Newquay Central Post Office
I used to have a handful of shelves at Newquay Central Post Office. It included a diverse range of my printed and hand painted Cornish gifts.
Newquay Central Post Office, 3 Fore St, Newquay, TR7 1HB.
Back in 2020 I had a couple of small shelves and basic prints of a few of my paintings at Newquay Central Post Office. From there my range increased, as did my sales and I expanded to more and more shelves. It’s been a great experience and I’ve learned a lot about retail and merchandising as I’ve maintained my shelves over the last 4 years. Many of you know that the Post Office is closing in January - today I want to give a special shout-out to Natalie St.James who has been amazing, her support has been priceless, helping me to gain confidence, try new things and believe that this is something I can do and be successful at. THANK YOU!
As we go through 2022 I've got more shelf space, more products and more ideas! It's a careful balance to ensure I can make gifts that make sense from a materials cost and time point of view. I'm always experimenting and refining my collection. That balance between printed and hand-made, practical and pretty, a memory cherished souvenir versus a more luxury unique gift.
This year I'm prepping for Christmas early; I've already painted quite a few baubles, I've got some gift packs coming and a small handful of different designs - watch this space!
Covid slowed things down, but I started to research and experiment with other printed gift ideas and some hand-made gifts.
By the start of 2021 I had purchased a card rack and expanded my range, I focused quite a lot on hand-painted giftware; magnets and glassware which sold really well, but took up so much time to make.
In the second half of 2021 I painted some surfers onto one of the baubles for our Christmas tree, it looked quite pretty so I did a few more, purchased a 'tree' display stand and the baubles took off. I would even say they are still my best sellers to date!
In 2020 I was lucky enough to get a small space in Newquay Central Post Office. They already had a couple of artists in the shop and after a couple of attempts the owner agreed to see some of my work. The meeting was successful and I had my very first shelf in a shop. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but it was exciting! I didn't have much stock though...
Until then all I had really done is create original art, my prints and gift experience was pretty limited to print-on-demand online websites. I had a small handful of prints in frame purchased from a combination of Photobox and Dunelm. I was pretty happy with how they turned out. Also pleased with the square greeting cards and coasters. However the keyrings and magnets...well let's say I didn't continue with those in the same format.
If you can't make it to Newquay - you can purchase some of the items via my website.
If you are a gallery or shop owner and are interested in stocking any paintings, printed or hand painted products, please drop me an email diane@handonart.com.
