This is how my day is going.
{ how's yours? }
Showing posts with label lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lessons. Show all posts
Today I thought I'd share with you a little recap of my first craft market experience. It was a great learning experience, and not to mention lots of fun to hang out with LittleGrayFox, and to share a booth with the lovely Panda of ASHCreations.
On Saturday, the three of us crafty gals set up bright and early in a sunny parking lot in Belltown, for the Punk Rock Flea Market.
I brought about dozen tablecloths with me, unable to make a decision at home, and ended up using this funk-tastic one from German Ikea. I thought the snappy colors would draw people to our corner of the lot.
One thing I did not take into consideration, was that the rare sunny day might actually work against me. I had the hubbers fashion a cardboard triangle, to prop up my new white magnetic board display. He had just completed it, so I really hadn't consider any further modifications. And lo and behold, the gorgeous sunshine we'd all been hoping for shone down on us.....and produced a wicked glare off my magnetic board! So to all the good people of Seattle I may have accidentally blinded, I do apologize! I am currently searching for a fabric to cover the shiny surface.
This fair also afforded me the opportunity to display a new creation - my pom flowers. I have yet to add these to my Etsy shop, and Saturday was a chance to see how people might respond to them. It turns out people really liked them! I had some wonderful responses, especially after the warmth goaded me into using two as hair sticks to pin my hair up. An unexpected use, but they did work to support my crazy curls for the entire day.
At the last minute, I also decided to bring that wooden box with me, to use as a display for my brooches. As you can see, I decided to add white card backings to the pins, so that shoppers could quickly differentiate between magnets and brooches. The box definitely helped break up my display, but I think in the future, I will utilize it slightly differently. It looks a little messy here.
My last obstacle was deciding what to do with the rest of the table. For a four foot wide space, I was already very 'prop heavy,' so I decided to simply lay out the rest of my brooches. I am happy with the different experiences and level changes the table as a whole achieved, but I think the arrangement on the table came off a bit messy, rather than the "effortless, casual" look I was going for. Going back to the drawing board on that one. But I do still like my "text bubble" signage. I'm keeping those around, for sure. (It WAS supposed to be lined up with that little birdie pin. d'oh!) This brings me to the last, and perhaps most valuable lesson I learned on Saturday. This should come as no surprise to you, but....."punk rock" fans (as a generality) are not my target market, it turns out. : P It pays to consider carefully the venue in which you choose to market your wares. I had never done/been too/heard of this particular event before, so it was a pure experiment from start to finish. Did I sell a boat-load of things? Nope. Did I learn a heck of a lot more than I would by just attending a market or fair? Oh, YES. And for that (and the fun craft-girl bonding time), I am grateful.
Oh, and also: we were treated to a 40 minute serenade by a jazzy horn choir (featuring punk rock john hamm on the sax), right in front of our tables. A day full of unexpected surprises. : P
{ have you ever done a craft fair? }
Posts
