Reassessing Priorities

I've had a bit of a commercial day. I'm taking part in an online sales event 'Super Seconds Festival' and had a craft fair. The craft fair was AWFUL!

Well, actually, to be specific, SALES at the craft fair were awful. It was at a great location - right in the middle of Guildford High Street in the historic Guildhall. Usually in October people are starting to shop for Christmas and I do rather well. Today I think I literally covered the cost of the stall and the fuel. I've been writing it off as a totally wasted day.

Then I started thinking more broadly... I asked myself a lot of questions...

• Do I really want to do these non-curated, general fairs?

• What's the purpose of doing the fairs?

• If I don't make money from them is there a back up purpose?

• What skills am I gaining from doing fairs?

• etc...etc...

Overall I came to the conclusion that for a while I've been wanting to do fewer, but bigger fairs, like maybe Wisley. One's that are several days, accepted by application, and where the general standard of 'maker' is high.

I realised a few weeks ago that I haven't booked any fairs for next year and wondered if this is a sign that I'm really not that interested in them any more. I'd much rather being doing craft specific fairs and art exhibitions. It made me think about the bits of today that I enjoyed... I do love explaining to people how the prints are made, this would be more fun (and make more sense to people) if I could actually demonstrate, I've often wondered about getting a really small press so people could have a go themselves. I realised today that I was talking much more deeply about the inspiration behind the prints, about my explorations of 'place', and how it links to the research I've been doing for the MA. I can see people realising that there's really quite a lot that goes into the prints when I explain it, but usually that prompts people to look again and see if there's something they'd like (or even just buy a card), not today!

I did have one really interesting conversation about making books and was musing on the idea of making and selling a kind of half finished 'artists book'. The idea being that the purchaser could enjoy it as it is or there's space for them to add to it so it becomes a collaborative piece. I rather like the idea of selling something in between a blank sketchbook and a completed piece.

Overall I think I have made the decision to try to focus more on making good work, applying to open calls and possibly applying to sell at one or two bigger fairs per year. I already feel excited at the prospect of not having every weekend already booked between October and Christmas and really being able to focus on what I want to make rather than trying to make something just to sell it.

I'm sure that financially this will mean I'll be worse off for at least a couple of years, but I also think my work will progress faster and be of a higher quality which is what's important!