I thought it would be a good idea to actually produce some of the designs that I mocked up for my 505 project, as I received such positive feedback from my peers, tutors and friends on my designs and concepts. I would have liked to have had a wider range of stock including prints and designs from different projects, but typical me I quickly develop a hatred for previous work.
Proposal for Stock:
- Two-pack notebooks
- Screen printed tote bags
- Screen printed cushions
- Stickers
- Postcards (4-pack)
- Wrapping Paper (maybe)
Pricing
Pricing my products was the hardest thing for me, without the help of my annoying habit of wanting to be polite and not ask for too much money for items. I must get over this if I actually want to make a living! Anyway, I carried out a little research and asked people how much they would buy my things for to gain an accurate insight. In hindsight, my insight was really inaccurate; I should have spent a lot more time researching the pricing of particular items and taken into consideration important things such as overheads and costs per unit in more depth.
This is what I priced my items as:
- Notebooks: £3.00
- Tote Bags: £5.00
- Stickers: £2.00
- Postcards: £2.50
- The wrapping paper didn't make it
- Cushions...£6.50 - BIG MISTAKE!!!!
My main regret was pricing the cushions so CHEAP. So many people came up to me and said that they were surprised that I priced them so low, which was disappointing because I could have potentially made more money on them. This was mainly because I didn't look enough into the pricing of handmade cushions and mainly went on the unit price of mass produced cushion covers. But I know now for next time.
Production
The whole process of producing my stock was a steep, steep learning curve which resulted in many costly mistakes. However I realise that this is completely normal, learning through mistakes is the most effective way to learn and I can take those experiences forward.
Digital print was really testing; the postcards caused a lot of confusion being printed with the correct designs on each side and on the correct stock etc. Also, I printed the stickers on clear adhesive which caused the ink to smudge so I couldn't use them unfortunately. I must have spent around £30 on printing my post cards, many of which I didn't feel confident in selling because they contained a few mistakes. It is difficult relying on another person to print your things correctly and to the required standard, especially as the print room is so busy and technology can be so unpredictable.
Screen printing on to fabric was the hardest part of the production process, as it involved a great deal of trial and error as I had never done it before. Thankfully the print room staff were really helpful, but there was added pressure printing straight onto the fabric as it is much more expensive than paper and less feasible to just throw away when it goes wrong.
The tote bags were relatively straight forward to print, but the cushions were so much harder, again as this was completely new to me! I watched a few youtube tutorials on how to make a simple cushion from scratch which were really helpful, yet I made SO many mistakes in the process (all happy mistakes though!)
Setting Up
When setting up the Art Market, I got a good place in the queue really early when I realised that I had written out my inventory completely wrong resulting in me having to write another out by hand and queuing up from the back again! This was really annoying but it taught me to pay better attention to the requirements. The market looked great, there was such a huge variety of items for sale which were all fantastic.
How did I do?
Much to my surprise, my stock somehow managed to completely sell out! I was really overwhelmed at this response, and from all of the positive comments that I was receiving from other sellers in the art market as well as people that had bought my products. I know I have a lot to work on (pricing especially) but participating in the art market has been such a valuable and confidence boosting experience that I hope to continue to develop within my practice.
Over the summer I plan on setting up an ETSY store online selling similar products to these in mind of developing a whole number of different ranges including greetings cards, more prints, more cushion covers and tote bags, and a lot more. If the shop is successful it will act as a good 'CASH COW' in my practice to keep a potentially sustainable cash inflow if the demand for work becomes quiet for example.
Exciting times ahead!
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