New Shelves!

So, my booth has been a little wanting for vertical storage space, but booth set ups are really expensive - I mean like in the thousands of dollars range to have a professional booth. And one of the whole psychology of selling things is how important it is to have a nice looking booth - if it looks like you just threw together some boxes and a table cloth people are less likely to buy from you. It's almost and Emporer's New Clothes kind of effect. A lot of adults just don't trust their own judgement about art and it' not like a $5 coffee cup at Target kind of investment so they need to be reassured that you're a professional and that other's respect your work - so if for instance if you have work in galleries or shops they can see that you're a "real artist".

So, having a great looking website, cards, a nice looking booth, tags, bags, nice signage - these are all just about as important as having really great work. And, they're expensive.

I've been working on a nice looking website and restocking some shops I used to sell at to help with this. I have honestly had people look at my work and walk away and then come back a few weeks later to say they saw my work in a gallery somewhere AND THEN make a purchase. I even had a customer tell me a few years ago after finding out I would be at one of the big sales during War Eagle weekend that they would just wait until then to buy something from me - so they could say that they bought it there and not "just at the Rivermarket"

My website is coming along nicely and should be live in a week or so. I actually designed one on Wix and then found out I would have to get a "premium" monthly membership to redirect it to the website address I already purchased on go daddy - www.thetinytinystudio.com. So, I've made a great arrangement with a techie friend who is going to take what I've done and make me a new site and host it in exchange for some hand made dishes and platters for his SCA feasts he attends. Barter is alive and well in the 21st century!

Anyway, I found this awesome folding bookshelf at Target in the clearance section after the college move-in sales and I absolutely love it. I wanted to get more but they seems to be discontinued. Then someone on one of the ceramics lists I'm on posted about some other shelves called Origami shelves that fold up. They have several sizes so I'm ordering a big one this week - I hope it is as awesome as it looks!