...negative term among turners aspiring to make big sales, but the evolution of the recent downward spiral of markets and prices means financial survival requires adjusting to the new market conditions. Making use of scraps allows turnings in the 2"~3" size to sell for prices in the $25~$75 range here in my ART deprived middle America. I have also collected work under 6" for many years, and the quality of craftsmanship should not be lowered just to expedite the time required to produce.
Jamie, I tend to agree with your assessment here. It seems for wood turnings to be considered "art" and to garner prices that make the effort one puts into pieces worth their time, then it seems to require second, and perhaps third level embellishment, or it is considered to be" round and brown." Perhaps the exception to that is some highly figured wood that just speaks for itself if it has a good form.
Just this afternoon, I sold a smaller turning from ambrosia maple burl. It was a natural edge vase of about 5.5" tall, and had gorgeous figure. I put it in the gallery last week, and when it took it off the lathe the size seemed to be about a $40 item, but with all that figure, my immediate thought was $75, so that is what I put on it. I am pleased it moved so quickly, but wonder if I might have gotten $85 out of it!
My larger bowls and hollow forms that have $300 -$600 on them seem to get lots of oooh's and aaah's, but so far no one seems to be inclined to open their wallet or credit card to possess them. Perhaps some of the arts patrons in our area will find them one day and just have to have it in their collection.
A retired gallery manager from Long Island, NY visited our gallery on the day I was working one of my shifts and told me my $600 piece would easily bring $1800- $2000 at her former gallery, and she loved my work, but even she did not open her checkbook!
I have just started a project that will collaborate with an artist from the Shenandoah Valley Water Color society, where she will use acrylic paints on a large vase form I roughed out on Wednesday, and I will pierce the negative spaces, and I will put this on display at our gallery for an upcoming show in June of 2018. I am planning to put a price of $1200 on it as an experiment to see if such a work can actually sell in our area.............. this particular show will be well advertised on local public radio and in some ads in our local publications. Keeping my fingers crossed!
I turn because I love to turn. For the most part I make pieces that are pleasing to me. I sell at several juried Art/Craft events and my local farmers market because my shop would explode with all the stuff I make if I didn't get rid of some of it. My town is so small that we do not have a traffic light. With that being said it is not uncommon to sell $400 - $500 in a 4 hour day at the farmers market. Do I create art or is it the round and brown stuff I have read about here? I don't know, but I have taken first place three years in a row in the wood category at a juried art/craft event that sees >20K people walk through. My point is that I do not chase a market for profit...I make stuff that makes me happy. Forget the money and start having more fun. All of this of course is IMHO.
A 4" bowl does not take half the time that an 8" bowl does, unless one is given the blanks ready to turn. Getting the wood, marking and cutting a blank, mounting on a lathe, getting out materials to sand, getting out materials to finish . . . all take the same amount of time regardless of the bowl size.
Selling a bowl, any bowl, for $25 is essentially giving it away. What does it work out to, $3 per hour? Are customers inclined to respect craftsmanship that is only worth $3/hour to the craftsperson?
Yes, these kinds of prices are troublesome in my opinion.
On the one hand, if it was just about the joy of turning, if you could set aside the time it takes to find the right piece of wood in a log, cut it out and process it for the lathe, or the time it would take to go to a source and select a piece that someone else had selected and pay them for THEIR work... If one could set aside the cost of the tools, the time spent learning what and how... If one could set aside the amount of time and money spent in applying for shows, packing, setting up, once accepted and the booth rent (and travel for some) expenses then packing down selling a piece for less than one could make working for (less than?) minimum wage is fine... If one can afford it - AND - if (in my opinion) one doesn't value their time/training/effort/experience at any higher rate than that, I suppose what the market will bear is fine.
On the other hand, if one cannot bring themselves to accept "slave wages" for those things, it's either stay home and make stuff then store it or go out and take the time and energy to teach potential clients/collectors what the value is and why... And/or wait till a more experienced/informed client comes along.
There is also the gallery route, I suppose, but good ones seem few and far between AND they seem to have many artists ready to "turn for the market."
So far, I'm thinking of my woodturning "career" as more like a sport that I do for fun... Maybe I'll "win a tournament" if I spend enough entry money and keep working on my "swing."
(hope I'm not coming across as too much of a downer)
I've upheld the "I won't work for free" mantra for decades, but getting very close to changing. I literally have tons of figured wood, and at 65 years old in a blue collar city, I need to move product. FAST! I wonder what rpm I'll be spinning in the grave when all that wood goes into someone's wood stove when I die?
The market sets the price. You just have to find a market that has prices that suit you. Then you produce work that will sell for the price you want in that market.
As far as the time involved, it much easier and faster to turn small. You might get a dozen or even sixteen 4" bowls out of a blank for a 16" bowl. Double that if they are half as deep. No one gets a hernia mounting a four inch blank.
>>>I wonder what rpm I'll be spinning in the grave when all that wood goes into someone's wood stove when I die?
You can write into your will or addendum that the stash go somewhere specific, such as a woodturning club or turning/art/craft school - that's what I did. A club could auction or sell it to members and the proceeds could help fund club, educational, or charity programs such as Beads of Courage. A volunteer could sell the lot at a symposium with you specifying where the proceeds go. Or start now, give some every year to select organizations or individuals. No reason to condemn beautiful wood to destruction in a fiery woodturner's hades.
SADLY, I have a similar situation. A 2 1/2 car garage FULL of premium wood. Then I bought a 22 foot trailer half full of exotics and burls. Now I'm stuffed to the ceiling and there's the tools... The guy I bought all of this stuff from is very sick, he was buying up for his retirement. He was VERY prolific and GOOD, but the big C has him down (but not out yet - he's turned into a good friend since all of this started). I'm 67 and if I were to turn 8 hours a day 6 days a week till I ran out (assuming I never bought/found another piece of worthy wood), I'd probably be in my 90s.
I sold off a lot of excess at the Florida Symposium earlier this year and intend to do the same again this year, but I'll STILL have way too much wood.
In part, I'm selling the wood because turners seem willing to pay a or near the value of the wood they're buying. Leaving the argument about finished piece value to them.
In this particular case, the rules were; "if it doesn't have a tail (cord) it's free" And the guy had a basement full.
"If it has a cord, make an offer." There were several clubs and dozens of turners involved. I was stunned and delighted to see everyone being polite and considerate... Seemed like we all had our "wood lust" under control.
Since the thread has already been hijacked and the subject has turned to wood hoarding, here is a limerick I made up about a friend of mine with the affliction:
There once was a fellow named Dave,
Oh the wood he would save and he'd save.
It was stacked to the rafter, when he went to the hereafter,
I am a new bowl turner and have turned 1 bowl that turned out well but I am having an issue with turning the inside of the bowls I currently am using green beech wood to start and in the log form .The outside turning is fine however when I try to turn the inside with the carbide tool i purchased it digs in . Can you call me to discuss 231-818-1185 Thank you Jeff
Incredibly difficult to learn turning on the phone *LINK*
Dick Coers
or even by asking questions on a forum. You really don't even know what questions to ask at first. Where do you live? If there is an Association of American Woodturners chapter near, you could have a mentor stop by and show you. It would cut your learning curve by 2/3.
