The Craft Show Adventure ....things to consider

 When you start to get a body of work ; art or craft , the next step is to sell it. There are many ways to do that , either in person or online , but there's a real advantage to selling at Craft shows ( or Art shows ). I mention Craft shows first because they usually generate more sales.

 First , in dealing with the customer yourself , you get all sorts of great feedback . Things like color preference, sizes that will sell , you get to hear about them as well as ask questions. I always like to start a conversation that may lead to feedback. And if you sell something you also get feedback that way.

  Next , you can see what others are both making and selling. It's always fun to look around and see if you can tell who is selling the most, then figure out why .

  If you already sell in a gallery or online , you can promote this at the show . Handing out info about yourself with these things included is a great opportunity. It doesn't need to be a fancy handout , just a small thing you print from your computer.

  Then there is the other entertainment . You can sell your work , listen to music , watch a parade. And while the shows where I have the best sales are craft shows with no other entertainment , you can always watch the people.

 But the best thing about shows is having contact with the other artists, I have made friends for life this way. I've also made some great business contacts. And there are people who I may never see again , but will never forget.

  

  So what is the downside ? First , most of these shows are outdoors. You are at the mercy of the weather . Sometimes it is possible to find an indoor show , but the rent is usually higher and there is almost always an admission charge.

 Then , you will need display equipment. It may be possible to borrow this, but eventually you will need your own. This includes a tent and chairs as well as the actual display . You will need something to pack your inventory in and a vehicle to haul all of it.

 Last , you will need to consider how to take payment. Will you take credit cards ? It has gotten more complicated to do this. How about checks ? And if you handle cash , do you plan to check for counterfeits ?

 So there's a lot to think about .It can be a process where you start with small indoor shows and talk to other artists about their experiences.

  And if you do decide to plunge in , I'm going to do a few more posts on the subject , such as how to apply , how to set up and take down , how to survive bad weather , and how to pick the shows that are best for you.

  One way to check things out before you take the plunge is to volunteer at some shows you have an interest in. You can talk to the artists and see what it takes to go from set up to tear down . Or you can go to the show as a visitor , but you may miss the behind the scenes part.

Display changes

       Each year after the Christmas season is over and inventory is done , the gallery where I have my

work does a clean up and rearranging. . This is a great practice and we all get energized by it.

       Last year part of the cleanup was a plan to transition all the fiber displays onto rolling units that

could be pushed out of the way when an event was being held at the gallery. This meant that I needed

to come up with a plan to move the items from my stationary display near the front of the store onto

some sort of rolling display back near the back door.

      The stationary display was about 3 x 8. My rolling display had to take up less space. I've long

contended that fiber looks better when there is a mass of it , unless it is extremely upscale stuff. The

display space in the other gallery I was part of was very limited and I sold very little there .

      There was one thing I did learn from this experience. I had to provide my own display equipment

for the slat wall in this gallery and was sent to a local display store to look for it.  This place was huge

and full of revelations. One of the most useful things I saw there was grid wall display.While I've

always seen this at craft shows and thought it looked a bit cheap , I figured if I massed enough

crochet on it the grid wall would be covered. And I was desperate . I couldn't think of any other

display option that would roll . Here is what I wound up with -

     This worked for awhile . It did get rolled too close to other displays and sometimes it would

capture part of the other display in the crochet , but it did sell.

    The next time my rent was due , however , the gallery owner offered me an entire 10 x 10 space.

This was something I've always wanted , but there were very few of these , so I never thought it

would happen.

     Now I knew all about grid wall , so I got some more. We agreed that some more homey touches

would be good. I'm sure a completely hand made display would have been better , but it would have

been too time consuming. Here's the  result -

I have already added more to this and moved some of it around. I like the flexibility of it.

Play with the Display

Craftspeople obsess about their displays. Every Artist or craft person I know has several display options tucked away somewhere because , not only do we like options , we are never satisfied. I have two craft mediums that I exhibit currently , so that means more displays. There are two different displays for shows , and I have work displayed in two different stores , each with it's own display. It gets confusing.

My Stained glass displays evolved over the years. First there was the home made deal. The studio plumbing was revamped and I made display racks from the old copper pipes. These lasted longer than I would have thought , but when I eventually found a custom stained glass display made from aluminum, I went ahead and replaced the copper with this. The new display was really versatile and sturdy. It is no longer being made. Stained glass is less popular , and I suspect the metal in the display is costing much more. The original price was $1,200 . I could probably get quite a bit for the aluminum. And the copper display might bring in even more. Here's the aluminum one :

Very versatile. You can use as many segments of it as you want , in many different configurations. The only problem was that each section is 3 feet wide and either needs to ride on roof racks or inside a large enough mini van.

Last year , though , I quit doing stained glass at shows. I now only have it in one store , as I am phasing myself out of it. The display it's on in the store is pretty amazing. Also home made. I have no photo of this , but it's basically some wooden rails suspended from a high ceiling.

When I transitioned my shows to all crochet I just used the same display and adapted it. It worked really well , but there was still the drawback of the rails and sections being 3 feet wide and six feet long. Here's a photo of the same display with crochet.

Looks pretty good , but part of me wanted something that would go into my Honda Fit.

Then there are the store displays. I have work in two stores. In one , I brought my own display for the crochet. The stained glass was displayed as described above. The crochet display was really just some room

dividers with rails adapted for crochet. What I like about it is that people can walk around all sides of it and the majority of what is there is easy to reach and touch.

In the other store I have only crochet. I am required to display this on a two foot section of slatwall , six feet high. There is some shelving below the slatwall. I have been struggling with this display because it is not what I'm used to. I'm thinking I need to approach it as a place where there are just a few precious pieces of work that I change out from time to time. What has sold there so far has been fairly high end. The other store has a bunch of work where everyone can touch it. This display seems more geared to just looking :