The Fair

Well I'm back and hopefully will be into my old routine again now everything has calmed down a little. I have had a really crazy week or two as work has been ridiculously busy and on top of that I was trying to prepare for the Bath fair.

The above picture is not of the fair, but is the branches and decorations I took to the fair which are now installed in my sitting room for a little splash of Christmas in the build up to putting my tree up. I don't have any pictures of how the branches looked on the stall, nor of the stall itself. I forgot to take pictures at the start of the fair and quite frankly I was too depressed by the end.

I've been wondering all weekend how I was going to write about the fair and in the end I decided to do as Jane did and be totally honest with you all. In a word, it was a disaster. Far from it being the success I hoped it would be I came out at the end of the day with a fairly significant loss. If I tell you I didn't even take enough to cover the cost of my petrol from London to Bath and back you'll hopefully get the picture. I have no idea what went wrong really. The fair was extremely busy, but despite the fact that my stand was the only one that looked really designed and attractive, rather than a jumble, I sold just a handful of Christmas decorations and cards and nothing else. I had comments that things looked pretty and lovely. My items were picked up and admired but just not bought. I'm not going to sit here and rubbish my fellow crafters but I will say that I was really surprised at what did sell. I had two particularly depressing moments. One was the two ladies who were admiring my decorations, picking them up, ooing and aarrring over them and in general making me think I was about to make a good sale. Then they turned to me and explained that one of them worked with children and they thought my decorations were and excellent idea for something to make with the children. As they were felt the children would find it easy to do something similar! The second moment came when I very smart, expensively dressed woman also spent ages looking at the decorations, picking them up and examining them in detail. She asked me the cost(£1.50 each) and I thought great she's definitely going to buy a few, only for her to say I'll have one please! I'm sorry, I know I should be grateful and perhaps her appearence actually didn't match her budget but really it was just the final straw.

Sorry dear bloggers, I hate to be so moany and depressing. I'm just so disappointed that this fair was such a disaster. I'd kind of told myself that if I couldn't sell well in the centre of Bath, the first weekend of December then I may as well give up on Nonnie Home. I'm not sure I am going to give up but I definitely need to do some serious re-evaluation in the new year. For now, I'll giving some of my cushions as Christmas presents and I'll be back with a post a little later to offer all of you my cards and decorations at a seriously bargain price. Do check back later on.

From now on I promise positive blogging. After the card and decoration offer, all future posts until at least the new year will not be about Nonnie Home. They will be about my life again, and my Christmas preparations, including pictures of trees, decorations and Christmassy food. And in general all things jolly and Christmassy.

Thank you for reading to the bottom of this very moany post. Moan over. Bring on Christmas! xxxx

Comments

[Janette]

hi,

don't give up, I've done a couple of craft fairs and had good and bad experiences - the worst experience being from a fellow crafter who kept staring me out because I had sold two cards while she sold none ( personally it would have been nice to have some solidarity seeing as neither of us was particularly raking it in). but there is always hope and if we all like your creations which clearly we do then you are not alone, having said that I am seriously thinking of doing an etsy site rather than paying the rent for a craft fair. But i am not giving up and hopefully 2008 will be the year of the crafter - if not I'm going to try and persue a second career as a craft demonstrator. Chin up your things are really beautiful and your time will come.

Janette
x

[Charlotte]

Hi Fiona,

I did my first craft fair and had a similar experience - just last weekend. I am now looking forward to no more sewing for ages! My online shop is stocked to the hilt and now I can get on with life.

I find sewing takes up far too much of my time - and to be honest I am questioning it all right now as well. For me I think more of a balance is in order. I will keep my shop going and build that up - but no more craft fairs for me. In my opinion (post bad craft fair weekend!!) the people making all the money are the ones who run the things.

Sorry if I now sound all moany about it - but I am. I wrote about it on my blog and a few local bloggers say they were there too and didn't make a bean. One person said she's been doing that craft market all year and is giving up to spend more time on her online shop and marketing.

I would love to see the email from the person who said not to be discouraged!! I thought it might be cool to have a stall at Spitalfields when we move back to London next year. Hmmm.

Anyway - well done you - and don't de-value your work. You've put in heaps of effort and I think we crafters need to band together and not cheapen our work.

xoxox

[ohsovintage]

What a shame, you sounded so despondent. I do admire your honesty. It would have been so much easier to write a blog about how successful you had been! About a year ago a friend and I had a stall at an antiques fair and just about covered our costs (minus the wine we went out to buy to drown our sorrows). I've never done one since, it really discouraged me. I think, as one other commenter said, people attend craft fairs for ideas. At least they don't try to haggle about the price as they do with antiques (or do they?)

[Louise]

Hi Fiona, it is sickening to hear of your disaster at the fair and the cost of the pitches cost a fortune, I used to do antique and collector’s fairs with my mum and you had to have a good sales day just to cover the cost of the pitch. As I said in Jane’s blog, people would rather spend a little on rubbish, they don’t appreciate the cost of materials and the time, care and effort which make your lovely pieces special. My sister-in-law makes lovely items from felt but basically she just makes them to give as presents to the family. I hope you can find a way of making a better living out of crafting, it would be such a shame to have to give it all up. I look forward to your Christmassy posts. x

[Sarah]

Oh Bum, that just goes to show my lady that money cannot buy taste. Don't worry about it, if they are the same types that went to the quilt show then frankly you wouldn't have wanted to sell anything to them! Keep going, enjoy Christmas and know there will be some very happy recipients of your makings!

[Rosemary]

So sorry about the fair.
I have been so busy the last couple of days, I need to catch up with you.
Don't feel too bad.
Rosemary

[Gill]

Sorry to hear about the fair Fiona, I used to do the odd one years ago and never made much money either. I also organised several at my daughter's school and I remember well many of the stall holders saying what a bad day they'd had. By their very nature craft fairs attract people who are crafty types and I think they often are looking for ideas and inspiration. Also, from a buyer's point of view, I used to go with a certain amount of money in my pocket and couldn't support every stall holder. Don't be disheartened, there are more opportunities to reach an audience on t'internet....good luck but remember you craft because it gives you pleasure first and foremost :)

[Lisa]

Hi Fiona,

Sorry to hear about the disasterous fair, it is so downheartening when that happens, believe me, I've had my fair share over the past few years. There was one that I did and nobody even turned up!
Don't give up though, you'll find your place, it just takes time.

Chin up, it's nearly Christmas time!

L x

[Sarah Raad]

Fiona I LOVE your stuff and I really hope that you don't give up. i am not sure what is wrong with the good people of Bath!! But I am sorry you had such a disappointing time of it.

Take care

Sarah xx

[niki]

Hi Fiona,
I had hoped to come along to the Bath fair (with Sue), but unfortunatley I had been struck down with the fluey/cold that is about. (I was wondering if it was possible to catch colds via Blogger - as there is so many girls suffering!!)
Anyway, I am so sorry to hear that it wasn't a success - I can sympathise completely - 'been there, done it' as they say....you just have to keep persevering.....Please don't let it get you down.
Take care,
Niki

[niki]

Hi Fiona,
I had hoped to come along to the Bath fair (with Sue), but unfortunatley I had been struck down with the fluey/cold that is about. (I was wondering if it was possible to catch colds via Blogger - as there is so many girls suffering!!)
Anyway, I am so sorry to hear that it wasn't a success - I can sympathise completely - 'been there, done it' as they say....you just have to keep persevering.....Please don't let it get you down.
Take care,
Niki

[kim]

HI Fiona. So sorry to hear about the disastrous fair. I know it's of very small consolation for you to hear that this has happened to me in the past and the best my friend and I could do to salvage the situation was to devise a comedy series based on all the characters that visited our stall! It has nothing to do with the quality of your things as they are lovely. Do keep on making things and enjoy making them.
Kimx

[Rachel whitworth]

Oh Fiona you poor thing.I know exactly how you feel.I have had stalls at events that do really well and events when I havent taken much at all. It's very hit and miss and you just can't work it out.Some teachers did the same to my gingerbread men.They didn't buy one but loooked to see how I made it,what a bloody cheek.Try not to let it get you down as some people just don't have good taste and they want something for nothing!

[lina]

Hi Fiona. Sorry you feel your fair was a disaster. Hope at least you're able to notch them up as learning experiences and work out what you want to do next! If its any consolation I love your stuff and, after making my own Christmas decorations this year, I for one realise that these things are hard for a 35 year old to "knock up" let alone school children!

[snapdragon]

Oh Fiona - how awful - and it really isawful if, in addition to standing there all day, you actually make a loss.
Unfortunately I think craft fairs are full of people looking for ideas - and many of these people do not appreciate that some things are actually more difficult than they look.
As a bet with a friend I kept a tally of the people at the weekend who said that they were off to copy my honesty hearts - 83. . .(I won, she thought 40). I think that most of these wannabe crafters may be disappointed with their attempts.
This weekend's craft fair was much, much better and I am more or less sold out of things so you really never can tell.
J
x

[Isobel]

Hi dear Nonnie,
I am sorry that the fair wasn't that successful. I know the feeling you have as my online shop is not being successful at all. Well, I will keep that til the end of Christmas and if nothing really sell (there are just three itens there as I gave up making any more stock), I will close the shop and carry on crafting for pure pleasure.
But chin up, girl! Who knows online you will make it way better? ;)
Take care. x

[Darla]

Hello. I just found a link to your blog through another blog and now I can't remember which it was. I'm happy to be here tho.

Sorry to hear the fair was not that great for you. It never fails to amaze me what sells and what doesn't.

I'll be back for all the promised Christmas fun.

Darla

[Anne]

I love hand-crafted items, but loathe craft fairs, so never go and I'm sure there's many others like me out there. You have a good eye for design, sell on-line. I love on-line shopping.

[carolyn]

Oh dear Fiona what a disaster. Years ago I tried the craft fair route and it wasn't a pleasant experience. The only reason I managed to sell anything at the first one I did was because a friend turned up and kindly bought bags for everyone of the girls in her office. Kind but it felt like charity. My next experiences were a bit more positive as it was close to Christmas and people did buy but after 4 weeks of fairs I had only made a total profit of £70. I think at the time I was beginning to think that I'd be better off on the night shift at Tesco! Anyway I'm afraid the sad fact is that craft fairs are not always very good venues for selling, lots of people do only go to look around and yes to glean ideas. Not all of them are so rude as to comment on the fact.
I don't really know what the answer is, I believe there are some good fairs but the stalls are at a premium and even then there are bad days. Etsy works v well for some but the key to that seems to be promote, promote, promote then there Not On The High Street. Much discussion going on about that at the moment arounf Blogland, see Jane at Snapdragon she has some links to Pipany and Twice and I think I remember Victoria Plum May saying it had been useful for her. PG has left a very interesting comment on Pipany's post which is definetly worth reading.
Anyway you make lovely things so don't get to despondant yet, take time off and have a think about promting yourself and other avenues for selling. Chin up!

[Michele]

Hi Fiona
Wonderful products.. wrong place!
Head for the stars and you will reach them..
I have sent you long winded email explaining more!.
So sorry you had a bad time but don't be discouraged..
Michelex

[Sophie]

Hi Nonnie!
I think all crafters who exhibit at fairs go through this at some point, questioning whether they should carry on. Please do - your work is admired and bought by people who appreciate it and understand the time and effort put in to making them. Don't be discouraged, it would be a great loss! : )