RL Art Sold!

WOOT!

I just returned from a very pleasant weekend at a small convention called "Darkover Grand Council". This convention is held near Baltimore, MD. I'd been trying to get in touch with the convention organizers to see if I could show my pieces from Flickr. I brought the art even though I didn't hear anything. They let me show them and amazingly, two of the pieces sold! (See pictures below.)

I learned a couple of things. This may not work in your neighborhood, but give it a try. Before you tey to sell any of your own art, you should go to a local convention and see how this works in your area. Here's what I learned.

1. Frame your pieces, or at least mat them. Try to do it yourself, because you are unlikely to recoup your costs if you have Kinkos do it.
2. Wrap them in bubble wrap or other packing material. It's nice if you can give the purchaser the packing material.
   
3. Sign all pieces on the front, either right or left side. (I signed using my avatar name.)
   
4. Name the pieces. "Snapshot_001" won't get you any points.
   
5. Figure out how many copies of this piece you are planning on making. Keep the number low. (I should have had mine at 10.) Number them, ie, 1/10. I was advised to put the number on the opposite side of the signature.
6. Figure out how much you will sell each piece for. You may need to wait until you get there to determine the price, to see how much other pieces are selling for, but you need to know how much you need to make.
   
7. Bring a list with the titles of each piece.
   
8. Each art show is different -- some require advance registration, some accept walk-in artists. Some will send everything to auction, even if it only has one bid. Some shows will wait until there are 3 or even 5 bids on it.
9. Keep track of your pieces. Which ones sold? If, for instance, you say you will sell 10 copies of this piece, and you sell 1/10 (#1 out of a set of 10 that you plan to create), then you need to keep track of that number, so you never sell #1 again!

All in all, I had a wonderful time. I got lots of encouragement and suggestions. I'm hooked. I will definitely do this again.