We’re looking for art to sell

Update – April 28th

We will be moving from our current location in May. At the moment we don’t know if we’ll be opening elsewhere or where that elsewhere might be. As such I’m not taking stock from new suppliers during May so I can get ready for the move.

Please continue to email your information through as if/when we have a new shop we’ll start the process up again.

If you emailed before May 1st and haven’t had a reply, please hold on. I will try to get back to everyone who got in before the deadline. Honest.

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Hi, this is Pete. I’m in charge of stock and making the systems at the shop work smoothly.

Two weeks has passed since we opened the Created in Birmingham shop and we’re starting to get a better idea of what’s selling and what’s not.

To begin with we had an open submissions policy but now the shop is full we’re pulling up the drawbridge a little. Any stock we take has to be cleared by Chris or Pete either in person or by email.

Our terms

• You set the price.
• We take 25% of that price.
• Stock is taken on a Sale or Return basis.
• We pay you for sold items at the end of each month.
• Unsold items can be collected by you at any time.
• Payments will be made monthly.

We’re definitely trading until May 1st in the Bullring. After that we’ll review but for now assume 2 months.

This is our criteria

Items should be presented in a retail friendly manner. This is a shop, not a gallery, and we get a fair amount of traffic. It also gets quite dusty. Your stuff should be packaged and protected where appropriate.

Items should appeal to a high street mindset. Not exclusively, obviously, and we always want interesting, counter culture, DIY stuff. Just remember people come to the Bullring in a certain frame of mind.

Start small. We would rather take a small selection of your work to begin with then come back to you if it starts selling. 5 mounted prints, a couple of frames, 10 items of jewellery, 5 CDs, that sort of thing.

Must be Created in Birmingham, obviously. Birmingham born or Birmingham based is perfect but we allow some wiggle room for Black Country, Worcs, etc if you can be bothered to make the effort to come in.

Here’s what’s selling

Screen prints and similar forms of illustration are flying out. We can’t keep this stuff on the shelves at the moment. Sarah Ray is probably the bestseller here but by no means exclusively. This sells best as limited editions mounted on card and wrapped in plastic at between £5 and £30, or framed at £40 to £50.

Cards. Hand made cards by artists are doing well. Package them up nicely with an envelope. £2.50 seems to be the sweet spot.

Badges are steady sellers. I’d ask that you package them in some way first – stick them on a card and/or in a bag. That way they can be displayed better (and you can charge more!)

Photos are going pretty well if they’re presented nicely. Do not use a clip frame. Seriously, clip frames make your work look awful. Either use a nice Ikea-style frame (nothing fancy) or get some mounts and bags from somewhere like PictureLizard and make them look smart. Prices vary tremendously but we’re seeing £15 – £20 work pretty well for mounted prints, £20-30 for a small framed print and £40 to £60 for a larger framed piece. We haven’t sold anything over £100 yet.

Music we’re not selling in huge quantities but could do with a wider range. I’m happy to take five copies of a CD or similar. If anyone has an idea of how to make a listening post (or has an old iPod-type device we can “borrow”) that’d be great.

Jewellery was an area we were holding back on but a few got under the fence and we’ve been doing very well with Wychbury and Laura’s Kitsch plastic jewellery priced between £5 and £15 an item. We’re going to dedicate a wall to jewellery soon so please bring some in. I’d say no more than£15 an item with £5 to £10 being ideal price point. Please get in touch if you fit this. (Or even if you don’t because we’re still experimenting with this.)

Original Art is not selling at all. I’m saying no to canvases of any description and am very reticent to take anything priced over £60. This is where the fact that we’re in the Bullring and not the Mailbox hits home. People are coming in with their retail heads on, not their art gallery heads. My advice, for what it’s worth, would be to make a copy of you work and sell it as a print.

Books and other bound paper things I want a lot more of. We did really well with Atta-Girl’s zine and cute little screen printed items but I’m keen to push other printed matter in whatever form. Keep meaning to get in touch with Tindal St Press so if they’re reading this…

Clothes. I don’t want the shop to become a clothes shop because that’s a whole nother world but we do take some clothing. I’m after stuff that’s hand made and unique but please come and have a chat first.

T-shirts are going well in two areas. The Bostin, Brumsdale and related shirts are steady sellers but we’re also doing a bit of trade with the more arty shirts and I’d like to develop the range of wearables by local designers. £15 is the average price but I think you could go higher if the shirt deserves it.

Fashion accessories like purses and that are selling slowly. The Mitsu Co bags went well (not on the website unfortunately) and we’re happy to take more items like that around the £10 to £25 mark. Other crafty items, come and ask.

We’re always open to other stuff, especially if it’s not listed above. A lady brought in two 5ft tall papercraft lamp shades at the weekend, for example. Just make sure it’s fits the retail friendly criteria.

How to submit your work

If you’re confident you fit the criteria, or even if you’re not confident, there are two options.

• Send an email to createdinbirmingham@gmail.com with “CiB Shop stock” in the subject line. Include images and links to your work. We’ll review these and get in touch with those we like the look of.
• Chance your luck and pop into the shop. Chris and Pete aren’t in every day so you might not get a decision but the other staff can give you an idea of what works.

If we decide to take your work bring it in with a delivery note containing your contact details and a list of the the stock with prices.

And then we’ll see if it sells!