============================================================================== Selling Your Work ============================================================================== ----------------------- General Comments ----------------------- The consensus in rec.crafts.textiles is that it is difficult to sell good quality handmade items at a price that reflects the time spent making them. Most stitchers view their work as a labor of love, and distribute their items as gifts. A few people stitch models for craft stores in exchange for a small amount of money and/or a discount on supplies from the store. An even smaller number of people manage to establish themselves as artists, designing their own patterns and displaying the models in galleries or special niche market auctions. Below are some extracts from postings about this topic. ...In general, there is no market for needlework like this, unless you can establish yourself as an "artist", which means you'd have to design your own patterns and make them in very limited editions. You'd either get a gallery to represent you or make things on commission. Take a look at magazines like FiberArts and Ornament, they show lots of this type of work, altho not many people are working exclusively in cross stitch. (i've seen things done in millions of French knots tho, which seems similar). There is probably a market for reproductions of antique samplers, tho. Since the real antique ones sell for hundreds of dollars, if you can make good copies you can probably sell them in antique shops. Quick ornaments are sold everywhere, here you are competing with things made in mass quantities in the Orient by women who work for pennies a day. However you can probably sell these at craft shows or shops. I tried selling cross stitch pieces--I designed them, worked them, finished them, and went to crafts shows (small ones) to sell them. No one was very interested. At least, not in paying for the work. They admired it, as if it were a museum display. Others said, well, I do cross stitch myself. Never mind they didn't have and couldn't get these designs! At one show I did, a "customer" pulled her younger companion away from my booth, saying "No, that stuff is handmade. It's too expensive." Isn't handmade the point? And, given the hours that went into producing each piece, it was not expensive. I have a friend who is a professional stitcher--she stitches both cross stitch and needlepoint on commission for clients. She charges $1 per square inch (the client provides the materials). Right now she is working on a large needlepoint canvas that's 18 count or so. It will take her about 3 months to do (I don't think she will be working on it full time however. She rotates her stuff so she doesn't get stale on any one.) When she is done she'll get about $400, which is slave wages. I stitch as a labor of love--for my family and friends (and I'm finally gonna sit down and do something for myself--an enormous Cross Wing chart of wildflowers that will be about 38" x 23" on 30 count linen). Somehow, if I get paid for something it all of a sudden becomes "work" instead of "fun" and is a pain to complete. Quick ornament types usually take at least several hours to complete. If you can get $5 for the finished item, you will be lucky. However, I do not know what your financial situation is or how you value your time. All I can say is that you can make a whole lot more (and at home as well) doing computer input, etc. I created original designs for a niche market, and sold them through art auctions. I designed things for techie-types, and sold them at Science Fiction convention art shows. They sold very well. I made what I consider to be good money -- that is, more than double the cost of the materials on pieces which didn't take a lot of work. It was a ego stroke to know that people were willing to bid against each other to get my stuff. On the other hand, I was sorry to see some of them go. I guess art is like that. ---------------------------------- Craft Business Mailing List ---------------------------------- A craft business mailing list was created by Teri Miller early in January, 1994. If you would like to be on the list, send email to "crafts-business-request@hustle.rahul.net". To post an article, send email to "crafts-business@hustle.rahul.net" and (if appropriate) it will be forwarded to the list.