There are many ways to sell artwork, and there are some key points. There are many galleries around, from A list, to small independent galleries, all of which may be interested in selling your work. One of the things which intrigues me it trying to work out whether a particular gallery has the right demographic for a particular type of artwork (for example sculpture).
It will take time and experience to learn about how the art world works. With strategies and planning it is possible to further your art career, and this will assist an aspiring artist in developing a range of work to enter the art market and be successful.
There are key questions like: what other artists are changing? Where do they show their work? One of the tasks which has been forwarded to us it to choose artist who has been in the market for around the same time as you. And artists whose work is similar to you ( this bit I find hard as there are not many people doing the same work as me), This is benchmarking so you know where to pitch your price.
Questions worth consideration!
Costs of making my work: the one cost at present is the cost of the Ciment Fondu, which is around £25 per 6 kilos. The glass I get from waste glass at a local builders merchants and at present they don't charge me. This may change depending on how much glass I need, and finally I use builders sand. It is not expensive but it may become increasingly so, as strangely, it is getting scarcer, through huge demand in worldwide building demands.
Studio or not?
Should I rent a studio? I must admit that I am loathe to rent a studio as you would have to be making big money to fund a studio and pay all the costs associated with it, as well as your on-going home costs.
Other Costs
Technical help which, of course includes website costs (and also domain cost) has to come into the financial costs of running a business, and as I am supplying a product, I will need public health insurance for my product and if I choose to hold short courses in my workshop. It is also worth looking at how much Sum-Up charges on each transaction, which although its not big, the higher the amount the more you will pay. And finally, the cost of an accountant: this last cost can be claimed back when doing a tax return as can some of the things I have mentioned earlier.
Kiln costs: how much does it cost to fire glass? I have a device which tells me how much electricity I am using during a firing and at the moment a full fuse costs me around £5.50 so this amount can be divided up between each piece which has been successfully fired.
Whole sale commission, selling through a gallery. Often a gallery will want you to sell your art on your website at the same price of the gallery. A lecture we had last year from Beth Prior (The Priory in Bristol) suggested that although commission fees look to be high on the face of it, they are doing the display, the selling, the finance side of it, which leaves you more time to make. If I choose to sell through websites like Etsy then again there will be commission but, it is an effective selling mechanism as my friend Charlotte Manser has found with her highly successful pottery business (charlottemanserceramics - on Instagram)
Other ideas for selling may be in the form of using Amazon to sell T-shirts and journals with Cyanotype photos or even a photo of the bowl (another thing which I have an interest in)
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