Turning to Sell or for Other Turners?

I remember the auto showrooms ...

Fred in NC

>In the olden days, before car dealers moved to the suburbs, they often had a convertible where it could be seen from the street. Guys would come in to look at the convertible and drive out in a nice family sedan.

My guess is that the idea can be applied to our displays. A piece to attract attention, and the merchandise to sell.

Anyway, I found that anytime I mark a piece "Not for sale" there is somebody who wants to buy it, and will pay my price.

Re: Turning to Sell or for Other Turners?

Ruth Niles

>Oh Wally, you're "famous" so we (the public) expect your work to be on the challenging end of the spectrum! Also all the other names you mentioned do very fine, beautiful, awesome work and, as I noted in my original post, when I get famous.................. : )

Re: Turning to Sell or for Other Turners?

jared

>remove 1 for email

I had an interesting thing happen to me this past holiday season. I had some of my bowls and shaker boxes on display and for sale at a local art center. They have a sale before Christmas every year and charge a 20%commission as a fund raiser for their activities. I took one of my roughed out ash bowls along so I could show people the process of how the bowls are made. It was about an inch thick on the walls and kind of rough as you can imagine. A couple of people wanted to buy the roughout because it was heavy and felt good to them. Go figure. As an asside, I sold about $600 worth of shaker boxes and 1 or 2 bowls for about $45. Jared

Re: Turning to Sell or for Other Turners? [long]

RonZ

>Well, according to Fred, my opinion carries the most weight as gas is $5 per gallon here [Israel].

Ruth, your findings are similar to mine.

Bill's quote on Hebrew is spot on. The Hebrew word for honor/prestige is kavod. An object which is prestigious or honorable is mechubad. The root for these words is kaved, meaning weighty or heavy. This definition has been known to be in existence for 5765 years but who's counting.

I think one defining line is those who turn as a hobby vs. those who turn for a living. A hobbyist can spend hours/days/weeks into a piece. If I did that all the time I'd be broke. When someone asked me what I specialize in, I answer whatever sells. I have my requisite 1/16" bowl to show fellow turners made from a piece of walnut stock that my friend who served in Iraq used to make a rifle stock and gave me leftovers. The ones that mostly sell are thick.

I would also say that the dividing lines are drawn between general public and upper echelon galleries. An example would be a regular watch vs. a high end Swiss watch. A $25 quartz watch will be just as if not more accurate than a $10,000 mechanical watch and share the same functions but yet one pays for the mechanical watch in appreciation for the hand made movement, finish and degree of complication. If a turner is successful in turning out high end gallery pieces, great. This usually isn't the case. A professional woodturner will make the bread and butter portion of his/her through production work, teaching or both. I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule but this appears to be the general rule.

One of my pet peeves is instant gallery work. Ray Key saw this many years ago at the AAW Symposium and many others have made the same observation. So many people [I'm not saying its wrong] are pushing the envelope with very complicated work that basic skills have been lost. 99% of the displayed items are vessels and very little spindle work is on display. I would one day like to see categories such as spindle work, regular vessels, carved/turned projects and then barely touched a lathe products.

Re: Turning to Sell or for Other Turners?

Raymond Overman in SC

>Right or wrong, the turner who sells 100 $50 thick utilitarian bowls to the general masses with a few tool marks and a light oil finish makes the same as the turner who sells one light as air hollow form made with the most precious of woods for $5000. Both could take the same amount of time to create their wares. Both are the same business person at the end of the day and the books show the same tally. The one that sold 100 bowls talked to 1000 people and had 100 happy customers. The one that sold 1 hollow form talked to a gallery owner who immediately critiqued their work.

Which way do you want it?

I'm at a point where I like to turn simple ordinary bowls, boxes, pens, etc. I respect and admire those that can turn even 1/16ths or smaller walls on 24 inch diameter hollow forms through a hole the size of a quarter. I want to turn the artistic pieces. Unfortunately, I haven't mastered enough woodturning skills to complete some of the projects that I think about. I hope that I have plenty of time to learn what I don't know. Until then, I'll accept that my woodturning hobby more or less supports itself $25-$75 a shot and that some turners look at my work as a goal and others as nostalgia for where they've been. I haven't met a woodturner yet that I didn't like and none have turned up their nose at me so I guess I'm ok with them too.

General design question

Glenn Madsen

>which applies in all endeavors: Is there a reason for this feature, or is it just showing off?

I've met some 'name' furniture makers over the past few years, and many have pieces which essentially only travel to galleries, and generate commissioned works. Many are too impractical to actually live in a place with people. They serve to show imagination, insight and skills of the maker, but directly yield no sales.

That, however, is a _very_ rarified market, and few of these folks are getting wealthy at it.

Good points, Ron

Ruth Niles

>If we were all good enough to be in the high-end galleries, wouldn't that diminish the value of all our work?

A guy who bought one of my burl bowls from an artisan gallery paid, what I thought was too much (is there really such a thing???) said to the owner, "what good does it do me to have the resources if anyone can buy what I can?" That statement simlified the thinking of high-end galleries and collectors in my mind.

An interesting piece of advice I got from one of the very famous turners:(paraphrased) "If you want to become known, put your work everywhere you can so people are always seeing it and NOT everywhere there are turners."

The items I sell the most wouldn't get a second glance at an Instant Gallery, they might even be frowned on for appearing there! I think the Instant Gallery(s) are for the unique, challenging and envelope-pushing turnings.

Ruth

Re: Good points, Ron

Stuart Johnson

>"what good does it do me to have the resources if anyone can buy what I can?"

This is one of the saddest outlooks on life I can think of anyone having.

Re: Good points, Ron

Raymond Overman in SC

>It took me a couple of times reading the statement but now I understand "what good does it do me to have the resources if anyone can buy what I can?"

That has to be a miserable person. I wonder if that person would be offended or feel like the piece they purchased had been diminished if you gave one away to an admirer that couldn't afford the gallery price for the piece. This would be a prime example of how my prices would change based on the customer's attitude.

If a collector's only desire is to own something that someone else can't, their collection is an empty shell that will be sold off piece by piece when they die. Their collection doesn't celebrate the artists that it represents. It celebrates the wealth of the collector and that's a shame.

Re: Good points, Ron

Arch

>Raymond, I may have stumbled on an expensive signature piece for turners like me with high ambition and limited artistic talents to sell to buyers with high bank accounts and limited taste.

A tacky overpriced bowl with its outrageus price burned into one wall and space to engrave a CEO's name (they do collect things agressivly) & net worth on the other wall should add much to the decor of a prison cell, plus increase in value.

These signature pieces may make me rich enough to change places and become a collector of a tacky bowl myself...or maybe not! :)

Re: True !

Chris Wright

>I wish my gas were so cheap...with that index I'd have a pretty darn good opinion at $2.65 :-(