[Lesley Silvester]

Tomorrow - or rather, later today - is my craft fair. I'm a bit nervous, never having organised one before. Hoping to sell lots of stuff.

[Bionic]

   That you have a good day Lesley

[Mammyshaz]

Have a great day. 

[renee]

Fingers crossed here too. I should have been at a small Christmas Fayre in the village today but we got 8 inches of snow yesterday so I have too much to do.

[Louise Gaunt]

Good luck! Let us know later how it went

[SallyintNorth]

Best of luck, I'm sure it'll be great!  Take pics! 

[ellied]

Best of luck today.  Let us know how you get on..

I was at the local Makers Market today, a fab selection from a working blacksmith demonstrating (and selling) wrought ironwork to felting, knitting, jewellery, pottery, woodturning, cards, soap, aromatherapy blends, all sorts - and catering from the Hill of Tarvit folk who make a fabulous lemon meringue tiffin which I had to try and can thus vouch for!  I'm sure the hot bean dish was great too, but I had to opt for coffee and cake. 

Interesting how many folk I ran into that I know vaguely from various felting days, the now defunct Thursday evening art group and misc arty crafty locals, I didn't think I knew that many! 

Now tempted to join a pottery class in February and/or take up a 2 hour demo/visit at one of the woodturners, both things I'd love to try..  But I didn't succumb to buying frenzy, "just" a couple of solid aromatherapy oil massage bars to try out, which is pretty much work supplies so doesn't count!

[Spinningfishwife]

Good luck! Hope it goes well.

[Mammyshaz]

How did it go?

[Lesley Silvester]

Dismal.


All the stallholders agreed that the atmosphere was great and the quality of the goods was wonderful but we did not get the people in. I sold three brooches and took and order for a tooth fairy. The stall that took money was the tea stall and that made a whole £15.


One stall only sold one item and that was to me.


At least we hadn't all spent a fortune on stall rental. We charged 10% takings up to a maximum so nobody had to fork out too much.


We found out that there was a number of similar events in the area which didn't help and it wasn't the best area for passing trade.

[Mammyshaz]

Oh sooo sorry to hear this     perhaps just a blip this time  I'm sure with lots of word out in advance and perhaps digging into a day with little opposition you could do well next time.
So disheartening 

[Q]

Dont worry too much - for every bad craft fair that happens for a variety of reasons there will be many where it will be worthwhile.
Either way you meet some great people.
A lot of the craft work I see is original and very good quality....  and very under priced for the work that it took.

[Bionic]

Aww, Lesley that's a shame but the craft fairs round here have been very similar

[Louise Gaunt]

It was the same for me, a reasonable number of visitors but not much buying. I also agree us crafters tends to underprice our goods, but people see it as "homemade" and don't expect to pay shop prices, even though the quality is often better than something produced in a foreign sweatshop!

[Lesley Silvester]

You're so right, Louise. The minimum wage doesn't get a look in when it comes to craft work.


We didn't even get many visitors but the church where we held it doesn't get much passing trade. People are more likely to drive past than walk. I think though, if we do it again, we will start planning much earlier and hold it earlier in the year before all the events start happening - maybe mid-November. Now I have a load of winter knitwear I would like to shift. Any ideas?