metal art market?

[mr.stickerz]

Hello all, Im new to plasma cutting and metal art. How is the market for metal art at shows or events where you go out set up a booth for the day or weekend? do people buy on the spot or do they order? Does anyone here have a big inventory mobile booth type business ? or do you guys have a sample of pieces you can do and just take the orders at the show and go home make the piece then ship it out? Do you local artists have pricing problems again cheap imported products?

my last business was killed because the local name brand products i sold were 4x the price of the chinese knock offs so i couldn't compete.

[Capstone]

As I work on my new table, I'm constantly looking at metal art found in different big box stores like Target and Wal-Mart. I'm frankly getting kinda discouraged in that market. From what I can tell, there's plenty of fairly well done mainstream metal art with high-end finishes readily available at really cheap prices. These pieces seem like 5-6 man hours of work per piece and are selling for less than $40-50. There's no way I'm working at those rates. Granted, these aren't personalized, with names and such, but still, doing weekend craft shows seems more like a social activity to me, without much potential for huge revenue. I've been to me share of craft shows and I don't seem many vendors clearing their tables of inventory these days. So, I am getting into this hobby with eyes wide open. I personally only see this activity turning a real profit if I manage to get very proficient at churning out custom work and at the same time develop some "industrial" customers that need metal parts rather than art and then eventually, through word of mouth, develop a few high-end clients that are willing to commission high-end pieces. Fortunately, my sales abilities along with living in a fairly blue collar area outside of D.C. I think I'll have more than enough to keep me busy and able to show a profit in the short term and possibly get lucky enough to hit a few big sales.

You need to carefully look at your market and treat this like any other business venture if it's a full time thing and just know that 75% of all business fail within the first 3years, mostly due to bad business planning, not bad products.

[grindergary]

I know someone who started out like what you describe.
I found out from him that you can't compete with china junk. Your best bet is to work at making a good product and then find your market.
I live in a large city and there is lots of cash flowing. We have found that you need to find your market. He made custom work and the usual stuff. He found that if he went to markets and such, the sales were slow.

He concentrated on more garden variety items and went direct to the higher end greenhouses. The people who shop there were ready to shell out their money for his products. Not quite as much as he was hoping for but much better than the shows.

He set up a deal on consignment with a couple of the greenhouses and sells most of the year.

I am mostly doing industrial materials but still like to do the art stuff. Maybe soon I will start to sell more.

Good luck

Gary

[wickedinhere]

I have done the markets and i currently have a booth setup in a place that has many craft vendors. I have sold pretty good and taken orders at the markets. The vendor spot is not making any money barely breaking even at this point hopefully it will pick up soon. The one thing you need no matter where you go is a large volume of people that's when you will do good.

[1fine79]

Hey guys, I'm new to the site and was just browsing through and I happened upon this thread. Thought I would make this my first comment. While the metal art side of my business is not our main source of income, it has become a bigger part as time goes on. We tried doing some craft shows, car shows and art festivals and such but really had no real volume of income to speak of. As you know, most of the projects that you will most likely get will be some sort of custom or personalized pieces and it's hard to show everything that you can do at these type events. However, what those shows did do for me was to put me in touch with other sellers who wanted to handle/market some of our products. I now have several people and/or companies displaying and selling some of our items. It's a rare week that we don't get at least 3-4 calls from them sending me pics or sketches for us to quote so they can sell their customers. I have BTW worked a little better pricing for them (since they are continually returning customers) so they can add a markup and still be somewhat competitive. All that to say, it has worked out well for me to have several other dealers selling our services even though we don't make as much as if we sold retail...which we also do to our direct customers.

[mr.stickerz]

Hey guys, I'm new to the site and was just browsing through and I happened upon this thread. Thought I would make this my first comment. While the metal art side of my business is not our main source of income, it has become a bigger part as time goes on. We tried doing some craft shows, car shows and art festivals and such but really had no real volume of income to speak of. As you know, most of the projects that you will most likely get will be some sort of custom or personalized pieces and it's hard to show everything that you can do at these type events. However, what those shows did do for me was to put me in touch with other sellers who wanted to handle/market some of our products. I now have several people and/or companies displaying and selling some of our items. It's a rare week that we don't get at least 3-4 calls from them sending me pics or sketches for us to quote so they can sell their customers. I have BTW worked a little better pricing for them (since they are continually returning customers) so they can add a markup and still be somewhat competitive. All that to say, it has worked out well for me to have several other dealers selling our services even though we don't make as much as if we sold retail...which we also do to our direct customers.

So i did a couple of craft shows around my area over the holidays and got the same response out of every guy that walked up " I can do this at home with my hand held plasma". Living in a rural area is tough for this type of business because people around here buy tools and equipment as toys! Everybody and their neighbor here has welding, machining, and other metal fab equipment in there garage. Everyone here welds custom fences and headache racks on the side. So the only thing i can think of is to wholesale, speed in production is the only thing i have over the do it yourselfers. At one show i spent the entire time talking to other vendors wondering if i can make certain pieces for their art or whatever.
My thoughts are to keep doing events and shows but sell only raw cuttings at low prices and letting people grind, weld, and paint their hearts out!. has anyone tried this??

[jakedog]

Anyone have any more updates? im just getting started and trying to figure out how to market around me.

[poppopsworkshop]

I have started in the craft business doing wrought iron work and copper Suns. Paying someone to cut my products was crazy. In my shows there are 2 others vendors who do plasma art and Mexican art. They have mentioned that their sales have decreased. But mine have quadrupled every year. Staying true to my original work and adding plasma designs into them is my ticket. People love yard art in the spring, inside products in the fall. Set yourself aside from others and branch out. Going to my competors booths all the products look the same. Don't be that guy. My site is up but not updated since the last show.

[poppopsworkshop]

Keep in mind that the average customer spends 20-30 bucks without hesitating. Keep your products. If your customer can touch the product they have a 75% chance of purchasing it. Make small 5-10 dollar items. I make small hearts out of the scraps of metal and give to the kids when their parents come in. Be positive and don't quit. People like consistency

[michmetalman]

Ever watch the Pickers? They talk a lot about "smalls" The small things people will buy without hesitation if it's unique. I sell a ton of smalls, and that leads to people picking up bigger items and visa versa.

[jakedog]

Thanks all, I am going this weekend to check out a pretty big craft show. I haven't been to any al summer. I also need to bite the bullet and get a sales tax number here in NYS. Every show here have to be a "business". I was hoping to do plasma to compliment my furniture building was the over all plan. I really need to step up some advertising to get out to a better market for both aspects.

[ColoradoWayne]

I find it interesting that for a business that I believe is pretty low margin and has fairly stiff competition more and more folks are doing it. I just ran into a couple from a couple hours out of town set up at the local indoor mall. They had good prices and a great variety, so with the mall overhead I can't imagine they are putting a lot of money in their pockets. I hope to have my table paid back in three years of work, then I'm making my money. But, and this is a big but, I only want to do about a dozen shows a year and I am no where near as creative as a bunch of the folks on this board. I am amazed at the beautiful work a lot of you folks are putting out!! Real talent!!!

[Bigdogbro1]

The standard flat CNC signs posted all over creation will not make you a lot of money. You need to get into custom creations for customers and other things. Companies wanting signs such as multi-layer and specialty request, custom paint or patinas and even backlighting to get that added custom look. That's where you can charge more per job. Either make it a $5-$50 per sale to individuals or to a company $100-$1500 but just make it.

[poppopsworkshop]

The standard flat CNC signs posted all over creation will not make you a lot of money. You need to get into custom creations for customers and other things. Companies wanting signs such as multi-layer and specialty request, custom paint or patinas and even backlighting to get that added custom look. That's where you can charge more per job. Either make it a $5-$50 per sale to individuals or to a company $100-$1500 but just make it.

I agree. I bought a roller and roll offset rings and install them on the rear of most of my products. It brings the product off the wall and costs me just 1-3 bucks extra on those products.

[Gustav129]

People try to talk me into selling my stuff at shows. I refuse to. I let people come to me and say "Can you make me this?" Sure. Plus I do sculptures.



I do it for fun. Welding is meditation for me, that's why I'm a welder.

As for shows, I see many shovels with hand plasma swirls in it at many booths, price tag of $200 each. I know I could make that cheap. None of them sold any of them. One kid was just learning how to weld. He was making sculptures like what I do, but out of scrap with bad booger welds, He was selling them at $35 each. He sold out in one day, making $3000 profit. When I heard about that (the kid and I have a mutual friend), even more trying to talk me into doing shows.

[poppopsworkshop]

Depending on what you sell there is great $$ in craft shows. I do several a year just to keep my funds going and upgrade my equipment. This way I don't have to take $$$ out of the family funds. I went to a gun show and met a guy who is selling the same " bear w/Cubs" design as me. He was 20 bucks higher than my pricing. He mentioned to me he was going to do do the same show as me this July. I said looks like we will selling 2 of the same product. I know he's quite expensive and he does this for a living. I just tinker around with it.

[Gustav129]

Depending on what you sell there is great $$ in craft shows. I do several a year just to keep my funds going and upgrade my equipment. This way I don't have to take $$$ out of the family funds. I went to a gun show and met a guy who is selling the same " bear w/Cubs" design as me. He was 20 bucks higher than my pricing. He mentioned to me he was going to do do the same show as me this July. I said looks like we will selling 2 of the same product. I know he's quite expensive and he does this for a living. I just tinker around with it.

It seems the people who are "just tinkering around with it" and not doing high markups are the guys selling many items. I don't see how many can make it "doing it for a living".

[poppopsworkshop]

We have quite a few guys doing this full time. I plan ti retire in 8 years so I'm getting a head start on my cliential.

[DARRYL21270]

Craft markets are exactly that. Crafts. Consider doing art shows instead. People who buy and appreciate art for what it is and understand and appreciate the time it takes to make something. If someone has to ask how much, it usually means they can't afford it.