Starting the journey of selling my art for the first time
Not only is this my first time trying to sell my art, this is also my first time writing a blog so be patient with me i’m not sure of the regular format that i should be following so i’m just going to write my thoughts on the topic. As you picked up from the title this is going to be my first time selling some of the art that I make. I never thought in a million years I would be selling puppets… I only started making them a couple of years ago. I took such a liking to them of course, then being so silly, colourful, and a unique style of art that I have never seen other than on TV. After I made my first puppet based off the video game “League of Legends” I knew that I wanted to try to make more puppets. So I did just that and it was mostly for myself running around my apartment biting my cats tails with the puppets and making strange noises that probably drove my neighbors mad. But i was having fun, as strange and guilty as i felt it was a raw emotion of mine that i had never felt before. I love this, and I want to do more of this I thought to myself. It was after that i had such a unique and one of a kind idea that had never been done to my knowledge. The idea was taking the personalization of build-a-bear. The in hand customization of Mr Potato head. Then of course the fun art style and form of puppetry. I actually would lay awake thinking about different ways I could go about it. Velcro wouldn’t do because it would rip the fabric up. Holes on the puppets body wouldn’t work because then the pieces wouldn’t be able to go anywhere you wanted leaving it un-original and bland in my opinion. My idea laid on top of my heart, Literally. I had an enamel pin on my jacket. With a butterfly clutch back to it. It attached through the fabric of my jacket snug and unmovable without hurting the fabric along with being able to go anywhere I wanted it to go. There it was, my idea now has possibility. How to sell the idea though, who would buy my mr-build-a-potuppet? Well, I already knew the people who would be interested. I had walked around convention centers with the League of Legends based puppet. I would constantly get asked “Did you make that?” And “Where can I buy one of those?”. I knew my demographic, The geeks and nerds would be my audience! After the realization I studied the vendors that traveled to these conventions. How they set up their displays and their items was very important. I needed to make sure that my puppets were tall and visible. I knew I needed to build a very tall display to showcase the puppets. As for how to display them on the display. I figured I would put large dowels on the sides, sort of like a coat rack. Easily having access to them and being able to put them back with ease. The puppets and the features would be displayed separately. I discovered my way of displaying the features and pieces one day when i was using my cork board. Pins on the back side of all the puppet features made it a no-brainer that the best way to display them would be on hanging cork boards in sections of all their own (Eyes, Noses, Ears, Teeth, Horns, Etc.). Everything was on its way to vision and I couldn’t be more thrilled. With a full time job it was hard to make time, but I managed. I did however have to sacrifice a lot of time for my vision. It was hard in an apartment to have space for all this. Me and my girlfriend however were house hunting at the time and a workshop was on our checklist for what we wanted in a home. I had dreams of having a large space just for this specific passion. And my dreams were answered! We closed on a house and we simply just had to wait for the date when the current tenants moved out and we could move in! We were beyond excited and I could not stop thinking about all the space I would have to work on my new business that I had been thinking about for over a year at this point. However, this was towards the end of 2019-the start of 2020. As you can guess the coronavirus had just become a global pandemic. At first we didn’t know what was going to happen. we just knew that we would be unemployed for some time. This was a good time to do some work on our new home and I found myself not working on as much puppet stuff as I would have wanted. But there would be plenty of time for that later on. Later in the pandemic we would find out that things would be like they were for a very long time. One of my first thoughts being that conventions would be a thing of the past for a very long time due to the close quarters. This was upsetting. I left my work for some months not even wanting to think about it and at the same time feeling guilty for not working on it. I had all this time and all this space, I would have killed for this when i lived in an apartment and worked 40+ hours a week. It's hard to say what happened but being trapped in your house can definitely be a downer on your spirits, hopes, and dreams. But a phoenix from the ashes I hope to be and here I am back at it. I’ve had to change the original plan due to pandemic restrictions but I’ve decided to take a page from other puppet makers for the time being and just do commissions and custom puppet work for specific people. The puppets can come apart if that’s what they want but I mostly look to make a permanent and original character to sell and hopefully light that fire back up that I remember too well from before this horrible time. To swing back to my original blog topic. I’m very nervous to be selling my art. Anxiety is a huge block to my excitement. Thinking that my art isn’t good enough to charge money for. I have always undersold myself and it constantly gets me into situations that are not even close to being worth my time because I undersold myself towards the beginning and now I would have to see it through due to a promise. I’m looking to leave these feelings behind me and move forward with confidence in what I do and to hopefully start doing something that i love doing as a job and not just as a hobby. I hope my friends and family will help me achieve this. Not just by buying my product but even just telling me my art is good or even supporting my social media. Either way I don’t plan to stop now.
August 31st
Michael Lorne McEwen
