BUSINESS NEWS
Coast River Business Journal
November 2020 • 5
Artists adapt to lack of bazaars, fairs
Coast River Business Journal
elindblom@crbizjournal.com
The coronavirus pandemic has forced artists on the Long Beach
Peninsula to make major changes to how they do business.
Jan Bono, author of the Sylvia Avery Mystery series, said about
95% of her book sales usually come from in-person events during the
fall and winter like craft fairs and holiday bazaars. Last year she had 16
events, but this year due to COVID-19, she has none.
“In 2020 with zero bazaars to sell at, I have very little hope that I’ll
be able to break even after spending nearly $3,000 in printing costs,”
Bono said. “And even though I have a business license and pay sales
and income taxes, I don’t qualify for unemployment.”
So Bono has had to come up with other ways to reach customers,
including online sales and local deliveries. She said she’s not just
thinking outside the box, she’s thinking outside.
On Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, the days after
Thanksgiving known for shopping, Bono plans to open up her garage
door and invite readers to buy books while wearing masks and social
distancing. In December, she’s scheduled to sell books out on the porch
of Scoopers in Long Beach and then in the hallway of the Peninsula
Senior Activity Center in Klipsan Beach.
“I’ve lost my connection with all my readers,” Bono said. “To go
to zero events is rather disheartening but I’m still optimistic. I’m trying
to do whatever it takes to make the books easily accessible to people.”
Summer shows canceled
WE ARE OPEN!
Karen Brownlee of Karen Brownlee Pottery in Long Beach said
in the first couple months of quarantine, she sat at home and watched
as all of her summer shows got canceled. She realized it was time
to adjust.
“As an artist, it was hard to be creative and inspired to do
work,” Brownlee said. “I make everything from scratch and I had
clay on hand, but I was looking at the things people might need and
it didn’t seem the same as in usual years.”
Brownlee said she didn’t think people wanted to buy non-
essential items during this time, so she decided to focus on making
and selling mugs. Since it was around the time of high school
graduations, she reached out to the Ocean Beach School District and
created mugs for graduating seniors at a reduced price.
TRAVEL TRAILER/5TH WHEEL
“I got a bulk order where I
didn’t have to go anywhere, I did
it over the phone and someone
picked it up,” Brownlee said. After
posting photos of the graduation
mugs on social media, she received
more requests for custom mugs,
and started shipping more of her
work to customers than she has in
years past. She also upgraded to
online payment methods instead
of using cash like she would at a
bazaar.
Brownlee said she has to stay
extremely safe and cautious as far
as going out in public, as she has a
daughter at home who’s at high risk
of getting the virus.
“This summer I could have
done Saturday or Sunday markets
but I just needed to protect myself
Artist Karen Brownlee finishes a line of dish sponge holders in her studio.
and I chose not to do those venues
LUKE WHITTAKER PHOTO
because of the risk,” Brownlee
said.
ornaments at the bazaars and this will be the first year of online only,”
She decided to find foot traffic for her work a different way —
Hamilton said. She added that since she started in 2012, about 50%
by asking locally-owned businesses if they’d be willing to sell her
of her business would come from bazaars.
pottery as well as the yarn balls she makes. Now, her yarn balls are
But luckily for her, online shopping has been a popular
available at Purly Shell Fiber Arts in Ilwaco and her pottery can be
activity in the era of quarantine. According to a U.S. Department
found at BOLD Coffee, Art and Framing in Long Beach.
of Commerce report released in August, retail e-commerce sales in
Brownlee also started offering one-on-one socially-distanced
the second quarter of 2020 increased by 31.8% compared to the first
pottery workshops outside or in her garage studio with the door open.
quarter of 2020, reaching an estimated $211.5 billion.
“I feel like I’m having success, but I’m still probably at only a
“Because of COVID, more people are online and I’m busy
third of the sales that I’ve had in the past,” Brownlee said.
seven days a week in my office,” Hamilton said in mid-October.
“I’ve just had the best week on Etsy I’ve ever had since 2012.”
Seashells sell
She said she doesn’t know if that increase on Etsy will make up
Cathy Hamilton, a seashell artist based in Ocean Park, has
for the loss of business at bazaars and craft fairs, but for now she’s
noticed an increase in online sales compared to other years.
putting more time and energy into advertising online. Hamilton has
She creates ornaments, mirrors, ship wheels, sea creatures and
also started posting her work on local Facebook groups, and offering
more out of shells through her business, Cathy’s Coastal Creations.
20% discounts for customers who pick up the pieces instead of
“I know that with COVID things have really changed for small
having them shipped.
businesses like myself where I would sell hundreds of my seashell
“You just have to change the way you think,” Hamilton said.
NEW
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LARGER BAYS
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