Showing posts with label Craft bazaar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Craft bazaar. Show all posts

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Anatomy of a Crafters Fair

It's already December... I've been quite busy lately, with several things happening at the same time, thus the lack of blog posting.
Já estamos em Dezembro... tenho estado bastante ocupada e com diferentes coisas acontecendo ao mesmo tempo, dai não ter publicado no blog.
Yesterday I had another Quilter's Craft Fair, at another Senior Center.
There were much less sellers than last time and, of course, the fair taking place at a Senior Center, the potential buyers were almost all seniors.
And unfortunately these are difficult times for everyone and specially for those who are on a budget.
Tough initially the chances to have some buyers coming in seemed really slim,
it turned out that I made quite a few sales!
Ontem participei noutra venda de artesanato num outro Centro de Dia.
Havia muito menos vendedores desta vez, e claro que sendo um Centro de Dia para Idosos os potenciais clientes eram quase todos idosos.
Infelizmente estes tempos sãao dificeis para toda a gente, especialmente para aqueles limitados a uma pensão ou orçamento.
E embora inicialmente parecesse que havia poucas hipóteses de termos alguns clientes,
a verdade é que  fiz bastantes vendas!



I think that the different outcome for me personally
is due to 2 different things:
first being that's December, Christmas is a coming, and people are trying to get their Christmas shopping done
(I almost sold out my Nordic ear warmers, and I kept hearing people referring grand daughters while buying them).
The other I think is due to a better display of my items,
my table seemed more organized
plus I've made small cards describing the items
or what they're used for: one single client bought six tawashi at once
(this time I had a card explaining that tawashi is Japanese for "dish scrubby").
Acho que o resultadoi foi diferente para mim pessoalmente especialmente devido a dois factores: primeiro porque estamos em Dezembro, o Natal está à porta
e as pessoas estão a tentar ultimar as compras de Natal
(vendi quase todos os meus “aconchegos de orelhas em estilo Nóordico“,
e  as clientes estavam sempre a referir as netas ou sobrinhas quando os compravam).
O outro factor relaciona-se, penso eu, com uma melhor apresentação dos meus produtos,
a minha mesa estava melhor organizada e fiz cartões
para descrever cada produto e o seu uso: uma única cliente comprou-me seis tawashi duma só vez (desta vez eu tinha um cartão referindo que tawashi é a palavra japonesa para "esfregão para pratos").
Foi uma venda rentável e uma experiência de aprendizagem que resultou muito positiva!
I wish you all stay active and keep your producing on!
I'll see you all soon!
Mantenham-se activas e produtivas!
Até breve!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Selling crafts at a Church Bazaar

Today's post it's all about a craft sale event. 
I've been busy all week long, 
trying to get everything ready for this bazaar.
 


It was a very small event at a cute little Baptist Church
back in the way to the Smoky Mountains.
Beautiful little Church,
with just the enough look and taste from the past
and very nice people, as in good tradition of East Tennesseans.
Tough I had meant to take pictures of the surrounding scenery,
the good intentions just flew away
as soon as we got there.
 Just had enough time to set up the tables and display the items
and then you just can't abandon your stand, right?
I was invited by a beary nice lady
(lol... promoting my beary nice stores... lol), 
whom I just recently met,
but honestly one of the nicest gentle persons I've ever known.
Also she is very talented and skilled to socially interact,
something I regret to say I was not very good at, ever.
Somehow I always lacked the ability for small cordial talk,
chit chat about this and that...
My husband J was very good at it too
but not me.
Back to the craft bazaar.
It was a very small event, six artisans total,
some good southern food prepared by church members
(hm-mm.... tough I don't eat meat, I just love the smell of the smoke
and the fire on the pit).
It was really cold when we got there
(I'm talking freezing cold on the shade)  
 and the fire was already going, which made it much more attractive to me.
Here's a couple pics of my tables.


Like I said I wish I was not so socially shy
and had taken pics of the other stands too, but I didn't.
I made some sales,
and I've learned that if you intent to sell in a small craft event like that,
you do have to have small cost little items!
Most of the things I make
are long time consuming to create
and not eligible for a couple dollars sale price.
But my work was very appreciated,
people would ask questions and compliment it,
my bags and the Lolita Dolls,
as well as the Christmas ornament quilted balls, 
were really popular
tough people would give up after checking the price.
But promoting and getting known is as important as selling a lot, right?
Overall I'm happy I did participate,
I had a good time and was out of the house for a whole day long,
for the very first time in more than 6 years.
And that felt really good.