Hi Mele, congratulations on selling your work as fast as you make it. That's a good place to be in. As for looking for other places to sell your work, a couple of other avenues you might look into is higher end floral shops and landscapers. With the garden and flower shops you'll probably have to start out on consignment, where the shops take 30%-50% of what you choose to sell it for. Make sure you figure this in and come up with some sample prices which cover your costs, and give you a profit as well, before you go and talk to the shops. If your lucky enough to get wholesale, the shops will probably want to mark up your work 50%-200% over wholesale. With the landscapers, you might be able to rig it as commissions which would be much better. You'll still probably have to figure in a cut for the landscaper(20%-50%), but at least your only investing in material and time when there is a job and often times the jobs will be much bigger. You might have to create some samples etc. to show what you can do, but after you gain their confidence you'll only have to spend money when there is a job. I tried to put some of my work in some stores(coffee tables and such) but by the time I figured in costs, profits, and their cut the pieces were just too expensive. My girlfriend, however, does quite well with selling her jewelry on consignment with local stores($25-$85 selling costs). Just make sure you look into all of your costs and make sure your giving yourself a little profit. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Jake

Mele,

If you've been selling everything you've made, then you're doing really well. There is no better advertising than word of mouth. The fact that you're selling your work consistently is something you need to take into account when deciding how to further market your work.

Consignment sales is, in my experience, about the worst possible way tosell artwork. The shop takes no risk, assumes no liability for loss or damage, does no promotion, and yet wants to take at least a third of the selling price. This is often the only avenue available for the new artist/craftsman though, so they do what they have to until they develop sufficient reputation to be accepted in galleries or sell wholesale to stores. In your case, you have a track record of previous sales, and you shouldn't feel intimidated into going the consignment route.

Before I did the consignment thing, I would sukggest you take your work to a few places you think would be viable markets and offer them wholesale. That is usually about half of retail, though it is negotiable. A good shop owner will work with you to arrive at the best selling price and allow you both room to make money. If the shop owner won't do that, look elsewhere. Again, you have a history of sales to back up your demands.

Whatever you decide, don't sell your work too cheaply! If you do, in the hope that it will generate future business, you inevitably end up cheating yourself because you get a reputation for selling cheap work. You can never live down that reputation once you are saddled with it, so don't let it happen. Rather than sell your work too cheaply to a shop, or put it on consignment, consider telling the shop owner that you will supply one (1) piece of work to be sold at a certain price, and the shop gets allthe money, provided that they then purchase a certain number of pieces. What you're doing is eliminating most of the risk for them, and not taking on a big risk yourself. When the piece sells, you have gotten noting for it, but you get a sale of ten or twenty other pieces at a fair price. So you're really just paying a sales commission up front. You absolutely must have that in the form of a written contract before oyu do it, or someone wil try to take advantage of you.

You might want to consider hiring an agent to represent you. The agent will take anywhere from ten to twenty per cent of the sales, but they do the work to get them. You only pay when work is sold, so you have no front end risk. Again, your track record of previous sales is a bargaining chip when negotiating a commission rate with an agent.

Rich

WOW, these are two really helpful responses. I knew I could count on you guys. I realize now that going "public" might be a little bigger deal than I thought but I think I can do it. My stuff is allot smaller scale than what most of the artist on this site do but I also have really low material costs. Most of the people who have purchased my stuff have said I could charge more so maybe I will. Right now my profit margin is so high, I guess I felt good about what I was charging. The one thing that I don't really know how to place a value on is my time to make the pieces. So when I say profit I am not talking about the time to make the piece.
Again, thank you so much for the great advice.
Mele

You might see if a craft/art coop is in your area - they work either on consignment or working partnership. From what I've heard from some artists, they seem to like them.

Metal Momma - metal art everlasting