Do you email the gallery first or just walk in with quilts in the car?

Now listen, I want to hear how y'all do it, because I still can't decide what's polite.

My first gallery, I didn't do either one properly. My granddaughter found the place, and I mailed them a letter with two polaroids of a quilt folded over the porch rail. Took five weeks to hear back and I had about given up. Turns out one of the ladies who worked there took the pictures home to her mama. Her mama said bring that woman in. So I walked in with a quilt on my arm and that was that. Not a plan. Just the Lord and a folded quilt.

Now I've got a new one I'd like to approach, and I keep going back and forth. Part of me says send the email first, be respectful of their time. Other part says a quilt is a thing you have to touch. A photograph of a quilt is not a quilt.

So which is it for you? Email first and wait? Or walk in and hope somebody's there who'll look?

And I especially want to hear from anybody who walked in unannounced, because I think there's more of us than folks admit.

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Ramesh Jha·4w

I am no gallery person myself, we sell Mithila paintings through cooperatives here in Madhubani, so take my word as one outsider only. But this much I have seen: the letter with the polaroids was not a mistake, it was the thing that worked. Five weeks is nothing, ji. In our world also the buyer who takes time is the buyer who takes the work seriously.

What I would say is, do both, but in your own order. Send the letter first with the pictures, address it to a person by name if you can find out who handles the folk and textile work there, and then after some weeks go yourself with the quilt in the car. Do not go empty handed to ask, and do not go only to ask. Go so they can touch the stitching. People who work with cloth and thread, they decide with the hands, not with the letter.

Also keep the polaroid idea going, it is a good thing. A photograph of a quilt folded over the porch rail says more than twenty emails.

One caution only, from my own experience with such places. Some will admire the work and never speak of money. Kindly be ready to ask plainly what the terms will be. Our art has dignity, we must not be shy about the price also.

All the best with the new one. When you walk in, walk in slowly and let the quilt speak. 🙏

Mira Vey·4w

The letter and photos got the mama. That's the whole thing right there, and it wasn't the letter, it was that a real person held it. I'd still walk in. Emails land in a pile with forty others, a folded quilt on the counter doesn't.

Only thing I'd add: send the letter to a name, not "Gallery." If you can't find out who handles textiles, call and ask who looks at submissions. Takes two minutes. Otherwise it's addressed to nobody and reads like nobody sent it.

Gloria Mae JacksonOP·4w

A name, not "Gallery." That's going in my notebook, honey, and I mean that. I'd been sitting here fussing over the wording of the letter like it was scripture when the whole problem was I didn't know who to put at the top of it.

My granddaughter can find that out in about two minutes on that computer of hers, but I think I'll call and ask myself. Voice on the phone tells you something a website can't. You can hear whether the person answering even likes cloth.

Gloria Mae JacksonOP·4w

Now honey, that line about the buyer who takes time being the buyer who takes the work seriously, I'm going to carry that one around with me. That's the truth and I needed to hear it plain. Five weeks had me near discouraged and here you are telling me it was a good sign all along.

And you're right about the name. That's what I did wrong the first go round, just "To Whom It May Concern," sad little envelope. This next one, I'll find out who handles the cloth and the folk work and put her name on it. Then wait, and then go on in with the quilt on my arm like I did before. Both, in my order, like you said.

Tell me something though, since you know cooperatives and I don't. When your painters send work out, do they send the ones they love most, or the ones that sell easiest? I never know which quilt to carry in. 🙏

Karen Wessel·4w

That polaroid story is the best thing I've read all week, honestly. Five weeks and it landed with the right mama.

I'm no expert, I've only done local fairs and one small shop, but I did the walk-in thing once and it went better than I expected. Just brought two pieces in a laundry basket and asked if they had a minute. The owner was busy and I felt like a nuisance for about ten seconds, then she looked at the work and we talked for half an hour. I think people who run galleries would rather see the actual thing than a photo of it. Quilts especially, photos never show the texture.

That said I'd probably send a short email first just so you're not hauling everything in on a day they're slammed. Something like "I have work I'd love to show you, when's a good time to stop by." No big letter, no portfolio, just a heads up.

Let us know how this one goes!

Gloria Mae JacksonOP·4w

Honey, a laundry basket. That's the most honest carrying case there is, and I mean that. Mine was a pillowcase, so we're kin.

You said the thing I keep coming back to though. Photos never show the texture. You can photograph a whole quilt laid out flat and it looks like a rug. Nobody can feel the hand of the cloth, the places where the stitching goes thick because you were praying over it. That's half the quilt and it just lives in the room with you.

Now you said "That said, I…" and left me hanging, baby. What was the but? I want the whole thought, because I'm fixing to walk into a place in a few weeks and I need all the counsel I can get.