You can’t find your customer if you don’t know who you are; as a creative and a person.
An artist once said to me, “I will stick with painting until I’m done painting, THEN I’ll move onto another medium.” I remember cringing when she revealed her commitment because I’m not that type of artist/person. I am a dabbler, explorer. I enjoy painting, woodworking, metalworking, weaving, sculpting and want to blow glass, try blacksmithing and enameling, plus more as they are revealed to me. Sometimes, when I see other artists who have studied one craft for 10+ years and are leaders in their field with awards, I wonder if I should have taken that path. But I am grateful to have been given this gift and that I have the ability to create at all (so many people can’t) and I continue to grow as a jeweler, taking more classes and exploring new ways to manipulate metal.
Picture Poem by Paul Reps
Who are you? Are you a beader, working with Beadalon and crimps? Are you wood artist, using a lathe, bleach and dyes, a photographer playing with ISO, or are you a silversmith, using a torch and flex shaft? And what is your style? Traditional: diamonds set in platinum, contemporary: raw stones in dappled silver or avant garde: plastic shapes formed into a spleen necklace? Where is your comfort zone at this moment? I say “at this moment” because art is a path you travel along.
If you are still struggling with sales or you’re selling but are not satisfied with your designs, wholesale price point or clients, step back and ask yourself what type Artist/Creative you want to be. Until you know yourself, you can’t know your client.
Have you pinpointed your ideal product? If you could work with any medium to sell, what would it be? Are you happy with the designs you are producing? Use the COMMENTS section, below, to record your answers.
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Open Studio ~ Creative Mentoring!