Linda at Blue Starr Gallery asked a good question yesterday, how do other artists sign their pottery? She also asked for input on a new mark she was creating and there are some good comments and input (though varied) on her Blog. I feel that signing, tagging, “packaging” or adding an original mark to works are essential as pricing, to generate sales. Those finishing touches are the business end of artmaking that some artists may find unpleasant but necessary.
The mark I chose to use on my clay is a re-do of an old mark that I used to use to use in school. The mark is of a Nautilus shell, a very meaningful design with references to the Golden Ratio that I enjoyed doing research on. My tags that I use on my metal work is a folded business card that I hole punch and tie on with a strip of batik fabric. I print them 5 across on index weight paper from my HP Laser Printer, then trim to size. I like to vary the colla
ge design, color and artwork on the “cover” of the card. The card folds in the middle and the title of the work and Gallery price sticker are neatly inside.
7 comments:
Great post! I have tags for my pottery pieces that are similar in size/concept to yours. I bought a cheap riveter recently and have added grommets at the top. I love the look. I've been using twine and raffia to tie them on, but I love the batik fabric idea of yours and may have to "steal" that!
oooh! we must be on the same art-wave length! I used to use green twine, and a rivet gun with grommets that I got at Jo-Ann's Fabric, then the rivet gun died...then I got lazy...
It also seemed like the twine made too big of a knot on smaller pieces, then I had been making these cool spirit flags with iron-on images and had some of the fabric left over and it was too beautiful to not use for something...then I bought more :o)
What a great way to "brand" your work - maybe package is a better term. I also really like the nautilus shell...golden mean, Fibonacci number - it's powerful stuff!
I feel the same way about adding your signature or mark to your work. I think it does make a difference to buyers and collectors.
That's a really nice logo image btw.
(btw forgive me, I had to use my old blog address to post this post. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear anyone but people on blogger or openid can post to your blog at this time.)
Hi Cynthia!
I enjoy your work and your blog! Yes, I like the Nautilus shell too, the mathematical part can get a bit overwhelming though :o)
Hi Anne!
Thank you for the post. Yes, I agree with you. Though it takes additional time for the artist, signing our work means a lot to the customer and the tags have helped to bring future work to me.
Hi Cindy, somehow I missed this post, thanks so much for the reference to my blog. I have also made up a certificate of authenticity for my ceramic pieces that I give to the purchaser. If I ship the piece I include the certificate inside the package. I'll have to do a post on this too. You bring up excellent points about sales and marketing of art.
Hi Linda,
Good idea about the certificates. I bought a really wonderful teapot from The Red Raven Gallery in Montana a couple of years ago and was impressed that they gave me a printed "certificate" that had an image of the piece, the date, artist bio etc. and thought that was the classiest thing! Doing something similar is on my "to-do list... :o)
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