The wife and I went to the "Vintage Show" (crafts fair) this weekend, cuz my
neighbor went the day before and reported "there is one booth (out of about 400)
with turned bowls there and his stuff is just like yours... a little bigger, but
the same quality, and his prices are between $30 and $200!"

The guy was an ARTIST.. looked at his stuff while talking to his wife, and when
he came back to the booth, the only thing that I could say to him was "I'm not
worthy"..
He had a lot of stuff on display, nicely set up on shelves with shavings
scattered artistically under them... most of them were in the 10" to 20" rage
and were so well done that they could have been used as examples in a turning
school.. his walls were near perfect thickness, bottoms just thick enough to add
balance, well done bowl bottoms that looked good and kept the bowls level,
etc...

His finishes were EXCELLENT... on his walnut collection, they had a semi gloss
finish that was as nice as most cars... he wouldn't say what the finish was, but
his wife said that it was a salad bowl finish.. damn, they were beautiful...

We talked turning for a while.. he was trained in Sweden and has been turning
for a hobby for years, this was his 2nd show.. He was very up front about not
expecting the income from the booth making him a living, but his wife worked and
he could support his habit from sales and keep going to classes... (it sure
looked to me that he should be GIVING classes)

I don't think that he sold very much, but you never know.. the booth was $250
for 3 days and i'm guessing that he had to spend at least $500 to do the show..
(booth, place to stay, food, etc.)
It seems that you need to do really well to make enough profit to cover those
kind of expenses..

Bottom line: my wife has been encouraging me to sell some stuff because we're
filling up the garage... but after this weekend, I don't think my stuff is near
ready to sell... this guys work was SO good.. a very humbling experience..



mac

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