I’d been reading up on craft blogs – the do’s and the don’ts – and scouring Pinterest in preparation for my second ever craft fayre. I didn’t apply to exhibit my jewellery, I was invited to take a table at the same venue as last year so I was really pleased when the invitation text pinged my phone. A lot of the advice is very good, like how to set out your table, etiquette and so on, but much is down to common sense really.
I don’t think the craft fayre ‘circit’ is for me, but the occasional one is good. My initial reaction is of excitement, which then leads to ‘have I done the right thing?’ type questions, especially when it’s too late to back out. During one such self doubting moment as I was loading up the car, I got a bit distracted, which threw me off track so I forgot a few things to take with me like all my pricing labels, lighting and my donation of a necklace to be auctioned for charity (more about the auction later).
I arrived at the golf club in a bit of a tizz, but early enough to set up the table. I had asked for one table and, as it was the same venue as last time, I ASSUMED the table would be the same size – except it wasn’t. I hadn’t realised that last year’s table was made up of two, and I had only asked for one. One was just under a metre square (that’s about 3ft x 3ft in old money). I stared at it. Just stared. Oh. Not only that, it was next to another jewellery table, all glamorous and blinged up with lights and sparkle which was two tables long. My fault – I should have confirmed the size beforehand. Lesson: NEVER ASSUME.
I’d taken less stock than last year, but I could only get a fraction of it on show. It looked really unassuming and underwhelming next to my neighbour’s, but I remembered some advice from another blog about ‘less is more’ so I tried to convince myself that was the way to go. Anyway, this would be good to test out the theory. I also took advice on creating different levels to lead the eye – there wasn’t much room for the eye to wander off anyway!
All in all I’m pleased to say it was a good evening for sales, and enjoyed some chit chat with the buyers. I noted what people were buying – mainly bracelets and necklaces, but not one single pair of earrings. I think the earrings got a bit lost, but maybe no one wanted earrings anyway. Thank the Lord I remembered my business cards (which doubled up as price tags) and some people took them away after browsing so perhaps some future sales, who knows!
The Auction. I was quite crestfallen when the pearl necklace only reached the princely sum of £5 in the auction. That hurt that did. I can’t buy the particular pearls I’d used in the design for less than £5, was that really all it was worth in someone else’s eyes?
My mother always says ‘there’s too much competition for jewellery’ but I’m not really bothered about that. Yes, there’s huge competition for just about everything (unless you’ve just invented something before anyone else does) and jewellery does have a massive market with a number of world dominators within the industry, and I’m not about to compete, or would want to, with them. If I don’t sell ’em I’ll wear ’em myself!
I arrived home, poured a glass of fizz and settled down to watch ‘The Apprentice’ (a UK based programme about entrepreneurs where only one will win an investment – the rest fail). Hmmm.