I showed at a very different kind of show yesterday, and will share my thoughts and observations. I have been very careful in show selection this fall. My husband is very sick, and I can’t do shows that take me out of the house overnight - so they have to be close to home. Given that I live in a rural area, this creates its own unique set of limitations!
So yesterday I had a booth at what was promoted as a “craft show” by the Episcopal preschool my daughter (now a college freshman) attended lo those many years ago. I figured it was a good cause to support, right here in town so basically no travel costs, and the booth was all of $30 - figured I couldn’t lose.
Figured correctly, but it turned out to be even less of a craft show than I had expected! I was expecting lots of “country” crafts, knick knack type things, baked goods - that sort of thing. All of that was there, but there were also a number of people selling imported handbags, knives, jewelry; plus purchased books, kitchen knives….I had NOT expeceted that at a “craft” show. In fact lots and lots of the imported stuff….I felt rather sorry for the jewelry folks as there were so many of them!
There were two of us with genuine hand made jewelry, and fortunately we really did not have the same “look” at all; nor really the same creation style.
The show had a fairly steady but very small turnout - only once or twice did it actually feel “full” - which surprised me a bit, given that it was a fundraiser for the church school which is a community fixture. I had expected a much bigger crowd. The church had sent out lots of press releases, I had been seeing things in the paper for about a month, so I think their PR was as good it is going to get for this sort of thing. Not sure why people did not come - it has been very cold for our area - highs in the 40’s, lows in the 20’s - and inSC we are just not used to that kind of cold - so maybe that kept people home. Plus it was the same day as the Christmas parade and children’s puppet show…maybe they went to that and never made it to the craft show? Not sure. The crowd definitely picked up once the parade was over, but as I said, never got large.
I had sent out e-mails to my e-mail list with a few images of new work to let past customers and potential customers know I would be there. Two funny local color things - I had takend a casserole to the house of a friend who had died, and the lady returning the casserole dish brought it to me at the show <vbg> - as I live “in the country” this was closer. And I had sold a quail print on eBay to a buyer in the next town over. When he realized where the print was he contacted me to see if he could pick it up instead of having it shipped. We wound up arranging for his wife to come to the show to shop and pick up the print ;) Kind of fun.
I did do a fairly steady business, lots of repeat customers from my show in Cheraw in October. So the word is getting out. Did not do as well as the October show, but that was squarely aimed at an arts awarer more upper class/upper middle class market. This was a much more country/blue collar type market. Still had a very acceptable day, definitely worth it. I’ll do the show again if they have another one.
In addition, as I have mentioned before, I am a juried member of the Artisans of the South Carolina Cotton Trail http://www.sccottontrail.org/artisans.html So I had made signs for my booth that included our logo, and the American flag, and said “handmade right here in Chesterfield County” - as a way to differentiate what I did from all the imported jewelry. Plus I had handouts about our group, and gave some to the few artists there that I thought might qualify for the group.
One really neat thing was a young man - about 10 - who had a booth with his hand made clay pieces. He makes the most fabulous clay bowl of sea creature shapes, then bisque fires them and paints them with acrylics. Really, really neat work. I encouraged his mother to have him try the jury process… I really think he is good enough to get in! I will be watching his developing career with great interest!
I have two more shows before Christmas, so we shall see how the season turns out.
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Pam 11.23.08 at 9:14 pm
The bazaar at my church this year was about 40% vendors of ready-made items, especially jewelry. We had complaints. Is this a trend? Instead of home shows, they are doing craft shows? I think the name had better change. Forget calling it a craft show.