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| Snail photo by Nita Lou Bryant
Ah, the challenges of marketing one's handmade goods...
I love to make things, but I'm not very, um, adventuresome when it comes to attempting to sell them. Thus I was thrilled a few months ago to be able to place my Sedbi Design Studio products in an existing shop that specialized in locally-made artisan goods. Voila! I could spend my time in the studio while the shop's owner chatted with customers and rang up my sales. Unfortunately, things didn't exactly turn out that way. I recently received notice that the shop had suddenly closed, so suddenly in fact that I feel lucky to have gotten my products and display materials back before the entire space was cleared for a new tenant.
Now, my dream situation would be to have my very own little retail establishment--big enough for my sewing machine and fabric and other supplies, along with sufficient display room so I could both make and sell my Sedbi Design Studio products in one place. But judging from the rental rates for small retail spaces here in Austin, Texas, this will continue to be just a dream.
Yes, I could hustle up new consignment venues and lug my merchandise around to craft fairs, but I've not yet figured out how to do all that and still have time to create in the studio. Plus write songs and play guitar and paint watercolors and cook and keep house and ride herd on a family that includes a dog, eight fish, and one snail with a bad case of wanderlust. Speaking of whom, this morning we discovered him near the base of a tabletop fan atop a bar stool that's a few feet away from the fish tank. We're still trying to figure out how he managed to get there.
Inspired by the snail's boldness and because I enjoy shopping online, I've decided to try online marketing of my own products. Specifically, I am setting up shop at Goodsmiths. In fact, if you clink on that link and then click on "Housewares," you'll see some of my Sedbi Design Studio products already listed. For sale. In the Sedbi Design Studio shop at Goodsmiths. Where someone could actually buy them.
Only a dozen or more listings to go and then I can get back to making stuff. Except first, maybe I better check to see if that pesky snail has gone walkabout again.
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| Distance from Fan to Fish Tank photo by Nita Lou Bryant |
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| Snail's Eye View of the Fan from the Fish Tank photo by Nita Lou Bryant |
Snail, Fan, Fish Tank
photo by Nita Lou Bryant
