Business Blues

Many people, outside the professional craft world, see what we do as a gentle, highly enjoyable and stress-free lifestyle choice. Occasionally this might be true but usually my reality is far from it.

How I would love to spend my time sitting around dreaming up fabulous, fresh, new creations! However, for me designing new work is squeezed between doing my tax return and scrabbling around the dusty studio floor looking for the tiniest of things that I have lost (not very glamorous, I know). Most days I am in a constant whirl of balancing the different elements of running a business, because that is what has taken over in my case; the business. There was a stage when the business aspect played second fiddle to my needs as an artist, there are times (like now) when I become a little production line of smaller pieces for the impending Christmas rush. Eight years ago as an idealistic art student I don’t think I fully appreciated the balancing act that I now find myself embroiled in.

Perhaps most other people are just better at dealing with lots of things at once? Or do they struggle with this balance too? I know that there are grants out there which help to sustain makers through larger projects and so take the strain away from the money making side of things. But I suppose that emails would still need to be replied, invoice’s made, payment’s chased, suppliers argued with etc etc……

Don’t get me wrong, I am at my happiest when I am in my studio creating an extravagant new piece. The problem is the constraints place on my time by the demands of keeping on top of the mundane and everyday tasks involved in the running of a business and, currently, I am not sure how to remedy that.

Craft and the Internet

Here you are, sitting at a computer, reading about craft on the internet. You can't feel it's texture or temperature, walk around it to look at the back or lift it up to feel it's weight. You cant even smell it. It's all on a screen. So why are you here then? The internet has opened doors to all kinds of communities. We investigate it to find others we can relate to - those which inspire us – and it has grown to become all about sharing and contributing. But what does this mean for contemporary craft makers?

The rise of personalised blogs and websites may be encouraging individuals to become more creative with the net and in turn inspiring people to turn to crafts and produce amateur, home and hand-made art and objects. Websites such as Etsy have really brought the growing DIY ethic to the forefront. http://www.etsy.com Etsy was established in 2005 and it's mission is to ' enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers. Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice: Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.' The Etsy community spans the globe with buyers and sellers coming from more than 150 countries - Etsy sellers number in the hundreds of thousands

For Matthew Stinchcomb, a spokesman for Etsy where many crafters show and sell their wares, this is one of the factors that has encouraged huge numbers of people to plunge in and have a go themselves.
"It's easier for people to be artists nowadays, you do not need to be able to draw. You can use Photoshop or software like that," he said. "You do not need to spend six years as an apprentice."



Craft really is the new cool on the net. Just look at growing groups such as the Craft Mafia where they proclaim themselves as the 'newest addition to the craft family' and are 'crafters on a mission to promote craft and creativity'.


The Craft Mafia members produce a range of handmade products such as jewellery, homewares, art, stationery and fashion and interior accessories and sell them from their respective websites, Etsy shops and at Craft Mafia Markets. 'We want to show you an alternative to the high street, which often fails to deliver the quality, unique handmade products that shoppers long for.'

Times are tough for everyone and the growth in the number of customers contacting artists directly once they have seen their work in exhibitions might understandably make galleries a little twitchy. Direct client contact can have both positive and negative aspects for the maker. Dealing with lengthy enquiries over e-mail can be frustrating when they come to nothing and difficult customers can really sap your time. This is when we realise what galleries are for. Conversely, meeting with your customers can have various benefits – no commission is taken, you can gain valuable feedback and the customer also feels they have a more interesting buying experience when they commission a piece directly from the artist.

I personally have a website but I do not have an e-commerce section on it. My work is not batch produced and I feel that people really need to hold it and in the case of jewellery, try it on. I have heard conflicting opinions about selling websites - Are these sites viable and successful or are they just too complicated and mean more time away from the studio for the maker?

Looking at the growth of 'crafting' on the net makes me pose some questions:

Is e-commerce really applicable to the specific needs of selling and purchasing craft?

How should we curate and critically comment on the digitally connected crafts?

What implications does all this have for "fine craft", and how does it change the culture of consuming such craft?

How should we as professional makers regard the democratic rise of DIY creativity?

Collect at the Saatchi Gallery

Having been held in the V & A for it’s first 5 years Collect moved to the Saatchi Gallery in London this year and an exciting and interesting event it was.

Collect was set up by the Crafts Council to promote and sell contemporary craftwork to private collectors and curators of public collections - it’s like the craft version of Frieze, the contemporary visual art fair. Galleries have to apply to have a stand there and the gallery /organisations, and also the work they intend to show, are all vetted by a selection panel. Work shown has a to have minimum price of £500 and prices went up to in excess of £35,000, so serious collectors only! craftscotland was successful in it’s application to be there for the second year running this year and I was working on the stand which was very interesting -I’ve previously been to Collect as a curator/collector so it was quite an insight to see it from the other side of the fence, so to speak!

There was a big difference in atmosphere between the Saatchi and the V & A - the stands in the V & A were smaller (or seemed to be) and, as there were 3 rows of stands in each gallery, you could always see a number of stands from any point so it was easy to be distracted by something else catching your eye across the space. In the Saatchi Gallery there were 12 rooms across 3 floors and each stand had wide space in front of it which made it less crowded for the visitors and gave the work room to breath and be seen at it’s best.

The craftscotland stand showed the work of 11 Scottish makers who had applied to take part and had been selected by a panel of experts (before having to get through the Crafts Council/ Saatchi selection panel as well). 12 other Scottish makers were also represented on other stands -The Scottish Gallery, Bishoplands Trust, Contemporary Applied Arts, Electrum and Lesley Craze Gallery - an impressive showing for a small country! We were thrilled when Geoffrey Mann’s Flight Take-off was nominated for an Art Fund award on the opening day -it didn’t win one but it was great to hear that a Jacqueline Ryan necklace on the Scottish Gallery stand had won one and was going to Aberdeen Art Gallery.

Over 10,000 people attended Collect over the 3 days and it was fascinating to talk to the private collectors about who they had in their collections. Although there is obviously a recession on, there is definitely still money around though I do think people are playing safer in how and where they spend it - it seemed to me that the more established galleries still did well as their track record adds to the value of the piece to the collector - provenance is important. All the makers we showed on the stand had their admirers and we had many compliments on how the stand looked this year - well done, Tina Rose!

An extraordinary amount of work and preparation goes into an event like Collect -you watch crates of work being heaved around the galleries then being opened and work from all over the world being unpacked, positioned, dusted and labelled then everyone disappears returning calmly in their finery to promote and sell the work giving no sign that they have just spent 2 days doing hard physical labour in a constant state of panic in case you‘re not ready in time - impressive!

It remains to be seen whether Collect will be in the Saatchi Gallery again next year - I do think it attracted a slightly different audience this year with more of the type of people who attend contemporary fine art events rather than craft -interesting to know how many converts were made.

Hard times are times to get creative

No matter what the specialism, we artists are suffering along with all small businesses right now, in these economically challenging times.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. We might be worried about banks, slow markets or cash flow problems, but as this unpredictability is also good for focusing the mind, it’s worth taking the time to think creatively and explore new opportunities.
What better time, for instance, than to get involved in educational workshops or apply for residencies within primary and secondary schools.
It was after my experience gained in a residency at the Glasgow School of Art I knew that in addition to setting up my business as a studio jeweller, I also wanted to work with students and young people.
Seven years on and I am still continuing to develop my experience in the two separate but complimentary areas.
Residencies provide an invaluable experience for everyone involved.
Working with young people, from primary age through to secondary school and on to student level, has not only been enormously enjoyable but it has also given me a new perspective on my work and how I run my business.
Young people keep your ideas fresh, they question your work, which is hugely valuable, as it can help you reasses your work and develop new ideas.
Throughout each residency I have undertaken, the ultimate aim I had set myself was to promote the crafts. I wanted to change the notion that many young people have, that art means painting - and craft means a tacky object in a tourist shop.
I wanted to modernise the view of artists, by demonstrating the diversity of their work, their roles in the community and their contribution to society in general.
Once they see how a professional artist works, hopefully young people will not only develop a greater appreciation but also consider a career in the art, design and craft world.
What they will definitely have gained however, is an eye to look at objects, everyday life, and the world in general, differently.
Being involved in residencies also provides a great opportunity to produce a new body of work, or introduce and develop new techniques and materials. Through this route, I have been able to have my own solo show, in addition to other exhibitions, and also to work with 18ct gold alongside my plastics.
Of course, working for local authorities or other organisations in this way, also helps to provide you with a regular income. Although it is mainly seasonal, this income can help to support your studio work in quiter times, such as over the summer.

If you are interested in getting involved, my advice would be to look on the Scottish Arts Council and Craft Scotland websites, where residencies are advertised. Also approach your local council education departments, where you will find cultural co-ordinators and Arts Link Officers who are always looking for new artists to provide workshops, projects and residencies. Many councils have a bank of artists - where your details are kept on record for future projects.

The Children vs. Business Balancing Act.

The piece below is a very personal way of trying to solve the child and work problem. Every child and every design discipline brings its own new problems. But it is a problem that many of us designer/ makers will have to solve and it would be wonderful to hear if anyone else has any top tips or ideas.

Like many other designer makers I left college, set up a workshop and have slowly built up a business over the last ten years or so, when, bang, the biological clock could not be ignored any longer!

Realising that spending all the time I wanted in the workshop and pulling all-nighters before deadlines, may possibly become a thing of the past once a baby was on the scene- I had a wee think. How does one juggle work and family? Up until now my business had been my baby- a bit of a cliché, but sadly true! I could spend all time and focus on my silversmithing, nurturing a tiny business and seeing it change and grow.

Should I outsource more work? Was there enough work or money in the business to employ someone else? Should I try and a find more steady income such as teaching? Should I change my techniques from very noisy constant hammering and using a blow- torch to some thing a bit more child friendly!

I tried to be very grown-up and sensible and had started to adjust my working methods to more batch production and even trained up a part-time employee in the year or so before we had our son. I hoped that I would be able to keep the gallery/ trade fair side of my metalwork business flowing by employing someone to make the batch production pieces, whilst I could waltz in, when motherhood allowed, and concentrate on the one- off, fun commissions. Not to be.
In the year I actually became pregnant the sales plummeted for my batch production work and the large silver pieces, which only I could produce, started to do really well. There went my grand plan!

Once pregnant, luck was definitely on my side as I had a huge amount of energy, combined with a bizarrely busy year of commissions and Goldsmiths Fair. I probably had the most productive year in the last ten years. I suppose that I also was terrified of saying no to anything, for fear of never working again once the baby was here.

Wonderful William was born. Work and the world of silver was very far from my thoughts. The statutory maternity pay for the self-employed, of £100 per week helped things tick along and we enjoyed time with our baby.

By the time William was four months old I was back in the workshop. Much earlier than I had wanted or expected, but a big commission had turned up. I was curious to see how this juggling baby and work was going to pan out- and I was already getting itchy fingers. All other mothers I knew were taking at least 6 or 9 months off work- but they also had the added bonus of a much larger maternity pay from their employers. I also realised that my job was a labour of love, a huge part of what made my head tick. I needed to get back to making, in a very ad hoc, part-time way , to keep me sane.

So with no family to baby sit, William started to come into the workshop with me. My vague theory was that I would start as I meant to go on and hoped that he would just think that playing in a play-pen in the corner of a metal workshop was totally normal. After all he had probably got used to the sound of hammering during his 9months in the womb! Again I was very lucky to have such an amenable son, (well so far, he is only 2!) and I frantically hammered away for the magic two hours he slept in his pushchair down the hall. My husband was also self- employed, and together we juggled our days and our boy.
Some how we managed to get through the run up to Goldsmiths’ Fair. It nearly killed us but we did it.
I was amazed and happy that I had managed to carry on working, juggling and bringing William into the workshop with me, but I was either partly ignoring him or never really concentrating on the work. I tried to separate days into William days or workshop days, but running your own business has a nasty habit of popping up at the least convenient moments.
When Goldsmiths’ Fair came round again, I knew that there had to be some changes. I really wanted to exhibit again, and felt that even if it was the only thing I worked towards in a year, it was still better to show my face than not at all.
How was I going to find or afford a form of childcare for a couple of days a week?
A fellow Edinburgh jeweller was in a similar predicament in the run up to Origin and we started a toddler swap! I looked after her son and mine for one day a week, whilst she went to the workshop and visa versa. It has been a wonderful time, our children getting to know one another, we can chat about work and life, be flexible for each other- and it is free!
I also found out that Working tax credits would pay 80% of nursery fees if my husband and me were both low-earners but worked over 16 hours a week. So William started at nursery two days a week. Finally I had three whole days to solidly work and the rest of the week I could devote to family. I found that it also helped with the times that’ business thoughts’ or ‘emails to be done’ popped into my head when I was with William. I just told myself that they would be dealt with on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday or in the evenings.

Of course nothing is so cut and dried and my husband is invaluable in the run up to deadlines and many evening are filled up with paperwork and emails. But it seems to work after a fashion. It will always change anyway, as William grows up or more children come along, but I feel that as self-employed designer/ makers we are a very lucky breed. It is not everyone that has a job which allows them to juggle two great loves in their life and have the flexibility to change when they see things do or do not work.

Bryony

Dazzle me to!

"Dazzle" one of the UK`s leading exhibitors of exciting and innovative modern contemporary jewellery seems to be going from strength to strength. Established in 1981 the Dazzle events are now held in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Manchester. Only the highest caliber of maker are invited to be showcased with prices from modest to luxurious. With such a well run and maintained reputation for showcasing and selling the very best of contemporary jewellery could the Dazzle showcase be rolled out in seperate shows for other design and craft discilpines to such effect? Or is it the insatiable hunger for contemporary jewellery from the public that keeps this events success seperate from other disciplines?



Images
1. Dazzle Logo 2009
2. Glasgow Dazzle event.
3. Manchester Dazzle event.
4. Victoriana necklace with curiosity. Alison Macleod

"Craft",Help or Hindrance?.

Skill, tradition, hobby, pastimes, high quality, low quality and a plethora of cultural pre-conceptions, good and bad, embody "Craft". To cover all the facets of the applied arts in one umbrella term is complicated if not an impossible task, but all too often "Craft" has been used. But is "Craft" a help or hindrance to the applied arts profession? Now more than ever as the applied arts are seeking greater recognition as in the fine arts and from the general public has "Craft" outlived it`s professional descriptive attributes.