Friday, December 7, 2018

Smaller baskets

I recently took some new fabric baskets up to Explore Park. They have been selling baskets I make in the visitor's center.

  

When I arrived, the baskets were displayed on this ladder. I thought it was a fun display.

  

They did mention moving the baskets to a different location as I had brought up more .

We discussed lowering prices on the baskets to sell more and sell them faster.  But, the profit margin is so small, I decided to try making smaller baskets instead.

  

I tried some much smaller baskets.  But it is too hard to manipulate the smaller ones under the sewing machine.

  

They were also too small for the charms I like to add to each basket.  The little baskets were cute, but took almost as long to make as the bigger baskets.

  

I tried a mid-size basket. (At this point I'm feeling like Goldilocks and looking for JUUUST right.).

  

The mid-size baskets are pretty cute, but I haven't gotten up to speed on making the new size, so I am only saving about an hour on each one.

  

I am also finding size creep.  I don't want have too many different price points, so I want to have each one be a similar size.  I find my self adding a few rows of coils on each new basket I make.   I need to be careful about that.  I have made so many baskets, that my muscle memory sometimes takes over from my conscious mind.  Removing coils to make a smaller basket seems silly.

This one is the biggest of my mid-size baskets. But I really like it.

  

I'm liking these new baskets and will take a few up in the new year to see how they do.  I'm not sure how many I should make until I see how many sell versus the larger ones.

  


1 comment:

  1. Great to read that your beautiful baskets are finding buyers, Rebecca. Hoping that you will have more sales as the holidays grow even closer. And, there is only so low a craftsperson can go and still be able to cover costs and show a profit. I nev er seemed to achieve a good balance when I was selling photo cards at craft shows.

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