Craft Fairs or Bartering
The craft fair is booked and the panic begins. What will I sell? Will it be good enough and what about quantities? Over the next few weeks and months I make notes and sketches of what my own little selling area might look like. I have in my mind that I want some simple and affordable items for customers to buy for gifts. The bigger picture for me is market research. My friends and family have been supportive about my new ceramic work but I want to get some reaction and face time with potential clients. I dig out display tables and buy packaging materials and accessories. I made sure I had a cash float and I also decided to invest in a card machine.
The weekend arrives and I leave in dark freezing fog to arrive promptly before 8am to set up. I am pretty pleased with myself to be the first to arrive but then get a little concerned when there is no sign of the organiser to let us in. She arrives and us early birds get to work. We are in an outside covered area of a garden centre and it is cold! Thankfully we are aware of this before we arrive and we all have multi layered clothing on. At this point everyone is focused on setting up and not much eye contact is made. At the same time I am silently comparing my little range to others. Everything is ready before the public arrive and I realise that it’s only us craft fair novices who were early and eager. The wise crafters knew that no-one was arriving at 9am to look at outdoor goods however stunning they may be.
I start to chat a little more to my weekend neighbours. I am interested in their stories and their work. I sell some small porecelain feathers and the day has started. The lovely couple on the stall next to mine include me in their coffee run….yay! I have a good reaction to my work but I remember that many potential customers are wary of lingering too long maybe for fear of being talked into something. It can feel awkward on both sides. You are there with work which is very personal and for the customers there’s an element of feeling that they are looking into a private space. I sell a sculpted dragon that I made at a class.
The day is drawing to a close and I manage to get a closer look at the other stalls. I feel lucky as this is a varied and very impressive bunch of people with very well made goods. I buy several wonderful handmade presents for friends and family. I head home to have a look at the latest batch of work in the kiln and have a little rethink of how I could improve my display. In particular I want to show my tile designs and ideas more clearly.
At home I am happy with the extra ceramics that I grab out of the kiln. I head to bed for much needed warmth and rest. I wake up at around 3.30am on Sunday morning feeling excited about the day ahead. My excitement accelerates when I see thick, fresh snow. I work on visuals for my tiles. At this point I am planning to arrive later to the Craft Fair than the previous day, to give the snow time thaw. Ha! Or so I thought…I see my neighbours struggling to move at all. Sadly I decide that driving 38 miles, a good portion of which is down country lanes, is a reckless plan.
I am pretty gutted to miss the second half of the fair for more selling and research opportunities. I am also really sad not to go and see all of the other makers again. I had wanted to do a little more shopping and get contact details from some of the sellers. Happily I did meet up with the lovely lady on the stall next to mine, my coffee run friend. We exchanged our goods and had a great chat about life as small business owners. If you want to look her up the business is called “Sew She Did”, beautiful sustainable sewn items in small batches. Find Sew She Did on Instagram and Facebook.
The conclusion for Design Hubbard is that it would be very difficult to make a good profit from craft fairs. My impression is that most people are looking for bargains and special offers which is tricky with handamde items. Some of the other makers were selling their work without profit as this sustains their hobby. My plan for the future is to sell at a limited number of fairs over the year to keep on meeting people and testing my products. I would also say that it is hard work but great fun. The most popular gifts I gave to my teenagers were the beautiful and unique ones from the fair…….
