In message <[email protected]>, Alice Howell
<[email protected]> writes
On another subject.....The art gallery where I might be teaching a
class in a few weeks wants some of my lace to sell, or at least to
display with a price on it. That gives me three problems....what do I
want to display (with the possibility that it might be sold), what
price should I put on each item, and how can I mount them to hang on a
wall. Since I make lace for fun, I haven't thought much about pricing
and displaying other than my 3-sided board I use for demos.
I would find out how they intend to display the lace - is it definitely
a wall, or is a display cabinet available? How much space will there be?
How secure will it be?
You don't want people to be able to touch, or remove, the lace unless
they have bought it. I would suggest that if it is to be wall mounted,
that you maybe make a frame - it needs to have a bit of depth to it -
with a layer of polystyrene or cork (like you get on notice/pin boards)
that you can cover with fabric to show off the lace to best effect. Then
you can pin the lace to the fabric. The front of the frame should be
perspex rather than glass as this keeps the weight down once you get
beyond A4 paper size.
If you have a display cabinet, blocks of polystyrene covered in fabric
can make useful stands to pin lace to, so that it can be displayed
vertically rather than flat.
Think carefully as to whether you actually want to sell the pieces. If
you do, price them sensibly, bearing in mind the cost of materials,
hours they took to work, and, presuming they are of your own design (be
careful of copyright laws if not!!!) the time it took to design the
piece. Price per hour should be at the very least minimum wage, though
on artistic merit, double that. Think how much your plumber would charge
per hour! The fact that you have enjoyed making the lace makes no
difference to its finished value. If you don't want to sell the pieces,
price them at a range you think the locals would consider to high to pay
for them. As long as some are priced, I should think it would be
acceptable to display some items as "not for sale". Are the gallery
expecting a cut of the proceeds? If so, this should also be factored
into the price.
The first demonstration I did was for a Soroptomist Garden Party to
raise funds for our local hospice in 1991. I had a month to produce
pieces to sell. I wrote to Christine Springett for permission to use her
snake pattern and also designed my Giles the Dog pattern so that I could
sell the pieces without having to worry about copyright. Do double check
with the designers of any non-traditional lace you are planning to sell.
Consider what you are going to do with the proceeds - keep it or donate
it to charity? Most are probably happy for the latter use to be made. If
you have designed the piece, then it is purely up to you what you do
with it - and it also gives you the option to sell the patterns, too.
--
Jane Partridge
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