What is worse than a badly organized craft fair?
NOTHING.
For the first time in over a decade Florence Hope attended a craft fair.
If she had been selling £10 notes for a fiver I doubt whether she would have made a sale.
Setting up....optimism was already fading.....
Poor old Florence was looking for a crowd of people with impeccable taste and money to burn…..sadly none were to be found.
Bunting for Sam made by Florence Hope.
Oh what a shame, all that effort. It sometimes works out like that, maybe too near peoples holidays to spemd much and people watching what they are spending.
ReplyDeletelove
Lyn
xxx
you just transported me back to a may bank holiday 3 day craft fair that i sat with a heavy heart on a stall as the rain beat down on the marquee roof...i knew it was going to be bad from the saturday and by the monday i just couldn't wait to get home. so much effort. the few people wandering through not willing to pay handmade prices. i don't think the event had been advertised well at all. the bead (probably from china) stall next to me seemed to be forever selling...i consoled myself with nougat from the sweet stall. damp toes. not a single sale. deflated i trudged home and haven't been to one since. your bunting is wonderful! i think there are some good craft fairs out there that are more suitable for handmakers...without those so called handmade card sellers! xX
ReplyDelete'o'... I woulda come to your fair, love your things, stall looks so inviting,... don't give up please, the handmade world will be a sad old place, without your funny & interesting blog, with the lovely things you make...
ReplyDeleteJust out of interest, did you advertise it on your blog? on Folksy? Twitter? local newspaper?
Are you now going to be selling those lovely things on your blog? they'll be snapped up!!
I can highly recommend a book by Kari Chapin called The Handmade Marketplace....
Keep smilin' :o) Marion
I only do a couple a year and I pick then very carefully and check first that there are no hobby sellers who have a day job and sell complex pieces for three pounds fifty!
ReplyDeleteHave I ever told you about the woman who spent the whole of one fair I did in a Grammar School, telling me how proud she would be if she had my stall with my work? She was currently studying for a degree in textiles but was selling dough figures dressed in the school uniform and slices of twig with a santa face painted on the cut end! She mad a packet and I made very little.
what a shame, and your stall looks so lovely too!
ReplyDeleteI've visited many a fair like that, it's mainly full of knitted dolls clothes in horrible manmade yarn, and 'handmade' cards made with gold and silver stickers! Yuk.
Jessx
Oh Lynn, what a shame, the photo of your stall looks lovely. I can pick quality handmade from quite a distance and would've made a beeline straight for your stall.
ReplyDeleteI hope this experience won't put you off craft fairs for good.
Hope the week gets better.
Claire X
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI really feel for you, it happened to me recently too. It's disheartening but keep it up, your stuff is lovely.
Woo
x
Oh I am sorry, I have been thinking about doing one and have been visiting plenty with that in mind but so far they all seem to be lacking in people with "impeccable taste & money to burn".
ReplyDeleteI think your things are absolutely beautiful.
Been there, done that, got the tea shirt . . . . . . . . .
ReplyDeleteSoal destroying!!
oh dear - if you were closer i would have been there. love what you have done with your fron garden, it's lovely.
ReplyDeleteanniex
Oh bad crafts fairs can be the pits - tat sells, lovely things dont and you stand there wishing the floor would swallow you up;
ReplyDeleteSo sad to hear;
J x
I adore your amazing masterpieces! I used to work in a shop and believe me, the most tasteless, hideous "cute" junk would be the most popular items. Especially for presents. Uggh! I would wrap them up with a heavy heart. You are so clever, stylish and talented! XXX
ReplyDelete