Post First Craft Fair

So I know I said that this year was the year of rejection and that I was only going to apply to high end shows, but that was a little lie. I decided that I would ease into the arts and crafts fair scene with a simple small local show. 

This past Saturday was my first craft fair in almost two years. It was here in Madison at Warner Park. The weather was beautiful (but I was stuck inside) and I thought it would be a great show to ease back into things.

Unfortunately it wasn't.

The customer flow just wasn't there and the ones that were there were just not buying. I think the lovely weather really had a big part of it. Why would you spend a chunk of your day walking around inside when you could be out in the sunny warm spring weather? I know I wouldn't want to, I really wanted to be outside with my LO playing with bubbles or taking a walk. But oh well. 

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​I did get to use a new display that my husband made. It was pretty nice to have some extra space on my small table to show off things. I didn't have time to stain the base and the top, but I still think it looked pretty nice. 

I had a friend from work come help me set up and she was in charge of setting up this display. I think she also did a very nice job.

I did make a pretty big decision at this show. I don't think I'm going be bringing any jewelry to shows anymore. I think I will keep them up on Etsy, but I don't think I'll be bringing them to shows anymore. I just feel like the market is so saturated that you can't really make any money with jewelry, even with beaded jewelry. It's just not a great market. It's not unique enough. I always thought my beadwork was unique enough, but it's not. Maybe there was a time that it was, but it's not any more. I'm going to focus on my mixed media pieces. I have not really seen anything like them at any of the shows I've done, so I think I might have a niche market.

I have another show I'm going to apply to in July. I have the application all ready to go, I just have to send it in. So if i get into this show, I'm going to test out my theory on weather or not my mixed media beadwork is a good fit for shows. Which also means I have to get back in the studio and get some new pieces made. And I need to get some photos of my jewelry up on Etsy. 

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