If you have been diligent about keeping up with my life, you’ll know that I’m a potter. I’ve been working on building up a reasonable inventory for future craft shows. I need to sort and store everything, and I’m not sure what would be the best approach.
Some thoughts I’ve had:
1 - grouped by type: plates, bowls, mugs, pots, oil lamps, etc.
2 - grouped by size: under 4", 4-5", etc.
3 - grouped by color or pattern
4 - a variety in each box so all I need to do is grab several boxes to stock my booth.Here are some samples - it’s not everything I’ve made, but it’s representative. And yes I know some of them are pretty bad. But some are pretty nice, and I expect to improve as I continue to take classes. I’m not delusional enough to think I’ll make a living with this, but if I make enough to pay for my supplies, I’ll be happy.
Anyway, what I’m seeking are suggestions on how to store everything so that when I do go to a show, I can get a good variety without hauling every box I have. I thought about putting a picture on the outside of the box showing which pieces are stored in it. So, what should I have on those pictures??
Give me some suggestions on how to get organized, please.
I’d probably sort by type – mugs in one box, lamps in another box, bowls in another, etc. Then, you can sort them by color within the boxes, maybe even using dividers. The novelty pieces you have (the mugs with faces) I’d separate from the plainer pieces entirely.
If you make matched sets, you could set up little decorative displays of you pieces, to encourage people to buy multiples.
Another possibility is to sort by price. I have no idea how you are pricing things, but it might make sense to put a variety of items that are all one price in a box–so you could just stick them on a table with a sign that says “This table, only $5 an item” (or whatever your real price is).
Or, put several mugs, several vases, and several platters in a box, so that you know that the mugs are $5, the vases are $10 and the platters are $15.
For all I know, you have price tags on each individual item.
Of course, I’m not sure that having a price tag on each item eliminates the desirabilty of having a big sign for each table/group giving approximate ranges.
And this may be the stupidest idea for organizing your items yet, but it struck me as an obvious but so far unmentioned tactic.
I hadn’t considered sorting by price, except for having a box of “seconds” - aka the early stuff that’s not too good but someone might give me a dollar or two for a piece.
I do think I’m going to try to find some plastic containers with dividers, or make my own dividers. For my first show, I wound up with way too many pieces of tissue to handle in a breezy street.
You may do better selling seconds at a garage sale or something. Don’t display good and bad pieces, the bad distracts people from the good, and you have to haul them around. Display your best product at all times. Bite the bullet and get rid of bad stuff as a total write off. You know it’s bad if it dosesn’t sell. Don’t tell people these are not as good as those either. They can decide that on their own, and it can only led to them devaluing the pieces in their mind. Always say something like this is my favorite design.
Box sets together, and then diplay one of every piece in a set. Display at least one of every color and pattern, to show the defferences between each set.
Something on display showing the use of the product will sometimes click in somebodies head, that they would have never thought of that. I would think crates of the same size divided into partitions would make for the best point of sale display, allowing the people to look at the items, but keeping them from breaking against each other. You should start with a couple boxes at most and use them a few times, before settleing on what works best. Cardboard dividers can allow for different size compartments as needed.
That’s a point I hadn’t considered. Maybe I should just donate them to a pottery breaking booth at a school bazaar or something. Or save them in case I decide to teach, to show students how bad I was when I started… Thanks!