Chatham Artist Guild Studio Tour

I completed my first Chatham Artist Guild Studio Tour and am glad I did it. I met many wonderful and interesting people, made some sales, which helped to cover my fees, and learned a lot about retail. Let me give you a summary.

Studio Sharing

I shared a studio with Michael Thompson. He’s a woodturner with a big shop, a small gallery attached, and a small room he uses to varnish his wood pieces. I was in the wood varnishing room, about 12×12, with good wall space, one wall with cabinets, and a cabinet top where I could put some items.

I enjoyed working with him. He has a great rapport with customers and lots of experience on the tour, having been on it for 15 years. He’s very knowledgeable about wood and his craft; his work is high-quality. Michael had many return customers and friends he worked with in the NC forestry service. This exposed work to many of his customers, which hopefully will help in the future.

Meeting Customers

Regarding the customer count, the attendees were 28 on December 7th, 17 on the 8th, 27 on the 14th, 23 on the 15th, 45 on the first weekend, and 50 on the second, which was 45 on the first weekend and 50 on the second, so we didn’t see a drop-off that we expected, which might have been due to the pleasant weather on both weekends.

Michael uses a hand tally to count customers, which was a good idea because it allowed me to compare customer visits versus sign-ins. There were 55 (7 were couples) sign-ins, and 95 tallied for a sign-in rate of 58%, which I consider a high rate and might have been due to us asking customers to “Please sign in. It helps with our marketing.”

Marketing Basics

I had a mix of products to cover many price points, from under $10 to $50, $100 to $200, and up to $500. I had individual greeting cards, box sets, leather and stone coasters, 8×10 and 8×12 metal prints, and framed prints. My strategy was more to see if the market would support them.

Artwork Sales

I had 12 sales, sold $533.92, and netted $502.67 when you subtracted the credit card (Square) fees. After covering the costs of goods sold and studio tour sign-up fees, I probably made about $25, which is not a lot by any means, but it was something. I did go home with a lot of inventory. I didn’t sell anything over $150. I sold many greeting cards, box sets, a set of 4 leather coasters, and stone coasters.

I sold two greeting cards the first weekend, so it was dismal. I decided to hold a “Final Weekend of the Tour Sale on select items and did much better the second weekend. I can’t say if that helped, but it felt great to be busy. I think you get the idea.

Take-Aways

My first takeaway was that the customer base was not the type to buy fine art products over $200, but Michael had many combined sales over this amount and had much higher sales than I did. It’s unclear that customers would pay over $200 for a single piece on the tour.

I sold two 16×20 framed prints in a gallery this year, two 16×20 prints from my website, one 18×24 framed print, and one 20×30 metal print by word-of-mouth. The customers are out there; I’m not sure the tour drew them. One factor was that 16×20, 18×24, or 202×24 size was too big for these customers. I often got this complaint. Next year, I will offer more prints matted in 11×14 frames.

Guild Marketing

I don’t know about the effectiveness of the Guild’s marketing for the tour. Marketing is such a complicated topic, and I want to learn more about this as I gain more experience. Michael’s studio is “off the beaten path,” about 3 miles from Highway 87 and 12 miles from 15-501. At the studio shared by four artists in the Fearrington Village on 15-501, Minnie Gallman said they had over 100 customers in one day! So it’s possible to get the traffic, but not at remote studios.

Customer Traffic

The traffic in the Fearrington studio tells me two things.

There is a benefit to sharing a studio; the more, the better, and
Location matters (Where have I heard that before?) This doesn’t necessarily mean that studios with a single artist had low customer traffic.
If an artist is well known, Mark Hewitt comes to mind; they can get high traffic through name recognition and reputation.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed working with Michael Thompson, who was kind enough to share his studio with me. I also enjoyed listening to his old friends’ stories as they reminisced about their times at the North Carolina Forestry Service. These are my takeaways from my Chatham Artists Guild Studio Tour experience.