SO I decided that rather than going to them it would be a good idea to get people to come to my studio to see what I do - I am lucky to have a lovely bright space to work in and I have things displayed all over the walls anyway so an Open Morning seemed worth a try.
I went into a frenzy of making with a purpose (which made me very happy!) and I organised all the details like getting an invitation out to everyone I know and lots I didn't. A couple of friends offered to help serve refreshments and I asked a friend who is a brilliant portrait artist and a lady who makes jewellery if they wanted to come along too. On the day which was 11 November they came early and set up in my living room. I was quite nervous that no one would turn up but then a trickle of bodies arrived which grew into a bit of a flood and soon lots of people milling about enthusing about my stuff and even buying! I was thrilled to get such positive feedback especially as I have a kind of reticence to put myself out there and OK - I know most were friends but they did seem genuinely enthusiastic.
I also sold a lot of my greetings cards with photo's of local views which are always popular. All in all it was a very enjoyable and successful event but even so the amount of time and effort involved meant that it wouldn't really be worth repeating - especially as now those people who came and bought have already seen all the stuff I have left!I've come to the conclusion that I need to try selling online again via a 'handmade' web site which gets a lot of traffic but I need to find something of potentially high value to make which is smaller and lighter to post. What a good excuse to go and do some craft workshops!
