The Metal Artist Forum

Picking your shows

As most of my work has been private commissions, I'm relatively new to the idea of earning a living doing shows. With that, I'm finding, in spite of all my efforts otherwise, I'm making mistakes. The one this weekend, was doing a show at VMI in Lexington. I and my Fere watched the fireworks last year and the place was packed. It looked as if there was a huge number of venders. This spring, I signed up for the weekend, thinking this will be a good show. Alas, I didn't look closely enough. My sells were all but non-existent. I won't list all my vents, but I came away bitterly disappointed.

I've stepped back and tried to see why.

First: At any Fourth of July show, the craft vender is way down on the list of activities. The Balloon rides, the fireworks, the children's play area are all of higher interest. As a vender of hand forge ironwork, I was the odd-man out. The high venders were food, followed by the venders of children's toys. (watching how many cheaply made toys were sold, made me think I should reconsider my trade) This was really a case of knowing your market and I was way off mark. Folks are not coming to 4th of July shows to look at craft, they were there for the idea of fireworks, even if the fireworks were still hours away.

Second: the organizers viewed the venders as a side event. No, a better phase would be, a space filler, something to add a bit of color to the event. The organization running the event, couldn't have cared less about the venders. This is not the first time I've been unhappy with an event and each time the event has been run by a non-profit organization using the event as a fund raiser. Now this isn't true of all fund-raisers. My mother has been organizing a decoy and wild-life art festival for over twenty years for a not for profit organization. It was probably my experience with her, that put my guard down with other organizations. Won't make that mistake again

For me, the lessons learned:
Know the market.
Know why folks are coming.
Know who is running the show.

I might add to this later, but I hope you get the picture.

That is a story of truth and although it may not sell like all the other fantasy bologna I read, I value its longevity and I thank you for your honesty. I am sorry to hear the blacksmithing attraction wasn’t the valuable gem that it is. I go to those things and walk through those nice bright outdoor tent structures filled with treasures that shine like money and it sometimes gets written that the cups all runneth over. Of coarse, but unless you’re in the right place at the right time, the answer is you could starve to death.

I love blacksmithing both watching and practicing. I like to look at books that show colorful pictures of iron work and I own some I look at frequently. I am however mystified by certain publications that make it sound like a blacksmith who reaches a certain level of the craft will tour the country doing demos and selling art for earning plenty of money to polish his Rolls Royce on the weekends. In reality, the anvil probably rings ten times more than the cash register behind it. It is with your truth that we all learn. Thanks again for writing. Spears.

Two resources that list "real" art and craft shows: Sunshine Artist Magazine and Art Fair Sourcebook. Both have online sites.

You will never be able to sell high priced, finely crafted metal work at a neighborhood fair/festival or farmer's market. These types of work can only be sold at higher end art fairs and even so, you need to have a marketable line of work with a professional display. You also need to understand the pros and cons of entering different media categories - metal, sculpture, furniture. Check out this guy - one of the more successful art fair metal vendors out there. He has developed a clearly articulated style which allows him to get into some of the best shows in the country.
http://www.rhenrydesign.com/

I agree with your lessons learned. I would add that the most important thing I've learned about picking shows is to make friends with other vendors. I don't do a lot of shows anymore but when I did, I found that if I could get my set up done early and offer a hand to my neighbors, I was rewarded with good information about diferent shows in my region. I got the best feedback from folks with a simmilar customer base but diferent products like potters, jewelers, and woodcarvers. While you have to asses if their experience will translate, people willing to take home jewelry might not be thinking about having a piece of sculpture delivered, they were usualy better than someone who would be direct competition.

Thanks for all the positive feedback.

For most of these shows, I'm selling simple items: hooks, fireplace pokers, bottle openers, etc. At other shows in the same area, I've done quite well. But those have been craft shows. This was really a case of "knowing your market" Or in my case, not!
The funny part, for the food venders, this was a great place. Most shows charge the food venders a big cut of the sells, here it was the same flat fee the crafters paid. Those hotdog sellers made a lot of money this weekend :-)

No names, but talking with the toy vender who was next to me, one item I had never heard of before, sold like hotcakes. He said on a good year, he'll sell over 3500 of them. He has about 5 minutes of work in each toy and about $1 in cost, sells for $7. That's $20,000 in earnings just for that one toy. Now he and his wife do over thirty shows a year all up and down the east coast