That’s me when I was little next to Mom’s Irises when we lived in Greeneville. Photo is from about 1970.
A bearded Iris is my favorite flower. It has been for as long as I can remember. I think this is why. I loved it when the irises next to our driveway in Greeneville, Tennessee in were in full bloom. It was a riot of color and scents just my height. One of my fondest memories of living in town (besides having playmate just across the street) was the bloom of the irises followed by the big old lilac bush at the corner of the house. All are gone now.
When Greeneville started hosting the Iris Festival back in 1994 it was the right choice in my mind. (more…)
Yesterday was our first craft fair of the season. It was a good one to get back in the groove of what to bring, how to display, and the endurance of booth sitting. It wasn’t an expensive booth, it was just a few blocks from our houses, and it didn’t run all day. All good things for the first one of the season. We were close enough to send back stuff we decided not to use, call for stuff we needed. Another good thing is with the very affordable booth fee we didn’t have to sell bunches to pay for the booth. Tho’ honestly I’d love to just break even and support my beading habit by selling my work.
Oh who is ‘we’? No I didn’t slip into the royal pronoun there are two wonderful ladies with which I often share a booth. One is Paula who also does beading but in a style different from mine. The other is Mi who makes the cutest aprons you’ve ever seen! Not gonna post their pictures without their ok. But photos of their stuff SURE!
$5 Treasure Chest
First off I use my leftover beads to make treasure chest necklaces. When I have just one of a bead left I toss into a zip lock bag when it gets full I’ll make unique necklaces with color themes. Thus the $5 Treasure chest was born. So fairs these sell like hot cakes other fairs like this one no one even touches them. Go figure.
Here’s the Treasure Chest at the sale along with Paula’s great selling barrettes. I also made some $2 bracelets and $3 necklaces for little girls. They are there in front of the treasure box. I’m trying to think of how to display them. They are new this year. I don’t want to take up too much table room but I do want to have them marked. Maybe a two sided basket?
Sales!
For me at this particular fair the big seller was earrings. Last sale of the season last year I purchased this turntable earring tree. Since I’ve used it my sales have increased (well in 2 out of 2 fairs can’t say it’s a trend until it’s 3). Which is excellent as I have 100s of pairs to sell.
Earring Tree display and some of my necklaces on the table
My beading hobby is how I pass the winter and enjoy TV. I have bad habit of falling asleep if I sit still. So I bead while we watch evening TV. It gives me something to do that’s not a repetitive motion like my crochet was. In the end of the evening my hands don’t ache and swell as they did with hours of crochet. Originally I started making jewelry that would match my clothes but soon that was done. I continued playing with colors and making pretty sparkly things that satisfied my magpie eye. Eventually it grew from a shoe box to a file box to several boxes of my jewelry. That led to craft fairs hoping to sell enough to support me buying more and doing fairs. I don’t think I could give up beading now I enjoy it too much.
Here’s some of Paula’s work. She does such beautiful organic work with leaves, flowers, and bird designs. Me I’m all over the board with my magpie “OHHH it’s sparkles! Ooh it’s colorful!” approach. I love her work!
Paula’s NecklacesPaula’s Beautiful Work
I am sorry and ashamed to say I didn’t get any photos of Mi’s lovely aprons without her in the photo! So next fair I’ll be sure to get shots of her aprons for you. Let me tell you her Elvis apron is to DIE FOR! Oh and there’s a hand towel to go with it!
I’ll end with a few shots of my work on display at this fair.
Some of my necklaces on displayAnother shot of my display
Now I wish I’d gotten some more shots of the booth. Like I said back to developing those long unused craft vendor muscles. Not only is it preparing, packing, unloading, displaying, packing again quickly, loading, unloading, reorganizing, and packing again for the next one – it’s also remembering what shot I want to make sure I get at the booth. Each booth is unique (like our jewelry we never repeat a design) give size shape and what we have to work with. I’ll do better next time and have this down to a science by November.
As always I love to hear from you. I get a thrill when I have comments, stars, and likes! Follows leave me breathless with glee after I do a little jig and think just like Sally Field “You like me! You really really like me!” So don’t be shy in contacting me.
The Three Gems are Jean, Paula, and me! We each love to bead. We loved it so much that we went overboard doing it. Jean initiated the idea the three of us go together and try to sell some at local craft fairs. She came up with our name and registered us for several fairs. Paula jumped in with making displays. Jean even had business cards made for us!
Display at first craft show
After doing craft fairs for six months we learned a few things along the way. Also we rode an emotional roller coaster from bad sale days to great sale days. So here’s a quick list of lessons learned in our first craft fair season.
1. Crafters talk among themselves. Yes they talk about fairs, booth fees, and sales. We learned what fairs had good reps and what ones didn’t. We were assured that our slow sales days were generally slow sale days.
2. There are a lot of beading addicts out there in the same boat and had the same idea. As a result there are many jewelry booths at craft fairs. We now ask how many there are. Are they limiting the number of booths with the same craft?
3. Location, Location, Location – where the booth is located in relation to crowd flow. At one very successful sale we were on the turn to the bathrooms – good sales, good traffic flow. Another we were in a room off a room with a winding path to enter/exit. Sales that day for me were horrid just made half my share of the booth fee.
Three Gem’s at Harbor Market
4. Jewelry displays better on black. Go look in a jewelry store window it’s all displayed on black. Eventually we went to black and sales improved.
5. People want a deal. The $5 treasure chest or $2 hair barrettes were good sellers. At a poor sales shows they were the savers of the fair being the ONLY sales. At good sales shows they were a draw for customers.
6. Price well. See above as to why. I had to start keeping good track of my material cost in the jewelry. I’m not looking to gouge people but I hope that my beading habit can be self-sustaining. I don’t charge for my time, it’s a hobby I do for enjoyment. So as a result I’m not asking more than $20 for any one piece. I won’t price it below materials cost.
Treasure Chest display
7. There will be a lot of lookers. Part of this is the economy today, that I know. But then again think of how you shop, you look, you handle many things considering them then you buy. At a craft fair, many people do the same thing. They shop. Often they look over every booth before making their first purchase.
8. People don’t buy from displays. Displays attract people but rarely will they buy what’s on display, they buy what’s on the table. It’s almost like they are afraid to disturb the display. So we have to adapt our table to have attractive displays and flat surfaces easily accessible for shoppers.
Fused glass by Jean
9. Bring my tools. I can’t bring my beads but I can bring my tools to customize jewelry. I can’t make it longer but I can shorten things, remove a bead to shorten earrings, and such. The ability to do so made many sales customizing necklaces for homecoming dances.
10. Know the crowd. Some fairs are more for deal shoppers. They are there for the produce or apples or see the cars and the craft fair is an after thought. Other fairs people come to SHOP they are there to get Christmas gifts. Display wares accordingly.
Paula’s jewelry
That’s the top three lessons I learned in our first season doing craft fairs. I think next year we’ll be wiser and do some better. I know we need to hang in there for the long haul (years) as the beading/jewelry making fad dies down.
Again thanks for reading! As always you can click on the photos to head over to my flickr account to see larger copies of the images and more photos of the Three Gems or my beading. I’d love to hear from you so be sure to comment here or catch me at Google+, @marylouiseklund, or my e-mails marylouiseeklund at either yahoo or gmail. During the holiday week (Christmas through New Year’s Day) I’m not sure I’ll be able to post regularly but it’s my New Year’s resolution to be here regularly. So feel free to hold me to it!
Mary Louise Eklund 