art on wood

Finding Your Market
Now that you have begun to create a range of pyrographed items, the next stage is to sell them. I began by giving them as gifts to my friends and family. This soon lead to orders for special occasions, I began to realise that there was a market for my art and started to explore way in which to sell them. The following section will help you prepare for your first show and also give you pointers to where you can sell your work.

Craft Fairs
A craft fair can vary in success, at my first show I came away with just £20 and terrible sunburn – not too successful! It takes time to learn which are the best and which to avoid, although this is never foolproof. Some shows can be very expensive and you have to sell a lot to cover your costs even before making a profit. I find that smaller events like village fairs and school fetes are the best. A stall may cost as little as £10 and they are usually fun to do! In the early days, I used to have a lot of large expensive items such as clocks and plaques. However, as time went on I began to realise that it was the smaller items that sold more often. A customer has to really like an item to part with their money, but most like to take away with them a small memento, such as bookmarks, name plates and keyrings. So always have these at hand.
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It’s late Autumn and the leaves have long since fallen. There is a man sitting high in a tree – waiting. He’s been waiting since before the dawn, with bow and arrow in hand. He is a witness to many things, none of which I know, save for just one: A small, flighty and friendly black capped chickadee appears and quickly, gently, moves from branch to branch, and finally – so very softly – lands on the man’s quiver… just like a little, “Hello”. The chickadee leaves the quiver for another branch, then returns to the quiver and stays for a long while, tilting his head this way and that, just like a chickadee will do. This visit is a wonderful surprise and is the biggest hunting story the man will tell that day.

This is a warm memory of a man I know, who retold this story many times. But I don’t know all of this memory. (Did he not tell it all? Or have I just forgotten?) Did his chickadee sit puffed up and cozy? I wonder, did he speak to his chickadee? And did it “Chick-a-dee-dee-dee!”? I wish I knew. I wish I could ask, but all I can do is wonder, because this memory belongs to my full of life brother-in-law who passed away far too soon.

My chickadee has just landed … or is ready to take flight. Like Tom’s memory, I don’t have all the facts. I created this piece in honor of a treasured memory. This here is… “Tom’s Chickadee”

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