Well, although it could sound like self promotion...I swear it is not meant to , but when I do a show, like the one I'm about to leave for in a few minutes, I will be pushing pens all made from my own materials. When I purchase something like Casein, or a feather blank..as top notch as those are, I don't make those pens for shows. I have several wood pens and plain acrylic pens, but those are from the beginning of my times making pens and I pretty much have been blowing those out super cheap on clearance. Every single high end pen is a scrolled pen, and eventually once all the crap is sold or given away, every pen will be a scrolled pen. This is my thing, it's the only thing people come to my table to see, and some of my stuff is quite expensive. I can't say my stuff is better than any other stuff. I think what I'm saying is that you need order and flow in your inventory, not a chaotic display..like you have 1-2 of everything there is. Every pen I'm pushing is different but they are all the same them. I would expect if I was to see Curtis at a show...he'd have tons of cactus in different colors, and tons of different tones of worthless woods. That's a theme and flow, they are all home made and can all fetch big money. When I see Brian Gray..probably see him later today..his pens will all be resin, different colors, but all the same type of resin rods and he will have his speech and speel where he shows off all his rods and carries a limited number of actual pens, but they will all be custom pen with hand cut threads, no pen parts. Limit yourself as to how many different things you do, so you appear focused, you have a plan, the clients see your goal and what you sell and then they are sold.
I agree that you make a very valid point. Sometimes doing too many things makes the special items get lost. But if you focus, things seem more consistent. If you are doing this as a business, I agree that this makes the most sense. Stake your claim in a specific market (like the cactus blanks, or cigar pens (the fake cigars, not the kits), and carve out your niche.
However, as a hobbyist, I want to try EVERYTHING and have that variety. I want to try a few cast labels, and some cigar pens, and some scrolled items (I did that for my PITH last year), as well as my own castings and worthless wood. Eventually, I want to do segmentations as well. But I still like "plain" wood pens too, so I don't think I'll be stopping using those entirely (though I'm moving to stabalized woods due to cracking and the like). Oh! and I just started making my own polymer clay canes. I like kit pens, but I bought a collet chuck and taps to make my own fully custom pens. I want to try (and offer) it all.
Why? I'd probably get bored if I just did one type of pen. Also, I get excited about all of the cool stuff we do, and the only way to really show people is to do it and let them see (I'm trying to bring the art of penmaking to the masses :biggrin
.