On Jul 12, 2005, at 11:15, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ricki in Utah) wrote:
I wonder if anyone has any experience with selling their
lace?. And is it possible that IOLI could somehow provide links to
people who
want to sell their lace, without violating its nonprofit status?
I'll timidly step onto the trail that Alice and Devon'd started, to
reinforce what they'd already said (but at greater length - I'm good at
*that* <g>).
IOLI provides info about lace-supplies vendors without violating
anything, as long as those adds are paid for. But there aren't many
modern lacemakers who can afford to sell their lace, never mind pay for
ads...
Alice said:
I'd rather give my lace away that sell it for a pittance.
And I think it's true about most of us.
Personally speaking, I am primarily interested in using handmade lace
to make
other items, possibly for resale, even more than making it for myself,
at
least at this point since there is such a long learning curve
ahead!....
If you're still at the early stages of learning the craft, you may not
know the full lore of the comments attendant on demos. One of the most
popular ones is "I can buy it, at Walmart, for $1.80 a yard"... Can you
match Walmart? No. Can you persuade someone who doesn't know beans
about lacemaking, that there's enough difference to pay 20 times more
(so as to allow you to get your 50 cents an hour)? No.
If you're thinking of using lace to decorate items for resale, use
"Walmart's best"; your public isn't even likely to pay you back for the
better grade of machine-made lace to make a profit on the work; too
many people are doing that already.
If there were a way to view and purchase modern handmade lace that is
relatively
affordable, as compared to antique lace, I, for one, would be
interested!
The two terms - "modern" and "affordable" - are, in general, mutually
exclusive; as Devon pointed out, antique is often cheaper than modern
(and 100yrs old machine-made is cheaper than modern-day machine made).
As both Devon and Alice had said, the expectations of an 18th c
lacemaker were lower than ours, while the prices of the basics have
multiplied.
In 18th c, when *all* lace was hand-made, a yard of coarse Torchon (for
household use) might not have brought much, but it brought enough to -
maybe - throw in a beef bone into your, and your family's, barley soup
of the day. It still might, even given the competition from the
machine-made, but, would you be satisfied with it?
I noticed that there was not going to be a consignment table at this
year's
convention, but I would assume that means there sometimes is.
IOLI takes a cut (20%?) from any profit you make while selling at the
event. Which is still a heck of a lot less than you'd have to pay
someone else to carry your things for you, but which further cuts down
on your effort-to-profit ratio. I think that's the reason more and more
people are resorting to selling directly, through their websites, with
selling at events being a supplementary way of getting some income. By
now, I doubt there's anyone in the "laceland" who goes to an event
hoping to earn the price of the ticket back home; the best they can
hope for is getting their name and address "imprinted" on the public's
consciousness, to sell later on, via mail-order...
However, it would be better if people like me didn't have to wait for
the convention, and fly there, once a year, to see (and buy) handmade
lace....
To buy, surf the net. To sell, get a website up.
And, if people think - again - that I'm being too harsh... *Life* is
harsh; negotiate with God to make it less so (I can't, being an
atheist).
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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