The Pros and Cons of hosting an Open Studio

Back after a long break.....

Sorry to say the Blog has been somewhat neglected over the summer.  This year with the Bee project, Fascinating Fungi and more I have struggled to get the sewing done, and blogging about it has gone by the board. Things should calm down a little now so I am going to try harder to get on here more regularly.

The weekend just gone was Wolverhampton Society of Artists Open Studio this weekend. They open it up for all artists in the area not just those in the Society so myself and my 3 friends that make up Sisters of Stitch (SOS) decided we would dip our toes in the water, so to speak, and exhibit.

The first issue is always going to be where to exhibit? We could have hired a stand in the local centre (where a lot of artists have studios anyway) but that would have only given us 2 small display boards for the 4 of us plus an additional charge on top on the entry fee. Given that I have a large home studio anyway (lucky lucky me!) the sensible solution seemed obvious - use my studio. The downside - it was cluttered beyond belief, I have 2 dogs who would love to cuddle every person arriving, and a family who didn't really want their home invaded for a whole weekend.  After a debate we decided we could build a temporary blockade so that people could only get into the first room in the house - my studio - and the family/dogs etc could be safely left to their weekend in the rest of the house. The clutter could move into the spare room - well behind the barricade.

Next was the tricky issue of sales. 

The sales table

We had made lots of work in the past two years and plenty of it was good enough to sell but would that look too commercial / greedy? Our primary aim was to showcase our work so we didn't want selling to be a distraction. In the end we prices on items we didn't mind rehoming and not on our favourite pieces that we weren't ready to part with.

There is a whole minefield around pricing - not to undersell yourself for the hours of making and skill building but not to outprice the market. We must have got it about right  because we did a good steady trade but not the feeding frenzy it would have been if we had priced too low.

We split the work up into different areas - to give it some consistency because we all have vastly different styles.  Anne clearly loves the sea and her work just naturally came together

Anne's Sea themed corner

The organza work hanging in the window to let the light through

 

I have always thought my work was the most eclectic of our group but when we started to hang them it became obvious that nearly all of my work is inspired by nature in some way. It was lovely to realise that I have more of a style than I thought I did

More nature pieces in the other corner

We have done a couple of joint projects in the 2 years we have been meeting. It was lovely to put them out on display too. The orange dress in the background was my contribution to a joint project in another group Connect in Threads. I loved making it and couldnt resist giving it another airing.  I have been asked why I dont make it wearable but it is 2 sizes too big for me, not constructed properly for dress making and would take WAY too much effort to do. So it just hangs and looks pretty.

the joint projects of 2018/2019

We were worried before we started that we wouldnt have any visitors - we were competing after all with the Art Centre and its myriad artists. It was a pleasant surprise to have a steady stream of visitors both days. On Saturday I think we had about 35 and we would have been pushed to cope with more.  Everyone said lovely complimentary things and it is so good to have time to discuss your work in detail. Better yet, some of the visitors were people we didn't know, so it wasnt just family and friends supporting us.

Overall it was a lot of hard work. The first time you do anything like this you have to plan it all out and prepare and you are never quite sure what to expect. we had to work out the logistics of how to get things up on display boards we had never used before and how we would manage the health and safety aspects.

We sat and had a little review at the end; concluding that it was worth it for the chance to talk about our textile obession with all the lovely people who showed up; for the way it made us finish our WIPS (work in progress) and for the unexpected benefit of getting a review of all we have been up to in the last 2 years.

Now I have to put my studio back together again. I liked it clean and tidy with empty surfaces. Maybe it will motivate to decide what I really need to keep out of the mountain in the spare room.....