Highlands House Exhibition

I am proud to have been a member of the Essex Craft Guild (2016 to 2022). This is not a pay your fee and you’re in kind of a thing. I had to do a small show and tell exhibition of a few pieces of my work, and one that was part made, to show that I hadn’t bought the stuff wholesale. I was with several others who then waited for the pronouncement of the judges, and some did not make it. I was as pleased as punch to be part of a group of such excellent craftspeople. They kindly allowed me to remain a member even though I moved to Rutland, but remaining as an inactive member did not make any sense. The first, and it turns out, only selling exhibition I was part of was at Highlands House because Essex is too far for me to travel from Rutland, and in truth I’m not that bothered about selling my work. It is quite expensive to set up for one of these shows: public liability insurance, presentation materials and display stands, PAT tested electrical equipment, credit card payment machine, business cards and small venue fee are just some of the obvious things.

I could go on for a while about how difficult it is to get a reasonable price for very complex and time-consuming woodturnings like mine, but that is a well furrowed groove and there really is little profit in treading it again here. Your work is not worth a penny more than someone will pay for it, however much time and money you may spend on it. Let’s just say that’s the way it is and get over it.

I really enjoyed the day. Can’t say that I sold a lot, but I did get a lot of interest from visitors who wanted to talk about how it’s done and like most craft people I am happy to witter on about what I do all day.

My wife, Maria, seated, to the left of my stand!