However, since we were also selling to several hundred girls from 6 to 18 years old, we brought unicorn and dragon ornaments and a large quantity of bubble words made of scraps from my larger pieces with words Kathleen and her friends thought would be cool. We sold a lot of pieces.

Conclusion

So what are my top three selling pieces now? Strangely, none of them are big fret pieces. The first is a bubble letter word, "HUG," ranging from 1/4" lo 1/2" high, made from the scraps of bigger pieces, and packaged with a little poem. The second is a set of three "shelf cats that T make out of distinctive orange or brown wood such as mulberry. The third is an oriental dragon done in red woods that my son Jacob adapted from several tattoo designs we had seen at temporary tattoo stands in many different tourist areas.

Here's how to make the dragon...

Usefulness

This is somewhat, overrated, as functional wood products such as lazy Susans and kitchen utensils can be manufactured in quantity and arc available in many stores. However, a hint of usefulness does help in a sale. I have sold a lot of puzzles that end up as shelf decorations because people see puzzles as having both play value and decorative value. During the Christmas season, 1 sell many oak or cherry ornaments because they are a craft that can be used to decorate the tree. Suncatchers and other hanging pieces also sell well, as do some clocks, depending on the design. A hint of usefulness (or even something that differentiates a piece from one that just sits on a shell) helps sales.

Design Theme

Popular designs range from seasonal items like Christmas ornaments to designs tied to an event or a specific client base. For example, fantasy themes, such as castles or unicorns, sell well at a science fiction and fantasy convention. Designs can also be hot sellers for a while and then go very cold. Years ago, dinosaurs were very popular; now dragons are, and dragons seem to sell everywhere. Well-designed wild animals are quite popular now, but who knows in a year or two? Cats, pigs and other collector animals seem to sell well all the time. Religious themes, particularly crosses, seem to sell steadily with an obvious boost in sales at Christmas.

One marketability test that I use is to make one of a new design, take it to work or show it to friends and relatives, and watch people's reactions. If the piece catches people's eyes and they ask about it, I make a few more and try them in a sale. T also consider where T am selling and do research on where T am

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fit • Creative Woodworks S. Crafts September 2004