Excusssse meeeee!!!!!!!!!!!
Well…ok…excuse you indeed…lol… I believe you have just
succeeded in making all of the points that some of us were attempting
to make in recommending others never to consign their work. In fact,
you have absolutely cemented the very just prejudice to consignment
that I had already developed over years of experience.
I have a retail store, I have artists that consign. They have other
galleries and retail venues that they consign through. Most also do
shows. Different artists do different numbers, usually based on
price points, or uniqueness of design. The artists at my store
usually sell more pieces at Valentine's Day, Christmas, Mothers
Day, which coincidently is when most of all other jewelry is sold.
The rest of the year things might be slow. That is not the store
owners fault, that is retail.
Not necessarily. Some galleries have a great perception of what their
customers want. Others do not have a clue. Stores and galleries are
only a reflection of their owner’s and buyer’s taste. That does not
mean that they have good taste, or the same taste as the customers in
their region, they just like a certain style that may or may not
resonate with their customer base. I have galleries in some areas
that do not sell my work well. It is obviously the wrong style or
price point for their area. They haven’t gotten that yet, but that is
their responsibility, not mine. I have other stores that sell
everything I send them within weeks. My work is to their customer’s
taste. We all love each other of course. They think my work is
brilliant, and I think that they are the best and most beautiful
galleries and stores on the entire planet. In actuality, it is just
these particular stores have an intelligent grasp of their customer
base and my style of work just happens to match it. Other places
sell sporadically, but love my work, and work hard to sell it as they
have made an investment. Trust me, if you have spent money on an
object in order to make money, you want to make that money a lot
worse than if you have not laid out anything.
do not try to intimate in any way that the store owner is
responsible for your work not selling.
Ah, but it IS the store owner’s fault if work does not sell, as that
is evidence that they do not know the taste of their customer base,
which is again the whole point. If my work is not to your customer’s
taste, then don’t buy it. It won’t sell no matter how you display it,
or how clean you keep it. In some regions, a jeweler’s style is so
out of keeping with regional taste, you couldn’t give the stuff away.
If how clean you keep your artist’s work is one of the main selling
tactics, then I can see where problems may arise… (that’s a
joke…I hope)… Don’t blame me because you don’t know what your
customers will buy. In wholesale, they aren’t my actual customers,
only because I never meet them. You are my customer. I only have to
sell to you, for your taste. It is up to you to figure out their
taste.
Jewelry is a product, and it is your job to find the people who see
value in what you do
Wrong again…It is YOUR job to see value in what I do…for your
particular store, and your particular area. It is my job to make my
product to the best of my ability. To ask me to, (essentially), pay
to decorate your store with my work, while you do or do not figure
out what the heck your customer’s taste is makes me laugh. It also
makes me angry. If you are not willing to invest in me, why the heck
should I invest in you? This is business. Even though I may well like
you, you are not my buddy or my family.
Now if you do buy some of my work, I am willing during the holidays
to consign some of the radically more expensive pieces just to get
you some extra attention and make a really exciting showing, but only
for that season. As you have supported me, you have now given me a
reason to support you.
Some work initially sells really well, and then the regular
customers get used to it, and it slows down.
Yes, and that is when you buy another artists work. A constant
rotation, or if you’re lucky, your favorite jeweler’s are
continually evolving their work so that it does not become stale.
Customers always respond to new stuff.
Galleries and stores are quite simply put, my customers. they respond
to me the exact same way their customers respond to them. I am
essentially a store. I have a grasp of my customer’s taste, and they
buy my work, or I am living in a dream world, and will starve because
no one will buy my work. Unless of course, I am supported by my day
job, ( that I don’t have), or my, (non-existent), spouse, in which
case, I don’t have to do this to feed myself or keep me, my son, the
goats, chickens, horse, cats, dogs and parrots from living in my car,
and I can make anything I please as no one has to buy it for me to
continue to la-di-dah my way through the wholesale/retail world.
If the only way an artist feels they can be seen is to do
consignment, then they haven’t dug in their heels hard enough, or
they have another source of income, or all of their work is priced
so astronomically high, then it becomes solely an art gallery
venture…Take my advice… Just say no!
Out of curiosity, would you allow your customers to take things home
from your store, try them out for a while, decorate themselves or
their house with your stuff, use it for months or years at a time,
dirty it, inflict wear and tear, perhaps damage it, break it, or
lose it, and then send it back, without paying you first…? Or
perhaps forgetting to pay you at all? Or insisting that they never
took that piece in the first place? No??? Well neither will I. That
is essentially consignment. Don’t ask me to do what you wouldn’t do
yourself. You are right, it is bad for business. Mine.
On the other hand, I will work with you to make my jewelry work for
you. I will accept exchanges after three months and within one year
with the accompanying receipts. You may have initially misjudged
price points or style. It is in my best interest to have you as a
successful return customer. I will try hard to accomplish that goal.
I have customers who have bought my work at every show for the past
14 years. I worship them… 
Of course I, like everyone else, also
have the occasional one time customer that walks by my booth and just
glares at me as if it is my fault. Ai yi yi.
For the most part, things don’t sell because your customers don’t
like them. Figure it out, and buy accordingly…Do not ask me to
fund you. This is not the bank of Lisa. You are not my teenager.
Now let’s hear everyone else’s rants…lol…
Lisa, ( wrestled down goats, sat on them and successfully trimmed
their hooves using pruning shears, as I have done for the last two
years. Thanks for all of the good goat advice guys. Did I mention
that they weigh 200 pounds each and have horns? I weigh about a
hundred…EEEK!! On the up side, they are as sweet and as docile as a
cat in the sun, and there are only two of them: Axel and Puck).