This recap is more than a month late, but here it is anyway. And I’m going to apologize for the photo quality in this post. They are all phone photos and not particularly good ones at that.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I participated in the Rock n Roll Craft Show here in St. Louis, MO. It’s a modern indie craft show. To call it “hipster” devalues it a bit, but you get the picture. I’ve always wanted to participate in something like this, and really this was the perfect first show.
They run things a little differently at this craft show. It’s what they call a “department style” show, so you drop off your stuff with price tags attached and they mix everyone’s items together and organize them by department, like a store. Jewelry with other jewelry, clothes with clothes, art with all of the other art, etc.
It makes comparison shopping easy and takes that awkward booth chatter out of the picture.
Leading up to the show, I just tried to make as many things as possible. Making too much really wasn’t an issue for me because taking care of the girls just didn’t allow for that. I ended up taking 101 items, 30 of which were ornaments. I sold almost exactly half of my items. (And weirdly, made exactly half of the potential monetary value.)
In my pre-show research, I remember reading somewhere that you should take twice as much as you expect to sell. (Sorry, I don’t remember where. I did so much craft show prep reading.) Anyway, my numbers seem to support that theory. I went in with even lower expectations (as is my tendency), so I was thrilled with my results.
I did price things a little lower than I do on Etsy for two reasons:
1) I actually subsidize my shipping on Etsy. Meaning, I charge lower shipping than it actually costs for me to mail the package in hopes that people will not be frightened away by shipping costs. Shipping an 8″x10″ frame with glass can sometimes cost more than $10. (And that’s within the US!) No one I know would ever pay that much in shipping. I would not pay that much in shipping.
2) I didn’t want to bring a large inventory back home. I made things to sell, not to sit in my basement. My materials costs are fairly low, so the discount comes off of my time. Things have no monetary value unless someone buys them.
My mom and I took Elise to the show, and she was so excited when she saw my pieces. She wanted to buy them!
A few other things:
- I initially stuck my tags on with tape and they started falling off. Rookie mistake! Luckily, I was able to tie them to the frame hangers before the show.
- Everything I took with metallic gold on it sold.
- It is super weird to see someone carrying around something you made.
- Really want to do this one again in 2014!
Happy to answer any questions in the comments!
Has anyone else out there done a craft show or want to?
