Selling Pyrography

Hi all,
I like being creative and I like some of the things I've made so much that I couldn't bear to part with them. It would be like offering my first born up for adoption. However, even if you have no intention of trying to make money from your creations you will have to find an outlet  for your work, or rent a storage unit because the stuff builds up very quickly.

Those who have been following me for a while will know that I have used two methods to sell my pyrography wares. I have had my own website for a number of years, which not only provides me with a way of selling some of my pyrography work, but also enables me to give information about my books to those who may be interested.

The other channel I use for selling my pyrography work is Folksy.com. It is easy to set up a shop on Folksy and nice to know that customers can find your work at any time. The fees are reasonable and I would recommend them to anybody.

Having said all that, there is a new option which I tried once and dismissed. I am speaking of e-bay,  which didn't produce any buyers when I first tried it for my pyrography, but I still had to pay my fees. However things have changed and with free insertion week-ends every one is a winner.

When a free listing week-end comes around, I pop a couple of my pyrography items onto e-bay and see what happens. If they don't sell it doesn't matter because there is an option to automatically re-list them again for free. So unsold items just keep going around and around until they sell, once they do, you just pay the usual commission to e-bay.

This week, I sold the pyrography picture below.

It took two weeks before it got a bid, but it went eventually. Which brings me to anther issue when it comes to selling pyrography. I have analysed the items I have sold and found that the most popular are the items that also provided function. Boxes, rolling pins and bowls have done very well in comparison with pictures and plaques. The fact that I have just sold a picture is ironic given what I have just said, but take it from me pictures don't sell so well when compared to boxes.

That is one of the reasons why I have gone down the scroll saw route, about which I will explain a bit more in my next post. Here is a Scotty dog which I have just completed for one of the exercises that I am doing.

I painted it black because that is suits the breed of dog. I thought about doing it with my pyrography iron, but I would have needed a blow torch to get it that dark.