Holiday Yard Art business tips and pricing

[Greg Yates]

I am considering starting a Yard Art business making holiday displays. I plan on using 3/4" MDO, priming with exterior primer and using acrylic paint with an exterior sealer. I have made a Santa, Mrs. Santa and a Snowman and have gotten lots of great comments from those that have stopped or saw pictures of the finished product on Facebook. I am hoping for some insight and tips / tricks to use to make money as well as advertising strategies in the STL area.20131216_193109.jpg

[Greg Yates]

Really, out of almost 220 people viewing this, no one has some words of wisdom to assist in overcoming obstacles and avoiding pitfalls...We are here to learn from each other are we not?

[Walter Plummer]

I like them. I remember those from when I was young. They have a lot more character than a deer made of lights. I think the 3/4" MDO is overkill. I have an original "candlestick" from the 50's. It is 3/8" regular plywood painted and still looks good. My folks put them out at Christmas and they lived in the attic the rest of the year. If you can find a multiple ply a/c plywood I think it will be fine and less expensive than MDO. How are you cutting them out? How do they stand up? I have thought of making these myself but have never had or made the time. Good luck and post again.

[Dan Hintz]

I have gotten lots of great comments from those that have stopped or saw pictures of the finished product on Facebook.

Really, out of almost 220 people viewing this, no one has some words of wisdom to assist in overcoming obstacles and avoiding pitfalls...We are here to learn from each other are we not?

My words of wisdom? See how many of those people who think your work is great will actually part with their money... even if you can get them to buy, the "friend" market is easy to saturate. In my experience, the people who say "I'd buy that!" and the ones that actually will are a very thin sliver on the Venn diagram of life.

[Pat Barry]

Biggest obstacle on this project is obviously the detail in the painting. For that reason its out of my league for the most part. Now, if you were going to make a very large qty, and you wanted paint, then I thin k you need to simplify the paint scheme, reduce the number of colors and go with a screen printing approach. Maybe you could still screen print the base colors but hand paint or stencil the details. If you are selling 1sy 2sy then hand paint is probably fine. What were you thinking?

[Rick Moyer]

My words of wisdom? See how many of those people who think your work is great will actually part with their money... even if you can get them to buy, the "friend" market is easy to saturate. In my experience, the people who say "I'd buy that!" and the ones that actually will are a very thin sliver on the Venn diagram of life.

Gotta agree with Dan on this; except for the Venn diagram stuff of which I have no clue !

[Greg Yates]

Walter, I used a handheld B&D jig saw to cut these out of the 5/8” plywood sheet. I made two different types of stands to use with these: 1) for solid surface like a concrete porch and 2) for soft surface like the ground. For the solid surface, I made a V-type platform. At the top of the V, I attached two 1” pieces of cedar spaced ¾” apart for the bottom edge of the figure to slip into. I attached a hinge to the back of the figure approx. 12” from the top of the head I then placed a 1” X 3” support stake from the hinge to the bottom point of the V and screwed it to a scrap piece of 2”X4”X3” that I attached to the v-shaped platform. When I had the figure placed where I wanted it, I then put a 60lb sandbag on the platform behind the figure to keep the wind from blowing it over. For the soft surface (yard) I drove two 1” X 18” PVC pipe into the ground. After sliding the ¾” X 48” pieces of conduit into the PVC pipe, I attached the two pieces of conduit to the back of the figure using conduit clamps. Driving the PVC pipe into the ground to flush with the ground I am able to leave these in place for use next year.

I am adding two giant (60” X 24” Toy Soldiers and two crossing candy canes to each side of my porch next year along with a life size nativity scene for the yard. (about 10 to 11 sheets of plywood)

[John Olier]

Hi Greg, My wife did Yard Art for about 20 years for craft shows in Mississippi.
we used 1/2" b-c plywood and we primed the plywood with exterior primer before painting with exterior flat latex.
This is where she took over, she used her colors to bring the Santas and Mrs Claus and angels and nativity's to life and I just drove the truck to get her to the shows.
She charged $100 for a 5' tall Santa or Mrs Claus,another big seller was Gingerbread houses with suckers and 2 small gingerbread people about 30 inches tall
Hope this helps. She also did other things anywhere from 24 to 48 inches tall . Since the shows we did were before Halloween she did pumpkins with scary faces but for Thanksgiving she did pumpkins with leaves on top and small(36") pilgrims both male and female. these sold in the 25 to 30 dollar rangePumpkins usually sold for 10 to 15 as a kind of loss leader to get people to the booth

[Val Kosmider]

Don't forget the 'off season':

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...YM3bMcN6Sy2tv4

[Yonak Hawkins]

Don't forget the 'off season'

Jeez, if I see another one of those or the black silhouetted farmer leaning against a tree smoking his pipe I think I may just end it all.

[Greg Yates]

Hahaha Yonak, Don't do that....lol Those are not the kind I am looking to market. But they do have their place out in the country on a barn....

[James White]

How many hours per unit? I am curious. Seem like a lot of detail in your examples. How much is an hour of your labor? What are the material cost? Then see how many pre orders you can get from your friends and family. That will tell you if this will be worth while.

[Greg Yates]

John, I sent you a private message...