Selling work

[Bob De.]

Showing pieces are a good way for people to see your work. I usually sell my pieces at a local store. I did show at our state fair (for a couple years) when I first started and was asked to be the artist of the month at a local library. At the time, I'm unable to carve fast enough to market. I have just been trying to get known a little. Marketing seems the way to go.

[gmarq]

Thanks for the help. In Denver and the mountain towns we have several good craft shows in the summer. Think I'll steer that way. Thanks! You people are great.

[susieq]

Greg,
If the shows are more of an art show or a woodcarving show, you will do better. I have found out through personal experience that "craft" shows don't bring buyers willing to spend that kind of money on something. Before getting into the gallery, woodcarving shows were where I did the best at. Good luck with your efforts to "get out there" with your work.

[Dull Knife]

Since I do most of my carving during the Winter months, I have been known to make a lot of stuff, I carve mostly caricatures.......and my wife has lots of it displayed. When folks come over and see something that they like, I say "take it with you". I can't keep all the stuff, if I did, I'd have to build on another room. I have people come up to me, when we are out and about, and say, "boy I sure gets lots of chuckles from the carving you gave me". It just feels good to make someone happy!!!!

[Dan Wegiel]

I haven't tried to sell any of my carvings either. I've given several away to friends and donated a few to charitable causes which brought good money, but I'm still new to carving and its very hard to let them go. I will have to find an outlet soon because I have so many that I no longer have room to store them. I agree with the others that ebay and craft shows are not the way to go. Just my 2 cents. Dan

[Tom-H]

I agree about the craft shows being non productive as far as selling wood carvings. I believe that the key is to understand the carvings that you may attempt to sell.If you are a very good carver and produce woodcarvings that should demand the higher prices that's one thing. When I say higher prices I mean in the over $100 area. Then there are those carvings that are between $25 and $100. You may not agree with my description of higher prices. Then there are the carvings that are up to $25. I would classify these $25 and under carvings as typical Christmas tree ornaments. And before some get teed off, there are several on the board whose Christmas tree ornaments I would classify as well over the $25. I sell ornaments for $25 and under. I sell at higher end gift stores. The ornaments that I sell are carved in about 1/2 hour each. The stores let me come in on special days and sit and carve. I then get to sell my ornaments. Kind of a trade. Last year I averaged 36 ornaments and pins sold per day of carving in the shops. The average selling price was $9.00. The minimum price for a small carved Santa pin was $6.00, maximum price for a larger Santa ornament was $20. But I'll be honest, I don't produce very many that I would try to sell for $20. But heres the deal, I view these ornaments and pins as practice pieces. It's either give them away, sell or burn. I doubt I would just place the ornaments and pins in the shops. The carving there is so much fun. Oh, and the most fun is giving some really simple carved stuff to the kids who stand and watch. I am not tryin to make a living....just buy more tools and wood..

Tom H

[MelNM]

I'm guilty of selling on Ebay, mainly what I would call fast carves. Basically a carving that takes less than a couple of hours to complete. But like someone was saying earlier is that I'm hoping to develope a good group of collectors and hopefully make some good contacts. I also consider it good practice to become an even better carver. I have seen some really nice carvings go for cheap on there also and on the other hand I have seen some bad ones, where folks call them primitive carvings and they make decent money on them. It will be a gamble no matter what type of carving you do.

Be very careful on Ebay, because there are a lot of Identity thieves out there. I had one hit me when I first started selling, luckily they didn't get no money, but it shut my Ebay site down. Ebay has a tutorial on how to prevent that, so make sure you do that before you start selling.

Good luck
Mel

[macktruck]

I've been selling on ebay this season. I've done okay. You know everyone is looking for a deal so carve small things (ornaments for an example) that you can make and not spend a lot of time on. I.ve been doing flat plane santa's with their hats down over their eyes about 2-4 inches tall. I sell them for about $15. sold about 40 this year. This is my hobby not my profession.
Macktruck

[Cottonwood]

I have found that local people in my town or city are the most dependable customers. It takes time to build a list of customers but that seems to be my most successful and steady income I have had from carving. I have a web site and it is starting to bring me some business but you must promote your web site by listing it on your letter head, advertising....everywhere you can put it.
Local art shows and galleries are good as well. Good luck! It's like any business; it takes time to develop.

[Dundee]

Has anyone tried www.etsy.com? I noticed a mask (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7844279) from a prior WCI issue was listed for $6,500.


Chris