Superb work seen at show

bugbear · 19 May 2013

I went to "Weird and Wonderful Wood" yesterday, which is a large show entirely dedicated to wood, and woodwork in all its forms.

http://www.weirdandwonderfulwood.co.uk/

My favourite works of the whole show were scroll sawn...

This lady:

Fiona Kingdon was showing some jaw dropping stuff, such as this cross:

http://www.fionakingdon.co.uk/nfs/i-am- ... ucifix-oak

For all that wonderful creativity, skill and effort she was charging £75.00, which strikes me as cheap.

(good demo of the cutting power of her Hegner too, in 3/4" oak!)

BugBear

CHJ · 19 May 2013

Certainly a tour-de-force in dexterity and patience, and second the low price point comment.

This pricing thing is very difficult, especially when promoting sales at craft type events. I think it very unlikely that the majority buyer profile at such events will match the true worth of the work input.

There were some very intricate segmented turning and artistic pieces offered for sale at ISCA woods show yesterday, pricing was high but certainly not excessive considering the hours and skill spent in the production. The crux of the matter however was that looking at the stream of public attendees walking back and forth from the venue I doubt if one in twenty had a disposable income capable of entertaining a purchase of such and I would have thought that in at least 80% of cases it would have been a case of trying to sell coals to Newcastle.

In my village area there are several exponents of various crafts and once the first flush of enthusiasm has wained, reality seems to set in and things end up with the outlet making more money out of the effort than the producer.

Chippygeoff · 19 May 2013

I agree with everything Chas mentioned. I attend many craft fairs in an effort to sell the things I make, people are commenting all the time on how well made everything is and all my things are priced to reflect the current problems in my general area. I have to keep prices low otherwise I just would not sell anything. I have a friend in The Manchester area and she has 2 craft fairs a month and will easily take £200 at a time. I really don't think we will ever get the true value of an item. For a lot of the customers my things may be better off made from cheap pine instead of selected hardwoods for all the customers know about wood. I can still make a profit from the things I sell but as each year goes past it becomes more difficult as the cost of things continues to rise, its not just the wood, its the running cost of the car to get to and from craft fairs, especially fuel cost. Then there is the cost of the craft fair itself with new people organising craft fairs now and charging £50 to attend. I pay up to £20 for 2 x 6ft tables at one venue but then I always do well there, at other venues I am fortunate if I cover my cost. What seems to be ruining craft fairs now is people turning up with imported goods from China, at one time it would only be people who actually hand made the items they were selling.

John51 · 19 May 2013

I had a look at etsy. Listing fees are cheap at £0.20 for 4 months plus 3.5% sale fee but imo the site isn't friendly to non US buyers. If a crafter has to tout themselves on FB etc. to drive customers to their wares on etsy, why do they need etsy?

Gary Morris · 19 May 2013

Beautiful piece

martinka · 19 May 2013

I wonder if the two 'holes' are where mistakes were removed?

I'll have to find out where there are craft fairs and shows with scroll saw exhibits, for somewhere to go this summer.

I was watching a chap in York today cutting names from what looked like 1/8" MDF, using a vintage/antique pedal scroll saw with built in seat. He cut the names freehand and his prices were something like £1 for four letters, £1.50 for five or six letters, and so on. No internal cuts. There were about 10 people queuing and my O/H heard him say that his longest queue ever had people waiting 1.5 hours for their turn. He had a box of coloured pieces and the kids (and adults) were picking out the colour they wanted and waiting in line. It was a nice day so maybe it was a good day for him, I've seen him other days when there was no one near.

Martin.