Posts Tagged ‘Mentoring to Market’
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Selling the Sizzle
On the first hot and sunny day for several weeks makers came from far and wide to listen to inspirational speakers for our summer event in Inverness.
‘Selling the Sizzle’ was Tina Rose’s suggestion for a title and it seemed very appropriate,and all the more so, as the day progressed and each speaker had another tale to tell about how they go about selling work. We were certainly feeling the sizzle by the end of the day!
To get things started our keynote speakers were Professor Georgina Follet and Dr Louise Valentine who outlined the exciting plans for the V&A at Dundee and what this will mean to makers and designers. To have this amazing resource in Scotland as soon as 2015 is a huge undertaking but with support, funding and the drive of a focused team is seems it will happen – I for one can’t wait.
Selling the Sizzle, Dr Louise Valentine and Melanie Muir
Deirdre Neilson is a name that is familiar to many of us -as artist in resident, mentor and textile artist extraordinaire but her talk was about how she has completely embraced all the new Social Media to promote her work. If everyone was not Tweeting by the end of the day they should be!
Then to get everyone talking we had a first – Speedcraft! The brainchild of Tina with assistance from Carol, it was a brilliant way to get people talking about their work, making new contacts and exchanging ideas.
In the afternoon we continued our theme with four speakers each with a different approach to retailing.
Maggie Broadly from West Kilbride and Craft Town Scotland, Steph Marsden from Edinburgh’s Craft House Concept, Emma Blain from the Shetland group Text- Isles and finally Carrie and Clare from Made in the Shade in Glasgow.
The day was aimed at getting makers and retailers to look at new ways of selling, to inspire and enthuse! We certainly did that and I don’t think I have seen such an animated group of makers in one place for a long time.
Selling the Sizzle
Our event was another of HI-Arts Crafts promotions to support the sector in developing their work and to assist them to find new markets.
Through our Mentoring to Market programme makers have researched shows from Origin to Country Living.We took a group to London and Craft Central in May to showcase their work and then another group headed to Germany and EU-inqe trade and retail show. All have come back with similar tales of declining sales, the huge costs of exhibiting and all through no fault of the organisers or the quality of work on show. The public seem to love their work but very few are buying.
So where do we go from here? Are the days of trade and retail shows over as makers are getting less and less keen to commit to the outlay with no guarantee of sales?
I personally feel that the time is ripe to look at new ways of selling and to be creative with your approach.
Use social media to promote, think local and niche events, look at new customers in areas you may not have considered, get together with like minded makers for pop up shops and party events, be as imaginative as you can. And when the economic storm has passed – as it eventually will – you will be ready to take on the world!
Whatever you do, if your work means anything to you, you must not give up but see change as a new and exciting opportunity.
Pamela Conacher 8th June 2011
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Crafting Together
Crafting Together
Many of our projects address the need for our makers to get together; sometimes in a formal way through events such as Makers Days and at other times it just happens that the people involved hit it off and before we know it an informal group has emerged with very little intervention on our part!
Feeling isolated can be a real problem when you live and work in a remote area and anything that can be done to help with this is a really positive and essential aspect of the work we do.
Informal groups have sprung up from Makers Days, our visit to Stroud International Textile Festival, from our Making Progress mentoring project and many of the research visits we have arranged.
Emails and social networking go a long way but sometimes you can’t beat a good blether over tea (and cakes!).
Our latest visit to London and Craft Central brought this home once more.
Members of Craft Central are part of a network of UK makers who can rent studio space in two wonderful buildings in Clerkenwell and participate in many of the events organised there including Open Studio selling days and exhibitions as well as business support and workshops. For obvious reasons a large number of the makers live and work in London but some (and that includes several from Scotland) use the organisation as their London studio, giving them an affordable way of reaching new markets but also the opportunity to meet other members.
Makers that I spoke with said that having the support system of the others in studios near by is one of the most important aspects of membership.
Our makers don’t often have such a luxury so we need to do all we can to put our own systems in place.
Through our Mentoring to Market programme we are delighted to be able to now have the opportunity for our makers to become members of Craft Central and to benefit from a London base, new contacts and networks.
We will be featuring more on this development on the website but it is one positive way of increasing our profile and gives our makers a chance to work together and with a new group of people.
As we stopped to take a break at the end of a hectic day – and yes more tea and cakes were involved – we reflected on how to make the very best of our London connections.
We are so fortunate to be based in an area that inspires and gives our makers’ work such a strong identity and now we can dip into city life and all the new opportunities that this will bring.
Throughout the next few months we will be strengthening our London links and in May 2011 we will be showing our makers work to this new audience with our Highland Showcase.
I can’t wait to see the results!
After such an inspiring trip it was back to battling snow, delayed trains, flights and the cold road home and the reality of the distances involved between London and the Highlands. Hopefully we can do something to make this less even if we can’t control the travel aspect!
Pamela Conacher
November 2010
www.craftcentral.org.uk
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Collect
Collect
Our group visit last week was for makers who aspire to participate at Collect in the future. It was good to have a group who, once more spent time together catching up, discussing their own practice and wonderful to see them realise that their work is on a level with much that is on show.
Collect is very much about selling to a high end market and to be able to see work from all over the world in one place is a rare opportunity. As usual, after a day or night of travel much of the first day is spent absorbing the atmosphere, people watching, forgetting to eat, resting weary feet and being amazed by all that is on display and the prices people are happy to pay!Visiting London is always hectic as you want to cram in as many exhibitions and gallery visits as you can in a short space of time, take that experience home with you and then digest it all in the relative peace and tranquillity of the Highlands!
Collect is constantly inspiring, sometimes amusing and occasionally disappointing. The majority of the work is exquisitely made and pushes the boundaries of what is perceived as Craft, reflected in the fact that the show is called the International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects.
To see work by makers who you have long admired is a real treat and one of my favourite occupations is to go round picking the work I would buy if I had unlimited funds. You find new makers, new work by makers you know and work that you do wonder ‘how on earth did that get in’! But generally the quality is of the very highest and the gallery stands beautifully displayed.
Many red dots had appeared by the end of the Private View which goes to show that people are still buying; indeed both the Scottish Gallery and the National Craft Gallery, Ireland had sold most of their work by the end of the first day.
As well as our visit to Collect, our group visited several other galleries including the V&A and work at Fortnum and Mason ‘Handmade’. This display was really interesting as it was a selling exhibition in a very well known retail shop. Work from 50 makers was of the highest level and featured work for the home and in particular, food and dining. Many displays were on old tables so you could see and touch the work and it took away the gallery feel making it all more accessible.
It was a pleasure to see work by Tain based Glasstorm included as well as several makers from Cornwall that I had not come across before. I will be doing some more research as it is a wonderful way of retailing craft to an upmarket audience and an approach that is to be commended.
Once more, it struck me that so much can be achieved by getting makers together at events such as this. I personally value the time I get to discuss makers practice and problems as well as feel that relationships are strengthened and anything is possible with such strong and creative people working in the sector in the Highlands!
Pamela Conacher
17/05/10
Topics
Crafts Links
- Bishoplands Educational Trust
- Craft Central
- Craft Council
- CraftScotland
- Craftspace
- Dovecot Studios
- HI-Arts Crafts Development
- HI-Arts Making Progress Mentoring Scheme
- Innovative Crafts
- Stroud International Textile Festival
- Taking Time
- www.text-isles.com