By ROBIN CAUDELL
Staff Writer
January 07, 2009 06:39 am
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JAY — Sue Burdick Young and Terrance "Terry" Young learned long ago that diversification was the key to their survival as artists.
Their entrepreneurial moxie cushions them against these economically hard times.
"We're hoping that will make up for sales that aren't coming through the door," Terry said.
"I don't know if it's because of gas or the economy. It seems less people are coming in, and they're spending less.
"And, we're doing the same."
DIVERSIFICATION
Twenty-five years ago, they established Young's Studio & Gallery on Route 86 in Jay.
There, Sue creates handmade pottery, functional-production ware, sculpture, paintings on silk and raku with her husband. Terry creates paintings, etchings, book arts and pencil drawings.
"Since mid-October right through Columbus Day this year, it got extremely quiet," he said. "This far in December, it's much quieter for us. Lucky for us, we have a lot of other things going on."
Web designer is one of the hats he wears. He is building two Web sites and fielding inquiries for others.
Sue is working on a quadricentennial-tile project with area students that will grace the Clinton County Government Center.
This is an example of their flexibility that has distanced them and their two children, 19 and 21, from the "starving artist" cliché.
"Over the years, we built up good Web sales. This year, we're doing better Web sales than we ever did before. People go to the Web to see what is new. You can't buy anything directly off the Web, but you can look at it."
MERGED BUSINESSES
The Internet was a glimmer when Terry, a native New Yorker, relocated to the Adirondacks.
"I wanted to do my art in a rural area."
He and Sue met at an artist's party in 1981 and married two years later. They merged their separate businesses and borrowed $500 from a bank to build their first 10-by-12-foot showroom, which was open three days a week.
"At that time, we were doing mostly craft shows and putting work in different galleries on consignment," Terry said.
They earned the bulk of their money that way. As they received recognition and built a customer base, they eventually ceased craft shows and expanded their gallery to its present size in 1995.
"We wanted 90 percent of our income to come from the gallery, so we didn't have to do a lot of running around to craft shows and other galleries," Terry said. "Our work became exclusive to right here. That went along really well."
COLLEGE AHEAD
With their daughters approaching college age, the Youngs decided in 2003 to build another gallery in Wilmington to earn more income.
They made a sizeable investment in rehabbing and opening up the new gallery space. Sue's workload doubled producing for two galleries.
"With both galleries opened, we earned the same amount as we did before with one gallery," Terry said.
"You want to see your income go up. We saw it go down because of additional expenses — phone lines, insurance, Visa machine. We thought at the minimum we would do it five years. We did it one year. We decided to consolidate again."
In 2004, they saw a decrease in sales.
In 2005, fewer people were coming through the gallery door.
NEW DIRECTION
At the time, Terry was involved in a time-consuming project. He left that and focused on his business to design and host Web sites.
Sue hit the craft-show circuit again and passed out maps redirecting customers to Jay.
"We picked up a lot of new customers," Terry said. "That helped pick up the slack from people coming through the door."
Sue also started doing special orders. A Brooklyn-based designer purchases her work retail and doubles the price in New York City.
"That's beautiful," Terry said.
Another profitable whole-sale sideline has been Sue's dove pins, ceramic pendants she made as a response to the Iraq war.
This sunny day, Terry was Web-site building, but he still had clay to roll out and had to crank out a special print order for holiday cards. He was also tending the store.
"I'm doing three different things, and by tonight it will be four.
"It can get a little crazy. Sometimes, diversification is that way."
E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
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Photos
Terrance "Terry" Young at work in Young's Studio & Art Gallery in Jay. He and his wife, Sue Burdick Young, have found that diversifying their products is helping them through tougher economic times. Staff Photo