Xmas craft fairs

[paulm]

Just about recovered now after back to back xmas craft fairs last weekend !

The first on Saturday was supposed to be a gentle warm up in the local village hall, one I had done a couple of times a few years back but gave up on as it wasn't very well publicised and attendance was limited. Had a new organiser this year and I helped with leaflet drops and signage etc and it went very well indeed

Attendance was great, a bit of festive music added to the afternoon, and I cleared a fair bit of stock including an expensive large display piece, so well pleased with the day.

Sunday was supposed to be the main event, a much larger hall on a nearby large, well to do housing estate, well publicised, so was hoping for a significant attendance and a fair bit of spending. Unfortunately attendance seemed very low and of those hardly anybody was interested enough to stop and look at my woodie stuff, mainly going to the cheap jewellery and card stalls, and more still to the childrens activities section.

I had lowered prices a fair bit too on the smaller key fobs, mushrooms and tealights that hadn't sold so well on the Saturday to try and clear a few more on the day, but only sold two tealights, one key fob and a single mushroom, didn't even cover the table fee !

So a mixed result as usual, highly unpredictable, but very worthwhile overall. Would still have been worthwhile without the boost of the expensive piece selling, but as always at these type of small local events it seems to be about shifting a bit of stock to recycle back into the hobby, no real money to be made, but still a bit of fun all the same

Thought the table looked a little bare so put out some little clusters of mushrooms to fill the gaps !

Cheers, Paul

 

[Harbo]

Looked like you had a good spot with the radiator at your back?

Rod

 

[paulm]

Fortunately it was switched off Rod so not too hot and no danger to the stock going from cold damp car to hot radiator !

Cheers, Paul

 

[boysie39]

Thats a nice display Paul very good selection of pieces .People are strange ,they wont spend a few quid but if you gave it for nothing it would be cherished.

 

[tekno.mage]

I did a small local Xmas fair at a castle last weekend (a victorian "folly" a large house built to look like a castle, complete with crenolations and towers.) It's recently finished being done up to be a B&B and the craft fair was in the large hall and spill-over marquee in the courtyard. It was very busy all day, but people were not spending much at any of the stalls (except the tea stall). Talking to other stall holders, it seems this is a common theme this year - people don't have much money to spend.

I think we did better than most of the stalls (£75 profit), but I only sold smaller items (£15 and under) - lots of lightpulls, wooden acorns and a few crochet hooks and drop spindles. Bowls and boxes were admired, but not sold - and the tealight holders I'd made specially as it was a Xmas fair didn't move either. Most of the lightpulls that sold were made of holly - and customers told me they were buying them as gifts because it was a "Christmassy wood". Several people bought our larger more ornate lightpulls to send abroad as they would be cheap to post!

 

[CHJ]

Must be something in the air, got conned into "filling a table" at our local village Xmas market do last weekend.
First time ever I've set out specifically to move stuff in bulk locally.
Boss decided it would be good to have a clear out of older stock at least.
No small bits, just the normal fare seen in my bits and pieces, a whole pile of little 'small change' type bowls from saved cores etc. were piled up at the £3 mark just to draw the punters and they went in twos and threes and were replenished from under the table as the day progressed.
Everything else was priced in double figures, anything in the £20-£30 range moved well, above that it was mostly Oohs and Arhhs.
Prices still did not represent a true time input but we recovered the equivalent of a couple of dozen new band saw blades and generated some requests for repeat items for future gifts etc. Well into 3 figures, a job to quantify 'profit' but it covered the hobby outgoings for at least half the year I think.

 

[jpt]

It is a strange year this year for sales, most shows I do are down on previous years with one exception that was nearly double my previous best there, but that was the exception.

Attendance at a lot of shows is up on previous years but people are spending less. I seem to be selling a lot of small items under £15 but very few sales over that compared to previous and other stall holders have been saying the same things, even those selling food are struggling which is unusual. It seems that people are justifying every purchase as do we need it, what can it be used for etc where in the past they have just said, I like that and brought it.

I have work in a couple of galleries and they are finding the same thing as well, it is a case of surviving at the moment and hoping things get better quickly.

john