Marketing Woodturning

I have been woodturning for ten years now. In fact I even did a little before that, about fifteen years ago. However, most of this time I have also been a carer so not only was my time limited but also I never knew if I would have to drop everything else for a while if the person I was looking after needed more help. I therefore deliberately kept a low profile with the woodturning. I put my work into local shops and galleries and left them to sell on my behalf. I am grateful for this service. I do not begrudge shops their commission, I am a firm believer in the value of our high streets and independant shops and am as happy to provide them with my work as I am to shop there.

However, selling through other people meant that I lost out on the personal contact with my customers. Also, as I am passionate about trees, wood and woodworking I also felt the loss of a chance to explain to people that a particular bowl came from a tree that  grew a few miles away. I knew the exact spot, I knew why it had fallen or been felled, I had planked it up myself at home, delighted in it, stored it, dried it and worked it.

I am no longer a carer. This means that I can (and need to) dedicate myself more to the woodturning. However, marketing woodturning is a very different matter. I live in a very rural area therefore there aren’t that many shops/galleries around to display my work or population to buy. I need to go further afield to a certain extent. And I would like to share my enthusiasm for the wonders of local wood, woodturning and wood craft in general.

About eighteen months ago I finally got the internet for myself. I had always loved the idea of blogging about the wood as this would be a chance to tell the customers everything I’d never been able to in the shops. However, doing the writing has been a different matter. I feel self-concious, I don’t know how to express myself clearly, etc.

Then there has been all the technical problems – still ongoing. After all, I am not going to be able to learn all about the world of www overnight, am I? But I have taken a great leap forward. I made my first video and uploaded it to Youtube. Apologies about the quality – I still have lots to learn. But as my mother once said “We live on a learning planet.”