Well, the craft fair is over and I’ve had a few days to reflect on the day. I can take some positives from the experience and I am definitely learning with each new venture into the public.
The fair was held in a fabulous room and there was a good variety of crafts on offer. Unfortunately there was very little in the way of advertising around the venue, a couple of banners and that was about it. The flyer I was sent by the organisers was an article from their group magazine calling for donations for the tombola stall! And the advert put in the local paper was marginally bigger than a postage stamp!
Anyway, I set up my stall and was pleased with the result. I’d had a manic few days looking for baskets, and ended up with a couple of hat boxes and some large gift boxes.
I did spot the fallen logo at the front of the stall before the fair opened! I’m thinking of ways to get more height at the back of the stall for any future fairs I do. The hat boxes do help, but I think I need something more. I’ve been thinking about ways to get more bunting above the stall maybe draping from bamboo canes at either end of the table, but I’m now sure how to get that to work yet. I shall keep thinking on that one. One tip I picked up from some of the larger craft fairs is the use of technology to show more of my work. So I again called the family digital photo frame into use and it did make people stop to have a look.
Unfortunately due to the lack of advertising of the event, it wasn’t that well attended. However, as I said there are some positives I took from the day. I was able to gauge more public reaction to my cards and gifts and even though sales were slow, several people did take one of my business cards, a couple of people placed orders for bespoke cards and there were a number of positive comments. Also I was happy that I had enough stock for the day and with the look of my stall.
So I’m revising my wish to do four fairs this year, down to three, one in Summer and another for Christmas. I think this is more realistic. And my main focus (once I have my orders completed and my Easter card collections added to the website) will be to launch my Etsy shop.
Happy crafting
x