New to Forum-need advice

[Jon Hyde]

Hello Fellow Turner's

I am new to the forum and looking for critiques and advice. I am looking at retiring from the USAF in June of 2012 and looking to start a woodturning business in Abilene, Tx thereafter. My dilemma is trying to find a market and appropriately pricing to sell. I am attaching photos of my more recent works.

1. Red Mallee Burl Decorative Bowl
185908

2. Red Cedar Vessel with Blackwood finial
185907
3. Mesquite/Buckeye Burl base and Cobalt Blue holder
185906
Any and all comments are welcome, also looking for feedback on advice on thngs I could do better.

Thank you to everyone in advance.

[John Keeton]

Jon, you do not list your location in your profile. That may be helpful for other creekers to offer advise on your turnings. They do look nice, by the way.

I edited your post to rearrange the pics, and to remove some content that could cause your thread to appear as a Classified posting, which would not be permitted.

Oh, and welcome to the creek!

[Steve Schlumpf]

John - Welcome to the Creek and Thank You for your service to our country!!

Very nice variety of turnings! Great question on how to find a market in order to sell your turnings - wish there was a simple answer. Are you already living in the location you plan on retiring in? If so, have you entered any juried art shows? Displayed your work anywhere? Basically - have you gotten your name out there so folks know what you do? One additional thing is you can talk to the gallery owners in your area to see if they would be interesting in carrying your turnings. Around here, 40% commission seems to be the norm.

Good luck with this and I look forward to seeing more of your work!

[Jon Hyde]

Thank you John.

[bob svoboda]

Welcome to the Creek, Jon. Your turnings look great-especially the RM bowl! Hope you stick around and post more of your work. My thanks also for your service to our country. Good luck on your retirement and your future career as a turner.

[Jon Hyde]

Thanks for the info Steve. I am currently trying to get my name out, taking baby steps at the moment. Workning on a few local places (businesses) to display my work. The Galleries are my next step, however, they are few. Also, looking at exhibiting in the local fair when it is in town. Arts and craft shows will be my next move.

[Jon Hyde]

Thank you Bob. Happy to be on the forum.

[Greg Haugen]

Jon,

Steve gave a lot of good recommendations. I would strongly recommend getting into a couple of shows or displaying your work at a gallery and see what the feedback is. We often ask turners about our work but they truth is that a turner isn't your clientele. If a turner likes anything that you make, they'll go home and make it. The one exception to this is "teaching" and demonstrating. That is where a "turner's" opinion matter about our work. As far as sales, it's your market that matters. Here's some tips that I've found that work for me.

-Function will always out sell dust collecting "art". Before the artists get their shorts bound up, I'm not saying it won't sell. But if you can do some with a function it will help. For example, if you like to make hollow forms, learn how to make urns. There's a limitless market and it's an "artistic" piece in orientation.

-Attend shows "undercover" find out what is being made, who's selling it, and their prices. Watch them at shows, is there anything you would change about the product or how they handle themselves. I was once exhibiting at a show, my first one ever. During setup, a long time crafter came up to me and asked why I was wiping down, hand buffing, my bowls. "The customer won't care, they don't really buy crap any more". This blew me away. I watched him through out the day and he sat there, ignored the people, and complained alot. I came within two bowls of selling out that day, the first day of a two day show. Take pride in your work, and YOURSELF.

-For increasing sales, find some galleries or "wholesale" venues. It's expensive and hard work to sell everything at "retail". By the time you add your time, gas, booth fees, etc. You're pocketing roughly "wholesale" prices anyways.

-Diversify. Sell you work and "sell yourself". By that I mean, teaching and demonstrating are sources for income as well for the professional turner.

-Find your market that fits your product. Don't make "stuff" just to sell. If and when it doesn't sell, you'll be double discouraged. If you make what you like, you'll enjoy the process and that will help in the end result. The perfect "item" doesn't sell everywhere.


Hope that helps.

[Reed Gray]

I would look to your business attempt as more of a 'support your habit, and maybe pay some bills' rather than making some real money at it.

You will most likely need to sell outside your immediate area as in several major metropolitan areas, which will require travel. Doing art and craft shows is another whole set of skills to learn. They are fun to do, but very time consuming, and totally unpredictable. Best bet is to be in well established Christmas shows, or in tourist areas.

You will need liability insurance for you, your products, and your shop, which most home policies will not cover, and some will discontinue you if you have a woodshop. Have a lot of things to sell, in prices from $5 up to as expensive as you can get. You just never know what will sell.

Getting word out about what you do is the first step in testing the waters. Friends, family, and co workers.

robo hippy

[Tim Thiebaut]

Welcome to the forum Jon, I am new to turning so I cant give you any advice, but wanted to say hi and hope you enjoy it here.

[Kirk Miller]

Jon
Welcome to the forum, and congrats on your pending retirement. I retired from the AF Jan 2005. The next few months will fly by for you. I havn't sold many items yet. One avenue I have considered is ETSY which is and online resource for people to sell handmade items. One thing for you to work on is your pictures. It looks like a lot of detail is lost in shadows and poor lighting. Google photo booth and you will come up with all kinds of ideas to enhance your pictures. Wekcome to the Creek and good luck on your retirement.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Jon welcome to SMC, congrats on retirement and thank you for your service. One thing I did when I retired was to get my turnings into Art Gallery. It is a 70/30 split. It doesn't make enough to make a living but it does well enough to keep me in tools, supplies and wood. I do agree with Reed in the fact that Christmas is my biggest sales of the year. I don't do many Craft shows as they are a lot of work and a lot of them are disappointing. Good luck and enjoy your retirement.

[Chip Sutherland]

My gallery experience is limited to talking (and more importantly listening) to gallery managers, artists in galleries and not in galleries. Galleries can be frame-art biased (paintings, photo, etc.) Three-dimensional artwork is something they have a harder time with unless it is sculptural in nature. Turning is still viewed as more craft than art. The way to get into galleries is to get into juried shows, join local art guilds....basic networking. And your work has to transcend the craft-art barrier.

Craft shows are a gamble. I've sold at craft shows and always made my booth cost back and usually a profit on the items I have sold. And, I have fun. Customers are typically women who can be a tough sell as they are more utility item focused nor artistic. Also, I only do inside ones as I don't have the tent setup. Art/Music Festivals are a better venue as customers are walking around with discretionary funds to buy things.

Be wary of turning for money which leads to production turning which doesn't sound like fun in retirement to me.

[Jon Hyde]

Points well taken, thank you!

[Jon Hyde]

Thank you all for the good advice. I think this will be more to support my habit, as I will still need a job after retirement anyway. So, I truly appreciate all the valuable inputs!!

[Stephen Mines]

Hi Jon, Chip says that to him production turning doesn't sound like fun. I'll buy that, individual choice and all. But to me, turning is fun, and if I can make a buck while I'm learning how to do it, get more proficient at it, gee, it's like going to school on a scholarship. I'm basically a spindle turner and the first few jobs I got were a real bit of hard work, little pay, long hours...but I was being paid to learn how to get paid more! For an outlet (gallery, whatever) search out a 'new' venue, one that hasn't been trampled on or gone too far skywards in price...those collectives that artists start are for precisely that reason...and seek like-mindeds. As a 'lathe artist' emphasize to a gallery that you can ramp up your output should something you like to do proves 'hot', that you can always outrun the herd of buyers chasing after you, leaving 'wonderful' sold things in your wake. I've learned more about turning while turning anything in quantity (production) than turning one at a time. You can perfect technique and develop your own peculiar skills, all while being paid. When I do lathe art it is because I've become intriqued by a shape/style/feeling and want to pursue it. I chase that little idea to the ground, trying various deviations, getting closer to what feels good, but not stopping at just one of a kind. When it comes to woodturning any fool can do one of a kind, but it takes a skilled craftsman to make 130 identical stair balusters. It is repetitive at times...I just zone out and enjoy. Plenty of paid time right there to plan the next personal expression. Just my thoughts, your results might vary! Stephen Mines

[Ruth Niles]

Jon, you got some very good advice from the other guys. First you should know what your goals are and how you define "woodturning business". If you need the money to help pay bills, that's one kind of "business". If you just want to have a business and pay for your supplies, that's another kind of "business".

I had to support myself so I turned utilitarian pieces and did production turning. However I never found it boring because I did work for antique dealers; bed finials, chair spindles, folding screen finials, bunn feet, etc. I still work with/for 2 antique clock rebuilders. This sort of work pays the heat and taxes. My coffee scoops and bottle stoppers are my "dependable" sales and I wholesale with a dozen piece min. order.

The more artistic kind of turning business, you should get into every exhibit possible. Not just art exhibits. For example our library has a display every month in the entry, they had "Native Trees", the extension service had pamphlets and pictures. I offered to turn a small item out of each species. Every single library patron had to walk past that "exhibit" and saw my work and my name. A number of commissioned work came from that display.

This just shows that there are as many ways to get known and to sell as there are woodturners. As to price, my theory is sell your work for what makes you happy to part with it and what makes the customer happy to part with his hard-earned money.

Good luck and I'd be interested to know how you make out. If it's really good, I just might move to Texas. :)

Ruth

www.torne-lignum.com (http://www.torne-lignum.com)