Craft fairs!~

[MaggieTheCat]

Tomorrow we're headed up to Austin to see some friends of ours, and also to set up a table at a small holiday bazaar that their apartment complex is hosting. I've been busy pretty much all week getting ready for it, tonight especially. I think I pretty much have everything packed and ready to go. The only thing I didn't get done that I still want to is to make pricing signs. I got a laminator a few weeks ago to make signs with and I never got around to it, so I'm gonna try to tomorrow morning. The show is in the evening and is only a few hours so I might have time tomorrow before we go.

Then on Saturday we're going to another show (here in town) that is going to be a bit bigger, it's being held at a high school. I'm excited since I've only ever vended at anime conventions, and I'll be eager to see how my stuff does at a more traditional art and craft fair.

I organized all my wares tonight and I have a LOT OF STUFF! I always freak out before a show thinking that I won't have enough stuff and I always end up with a ton. But, if I have some stuff leftover, there's another show in 3 weeks that I want to vend at too. Hooray for the holidays!

[Aethian]

I demand pictures of your set up table...cause pictures rock.

[Amina516]

Good Luck!

Do you sell your stuff online?

[zombiequeen]

Good luck! I had a craft fair last Saturday, and it went over fairly well. I hope yours is good too.
...And I second the demand for pictures.
And a request for linkies if you sell online.

[Moggie]

When? Where? What??? I'm in Austin and I want to see your stufffffff!
Also, I want to pick your brain about crafting as a business. I'm on the fence about making it a full time job for me.

[MaggieTheCat]

Well, the show last night (in Austin) was a bust. That's okay, 'cuz it was really small and I wasn't expecting to get much business anyway. It was just a little show that our friends' apartment complex hosted, so really only the residents came. My stuff was a little pricey compared to a lot of the other vendors; I make chainmail and polymer clay jewelry, and most of it is pretty detailed and time-consuming, so where my friend was selling simple beaded necklaces for $10-15, I was asking $30-40 for mine (all the chain is hand linked, though.) I didn't take any pics 'cuz 1) we forgot our camera and 2) even if we had the camera, I didn't set up my full display since it was such a small show. Tomorrow's will be bigger and we'll try to remember to take the camera. I do have some pics of my previous displays that I can throw up on my flickr account too.

Also, I don't have a shop online yet (I keep meaning to set up an etsy account and I'm really bad about that kind of thing) but even if I could, isn't it against CS's rules to post links advertising your own stuff? I do have a Facebook site and I take custom orders, so if anyone is interested, shoot me a PM (I would rather not post my FB site publicly.)

[zombiequeen]

Yeah, PM is the way to go with that.
Sorry that the craft show didn't go over so well, hopefully the next one will be bigger, better, brighter!

[MaggieTheCat]

Well, the show today went okay. We made a bit more than three times what it cost for the table, which, from what I've read about craft fairs, is pretty good. It was actually pretty slow; there weren't many customers around. I think this was partly because it was the first year for this show and they probably didn't advertise all that well so not many people knew about it, and also partly because there were at least two other craft shows going on in various parts of the city today as well. There were tons and tons of jewelry vendors; thankfully my stuff is pretty unique, even the people who just stopped to look but didn't buy were commenting at how different it was than everyone else's. I actually think I did pretty well compared to some of the other vendors, I heard a lot of them commenting on not having many/any sales. Of course, the polymer charms went the best...

I make charms of various video game and anime related characters and symbols; for example, super mushrooms from Mario, triforces from Zelda, pokeballs from Pokemon, the leaf symbol from Naruto, etc. I sell them loose, or make them into things like earrings, necklaces, cell phone straps, hair pins, etc. These sold amazingly well at the anime con I vended at over the summer. I kind of figured my chainmail stuff would sell better at a craft fair like the one today, but no! the charms were still the biggest seller. Go figure.

One of the ladies vending next to me also took my card and said she'd email me with some info on another show that's in the works in about 4 weeks, which would be cool. We didn't even begin to sell out at today's show so I definitely have enough stuff to do another little craft fair like this before Ikkicon (the next anime con, which is in January, in which I expect to sell a lot of stuff again.)

[Amina516]

Hey Maggie...plz PM me ur FB page info? Your stuff sounds like it is right up my alley.

[zombiequeen]

Me too! Your works sound amazing!