I deleted the shop links from my profile and sold two pieces in a month
Small thing I did in January, mostly out of fatigue. I took the shop link and the "commissions open" line out of my Instagram bio and left only the studio address. I didn't announce it. I wanted one place online that wasn't selling something.
Two pieces sold in February. Both buyers mentioned the studio, which is a walk-up on the second floor with no sign, so I don't think it was that. I think it was the absence. Not a strategy, I was just tired.
What I noticed: people stopped asking "how much" in DMs and started asking about the paper. Which is the conversation I actually want. The price question is a dead end either way. "How much" has one answer and then you both wait. "Where does that grey come from" has ten answers.
I'm not going to pretend I understand why it worked, or that it will keep working. Half of what I do happens because I can't stand the alternative. But the bio is still empty.
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I believe the paper conversation part more than the absence theory. When a price sits in the bio, every message starts as a negotiation and people stop looking closely at the work. Take it away and the only thing left to talk about is the thing itself.
Though I'd be cautious about drawing much from two sales in one month. When I stopped quoting prices by email and started letting people ask in person at open studio, the questions changed exactly as you describe, but the sales didn't really move. The conversation improved. That was worth it on its own, and I suspect that's the honest version of what happened here rather than the absence doing the selling.
the open studio thing is interesting because that's a different kind of conversation entirely, you're in the room with the piece and the person. no price in the chat window means they have to walk up to it first. but yeah i think you're right that the honest version is just "the talk got better." i've had pieces sit for ages with a price tag and the only messages were "still available?" which tells me nothing about whether they even looked. the sale is a bad way to measure it, the sale depends on a hundred things you don't control.
The "still available?" message is the tell, isn't it. That person never looked, they just checked whether the queue was still open. I'd rather have three people ask what a torn edge is than thirty ask that.
You're right that the sale measures nothing. I said "not a strategy" and then quietly built a theory around two sales, which is exactly the thing I was trying to avoid. Two is not data. Two is two.
But the paper questions, those I'd keep even if nothing sold. That part felt real.
You're probably right about the two sales. I did write "not a strategy" and then halfway built a theory anyway, which is a bit of a contradiction. The conversation is the part I'd keep even if nothing sold. The absence theory is me being pleased with myself.