craft show

[edward]

 Did my last spring craft show on Saturday, and it wasn't very good, attendance was very light, had a hard time making table money. Here are a couple pictures of my setup. Comments welcome.   edward

[wombatie]

Edward you have some pretty amazing stuff there, so sorry it was not a good show for you.

 

Marg

[Scrappy Scroller]

Hi Edward, do you think if you had some smaller, cheaper items such as names, key rings etc.  They might help towards the costs a bit?  Sorry if I missed em on your table already.  I guess if there's not a lot of people attending, there's little you can do - fingers crossed for the next one. 

 

Gary

[RangerJay]

Hi Edward,

 

That is a nice looking display and you have some really impressive pieces - in fact all are very well done - you've obviously got a lot of talent and spend the time and effort it takes to finish your work off nicely.

 

Take what I am saying with a grain of salt here - I have yet to do my first craft show so am really keen on learning what others have done, how they have made out and what they plan on doing different .......

 

Having said that ......

 

- there is quite a mixed bag of material - although all are well done I wonder if a more structured display might help? - perhaps by price? by theme? by level of difficulty? by season?

- all of the price tags are displayed - I'm sure there is good logic behind this but I can't help but think that it takes away from the "art" in the pieces.

- is pricing consistent with the going rates in your area?

- are the products you offer and the setup of your display geared to the audience you might expect? For example - I live in a "huntin and fishin" part of the world - I might guess that these kinds of items would sell well in venues that attracted that kind of audience (particularly where tourism is a big part of the economy) - and that religious pieces might sell better in the broader "arts and crafts" venues that attracted a little different (perhaps older) crowd?

- are the craft fair organizers doing their job in setting up, marketing and running the event?

 

Hope this might be helpful - but I'm sure I have more to learn from you than you from me .....

 

Thanks,

 

 

Jay

[Travis]

Great display.  You have a lot of great work.  I agree with Scrappy Scroller on having cheap/small items.  I think those would do well alongside your flashy items.  RangerJay has a lot of great advice too.  Especially the price tags.  I'd make the customer pick up the item to look for the price instead of making it immediately visible   The more  they interact with your product, the better chance you have to sell them.  Plus, when you see someone holding an item, it immediately opens them up for some conversation "That is made from Zebrawood." or "that portrait has over 200 interior cuts." etc.  Get them talking (no hard sells), and they're more likely to purchase.  If nothing else, they'll appreciate the art rather than scoff at the price tag.

[Dan]

Nice looking set up and great work. I stopped doing spring shows for now because I did two last year and just made the table money on one and lost a couple $$ on the other.  

 

The shows I did were just before mother's day, and although I thought I had some nice things for ladies, I didn't have anything that said "Mom" except a couple of key chains, which I sold. 

 

Like Travis said, if you have a few small dollar items, you may get a few extra bucks for the table cost. I'm not big on selling jewelry, but I did have some small pieces of leftover olive wood and made some crosses. I plan to make these into earrings and necklaces. 

[amazingkevin]

It's so interesting to see what happens at any said show.Nothing can be gauanteed with any show.My first show i sold 190.00 nobody else sold anything.go figure!The other venders really admired my work and it was all practice pieces,lol.Key chains dog stuff religous and all the simple things sold.just like the taxie driver ,they all want the big $ airport runs.but if you take all the litle ones you come out the same ,and your movin around.Scrolling is a hobby for me so making friends ,chit chat with the customers and the show is exciting for me.you did good setting up and i'd be proud to have had the goodies you had displaying your tremendous tallant.go get em next time .They'll be looking for your stand next time with more money to spend.Congradulations you survived a craft show!

[rjR]

I like your display, but agree with the commments about the price tags!  It isn't K-Mart.

 

The only one I ever tried was a total bust! I did NOT sell even a dime'sworth of anything! 

 

I saw junk sell that was just plain junk; with stenciled flowers, not even painted etc. It was totally disappointing. I have never even tried another one. Hope it fares better for you.

[edward]

 I have always priced my work, so people can see the price, if they want it they will buy it, if not they will walk away. There was an article in a   woodworking magazine I seen on time and they said your work should be marked  clear. Can take it for whatever its worth, only my opinion.  edward

[Jim Finn]

 _{I agree with Edward.  I put prices beside each piece.  I did 25 shows last year and averaged 15 times my space rental.  I have had only two this year, so far, and did even better at those.  Fall sales are best though.  I find the more folks that walk in front of my display the more sales I get. This is a function of how much promoting of the sale has been done.  We ,as venders, have no control over that.} 

     _{I keep my prices low and I am competing with retail items made in China. I outsell almost all of the other venders.  You have a very nice display and a nice variety of items.  I have made racks that allow me to display over 100 items in a ten feet by ten feet space.  I sell mostly 8" x 11" cedar boxes with images inlayed into the lids, no fretwork  at all but some lettered plaques and some intarsia, even a few toys and wooden flowers.  I once sold $1300 worth of $3- $6 toys in one very busy day. (I was there alone) This was when I was only making and selling toys.} 

     _{You never do know what will sell  any given day so I bring a variety of items.}

  _{My angle is to make an item cheap enough to sell easily.  I mass produce most of them.}

[Scrappy Scroller]

me personally, if I go shopping and there's no visible price, I automatically think it must be expensive and move on, but also if the tag was obscuring the piece and I couldn't move it myself, I'd think 'mmm... what's that hiding?'  I may be paranoid, which is defined as an acute awearness, but I like to think my awearness is very cute.

[Clozy]

I have a stand/table at a local farmers/craft market which I man every Saturday morning, it is well attended weather allowing from 06h30 to 10h30, I find that sales are better around month end, I have found that folk spend better on practical items before they would on the more fancy items, but money is tight on this side of the world as I would guess it is on your side as well. Wooden toys get a lot of attention, I display them lower then table height so as to get the attention of the little folk and  this works well for me, my only gripe is that a lot of the craft markets kill you with the price of the tables, and here I pay a quarter of the price that some markets ask, and to me craft means craft and not the made in China junk that is flooding everything. I do get a lot of sales outside of the market, only because folks have seen the items I sell on display at the market.

[Clozy]

Edward  sorry but I forgot to say, you have really great items on display, I take my hat off to you.

 

Les.