Different ways of selling as a Designer Maker (my experience)

I have now been selling my handmade, functional pottery for about 5 years – initially as a part-time venture when I still worked part-time in a school and for the last 3  years as my full-time occupation.

In the early days I was delighted to sell anything – it was so exciting that people (who didn’t know me) were prepared to pay good money for my work! Although I attended fantastic pottery classes for about 5 years, I do not have an artistic degree and much of what I do is self-taught, so that acknowledgement felt fantastic.

For these last 5 years I have not been short of shops/galleries wanting to sell my work and this is very gratifying. The sort of people that buy my work are those that appreciate handmade and unique pottery. The most frequent comments I get from people who like it are ‘it’s really unusual’ and ‘what lovely colours’. However, since I have been a full-time potter I have felt more of a need to make a bit more money from my work – acknowledgement and praise doesn’t pay the bills!

I never expected to get rich or even have a ‘good’ income from making and designing pottery, but like many other designer makers I struggle with the problem of working really hard for what is basically a pittance. Most designer makers I know have another source of income, often teaching their craft. I don’t want this just to be a whinge, so I thought it might be interesting to document my experience to date with selling.

One thing I didn’t realise when I started working full-time as a potter, was just how much time I would need to spend marketing/selling my work. Much of  this time is spent on Social Media and it is difficult to tell how worthwhile this is.

The main ways I have found  to sell are :-

• Through galleries and high end gift shops
• Large selective Craft Events/exhibitions
• Smaller Craft Fairs/Artisan Markets
• Open Studio type events
• Online through your own shop/Etsy/Folksy shop
• Online through someone like NOTHS or Madebyhandonline or Country Living

I have experimented with all of these methods of selling and in the end I find there is not a lot to choose between them in terms of financial success.

• At the large selected Craft Events I have found that I have good sales, but these are balanced out by the high cost of a stand (£500+), travel and accommodation. No more profitable than galleries after all the costs.
• Through (good) galleries I can sell well but (with a few exceptions)  pay 50% of the retail price to the gallery.
• Open Studio events can be successful but take a lot of time and effort.
• Online sales through my own shop are significantly more profitable, but take a lot of time and social media effort to build up. The best times with this method have been after having a photo of my work in a magazine, such as ‘Country Living’.
• I haven’t found online shops through a ‘middle man’ to be very successful.

My conclusions from all this  are that there is no one way of selling that works significantly better for me. I would really like to build up my online sales but this

is difficult. From my experience to date it seems customers are much happier to buy my  work when it is physically in front of them.

I would love to hear other Makers views on this subject. What works best for you?