One of my students recently posed this question to a well known production jeweler: “With galleries struggling and traditional craft shows in decline, wouldn’t it be better if we all just wore lots of jewelry as a way to promote ourselves?”
While I’ll leave you to ponder the first part of that statement (I can hear the dissenters in the comments already) what I really want to talk about is the second half. The idea that we should all be wearing our work more.
If you make any kind of wearables (jewelry, clothes, scarves, hats, bags) this should be a no brainer. But I’m always amazed to see makers who don’t wear their own products on a regular basis. In case it isn’t painfully obvious to you, hear are a few reasons you should make wearing your work a regular occurrence:
- It’s free marketing. Not many other marketing techniques are as inexpensive and effective as simply wearing your work. Of course, backing that up with a purse full of business cards makes it even more effective.
- It’s an icebreaker. If someone asks you what you do and you respond with, “I make jewelry,” the next question is inevitably, “are you wearing anything you made?” Besides avoiding an awkward moment if you weren’t wearing anything, it’s a great way to start up a conversation about your business and maybe even the indie maker community in general.
- Market research. By wearing your products, you can see what types of people respond favorably. Are they young or old? Trendy or classic? Do you get more comments at the grocery store or the mall? (This can tell you where your target audience shops and hangs out.)
- Product testing. Sometimes things don’t behave in the real world quite the way you had anticipated in the studio. Clasps aren’t strong enough. Purse handles get twisted. Zippers break. By continuously wearing your own products, you can experience (and fix) these problems before your customers do.
And so those of you who don’t make wearables don’t feel left out, you can certainly put the idea of use-as-marketing into practice for your own work. If you design stationary, vow to send more notes and cards. If you make ceramics, feature your own pieces heavily at your next party. (And use your pieces to bring food to other people’s parties.) Your paintings or photography should be prominently hung around your home. And I’m very envious of textile designers who can use their own fabric to recover a few chairs for their living room.
Just remember, if you don’t use your own work, how can you expect anyone else too?
So, how do you employ use as a marketing strategy?
PS. I’m really far behind in responding to everyone’s comments, but I just want you to know how much I appreciate them! So please, keep sharing your thoughts and participating in the discussions in the comments – they make for a much richer site!
Thanks for this post! It’s true that wearing your work can drum up good conversation and interest in your product. I run a one-woman bindery and recently started wearing a mini version of one of my books as a necklace. It’s adorable & fun to wear and really does work as an ice-breaker when explaining what it is that I do and sell.
Thanks again for all of this amazing info on here. Your blog is one of my weekly “must-reads”!
Happy Spring,
Megan Winn
(The Binding Bee)
I thought this was a no brainer! I only wear my jewelry….earrings, 3 bracelets, necklace and 6 rings…you are so right..you can tell how they wear, if they are comfortable and also which pieces will get the most attention. I can honestly let someone know if they buy that piece they will get lots of attention.
Even jogging and walking my dog..this is a must.
I love reading your posts.
It does seem like a no brainer but I know several successful production artists that don’t wear their jewelry or others. I either wear my own jewelry, jewelry of my friends or rare jewelry but when it comes down to it, I’m so proud to represent my work because much of them time I come up with an entire look of how it will be worn and with what.
However, I also feel that often times as makers we are either shy of promoting and being just as excited about our work as we expect others to be.
Thanks for bringing this topic up Megan.
Even if I’m not carrying one of my purses, I almost always have a paperback wallet I made on me. I carried one for 2 years before I started making them to sell, which helped enormously in figuring out how to make the wallets better. Even then when I came up with the final design, I had to change it after wearing my wallet out in less than a year. My current one is nicely worn in, and really helps make sales when I pull it out at a show and show folks just how much stuff they could fit in if they got one too. I’ve even let guys put my wallet in their back pocket so they can feel how it fits.
Wonderful advice! Not only is wearing your own products a great tip, but I’d also recommend sprucing up your entire appearance when wearing your art. People will be more inclined to notice you (and approach you about your products) if you look neat, attractive, and wear a big smile. The smile always helps. 🙂
I consider everyone of our cards to be little soldiers that I can send out to the world to do a little marketing for me. The nature of stationery is to be sent from one person to another so I take full advantage of that 🙂
I am always surprised when I receive a card that doesn’t have all the relevant info on the back – web site, email, blog etc.
And I always keep a big roll of stamps on hand so that there are no excuses 🙂
This is definitely a no-brainer now, but I confess when I first started out it didn’t occur to me. Nowadays I am always wearing something I made, in addition to the handbag that I always carry. When people are skeptical about how a fabric bag will last, it’s super easy for me to hold up my own bag and tell them I’ve been carrying it for nearly 3 years! Everyone is always pleasantly surprised. 🙂
In a related note, I don’t make jewelry but I love wearing handmade jewelry made by friends of mine. So right after someone asks me where I got my headband (which I made) they will also ask “did you make your necklace, too?” and then I can tell them no, but my friend so-and-so did….she has a website too! We can help each other this way, not just ourselves!
I wear my own jewelry all the time, but I started making jewelry in the first place because I love it, so it’s really hard to commit to wearing my own jewelry 100% of the time! I also have lots of talented jewelry-making friends that I have traded with so I enjoy wearing their work as well. So I currently try to only wear jewelry that I made or someone I know made. However, it never fails that when I am wearing another artist’s jewelry, someone asks if I made it – no matter what it looks like! My consolation is being able to say “Actually a friend of mine did! Isn’t it great?”
Thanks for another great common-sense post!
I can’t exactly wear my work (salad bowls, etc.) but I do use it regularly. In fact, I have a hickory salad bowl that I’ve used 3 – 4 times a day – every day – for over a year for everything from eggs to salad to pickled beets (which stain just about anything within a 3-foot radius) to nachos to ice cream(!) (Probably equivalent to 10+ years’ “average” use.) I take this bowl with me – and use it – at shows.
So when I tell a collector that my food-safe finishes hold up, I can prove it beyond reasonable doubt.
I thought this was a no-brainer as well. I love Megan Winn’s idea to wear a mini-book to draw attention and gain a chance to promote. I would definitely ask about it if I saw you wearing it!
I actually started my business *because* I was wearing hats I had made for myself (for fun) around town and women kept commenting on them. (I use that as part of my story in the About Me section of my website.) Now, I almost always wear one of my hats whenever I go out (I have samples I made for myself to wear; I never wear the hats I have for sale except to model them, indoors, without sweating in them!)
I do have days when I just don’t feel like wearing a hat at all, but 90% of the time I’m wearing one of my hats. I also make sure I’ve got on makeup when I’m wearing one of my hats, and I try to be as put together as I can, organizing entire outfits around my hats. (A good hat inspires you to create the outfit around it anyway!)
I’ve handed out many cards simply by people asking me what I do for a living, or asking where I got the hat I’m wearing. That’s tricky because I don’t want to appear pushy so I use body language to determine if they’re actually interested or just being polite, but most of the time they’re genuinely interested.
The down side is that I don’t feel I can wear the other great hats I’ve had for years; if someone were to find out I was a milliner, they would want to know whether I made that hat.
But for the most part, it’s wonderful FREE marketing and, as you mentioned, it’s a great way to field-test my product. Oh, I’ve also worn test hats when I’m trying to determine my next new style; I gauge the feedback I get and assess whether it’s a hit or a dud.
Great post, Megan!
I just finished a three day craft show. Wearing your own creations (if possible) is a must. On Saturday I forgot to wear a necklace, so I decided to put one on that I was constantly demonstrating the evening before. A customer came up and liked that one better then the one that was on display, so they bought the necklace right off my neck, on went another necklace…. That one sold too.
Wearing your work is also important because it should represent you, so why not wear it? It’s a great conversation starter, and it not only represents the designers personality but what they do.
I’m a potter and as I can’t wear my pottery (as if it were jewelry) there is a lot to be proven by using my pots regularly. If we are making things that will become intimate possessions, than we have to use them (wear them) to see for our selves that they are, in fact, what we had hoped to create. Just as a mathematician has to “proof/prove” a theory by equating the formulae, we, too have to make sure that the numbers “add up” in our work. There’s no better way than to use these objects ourselves.
Of course, everybody has different preferences, but at the least we have some real world data to inform us of our work rather than just our hopes.
When I made toys they were what I sent to every baby shower, new baby and birthday party. Got a lot of local orders that way, as well as a wholesale account. Now that I’m moving towards non-functional art I have less ideas for “use” other than display in my own home and gifts of course. Will think more about this.
I wear my hair accessories and jewelry as much as possible. Also, I give my friends necklaces, headbands, or hirclips as gifts…and send a long a stack of business cards. At least once a week, someone tells me that a random person at the office, grocery store, or Ikea complimented them and they passed out a business card.
Your family and friends are your biggest fans, so if they are up for it – use them as mini-marketers!
There is always a pile of handbags I’ve made that just aren’t right for selling so I carry them as my bag of the day. I do show them off when asked about my craft and have to really bite my tongue not to point out what I think are the flaws. We’re always our own harshest critics. But I definitely try out the bags as least once to test the buttons and straps and clasps. Fun to be able to switch out bags all the time.
I’m an art quilter, and at my 1st Art festival 3 years ago, all I was offering for sale was my art quilts – I got lots of nice compliment, and I sold a few, but I needed to figure out a way to sell more at this type of even or I would have been miserable. So I started making what I call “everyday art” – 1st hand dyed scarves, but then notetakers, journals, bags, and wallets. Each time I expanded, my new piece began as something I made for myself, and when carrying it around town, I would get lots of compliments. These items of everyday art make up the bulk of what I sell…and the hope is, keeps my art in the minds of folk who will someday want a larger piece of art for the wall made by me! (And in January of this year I had two sizable commissions that worked just this way!)
So, HECK yeah, figure out how you can use your art in everyday settings and get some major market research done!
so true. i don’t even MAKE anything but when i carry or wear your (all of you) products, i get great opportunities to not only pimp your shops but my own business as well.
if you’re not sporting handmade on a daily basis, you’re doing us all a disservice. i mean that in the nicest way, of course 😉
I always wear my own jewellery – afterall, if I don’t like it enough to wear it myself, what on earth am I doing selling it to other people?! I constantly get asked about the pieces I wear, which is fantastic for marketing, and as you say, it’s an opportunity to carry out some quality assurance! My mum and friends are also often walking adverts for my work!
So true! I have made so many improvements to products because I was wearing it and realized how I could improve it’s functionality.
Also, I have got one of my wholesale accounts from a store owner asking me about my necklace at a social event. Was the easiest sell!
The product testing component of wearing or using your creations is extremely important, especially if it is for long periods of time. With clothing, you soon realize if you put a zipper in too high or if buttons are sewn on properly and the ever-present importance of “ease.”
Another fun thing to do is to print up a t-shirt with your logo and the website on it in combination with wearing/using your creations. That way your name/logo can literally be worn on your back and seen coming and going.
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Sometimes it’s the most obvious things that escape us, isn’t it? Great post, and extra thanks for linking to my favorite chairs. In all honesty, it’s exactly what you’ve expressed in this post that propelled to what I am doing now (and a few other confounding variables…).
Basically, I got to a point with previous work where I wasn’t proud of it and wouldn’t carry my own handbags or go out of my way to talk about them…b/c that would be akin to liking them…and I didn’t like them…and I didn’t want folks to think I had bad taste. I was aware that my work was an extension of me, and I had to finally get in touch with what I liked & not what I thought people wanted to see. My barometer when creating a new design is asking myself if I love it enough to scream from the rooftop about it. If the answer is a resounding yes, then we have a winner!
Thanks for the food for thought Megan!
I started out making Xmittens just so I could stay warm in my studio, but have my fingers free to sew, knit wire and make sculpture. Then, I started wearing them elsewhere (since it seems like I am cold all the time!) and people loved them…and I have not stopped making them. I put pockets on some because I needed to carry my business cards all the time to pass out to people. Now, that’s going to be an addition to the line. I love how that works.
I am a potter and have a full time job as a social worker. I bring mugs, plates, bowls to my workplace and use them constantly. People notice and sales are made! It helps to use/wear what we make to ensure it works the way we imagined it would, as well as showing pride in our work. I have made design improvements as a result of using my own pots for cooking/drinking/eating.
Great post- thanks!
Amen sister. . .
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So true! 😀 to wear your own products is a no brainer, it´s a must do! Although I´m not a jewelry maker, I´m a papercrafter and specially cardmaker! I´m still studying, but everytime a class is over I send “thank you” cards to my teachers, and they all wonder “oh! wow, did you made this?” I make sure my cards have my website and email on the back 😉 And also, I make sculptured folders, so when girls at my institute or college see me carrying around my papers in these completely different folders, they all ask and wonder and even make orders! So, any craftmaker, dont feel afraid to wear your work! and as Megan said, the minibook necklace such a great idea! and if u r a potter, then make a potter necklace! There is always a way to wear your crafts or show them to the world proudly! 🙂
Am I the only person in the world who makes jewellery but doesn’t like wearing it?
I’m not a ‘jewellery person’. I never intended to be a jewellery artist; if you had told me ten years ago that I would one day be a jewellery artist, I would have laughed. I love the aesthetic of jewellery, and the fact that it is an apparently useless frippery which actually has an important and valuable function (as self-expression). But I find it really, really hard to wear it.
It’s a little easier now that I’ve started making stuff that I would wear myself (yeah, that may sound odd, but I started out making whatever I found beautiful and had the ability to make, rather than what I would wear myself – since, as said above, I’m not a jewellery person! It’s weird … I started my crafty business completely backwards, but that’s another story), but still I cannot bring myself to wear my own jewellery on a regular basis. I just feel silly doing so.
Am I the only one? Is this a hurdle that I just need to ‘man up’ and get over? Should I force myself to start wearing my jewellery – since, as everyone so rightly points out above, it’s only sensible for me and for my customers? Or would doing so defeat the entire purpose of my jewellery-art (which is self-expression)?
I’m interested to hear others’ thoughts.
Silverlight – I was never the best at wearing my own jewelry, until I was in grad school, and a fairly famous art jeweler criticized me for not doing so.
But even still, I have these weird complexes like I don’t like the way it looks when I wear rings and a bracelet at the same time on the same arm. Then a few months ago I launched operation wear a lot of jewelry. I decided the best way to get over my complex was to pile it on. Now, I’m really embracing the idea of wearing lots of my work every day!
Thanks for replying, Megan. Maybe I’ll launch my own ‘operation wear a lot of jewellery’ and see if it grows on me too.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past 8 months and though I’d come back to share something: I’ve started wearing my own jewellery!
I started wearing a certain bracelet design, since that was the only way to test its resilience. I intended to wear it for only a week or so, just to see how it would last; however, to my surprise, I found it so comfortable – and self-expressive, which is important to me! – that I didn’t want to take it off. I now wear it continuously, even in bed. The bracelet has proved to be very resilient (win!), I have a piece of jewellery that I can wear all the time as a testament to my skills (second win!), and I can market the design as a durable, practical bracelet for people who don’t like bracelets: a win/win/win situation.
Since then, I’ve also come up with a couple of necklace designs that I wear regularly and which match most of my outfits.
So it can be done: a ‘non-jewellery person’ like me can enjoy wearing jewellery, providing they discover an easy-to-wear design that they really like. I’m thrilled that I am finally able to wear my own work. It was a big deal to me, as it felt sort of hypocritical not to wear that which I was wanting others to wear. 🙂
Thank you for this blog post, Megan!
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I make clothes, I don’t wear my own creations all the time but I make sure I do so when it is a formal occasion or if I am networking.
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