Another Hotshop For Sale

[Rich Samuel]

On eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/Complete-Glass-Blowing-Hot-Shop-Everything-you-need_W0QQitemZ140060766653QQihZ004QQcategoryZ11664 2QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem). Any idea whose this is?

[Brian Gingras]

I know I know...


It the Naples Arts and Craft Village...they thought it was the perfect idea to build a hot shop...they had a VERY limited budget, and no idea of how to blow glass or run a shop...the auction is the result.

[Pete VanderLaan]

Is that the one you built in New York Brian?

[Brian Gingras]

yep, while I'm happy with what I was able to accomplish in 9 days of building, I wish I had had more time...guess that didn't matter after all.

[Pete VanderLaan]

Man, that thing had the life expectancy of a moth. I want to come down and see you.

[Scott Novota]

The hotshop trifecta is complete.


Scott.
.

[Brian Gingras]

Originally posted by Pete VanderLaan
Man, that thing had the life expectancy of a moth. I want to come down and see you.

Pete, feel free...I'm sure I'll be picked on to death about a whole variety of subjects if you come into my shop...pyrolysis is up there on the list.

I have a ton of inside info on why this shop is for sale, but will not disclose publicly. At least mine is still running :)

[Ben Rosenfield]

Originally posted by Brian Gingras
I have a ton of inside info on why this shop is for sale, but will not disclose publicly. It's because they want to sell it. Duh!!! :p

[Brian Gingras]

not exactly...not entirely....well not completely...you get the point.

[Barb Sanderson]

Well here's another one that was put up for sale recently - it's HUGE!

Pricing is on the Glass art society discussion board
http://www.glassart.org/Classifieds.html?TopicID=1650

and pics are here:
http://lasorgenteglass.com/studio/index.htm

Does anyone know why Tom is selling his whole shop?

Barb

[Brian Gingras]

They are selling out left right, and center. I am going to go cold for a few weeks to conserve also...soon there will be few shops left, and they will all be running electric.

[Barb Sanderson]

Is that your take on what's happening Brian - energy costs too high to make any money?

Barb

[Brian Gingras]

My take on it has several aspects.

Energy costs and cutting into profits, those who do not evolve to more efficient tech. will be the first to go.

BUT...there is the American consumer. The bulk majority have become an uneducated, disinterested mass looking 50 cent glasses and Walmart and $2 prints from Costco. they now attend shows for the entertainment value, and promoters and pandering to that with more food and music, making most of the shows a festival with some artists paying to attend the festival. Our galleries are all hurting, and it seems much the same attitude in their clients. It helps to have more disposable income, and most don't. I'm seeing it with my construction business also...both businesses are tied for losses this year.

[Jeff Mentuck]

I don't think it's energy costs so much as ill concieved business plans that send most glass shops under.

[Pete VanderLaan]

I would suggest that the type of items I see prevalently in shows today are aimed at a middle class buyer who is rapidly being squeezed out of existence. The bulk of our American work force is now in the service industry and that wages reflect that. We are no longer a natio producing goods. Couple that up with too many glassworkers making way too many similar items for the available dollar and you have nothing but trouble. All of the national shows reflect a steady pervasive decline in orders from one show to the next. Each show has more glassmakers than the last. They are not going to be able to compete with China or the Italian glassworks that the Chinese are currently buying up. The people clearly speaking with their own voices are doing OK. The mass of Italian style work or the ornament biz is threatened. There's just too much of it and it can't financially compete. Chuck that in with the rise in fuel costs etc and it's pretty deadly. I am now only looking at the upper end market with optical glass since it doesn't require constant energy demands. I can grind and polish pretty cheaply.

[Scott Novota]

You are up against the globe here. I walk down to the local gallery and they have all the big names from all over the globe. I walk into the lower end artsy shop and they have x-mas globes from up north, out west, and china. I walk into the up scale bars here and they have 20 inch high flop vases from SAMS wholesale made in china that cost 20 bucks as art on the piano. The masses look at a vase blown into a 5 inch steel pipe and spun around with crappy green glass as not as nice, but for 20 bucks it is close enough to that multi colored vase I put out. The skill difference, the colors, the style, and the effort vanish under the sign that reads "19.99 hand blown vase". Most people just don't care.


What is happening is there is no middle ground for anyone to sell at. Coming from my perspective I honestly don't have the skill to make anything that would sell for more than 150 bucks. What I can sell that should be going for 100 bucks or so is undercut by people that have been doing it for 20 years trying to eek out a living from 800 miles away. So you will just see the middle ground where glassblowers grow vanish and the only people left to progress to the upper part of the food chain will be the rich that don't need to sell anything to get there, and the guys working for nothing in a factory that built skill in the boilerroom.

It is not only happening to glassblowers. Most artistic things in general are having all the same problems. I have already come to the conclusion that I will never be able to make a living off of glass unless I find the ability to design something that is very very different than anything else out there. It is that simple, but also that hard. At this point in time I am just doing it because I enjoy it...I would hate to have to depend on it to live because in this environment it would not only drive me crazy but I honestly don't think I could pull it off.


Scott.
.

[Ken Peterson]

I agree..... I wonder a lot about the future of the studio glass movement. There are so many glass blowers now. Most making similar things. I wonder if we are boring the american public into lower sales.

I've been out of the loop for a while, and have recently been wondering if people are still buying "art glass". Are people buying less, or is there just more work out there now?

I'm bored with most (but definitely not all) of the work out there. I wonder if I'm pushing that on the american public, or if it's just me.

[Brian Gingras]

It's odd...I do make some decent glass...but man it's been ornament fish and pumpkins this year paying all the bills...I go into a show though, and there are 4 of uss all selling at that level...10% of my booth is that price level and it accounts for 80% of my sales. The oublic lately has just been looking for cheap cheap...they won't even look at anything over $40 lately.

[Mark Wilson]

this is just great!!!! all this time i have been practicing, and dreaming of the "glassblowing life style". you know, the big bucks, all the women, the fast cars, the whole 9 yards. and now the party is over before i even get to the front of the line. i guess i will have to keep my day job. now where did i put the slide rule anyway?!!!!

[Ben Rosenfield]

Don't forget: When you get good, you can have sex with a random girl in a revolving restaurant.

[Doug Sheridan]

I think that the imports will lose interest in art glass very soon, just like they do with everything they reproduce, because the numbers are not good enough, or because they move on very quickly because of some new trend they need to rip off.


My gallery sells machine made marbles right below our handmade ones and we don't see the conflict in the faces of the buyers, they often will buy some of each. $25 vs. $2.50. I want to think that is because they are smart enough to know the difference. Same goes for the $20 16" vase at the box stores. The people that would buy those, will never come into my gallery.

As for the middle ground issue, it's still alive and well, you just have to be good at planning and marketing.

[Richard Huntrods]

It's depressing, all right. Walked into London Drugs back in Sept, and my wife points to the following items:

http://www.londondrugs.com/Cultures/en-US/SearchDetail.htm?SearchString=glass&CS_Catalog=Homeware&CS_Heirarchy=Homeware%3bHome+Decor%3bGiftware&CS_Category=Giftware&CatalogNavigationBreadCrumbs=Homeware%3bHomeware%3 bHome+Decor%3bGiftware&ItemCount=10&CountIndex=5

I've attached a representative picture as well.

Glass hats and purses, all $9.99 CDN.

They even ground off the punty mark.

[Richard Huntrods]

For $9.99, I could not touch that. Sure, it's clunky and tacky and all that, but they are selling.

My only joy in this is that the hat is so top-heavy and tippy that they must lose quite a bit due to shelf breakage.

Still, the first time I saw a purse, I thought "interesting", and wanted to try one. That was in a photo my wife's friend brought back from Las Vegas, and was (as I recall $40.00).

Now they are as common as M&M's and priced at $9.99. They'll be given and received just like the glass chia pet they are.

It's depressing though. Not that these were great glass, or great art, but they are selling. Pumpkins, christmas balls, fish floats, fish paperweights -- they're all commodity items now.

I found the best way to sell what I make is to sell the story behind the object. I have my laptop with a video of me making a vase (or a c-ball depending on the season) that I have on my table. The video draws the folks in, and then I tell them the story about making the vase (or c-ball). Once they see the video, they have a ton of questions, but I notice they always handle the glass differently after they've seen the video. Before, it's just more "stuff" at the show. After, it's somehow more "unique". When folks purchase, it becomes more personal "me to you".

-R

[Antiny Genet]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Brian Gingras
It's odd...I do make some decent glass...but man it's been ornament fish and pumpkins this year paying all the bills...I go into a show though, and there are 4 of uss all selling at that level...10% of my booth is that price level and it accounts for 80% of my sales. The oublic lately has just been looking for cheap cheap...they won't even look at anything over $40 lately. [/
QUOTE]

Interesting, on my side of the planet i have been aware of the same trend.
I have had to bust my ass makeing small stuff, when not that long a it was all the big peices and price that were my main sales.
Antiny

[Doug Sheridan]

Antiny and others, it sounds like you are worrying about the wrong market. When you say the "public" wants cheap, that makes me think Wal-Mart shoppers. There has been cheap glass offered to those folks for many, many years. Mexican, Taiwan, and all of the Asian stuff has been on the shelves for 30 years, just not as colorful as it looks lately. Why the sudden worry? The biggest change I've seen is the movement to buy all things in the box stores. Doesn't that make handmade items more desirable? That's just my experience. Like Richard and others have said, sell the story to the right audience, and the box stores will never compete with that. If you screen your audience so that you don't show your wares to the cheap buyers, you'd have a different perspective.

BTW Antiny, I love those landscape vases.

[John Van Koningsveld]

Originally posted by Ben Rosenfield
Don't forget: When you get good, you can have sex with a random girl in a revolving restaurant.

I thought it was a revolving girl at a random restaurant...

[Ben Rosenfield]

Originally posted by John Van Koningsveld
I thought it was a revolving girl at a random restaurant... I think she was rotating (or rotated).

[Dave Hilty]

Originally posted by Rich Samuel
On eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/Complete-Glass-Blowing-Hot-Shop-Everything-you-need_W0QQitemZ140060766653QQihZ004QQcategoryZ11664 2QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem). Any idea whose this is?

Anyone privy to how the stuff is going to be liquidated now that the ebay auction has ended with no takers?

[Brian Gingras]

not a word about that...try contacting him directly...or maybe he offered it to the one bidder...I don't know.

[Brody Shaw]

it got a bid....(not me tho)

[Brian Gingras]

I did email Lance(seller), he is thinking of maybe just parting it out on ebay next, or keeping it for himself. I suspect he is trying to recover his complete studio cost(we charged $21,000 for our part), but used equipment is worse than used cars when it comes to value.

so, look for individual stuff to show up soon.

[Rich Samuel]

Still for sale, at a reduced price (http://cgi.ebay.com/Complete-Glass-Blowing-Shop-PRICED-TO-MOVE_W0QQitemZ140134848765QQihZ004QQcategoryZ11664 2QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem).

[Brian Gingras]

he keeps re-listing the thing, it has sold several times to un-registered buyers causing him to put it up again and again. The lesson here is to not build a shop unless you plan to use it for yourself and have an idea of how to run it so you can actually make use of what you buy. Also know your market.