I hate getting consigned work back. Who doesn’t? It’s so sad when that box of returned goods comes in the mail. You open it up and there are your designs, all forlorn and sad. “No one wanted us!” they seem to wail. “We weren’t good enough!”
Our state craft guild, the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, includes a host of fine craft stores operating under its umbrella. Most of the shops work on consignment only. Stock is rotated in and out periodically. Stores and craftspeople often use a designated space at the League headquarters for exchanging new and old stock. Stores can leave stock for artists to pick up, artists can leave work for stores to pick up.
While attending a meeting at League HQ yesterday, the receptionist notified me that I had a return waiting for me. It turns out I didn’t—just some old paperwork still floating around—but meanwhile I poked around on the shelves, looking for my returned consignment pieces.
As I searched, I saw other artists’ work on the “returns” shelf. The ones that caught my eye were the League’s “star artists.” These artists appear regularly in the finest shows and most prestigious venues in the country. And there sat their work, just as sad and forlorn as mine, waiting to be picked up.
I decided that if fabulous pieces by famous artists sometimes just don’t hit their market, it’s perfectly okay for my work to miss sometimes, too. It’s obviously not because their work or my work isn’t “good enough”. I suspect it’s more a question of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
It’s not personal. Just business as usual.
