My First Fair

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog – too busy designing gardens! Anyway, I’d like to write about my first attempt at selling jewellery at a fair.

I’d been invited to take a table at a local charity event in a nearby golf club, St Andrew’s Major, by a friend of my sister’s and I jumped at the chance. This would be a test to see how my pricing, style and presentation would work among other sellers. To be fair, there was only one other jewellery and scarf seller there (jewellery & scarves seem to have a relationship to each other – I see other sellers making this match) but it was ‘bought in’ ready-made jewellery. To say her prices were ‘reasonable’ was an understatement and I was really surprised at how low they were (to me, anyway).  I didn’t see much of her jewellery fly from her very professional set up. She had arranged them in three tiers and    all in black (it was silver tone jewelleryso shone out), smart lighting and very smart props with aqua blue presentation boxes. Here was a seller who really knew her business.

For me, it’s not a business. It’s still my hobby so I was quite open minded and interested to see how other people set out their wares. The ladies either side of me were complete novices too – one sold artwork and the other seemed to be an ‘middle woman’ for The Body Shop gift boxes. Both said they hadn’t sold very well  – in fact one of them didn’t sell anything at all, which must have been very disappointing. They mostly sold online and at house parties.

You could tell the ones who appear at fairs regularly – they were all set up and ready to go even though the doors were opened early, while I was still hanging some earrings on the stand. People were at my table before I had a chance to put out some prices so I had to tell people how much the items cost. For simplicity, I thought I’d set a blanket price for each category and was prepared to win or lose. It didn’t last long because some pieces were made up of unusual pearls and gems which were difficult to get hold of, and I couldn’t let them go at a loss.

One or two baulked at the prices – £20 for a pair of sterling silver, amethyst bezel set drop earrings, while another happily paid the price of £25 for simple pearl earrings and a matching memory wire bracelet. Bearing in mind I’d spent time making each one, I wasn’t going to sell cheap, but I guess it depends what value the customer sees in each piece. I wasn’t wildly out, but in future I need to state ‘Hand Made’ and ‘Genuine Pearls & Gemstones’.

All in all I was very pleased with what I sold. Funnily enough, I sold very few earrings, but necklaces and bracelets were on a par though. I made a couple of sets – which didn’t sell but worth the experiment.

This was very much an experiment for me and I didn’t want to put in too much effort, but what I must remember is that customers didn’t know that and probably weren’t interested in my thoughts. A well presented display is the first thing they see. Room for improvement!