Jewelry pulled from the Do-Art Gallery and Izzy's

This summer, I placed some of my jewelry on consignment at the Do-Art Studio and Gallery in bay City, Michigan and their sister store Izzy's on the Avenue.  However, I have since decided to discontinue selling via these locations. While the gallery management is very nice, I have made this decision due to a lack of satisfaction with the gallery's business practices. 

There is a severe lack of communication between the gallery and the artists with the artist never knowing if anything has sold unless they get a check in the mail or are phoned to request more pieces because they've sold out.  Since they only send out checks once a month, the artists have to wait a long time to find out what, if anything, was sold during the previous month as, apart from sending a check, they give no notification of sales.  This is rather awkward for the artists if they also happen to maintain any sort of online store, as it is entirely possible for the same piece to sell at both locations and the artist not know until they go to pick up that piece, a very serious problem if said piece happens to be a one-of-a-kind (which was a major concern for me as I specialize in one-of-a-kind).

During my time there, one of my bracelets was misplaced, but, thankfully, they were able to find it.  However, my sister (she does leather work and fiber arts) also had had some pieces on consignment with them and when she went to pick her pieces up they had misplaced one of hers also.  It wasn't until a month later that she found out they had found her missing bracelet (and only just that morning) and apparently they'd placed it among another artist's work and nearly returned it to the wrong person.

I understand that the gallery is a training facility (they work with training students for the work force, as well as, with those that have disabilities), but it is still no less frustrating when these things happen and even more so when the first thing you here regarding it is 'well we are a training facility' as if that somehow makes it acceptable that they have misplaced your work. 

I am glad for the experience (and I did have a couple sales through them) and an thankful for the opportunity that they afforded me by accepting my work on consignment, however I am a bit disappointed by how things have turned out with them and so will not be consigning anymore more pieces with them. Besides the frustrating experience that I had with them, they are simply not the right gallery for what I do, but I would not have known that had they not given me the chance.

I wish the gallery the best and hope that, perhaps, they will improve their communication with their consigning artists so that they (the artists) do not go through some of the frustrations that I did with the gallery.

In the meantime, I will continue selling via my website and through shows and just continue to look for the right gallery/boutique.