Stall set up/advice

[Stigmorgan]

Soooooooo I have (possibly rather stupidly) agreed to have a stall at the school Christmas fair on 3rd December and I have no idea what I'm doing, so far I've made a few trees that are about 6inches tall, they take a little longer than I would like but I'm getting quicker, majority of the wood I have is soft pine and pallet wood that takes a bit of sanding, ive started making tree decorations/baubles but I'm finding them boring/tedious (I hate repeating things) I guess what I would like is advice from those that have stall experience on quantities of things, I hope to have time to produce some 'nice' stuff that will likely be considered too expensive by most of the visitors, we have around 420 pupils in school and we probably expect 90% to come to the fair so with parents/family we could potentially expect 1000 bodies to pass through

 

[Jameshow]

Soooooooo I have (possibly rather stupidly) agreed to have a stall at the school Christmas fair on 3rd December and I have no idea what I'm doing, so far I've made a few trees that are about 6inches tall, they take a little longer than I would like but I'm getting quicker, majority of the wood I have is soft pine and pallet wood that takes a bit of sanding, ive started making tree decorations/baubles but I'm finding them boring/tedious (I hate repeating things) I guess what I would like is advice from those that have stall experience on quantities of things, I hope to have time to produce some 'nice' stuff that will likely be considered too expensive by most of the visitors, we have around 420 pupils in school and we probably expect 90% to come to the fair so with parents/family we could potentially expect 1000 bodies to pass through

I think you'll sell out.

You going to have to fill that box with decs!

I'd suggest you capture some yr6 children and put them to work on 6hr shifts through the night!!!

I think you'll also get some grandparents who will snap up some nice stuff too!

 

[Tris]

Wands, and mice. Turn a teardrop shape, sand a flat so it stands nose up, eyes done with a pyrography tool, glue on leather or fabric ears, string for a tail. Bit of a fiddle but popular. Small bowls 3 or 4 inches across sold well for me, people like something to empty pockets into

 

[akirk]

pens (though tricky if you don't have a mandrel etc.) but they do sell well and as you can pick up kits < £1 from China, can be done very cost efficiently. However it is possible that you don't really have time for new skills...

How about Gonks - simple head and body & some fur for a beard...

 

[kinverkid]

I would go with the Gonks too. Very popular at the moment.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Thanks guys, plugged away at doing more baubles today, got a little system going so got a few done but would like to be quicker, still got a lot to do and don't have a huge amount of spare time, a couple hours between work shifts during the day once I've walked the dogs, I've 3 weekends so will likely have to spend most of them out making stuff

 

[baldkev]

Thanks guys, plugged away at doing more baubles today, got a little system going so got a few done but would like to be quicker, still got a lot to do and don't have a huge amount of spare time, a couple hours between work shifts during the day once I've walked the dogs, I've 3 weekends so will likely have to spend most of them out making stuff

How are you doing your baubles?
I saw a quick video of a guy making speres on his lathe using a holsaw in a drill ( bolted to bench ), simply advanced the spinning holesaw into the blank slowly as it turned and it cuts the sphere.... you have to stop before you cut through otherwise you have a wood blank flying around at speed

 

[Stigmorgan]

How are you doing your baubles?
I saw a quick video of a guy making speres on his lathe using a holsaw in a drill ( bolted to bench ), simply advanced the spinning holesaw into the blank slowly as it turned and it cuts the sphere.... you have to stop before you cut through otherwise you have a wood blank flying around at speed

Think I saw the same video, I'm not brave/crazy enough to try that, I'm just using my 3/8 bowl gouge and a parting tool, I took a little time to make the 1st one, once I round off the next blank I use the first one to mark up the blank so I can then just cut away the excess and give a quick rub with 120g, ive got the lathe going full speed as its spindle turning and the blanks are only 6inches long.

 

[Owd Jockey]

This my stall at the Much Wenlock Christmas Fayre in 2018. This was the second year I attended and had decided to make a stepped display as well as adding Resin and coloured pieces. I did a mock set up in my kitchen to check and plan the lay-out of the display, which made the set up easier. All sold pieces were wrapped in tissue paper and placed in colourful plastic bags. I sold nearly all of the items on display.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Just had a thought about the money side of all this, how much would you guys suggest I have as a starting float? I think the tree ornaments will be either £1 or £1.50, the 6-8 inches trees I'm thinking £15 or £20 each, everything else I guess will be 25, 30, 35 etc to make things easy, is it worth using my PayPal account for people to pay me if they want to? 2 issues I can think of are 1 my money being held by PayPal for over a month and 2 losing a cut of the money to PayPal unless it was done as a transfer rather than a purchase but would feel awkward asking for it to be done that way, what are your thoughts?

 

[Jameshow]

Perhaps if hey don't have cash they could pay next week picking up the item from the school office?

 

[Tris]

Iirc you can get a card reader from Screwfix for about £20, download and app (Sumup?) and they take 1.6% and pay out straight away

 

[Stigmorgan]

Iirc you can get a card reader from Screwfix for about £20, download and app (Sumup?) and they take 1.6% and pay out straight away

I feel like this would be (all be it a small) waste of money, I've no intent on this becoming more regular than the school Summer and Christmas fairs depending on how well this one goes.
@Jameshow that's definately an option

 

[thetyreman]

good luck @Stigmorgan I'm sure it'll be a great success.

 

[Keith 66]

I just stuck my name down to do an Xmas Alternative market & fair in the Pink Toothbrush nightclub Rayleigh on Sunday the 4th, It started as a record fair but had broadened its remit to a rather eclectic bunch! A few years ago i built quite a few cigar box guitars & still got most of them left, plus i found another 6 under the bench in the shed to finish off. It will either be a flop or a blast! Be fun trying.

 

[Stigmorgan]

So I may have a problem, got sent the paperwork to book and pay for the stall and it says I need public liability insurance

 

[akirk]

Suggestion on here: Insurance – AWGB for a company that can offer this

 

[Jameshow]

So I may have a problem, got sent the paperwork to book and pay for the stall and it says I need public liability insurance

Are you not covered as an employee of the school?

I'd pass it by the head first?

 

[Stigmorgan]

@Jameshow The event is run by the PTA which is a separate business entity from the school so my employment doesn't count, they're going to look into it and let me know,
I did a Google search and found a an insurer that offers 1 day cover for market traders, I can get cover for £23 for the day which seems reasonable.

 

[Stigmorgan]

No going back now, found insurance for 1 day at a total cost of £23 and I've booked and paid for the stall. Still have a few things to do
Plan my table layout
Make my banner with my logo on
Need to buy bags - anyone got suggestions? I've found some on Amazon that work out at 17p each.
Cash float for giving change
Make more stuff to sell.

Am I missing anything?