I've hit the tough part of selling woodwork at my local farmers' market. More and more customers are walking past and saying "oh, we got that last year" or "we got that for Makenzlie's birthday two years ago." Vendors of consumables -- veggies, meat, soap, bread, flowers, etc. -- don't have this problem: people buy their products, consume them, and (assuming the products are good) come back and buy more of the same. I don't have that luxury, because my work is supposed to last indefinitely. I've seen other woodworkers do really well here for a while, but they end up leaving when sales fall off, once they've sold a padauk cutting board to everyone in town who wants one. So the challenge is always to keep diversifying my inventory, and keep finding new and different things to make, while also maintaining sufficient stock of the older items that are still selling well. It keeps me busy. . .
I've designed a pretty simple and fairly quick-to-make item that I think is going to be a winner, which I need to make this week -- I'll post pictures once I've made some. Plus a couple more ideas up my sleeve. . . so stay tuned!
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