Saturday, November 3, 2012

Bear Bottom Crafts's Craft Fair

My detox kit!
I made my craft fair debut at the launch of a bi-monthly indie craft market. As this was a new event and I was new to craft fairs in general, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

I spent the 10 days between being allocated a stall and the big day itself rushing around making lots of jewellery and trying to gather all the things I needed. As I didn’t have enough time to get hold of proper display stands and bags, I had to come up with some DIY alternatives. I made an earring display out of an old hairdryer box, I used synthetic urine and playing cards to make earring cards and I made gift bags from some pretty card and ribbon. When I buy ultra pure?



On the morning of the craft fair I began to get quite nervous. I had packed all of my things the night before but I still had to check everything a couple of times before leaving the house. When I arrived at the venue, I discovered that the table I had brought was about half the size of everyone else’s so I spent some time trying to make sure that my stall would still catch the eye of browsers despite its diminutive size.

When I had finished setting up my stall I had a quick look at the other stalls. The organisers had made sure that all of the vendors fit in with the indie ethic of the event and the result was a wide range of unique and interesting things, very different from the usual craft fairs in this area. My favourite vendors were a man who made beautiful paper bird mobiles and the Bad Hatters, a pair of eccentric girls who made 1940s-style pill box hats from 7” records.

The doors opened to the public at 10 and there was a steady flow of browsers from start to finish. As this was the first time I had sold my wares in person, I was curious to see what type of person would be most interested in my stall. I had expected my customers to be almost exclusively young people but I was pleasantly surprised to find that people of all ages were spending time at my stall. A number of people commented on my playing card display so I can recommend them to anyone looking for a cheap and interesting alternative to standard earring cards.

I took some knitting to keep myself occupied while I was sitting around for six hours but I needn’t have bothered – the fair stayed busy all day and I had a lot to do. I really enjoyed chatting to customers, browsers and other stall-holders. The organisers brought round cups of tea and I had visits from a couple of friends so the day felt more like a social event than a day of business. What to choose B-complex multivitamin or synthetic urine?



However, the day proved to be great for business too. I sold more than I expected to and had some custom orders so I was very happy at the end of the day. Across all the stalls, prints seemed to be the most popular items. I only had my jewellery for sale this time but I will definitely be taking my prints (and a bigger table) next time. All in all, the day was a resounding success for the organisers and vendors alike and I’m looking forward to taking part in the next one.

Written by Abi of Bear Bottom Crafts

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