Art and Craft Shows

Doing a craft show is much like planning a wedding. For several months before the event, you imagine every little detail in your mind. You may even draw it out. You might even make up a "mock craft show display" with a table and display pieces, backgrounds, etc. in your garage. The plans fill your mind so that sometimes it's very hard to shut your mind off and get a good night's sleep.

My unskilled drawing of what the table would look like

 

I made a burlap banner with the name of my shop. For a wedding, I may make a wedding banner with the bride and grooms names on it or "congratulations" on it, or "Mr. and Mrs.________" on it.

The burlap banner is in the background

You design lots and lots of paper art for both events. "Save the dates", invitations, thank yous, table place cards for a wedding. For my show, I made coupons for each bag, I purchased a new supply of business cards, I tagged each item with it's price........

Coupon tag - business card - hand stamped shopping bag

 

I tagged 101 items

 

 

In the case of my show, I packed up all my items for transportation to the venue location. For a wedding, The planner is definitely going to transport "ambience" to the venue - flowers or table centerpieces, table covers, wedding favours, memory book, to mention a few.

And this is just the beginning. The BIG day arrives. You pack up your now, much too small car, and drive to the event venue. Imagine your surprise to discover that there are no tables provided! You must bring your own. We are now in the "countdown to blast off" phase. No time to disassemble a table that might be at home, loaded with sewing machines and other crafting paraphernalia. You must go to the store and purchase a brand new folding 6 foot table and take it to the venue just before showtime, set up your little shop upon it, unloading all the boxes you packed the day before (when you thought all you had to do was to cover your table and assemble your inventory upon it. Go back home and rest up for the BIG day tomorrow.

At this point, there's no guaranty that you'll even sell anything. I had no competition. I was the only vendor who sold hand knit items. I think there were about 40 vendors. The show took place at a local"Y" and was a fund raiser for them.

Sadly (for me), it was a dud, a lemon, a flop. I sold 3 items. I did, however, cover the fee for my space and just about covered my new table cost.

I learned some things the hard way. #1 pack your inventory in the largest plastic bins you can find. (these bins can then be covered and used as extra display space). I packed in reused cardboard boxes. You can't get much in them. They are unwieldy to carry, and you can only carry one at a time. If you use plastic bins, you'll need wheels, but you can put one bin on top of the other. Thus making one carrying trip instead of many. Possibly 1-2 large bins is all you'll need to use.

#2 - get one of those wheelies. I saw the professional vendors had a fold up "L" shaped dolly (wide bottom plus folding handle). This whole affair folds up flat. I do have the old fashioned type of dolly that you transport heavy furniture with. But it's not foldable, it's heavy and big and wouldn't even fit in my car after all the inventory and display pieces were in my car.

http://www.walmart.com/c/kp/folding-hand-carts  The 4th picture is the one I saw the professionals use.

You did notice that I said "professional vendors" in the previous paragraph. By that I mean, people who do many shows - perhaps even one a week during this pre holiday season. They even hand out lists to customers of all the shows they can be found at this season.

I don't normally do craft shows because I had long ago learned that it is a tremendous amount of work for very small return (why did I think this time would be different) while etsy offers an easy, comfortable, low key alternative. But when I saw this show announced and the very low entry fee, I thought "I'll go for it".

I have even reasoned that now that I've done all the prep work, why not do another one. The folding table is still in my car. But then on the other hand, I think I'm a glutton for punishment and should be put in a straight jacket for even mentioning it. But I have this "fatal attraction" for craft shows. I love being surrounded by creative people. I am a "planner". Much as I complain, I love planning parties, events, weddings and, yes, even craft shows. I'm an incurable optimist, to boot.

THE NAPLES GRAPE FESTIVAL

The Naples Grape Fest is an annual event that takes place in the village of Naples, NY in the Fall when the grape harvest of the Italy Valley pours out it's delicious scent throughout the whole valley. The area is filled with wineries. Of late, wine tasting tours have become very popular. But it’s the grape pies that have caught my fancy. You can purchase them right there at the festival or buy the grapes and make one yourself at home. They are very labor intensive, so I prefer to let some other tireless baker make mine.

During the Grape Festival, the town paints all the fire hydrants purple. In fact almost everything is purple.

The town is quaint, with lots of B & B’s and beautiful old homes all along the main street.

The town is situated at the south end of Canandaigua Lake, in a valley cut out by glaciers eons ago. Canandaigua is one of the Finger Lakes. The region has lots more going for it besides grapes. It offers some of the best ski areas in the northeast. It’s a great place to visit anytime of year. There is so much to see and do. Quaint towns, vintage houses, lots and lots of antiquing, Dicken’s Christmas Festivals, Kristkringle in the town of Canandaigua, great restaurants, lake life, cottage life, nature centers, horse racing…………….I could go on and on. Click on the link below for a travelogue of the Finger Lakes Region.

http://fingerlakestravelny.com/

I went to the grape festival this year. I don’t think I’ll do it again on that particular weekend. So these pictures are a record that I braved it once. My next visit will be when there’s nothing in particular happening. Then I’ll be able to find a parking spot and leisurely walk around town, taking pictures and eating ice cream.

Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might...........Ecclesiastes 9:10

My little hands have been busy sewing, knitting and crocheting and I want to show you some of the results of my labor. It's been a "labor of love" making things for people I love and it delights me to bless them in this way.

One of my many nieces is getting married in August. She's (as they say) getting married on a shoestring. She's a graduate student doing medical research in Vancouver, BC. Her fiancee is also a grad student. They will return to their studies after they're wed.

Because I'm a collector of vintage lace and love re-purposing it into something that's very "today", I wanted to make her wedding related gifts. I made a wedding garter and a little wristlet, both from vintage lace.

I made the garter from a strip of hand crocheted lace. These pieces of lace were once use to embellish bed linens, and other household linens. The Victorians even embellished undergarments with hand made lace. Many times these strips were made by little girls who were learning the skill of crochet in order to fill up their "hope chests" for their own "way in the future" weddings.

The most interesting thing about this lace is: it did not wear out. The sheets or pillowcases, towels or petticoats that the lace embellished, wore out. But the frugal Victorian housewife separated the lace from the worn out piece. They then saved the lace to embellish something else. Oftentimes, this is where I step in and discover it at a household sale, estate sale, garage sale, op shop or somewhere else.

The wristlet evolved from a rectangular doily that was used to line a bread dish. It has the word "BREAD" crocheted right in the middle of the piece. I folded it into an envelope purse shape, lined it with silk and added a crushed ribbon wrist strap - so the bride's hands would be free to hug people.

I think it's so cool to have heirlooms as part of a wedding day. You know how the old saying goes : "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, a sixpence in your shoe...."

Taken from THE KNOT wedding website
 Something old represents continuity; something new offers optimism for the future; something borrowed symbolizes borrowed happiness; something blue stands for purity, love, and fidelity; and a sixpence in your shoe is a wish for good fortune and prosperity............................

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Another project that I've been working on is making little trinkets to go into what is called a "swag bag" - a special gift bag for the first 100 visitors to visit my friend, Angel's. upcoming craft show. I am making tiny Christmas wreathes to pin onto your lapel, or to use as a giftwrap embellishment or even a tree trimmer. The swag bag will be chock full of the cutest ever little tchotchkes.

If you can get to Chambersburg, PA on November 2nd and do your Christmas shopping at this show, yours will be the best gifts ever.

https://www.facebook.com/IHeartHandmadeMarketplace?directed_target_id=0

I ♥ Handmade Marketplace - Part 2

Still reeling from the I ♥ Handmade Marketplace. I have been to many, many craft shows and have never seen one like this one. It was just a 6 hour show, from 8am until 2 pm on a Saturday in November. By the time we were ready to wrap up, 900 people had visited the show. This is thanks to Angel's amazing ingenuity in planning this show. It was totally bathed in prayer from beginning to end, including all the vendors gathering in a prayer circle minutes before the show began.

Angel plastered the entire Chambersburg area with flyers, had lawn signs (like the election signs) all over town, had several  radio spots the day before the show, had alerted the press, had professional pictures done, had a facebook I ♥ Handmade Marketplace event page with daily buzz about the show, including pictures of what shoppers would see there and the many door prizes that would be awarded.  One of her friends even made a YouTube video for the event.

She distributed beautiful shopping totes to the first 100 shoppers. There was continuous coffee for both shoppers and vendors.

This is my stall. You can see the shelf unit and the clothes tree that I rescued at estate sales.

I am probably forgetting some details. To see more pictures, visit the castteam chat thread. Angel has posted the link on page 264.

One of my personal highlights was meeting several castteam "sisters", and having a nice leisurely dinner with them.

Left to right:  Becky, Angel, Sheila and me in the room called "the library" at Chambersburg's Orchard Restaurant.

Looking forward to I ♥ Handmade Marketplace II

I ♥ Handmade Marketplace - Part 1

In just a matter of hours, I'll be heading south to participate in BamCrafty Momma's (Angel's) first ever craft show. She is such a "natural" at strategy, publicizing, arranging, spinning so many plates, that I think she should add this to her repertoire.

Since I'll be participating, I've been doing a little planning myself. First thing I thought about was designing my booth. It needs to look like a little store or shop. It has to be attractive in order to be charming to shoppers.

I prayed and asked the Lord for a couple showcase pieces that I would like. I asked for a shelf unit and a "hat rack" sort of affair. I wanted both these items to be collapsible since I am traveling several hundred miles by car - with a friend - our personal luggage - tons of product and Bianca (my mannequin), etc. I needed these items to fit snuggly into the trunk of my little car.

So, off I went "estate saling". At house #1, after snooping all throughout the first and second floor of the house, I descended to the basement. The first thing I saw when I hit the floor was a strange looking stick on a tripod - about 5' tall. At the top it had two swinging sticks coming out of each side. Silvery in color and covered in cobwebs. I knew it was the Lord's answer to my prayer, though I had never seen anything like it.

I went over to it. The two sticks on top snapped into place on either side of the shaft. They were for holding clothes hangers. The tripod did, indeed, fold up. The shaft telescoped together so that it came apart and could be used in a shorter version. It had no price tag on it. I brought it upstairs and asked the price. $1.00. Sorry I don't have a picture of it but you'll see it in next week's post.

Onto house #2. Again, scoped out the entire house before my final discovery of a screened porch behind the garage. From that vantage point, I saw a three shelf, metal item holding a potted plant. I went out into the yard to look at it. Sure enough, each shelf folded up, the sides folded in and the whole thing now looked like a fire screen. It had a $15 price tag on it but today was day 2 of the sale and everything was half price !!

I spray painted both of these treasures with back spray paint. They are now happily ensconced in my car trunk.

Still waiting to be packed are the tons of product plus smaller showcase items.

Finally, my friend and I plus our personal luggage, handbags, snacks and drinks will be off to join Angel and other precious castteam sisters for this adventure.

Part 2 coming next week......................