Style

I invited a few local creative clayfolks over to my studio to show them  tricks that have made me successful on Etsy. These are people who already have a unique body of work. That’s the #1 thing. I believe that the second most important element for success is how you style your photos.

Above is a One Clay bead necklace from my My Tribe collection. I used natural sunlight, a vintage looking Boho shirt, and a model with no makeup and carefree hair. This one is all about natural beauty. It’s for a woman who wants that look, and meant to draw her in to look at the close up photos that are second in the listing.

Here are a few other successfully styled photos from the Artisans Gallery Team. Notice how each one is so much more than a catalog shot. The photos make a statement about the work, and tell us who the target audience is for that artisan. (Click on any photo to learn more).

From Birribe, the scarf pops against a subdued palette and the rustic bowl says ‘handmade, and ‘timelessly fashionable’.

 

From Starbags, a playful, fun and energetic styling photo says that this is for a woman who is light hearted and adventurous. She needs a bag that has personality but is made well enough to withstand her capricious and active lifestyle.

From Polestar, this conveys a message that the necklace will be front and center, a focal point for your outfit. Simple and powerful presentation.

From WolfArtGlass, the recycled shot glass is shown emerging from the bottles- a clever way to convey the process and its eco friendly nature. The target market- eco conscious buyers- are defined instantly.

From Ileaiye, the styling shows us a comfortable and flattering shawl in the easy going pose of the model. The white textured brick background also says urban. The styling successfully says that it is made for a woman who needs hip current styling but demands comfort.

From LeshasWorkshop, “turn your shoes into boot” is perfectly conveyed. The buyer is modern, youthful, sexy, and confident.

As Rod Stewart once sang “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”  I enjoy styling my pottery. it’s another artform unto itself.

home business on steroids

What you see here is one day’s sales from OneClayBead and MarciG on Etsy! It’s freaking awesome and out of control! This is where we eat dinner generally. You can see the menorah and the flowers left from Thanksgiving, which are lost in the jumble. I print orders as things sell, and put them, with the correct piece, on my long table. There is typically lots of room for the 3 of us to eat, but it’s getting harder to sit down to a quiet meal. We have to push the sales down in order to set the table.

My friend Natalie has been coming over in the evenings to help with the packing. Here she is with my husband, Ken, as they make PayPal labels. Today the packages wouldn’t all fit in the car and we have to make 2 runs to the post office. This is my computer room but it now looks like UPS has set up an annex with board games, books, and a drum circle.
I’ve lost my zen a few times just living in this much activity every day. What brings me back is the feedback and notes from my buyers :
Beautiful! Gorgeous! Even better in real life! I am so happy with this and will be back to buy more! Oh and insanely fast shipping too... OneClayBead is awesome!
This is truly one of the cutest things. Thanks so much! I can't wait to give this to my friend for Christmas!
These are such beautiful ornaments. My infant daughter died two weeks after Christmas nearly 4 years ago, and each Christmas her brothers and I pick out a special ornament for her. Your doves are perfect.
The emotional connections made through buying and selling my handmade pottery are truly moving. It makes the chaos of my home a worthy price to pay.
Wishing you some joyful chaos today!

Yart Sale Schmart Sale!

Yard + Art = Yart sale, which is pretty cute, I must admit. Etsy artists are having a site wide Yart sale through June 14th. My 2 bowls, pictured above, are in my Yart sale, at a very tempting reduced price, because they are experimental shapes and not available to choose in large sets.

I'm sort of watching the threads in Etsy's forum with horror, though, as posts abound with cries of not making any sales after marking pieces below cost, or making sales on nonperishable goods and being elated just to have made a teeny tiny profit margin. YOWZA!!!

The big problem there is that most new artists or handmade makers have no established set value for their work to begin with. We are not Corning Ware; we do not have a generally known retail price, from which a discount can be taken. And so here is the market maxim:

Your work is worth what the last person paid for it. Period.

So, if you mark down a $20 necklace to $10, you just devalued every other $20 necklace in your shop. And perhaps the entire inventory by 50%.

If you are an artist without a well established set retail price for your work, and you have a 15% off sale, you are going to have a rough time convincing those same buyers and lookers that your work is worth 15% more just because it's now June 15th, and the Yart sale is over. In fact, you are probably training your buyers to withhold purchasing until the next sale.

Sales in art are not equivelant to sales in a retail chain store, because art is bought and sold with the potential to hold or go up in value. Putting your artwork and handmade goods on sale says to an investment buyer that you are not a good investment.

SO, if you are yart selling, which I am, make a clear distinction between what is available in your yart sale from your other pieces. I recommend against a "storewide sale", or moving pieces into some sort of clearance bin. It's a marketing strategy for art where you are hurting yourself in the long run.

Pieces in my yart sale section are priced lower because they are seconds, samples, or experiments. They were not a regularly priced piece yesterday and a sample today. If I discontinue a line, the very last pieces will be discounted, but that is my only exception.

As handmade makers, we can't price the way that indutry does, our markup is not as high as industrial goods and so we can't discount and market as if we are Macys or Target. The one advantage we have is the investment value of our work, and I will protect that value- for myself, and my customers, too.