Didn't get to do any making today but did have a good old chat with Clare about the more business side of things. She's been to London this weekend, queuing to get into Liberty, a name I'm sure you've heard of - reknowned for their 'Liberty prints' and links to Mr.(coolguy) William Morris :)
For three years now, Liberty have held an open call for designer makers to show off their products. Each person gets three minutes with a Liberty 'panel' to discuss their work and the potential to be on TV. Clare queued for 4 hrs and initially anyone who wasnt a jeweller i.e. Clare, was called up. Clare said she walked past a staircase full of jewellers who, because the industry is flooded with jewellery makers will probably have been there twice as long.
She had her three minutes and was told that they really liked her work and she obviously knows her market but that Liberty are looking for products that involve printing on ceramics - which isn't suprising, but they did give her a contact card so that really IS something. They also give you feedback and the panel suggested 'the shop at bluebird' for Clare and guess who...ANTHROPOLOGIE!! I was really excited when she told me and even more astounded when she said she'd already been approached by ANTHROPOLOGIE twice! :O
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the shop at bluebird, 350 King's Road, London |
So why isn't she selling her cups to them already?
Because Anthropologie want to sell her cup say for £30 pounds but have a set mark-up of around 28% so instead of getting £16 pounds from each sale like normal if she were selling directly to a shop, she only gets £11 and Clare can't afford that difference. Surely there is a way round this. Anthropologie sell her cup for a little extra? In order for Clare to get her £16, Anthropologie would have to sell a cup for £45 :O That is getting expensive and if they can't sell her cups to the public, then there's no point in stocking. Its tricky.
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Anthropologie, Regent Street store, London |
Stores buy items from a wholesaler or distributer and increase the price when they sell the items to consumers. The increase in price provides money for the operation of the store and the salaries of people who work in the store.
A store may have a rule that the price of a certain type of item needs to be increased by a certain percentage to determine how much to sell it for. This percentage is called the markup.
If the cost is known and the percentage markup is known, the sale price is the original cost plus the amount of markup. For example, if the original cost is £4.00 and the markup is 25%, the sales price should be £4.00 + £4.00*25/100 = £5.00.
A faster way to calculate the sale price is to make the original cost equal to 100%. The markup is 25% so the sales price is 125% of the original cost. In the example, £4.00 * 125/100 = £5.00.
ENOUGH MATHS!!
Whilst we were packing pieces with purple and gold shreddies into Clare's purple branded boxes, emptying the kiln, wiping down the glazed pieces ready for firing and training to be a clay dustBUSTER..we got talking about Clare's upcoming shows and it looks like I'm gonna get to come along to help!! YEY! She says it'd be good for me to see how she sells and interacts to the public :) Conversation lessons! Woop! So I'm going with Clare to the Wirksworth Festival on 10th-11th September and I'm very excited!!
Here's a list of all the shows Clare will be at in the coming months:
It's gonna be hard work x