I have had a fine and enjoyable experience turning for the last 3 or 4 years. My only regret was I learned on some very nice rock/hard green maple. Lordy I wish I had more of that beautiful wood. Anyways, I been giving away bowls for a few years now to family and friends. 30 or so have found their way over to China where the wife's family is. Now a friend of hers actually wants to buy some and there is the quandry. Personally I don't think they are good enough to sell. I think like most of you here you look closely at your own work and see all the (hopefully!) minor imperfections in each. I think, "Geez, someone actually wants to give me cash for these things. Don't they see all the flaws?" I would be happy enough to just give them away but there is that itsy bitsy bit of human avarice lurking inside. I s'pose I'll just give them away and work to improve the quality. Now I would have no real problem selling to a stranger but to a friend, even one who is going to buy them for gifts is, at least to my mind, a bit different, or is it? Thanks for letting me vent.
You're right I think on the "we find things wrong on our own work", I always seem to think that I It's not perfect, however, After understanding that I just got a few more turnings than "We" ;-))) had room for, "We" talked to a upscale furniture and home decorating/gift store owner, and then scheduled a time and showed the products I had made, they did want to have them, and we then got an agreement and they choose and sold the pieces that did fit their shop. It was easier at the next couple of galleries, as by then I knew people did want to buy my products.
So maybe you could find someone to evaluate your turnings in a more professional way, and maybe also give you some direction as for pricing, that is a hard one for most everyone, especially at first. Good luck, but don't forget,
If I understand you correctly, you are telling people who are familiar with you and your work 1) that they don't know what they are talking about and 2) no matter how badly they want something you've made, they can't buy it.
The link to my web site is below. Send 'em to me. I long ago stopped resisting people who want to buy my wares and long ago figured that I will accept any form of payment that is no more than two steps away from being money in the bank.
Kevin ... you are obviously doing good work. Take this old adage to heart:
"Cash is the sincerest form of flattery."
If it bothers you to sell to relatives, slip a little something extra in the box as a present. Heck ... I do that with strangers!
We're all our own worst critics, because we know where the ugly lurks. I don't sell to relatives either, and friends are charged a nominal amount so they can feel they haven't taken advantage. Mostly it's $20 US for something I sell for five times that, which seems to work most of the time. Let the strangers support my habit. Flatter me with fifties!
You have to sell or you can't make more, so get out and do so. After a few years you'll probably develop some regulars who automatically get special pieces for ordinary prices. Was preparing some stuff yesterday and ran across the shelf with the specials I had set aside. Now I just have to remember to take the proper ones to the appropriate venue.
Hi Kevin, One peculiar thing I have learned since I started selling my work is that people seem intriqued by the "mistakes" or unexpected attributes that arrise when making a turned object.
Since I have sold several pieces I considered junk because of imperpfections I either made or were inherent in the wood, I came to accept this as one of the unique features of that particular bowl and now never exclude one for availability.
Quite a while ago, I recall a person (and I cannot remember whom) saying to me (paraphrased):
"It won't be long before everything is produced with such precision, and made from things that have little direct connection with natural materials, that people will long for the moments when they can leave the office and just touch something made of wood."
That has stuck with me over the years, and I think it really rings true. Beyond the concept of wood as a material (wood was just a handy metaphor, of course), I would imagine (and I know it is true for myself, at least) that people either conciously or subconciously are beginning to reach that state. There is a lot of value in modern production methods, and it is amazing what things can be made, and made availible to the general public. But our stunning degree of wealth in terms of manufactured goods comes with a human cost as well.
While I have a computer in front of me that contains billions of microscopic transistors working in unison, I no longer see that as unusual. Despite the amazing degree of sophistication in the technology, and the sheer amount of raw genius that went into creating it, it is so cheaply availible and commonplace, that the wonder of a this thing that is unrivaled in human history is greatly diminished. It was made by machines which can do no other thing, rarely make mistakes, and have no inherant obsticles to overcome- machines operated by individuals who most likely could not explain even a fraction of the functions of that machine is actually performing. There is nothing there to hold in awe, save the minds that initially concieved and implemented them, and it is hard to capture that elusive image and pause to give thanks for the giants who made a thing possible.
On the other hand, a flawed object created by the hand of a living human being says something enitrely different. It is the flaw itself that directs the mind of the observer to wonder and disbelief. The flaw reveals to us that the object is *not* the product of a dispassionate automation which is capable of mindless repetition, but rather an object which has been worked by a person who has had to overcome many obsticles and endure many failures to learn how to bend a material to their will. When they made the thing, they cared. Even on a bad day, a craftsman or artisan does not try to produce shoddy work- and even on a good day, a person who has no abilities or interest in those areas cannot replicate even the meanest of items made by those who have taken the time to learn what is needed to create a thing.
It is that knowledge, whether it is stated explicitly or buried deep in the psyche, that breeds a general fascination with flawed works. A flawed work has a soul, and contains in every curve and plane a reflection of the dedication and work of the person who created it. It is the union of all those things which make us human crystalized, and reconnects us to the hundreds of thousands of years in which our species has struggled with mind, heart, and hands to bring us to our present level of wealth and leisure. The flaw is history set in material form- displaying a snapshot of the temporary limitations of, and even more importantly, the promise of an ever-changing evolving mind.
That's why your observation is not all that peculiar, at least in my mind.
When I lost my job after 23 yrs of false security, I was forced into a mode of survival. I had 5 yrs of online marketing on the side and knew the ins and outs of persuasion to particular markets and immediately dove into making a business of making turned work and selling it to offset my coming hard times.
But this rationalization soon fizzled out as I found the market simiply wasnt a cut and dry business.
Now my turning is again, where it has always been. In my heart and a passion. The rare customer is a blessing and trying to make it a profitable venture requires even more time and resources than the job I had for so long and I quit pursuing this.
In the past year of my hiatus, I have experienced some very profound spiriitual awakenings. Things that go beyond rational thought and logic which have put me on a path of trying to get closer to God.I put away my aspirations of profit and grandeur and simply enjoy the craft now. I make pieces with specific people in mind and give them to those people hoping to show my deep appreciation for the contribution they made to me that have led me to where I am now.
I still get a random buyer, out of the blue, that gratifies my illogical yearning to touch and feel the wood, and make me feel I am doing it for more than just a hobby.
I commune with the wood now, not just cut and sand it.It is something that I can go to and feel so completely at home and peaceful with nothing else compares to it. And when I have a piece that is done, I can revel in its intricacies and find a happiness again that I know is a natural part of me just like finding and eating that particular meal I craved.
Turning will always be spiritual for me, and I will still have a site that offers it for sale, but I give much more of it to deserving people now to fulfill that deep need to share myself with others.
In my studies, one thing that has struck me very significantly is; if you want money then you give it away to others. If you want knowledge, then give this to others. Everything you want from life you can have simply by giving what you have of it, to others without expecting anything back in return. I try to practice this now, and it is still foreign to my analytical and logical remnants still hanging on so desperately to my persona, but it does ring true. I see it happen each time I do it.
Carefully, carefully now. What you're saying is often true, but if you give up your reason to it, it will bite you in the end. More appropriate is to accept that somewhere in your older thought processes, you were missing something important- but if you toss logic and analysis out the window for the sake of a feeling, and expect it to bring you the things you require to live, you will find that it will bite you in the end- just like the many years of false security you mentioned.
The problem with what you've said is this- among good men and women, you have little to fear, and your application of the golden rule will serve you splendidly. If everyone you know is honest and fair, you're basically safe in your assumption- but not everyone is good. There is evil in some men, maybe all of us to some degree, and if you feed that evil hoping to reap a benefit from your sacrifice to it, you will harvest only ruin.
For a few examples- If you give a deliquent the knowledge of locksmithing, you are more likely to return home one day to find your home burgled than you are to gain any useful information about something (unless your idea of useful information is learning what
*not* to do again!)
If you give money to a drug addict, you feed their addiction- strengthing and worsening it until that comes back on you as well. If not through them, then through the vehicle of another who has been corrupted by the dealer whose activities you have unintentionally supported.
There are certainly more things going on above and under the surface of the things you look at than most realise, and those things have rules just like anything else. While it may be true that good actions have a net positive effect for some, in others, their intentions, no matter how noble, are based on a misdirected altruism that destroys both their self and the objects of their charity in the end. It's a fickle thing to pin down which things, seeming good can lead to evil, and which things, seeming evil, act only for the good. There are always more variables than any one person can grasp and hold, but that is not a reason to declare logical deduction itself to be false. There are ample examples of the road to Hell being paved with good intentions!
Of course, I do not intend to declare that you are guilty of any of those things- but I have found that some of those old chestnuts are dangerous in the extreme when left unchallenged and passed around as gospel (literally and figuratively.)
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