First Craft Fair: What I Learned

1.  It is possible, in 24 hours, to make sufficient stock to cover a 6 x 2 foot table.  It won't be easy.  You won't have much spare to fill in any gaps after sales, but you will have enough.  

2.  It is more than likely that there will be people who sell more than you.  Equally, there will be people selling less or even nothing.  On Saturday, I reckon I fell about in the middle of the sales (having chatted to about half of the stallholders), which was reassuring for a first outing.  But I must remember not to panic on the day when I will, undoubtedly, sell nothing.

3.  The number of people lingering at a stall is no indication of how much is being sold.  I had an interesting time when my stall was quiet watching the balance of lookers and buyers.  For my own stall, I got the impression that people either loved what the saw and spent a long time looking at my makes, or alternatively gave me a wide berth.  A lot of people didn't realise that my decoupage items were handmade, and I clearly need better signs to indicate this.

4.  As per the experienced stallholders, there is no rhyme nor reason as to which craft fairs are quiet and which busy.  Saturday's by general consensus was quiet, which was just as well as it gave me time to look around, ask questions of browsers, and learn in a not-too-hectic environment.

5.  I took along some crafting, as I had heard that people like to see you working.  I came to the conclusion that this is quite tricky when most of your work is "dirty": stamping, painting, glueing and decoupaging are all messy when you need to wrap up someone's purchases.  Also, there wasn't a great deal of room for me to stamp in a little section of the table.  I envied the stallholders happily knitting away (anything involving needles not being my forte).

6.  I was surprised how delighted I was when people liked my work and wanted to buy.  And I could have hugged the lady who bought three of my more expensive items, two for herself and one for a gift.  I just hope I didn't scare her by smiling too much.

7.  There was a real sense of camaraderie and the sharing of knowledge amongst stallholders.  I learned about other fairs, picked up some new skills and had some great laughs when things were quiet.