[cobalt]

Had a offer on my stick today( the dodo i use for my pic)a resonable offer but its like parting with a old friend ,.I offered to make him one ,he said he wanted that one .

Showed him some others but he was very insistant on what he wanted but being a poor buisness man didnt take the offer , after all it was the 1st one i made and i am attached to it, so mayby i am like the dodo not changing with the times.

Thinking about seting a web site up to advertsie the hiking poles , but i am hopeless with computers and need advice , not even to sure i would want the hassell i.Fare more interested in carving and just doing things on the spur of the momentthink my wife would do better at it than me?i am just a poor salesman

 

[WalkersStics]

Hello Cobalt

Set yourself up an Etsy Shop....... www.etsy.com it is free to join, and listings are only 20 cents with five pictures

I have a shop there at www.etsy.com/shop/WalkersStics and consider myself to be their number one seller of carved staffs, I have sold them around the world now, and it's a good feeling having your canes and sticks throughout our planet

A word of advice, have shipping boxes lined up, and charge the right amount for shipping those boxes, oh, and take really good pictures, and really good descriptions of what your selling.

Peace Brother

 

[cobalt]

Wrong side of the pond i know about ebay but a lot of people say you cant get the money on it ,he says everyone thinks its a cheap site to shop

Also a potter friend of mine stopped his web site he said he got more questions that the thing was worth and spent to much time answering them?

so makes you wonder about the web?

 

[gdenby]

Decades ago, I made a small living off of painting. At first, I had a lot of trouble selling pictures because I became so attached to them while I was making them. I eventually became used to it, but there were always a few things I put aside because they were special to me.

Over the past few years, I've had a few people encourage me to start offering different things over the web. Where I live, it is very hard to sell arts or crafts. The local market just isn't big enough to support the shops, and competition to get gallery representation in the big cities is ferocious. And then there is the commission the gallery gets.

I know several people who do sell thru their web site. Maintaining the site doesn't seem to be as big a problem for them, as the doing the paperwork necessary for taxes. And I knew a fellow who was a book collector who bought lots of items at estate sales, and sold all but the best via e-bay. He did have to check his email every few hours, and make a daily trip to the post office to ship his sales. So, I see that internet sales definitely work, but one must do double duty as a maker and a vendor.

 

[JJireh]

Websites are easy enough, but take knowledge and time to do correctly.

Sites like etsy/ebay allow you a 'storefront' quickly cheaply and easily.

As with actual storefronts, the problem becomes getting traffic to the product.

This is why I don't base my living on my carving

 

[cobalt]

its always a problem even if you have a normal shop ,I dont want to get heavily involved in it just enought to clear some sticks .but not keen on ebay i think it seems to cheapen your work with the price people ask on there.

Not that i ask a lot for them but people think if its on there they expect very cheap and i do take some pride in what i do and i think that would take that away.

I have seen them advertised on line for between 150£- 350£ and if you take the hours spent on them you can understand why

Websites are easy enough, but take knowledge and time to do correctly.

Sites like etsy/ebay allow you a 'storefront' quickly cheaply and easily.

As with actual storefronts, the problem becomes getting traffic to the product.

This is why I don't base my living on my carving

 

[MJC4]

The wife and I just returned from the 38th annual Duneland Wood Carvers Club show in Portage Indiana. (Its going on tomorrow as well from 10 - 4) What a great show, carvers from all around the area and the Midwest as well. Most of the exhibiters had items for sale, walking sticks and canes were well represented. I wish I would have asked for permission to photograph some of the items, but I felt that was a bit cheesy asking an artist for pics of work they were displaying for sale.

Two exhibiters made me think of you,Cobalt. One gentlemen had the most beautiful basswood painted carvings of plains Indians, bison, Mountain men and wild mustangs as toppers to various hardwood hiking staffs. The second fellow had vintage farm tractors (John Deere, Ford Ferguson, Oliver, Allis Chalmers etc.) carved and painted then added as handles to sticks that he had an Amish fellow over in Middlebury Indiana turn on a lathe for him. Marvelous work. The asking price for these pieces of art IMHO was not excessive, $100-150. The type of people that frequent this type of show know what is involved in the making of these pieces and are not afraid to spend the type of money art work should bring.

Unlike a general craft show that may or may not have carvers this show was specific to woodcrafters, looked like the place to exhibit and sell walking sticks. I am told there are several shows like this around the Midwest. Do they have shows like this in England? Might be a way to sell a few of your sticks to an appreciative crowd.

If nothing else its a great place to fuel the imagination and all the exhibiters I talked to were only too willing to give a noobie carver (me) advice!

 

[cobalt]

good you enjoyed the show there always worth walking round.

The price seems resonable considering the amount of time people spend on them, they would cost more here i think.

There are shows over here but mainly near the citys and i hate driving ,the roads are so busy and get no pleasure from it it so unless its very local i dont attened them..

There is oftern companys have demonstrations for tools like lathes and carving stuff which are good to attend but only go to see techniques and gather info , you could easly get caught up in must have that syndrome.

Most of my info comes from things that just attract my attention like ian norbury and shawn cipa and wild life pics and historical buildings.

I never start a project unless i have several pics. of the object from all angles , you need it for depth texture and proportions

 

[gdenby]

The second fellow had vintage farm tractors (John Deere, Ford Ferguson, Oliver, Allis Chalmers etc.) carved and painted then added as handles to sticks that he had an Amish fellow over in Middlebury Indiana turn on a lathe for him. Marvelous work. The asking price for these pieces of art IMHO was not excessive, $100-150. The type of people that frequent this type of show know what is involved in the making of these pieces and are not afraid to spend the type of money art work should bring.

I suspect the fellow making the farm tractor handles is from near where I live, which is less than an hour from the dunes. There were 2 fellows showing sticks at an art and craft fair here in So. Bend a few years ago, and one had a bunch of the tractor handles. The other donated some of his sticks to a botanical garden. Seeing their work was enough to make me take stick carving a bit more seriously.

 

[cobalt]

pity theres no pics of them . Always looking for new ideas.

 

[gdenby]

Possibly this guy for the tractors.

 

[MJC4]

Yep that's the tractor guy.

 

[cobalt]

see what you meen,fun stuff

Today i uncovered my old train set from my youth, and it sundenly dawned on me they are nearly a antique like me ,

there all in working order and there must be 10 passanger and 30 goods vans and 6 trains, wondered if they would make a topper?

BUt thanks for the link to the tactor guy