Christmas craft fair ideas?

[Trainee neophyte]

My significant other (aka The Project Manager) handed me half a dozen clock movements today, fresh off the boat from China. They were a couple of quid each, apparently.

I have no idea what I am going to do with them, but drill a hole in a bit of wood, and off you go? The thread was all about quick, simple and profitable. I wonder if this might be something that would sell...I don't do craft fares, either as a seller or a buyer, so I'm not a good judge.

Lots to choose from, and prices include postage! https://www.joom.com/en/search/q.Clock%20movement
This looks quick and easy:
https://www.1o1pallets.com/wp-content/u ... lock-2.jpg

 

[Chris152]

lofty - I think I'm ok now - that was cut with a 3/8ths blade but I had a 1/4 delivered this morning, much easier, and I'm now using cheap softwood which is easier again. Out of interest, do you know why that method works?

Tn - Definitely tempted by the clock idea - again, a bit of technology set agains very natural looking wood could be good.

Thanks both!

 

[loftyhermes]

Out of interest, do you know why that method works?

It's to do with the release agent on the back of the tape acting as a lubricant, so I'm told.

 

[Chris152]

The herd's growing, bit boring to do but that's ok, I expect fantastic returns.

Very tempted to have a go at a few clocks now - does anyone know of reliable makes? (I was looking at reviews on Amazon and there seems to be a pretty high rate of failure, and I don't recognise any of the makers' names.)

 

[AndyT]

In the world of complex mechanisms made in the far East and sold at a low price, I don't think buying by brand name will help.
But if you are in reach of an Ikea, you could rely on their supply management experience instead. They seem to do ok selling a complete wall clock for £2.00 so maybe buying some of those would be a sensible source of reliable quartz movements?

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/stomma-wal ... -00374136/

 

[Chris152]

Good grief, how do they do that for £2?! There's one not far from here - I'll go and look at the mechanisms on some of the others too, to see which looks best for the money - even at £8-10, they're not much different from mechanisms from unknown sources. Thanks Andy, brilliant thought.

 

[Chris152]

In the end, the only things apart from bowls I took with me to the fair (yesterday) were bread boards and reindeer. Once I'd set up the bowls on a nice white sheet, I didn't want the reindeer lowering the tone, so I just had a couple lurking to the rear side of the table. Sales were fine and definitely worth the effort, but to my surprise it was the most expensive and interesting (on account of the wood) pieces that sold best. I'm sure this is down to the finances of the people visiting, but that's taught me a lesson that I'll build on for next time. I guess lots of people are turning, but not so many are turning really interesting wood.

 

[ScaredyCat]

Someone here made a load of Santas last year (I think it was last year) they looked great but there was no detail on how they were made, which was a shame.

.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I did try a craft fair a few years ago - it was worth giving it a try as it could be either profitable or fun. On the positive side it was fun/interesting meeting other crafters, I learned a huge amount, and didn't make any money. So my conclusions:

- there is a limit on what most people will pay for a small seasonal (its the thought that counts) gift. This will depend on location but is probably in the range £2-10 with the occcasional item at £20-40 in most areas.
- at that price the only way to be profitable is to use cheap (recycled?) materials, process them quickly, and limit time spent finishing
- at most craft fairs the quality of turned items is typically poor (IMHO)

I decided that I did not want to churn out turnings (or any woodwork) at a quality which I knew was less good than I could achieve.

I was also aware that to cut costs you produce large quantities of identical items and start worrying about work like issues - efficiency, procurement, optimising machinery etc. Having retired I had no intention of going back to work!

I thought about why I took to woodturning and woodworking on retirement and came to the conclusion that I had always enjoyed developing new skills, design, and the fairly immediate feedback of a job well or inadequately completed.

So I now concentrate on a wider range of projects (large and small) producing my best (which in all honesty is only sometimes good) using interesting woods for friends and family, rather than filling the house with "not solds" from the craft fair circuit.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I guess lots of people are turning, but not so many are turning really interesting wood.

At a guess, people want new, exciting, different. If your offerings all look like IKEA products, they will buy IKEA for preference. Perhaps part of the conspicuous consumption thing : novel / unusual item with a story behind it sells better than just a well-made, hand-crafted item. It's all about creating a story to give the customer bragging rights to get one over their friends.

(I don't have a very high opinion of people: you may have noticed).

 

[sunnybob]

I made my opinions clear on page 1 i think, but i just visited an xmas market with family. It was quite large, at least a 100 traders, set in a small wood in the evening with lights strung from the trees. lots of food stalls as well as crafts.Nicely done and I didnt even begrudge the 1 euro entry fee :roll: :shock:
There was even a young(ish) lad with small bandsaw boxes and other wood products.

I saw lots of food being eaten and food presents being bought (from tea cakes to xmas puddings), I didnt see very much craft stuff sold, even the christmassy items. Have to admit I came away with a couple bottles of red wine brewed on island (after several tastings of course to sure I had the one I liked best), but that was the sum of my craft fair haul.
If you want to make money at craft fairs, open a food stall with a coffee machine on the counter.

 

[Chris152]

All fair points. ahem.
Another thing I realised is how picky the experienced sellers are in relation to which fairs they will and won't do - there's no question that some aren't worth the effort for the return, but that others, given the right location and conditions (including weather!), are.
The one I just did sounds similar to what you're describing, SB - in a beautiful castle, lots of effort put in by the organisers etc. And food, absolutely - after I set up, I walked around and found myself in the food hall. By jimminy it made me feel hungry, stacks of wonderful-looking and smelling food. I chatted to one of the makers about 2pm and she'd sold everything except a few flapjacks and that sort of thing.
Quantity vs quality - agree with you Terry, and was happy to discover it was the more interesting stuff that sold. But that was the stuff that was most expensive - the bowls I'd been churning out to get better at turning didn't interest people and soon ended up under the table. As I said, I didn't really try to sell the reindeer which might have sold better than the nicer bowls, I don't know. But I tend to agree with Tn - you can get mass produced woodwork from big stores, cheaply. Tho I don't agree that it's necessarily about one-upmanship, y'old cynic!

 

[pulleyt]

Someone here made a load of Santas last year (I think it was last year) they looked great but there was no detail on how they were made, which was a shame.

.

I hope I have not assumed too much but it may have been my post you're referring to (see Christmas Fun) and apologies if you were referring to a different post.

I think that these would sell very well BUT I've not thought about making them for sale as I believe it would contravene someone's intellectual property rights because they are so stylised. I'd be interested to hear what other people think.

I saw these for sale in several shops in Stockholm about five years ago. Since then I've tried to find out more about the design on the web but I only managed to find a couple of Scandinavian import sites in the US (eg Wooden Block Tomte). If I'd found numerous links from a wide variety of sources then I'd be happy that the design would be considered common place and therefore fair game for imitation. If you can convince me it is acceptable to reproduce these for sale I'd happily go through my process for their construction in another post.

Trevor

 

[Geoff_S]

I was at a craft fair just recently where a stall holder was selling solid silver bowls, beautifully made and a delight to look at.

They were £3500 each, but there wasn't a queue! If I hadn't been distracted by the chocolate stand ... who knows?

 

[ScaredyCat]

Someone here made a load of Santas last year (I think it was last year) they looked great but there was no detail on how they were made, which was a shame.

.

I hope I have not assumed too much but it may have been my post you're referring to (see Christmas Fun) and apologies if you were referring to a different post.

Those are the exact ones I was referring too

I think that these would sell very well BUT I've not thought about making them for sale as I believe it would contravene someone's intellectual property rights because they are so stylised. I'd be interested to hear what other people think.

I suspect, unless you had duplicated the design precisely, it'd be fine - although I'm not a lawyer.

If you can convince me it is acceptable to reproduce these for sale I'd happily go through my process for their construction in another post.

I'm not sure I could convince you, but I find them delightful and I know my family would like them, especially if I'd made them myself. I seem to have started an tradition that I make a little Christmas ornament each year for the entire family.

 

[pulleyt]

I'm not sure I could convince you, but I find them delightful and I know my family would like them, especially if I'd made them myself. I seem to have started an tradition that I make a little Christmas ornament each year for the entire family.

I find myself in that tradition now, but it is fun so that's OK