Selling Your Stuff

Hi All, I'm still beavering away on the boat and will let you see my progress again at the end of this post. However, before that, I thought I'd let you have my thoughts about outlets for your pyrography work.

If you have taken up pyrography you will at some time need to start selling some of your work. Let's face it, unless you live in a house as big as Chatsworth, sooner or later you are going to run out of space for your creations. You might not like the idea of selling at all, but doesn't it make sense to at least try to get back some of your material costs. I know that pyrography is very therapeutic but to have somebody like your work enough to buy it works wonders for the soul too.

In the early days, you will probably give some of your creations to friends who admire your work and perhaps sell some to other people you know, but where do you go from there?

You might think that you could get your work placed in a local craft shop and if you could it would be great. However, this is most unlikely because by the time they have added their mark up to the selling price. It will either mean that the price will be too high or the narrow margin means you will get two fifths of bu**er all for your efforts, while lining the shopkeeepers pockets.

You could do craft fairs and I know a few pyrographers who have have taken up this option However, it seems to be a hard road to travel beacause after paying out for pitch fees and travel costs they need to sell a lot of stuff to make it viable. Having said that, some pyrographers like working the craft fairs because it brings them into contact with their customers. If they enjoy it, I wish them all the luck in the world but I' afraid its not for me. I can get a bit precious about the pyrography items I produce and having lots of stick fingers mauling my items would be the stuff of nightmares.

So what's left? Answer, the good old Internet. This bit of technology is a God send for pyrographers who prefer to be burning wood in preference to jumping onto the craft fair merry-go-round.

I have sold quiet a few items over the Internet and I keep my eye's open for new outlets because websites that provide facilities for crafts people, including pyrographers, are popping up all of the time.

There are three ways to sell on the Internet.
Option 1
You could use an auction site like Ebay. I have tried this but found it to be unsuccessful. I did manage to sell a trinket box once, but the buyer failed to pay up. So I have given up with auction sites for the time being but might give then a crack again later. You can always give it a try because you stuff might be more likeable than mine.

Option 2
I have three websites and one of these is dedicated to my pyrography. I sell items on there and have set up a payment system. This website allows me to lots of freedom in how I display and sell my work, but it does have its draw backs. Firstly, finding people to visit the sight is difficult. My hit rate is improving but I would like it to be a lot better. Click on the following link if you'd like to take a look. http://www.shirewriting.co.uk
The second draw back of setting up your own website necessitates that you will need some knowledge of HTML programming. It is fun and easy to learn, but some people might not want to bother with it.

Option 3
I used a website called Folksy.com to display and sell my work. My shop is called Burning Desire and in it I can list as many items as I require. The costs incurred from using this facility are quite reasonable when compared with the cost of using craft fairs.

The cost of displaying each item is 18p including vat, for a period of 4 months. If I sell an item there is a further charge of 6% of the selling price which isn't going to break the bank.

Setting up a shop is straight forward with the fees being payed monthly by Paypal. When somebody buys a piece of my pyrography they also pay me via Paypal.

If you are producing lots of pyrography work you might want to upgrade to a yearly payment of £45 which will allow you to list as many items as you want. Folksy will then just take their 6% fee from any item you sell.

Although I use Folksy.com,  there are other websites that facilitate the selling of artwork, handmade, and craft items. I have checked out quite a few and will tell you about  them in my next post.

Below you will find a picture showing the progress I have made on the boat.

I'm afraid I'm not enjoying it much because it is taking much too long. Hopefully, it will be finished by the time I do my next post and I am sure that my next project will be something much smaller.