Castleton Christmas Craft Fair November 2014

After a break of a couple of months I attended a great craft fair at Castleton last Saturday.  it coincided with the switching on of the Christmas lights so the village was bustling despite the weather which was misty with occasional rain.

To get into the Christmas feel I set up my table with a red gingham cloth, made new price cards in red and added red lights to my white display tree. 

 As well as my usual goodies I brought along my mini Christmas Stockings and a new make for this year, mini bunting in a choice of Christmas or vintage/retro style fabrics.

It was a busy fair with a great range of stalls from turned wood to beautiful silver jewellery.  I also met a few familiar faces which is always nice. 

One particular one that caught my eye was Go Vintage, a wonderful selection of vintage and retro collectables.

It was a really enjoyable day, I made a profit and sold out of my Christmas mini bunting.  However I do have a few mini Christmas Stockings left so they will be appearing in my online shop.  

And finally.... as always there was a great selection of dogs visiting the fair but the one that caught my eye was Billy, who as well as being cute was the best dressed dog!

Hathersage Craft Fair April 2014

Earlier this month I attended the first of my local craft fairs.  They are all in villages very close to where I live and as they usually have a lot of tourists and day trippers I am hoping they will be a success, more on that later!

This was held in Hathersage Church Hall and had a good mixture of stalls including driftwood, baking and handmade leather bags.   

As this was a Spring Fair I made some Daffodil Brooches as well as bring along my Fabric Easter Eggs.  I am especially pleased with my new white tree which I used to display my Easter Eggs.  

I also had my Vintage Embroidered Cushions and Drawstring Bags as well as some vintage style bunting and paper chain kits.  Unfortunately it was very quiet so only sold a few small items, I blame the weather which turned wet at the last minute and the Grand National!

Bakewell Craft Fair February 2014

I attended my first Craft Fair last year in Bakewell and enjoyed it so much thought I would give it another go.  As it was half term this week I booked two days midweek to see how I would get on.

As well as my cushions and drawstring bags I took along my Gingham Flower Brooches and my latest make, Retro Sugar Bowl Pin Cushions. 

Unfortunately it was quiet, which I put down mostly to the recent weather.  However I met some lovely people and got some great ideas on how I can improve my display.  

I also met Ruth from Sticks and Stones Jewellery, she took an amber necklace that I no longer wore and rethreaded the stones to give me a lovely very wearable necklace.  

So I may not have covered my costs but to me it was still a success and I look forward to attending my next. 

Flower Brooches

I just had to share these!

As part of the Folksy Summer School goodie bag there was a pack of small fabric squares, samples from Ray-Stitch of their lovely range of plain cotton.

It was such lovely material but was too small for patchwork but was just the right size to make petals for a brooch.  

Each square was trimmed, making it into a quarter circle.  I then stitched the two straight edges of each quarter to make a cone.  

Flattening the cone so the seam was at the back I stitched along the open edge in a small running stitch, adding six more petals in a continuous chain.  

When the running stitch was pulled it gathered the cones into petal shapes, I then stitched each end together making a circle and glued it onto a brooch back.

Looking for inspiration for something to fill the centre I looked through my scrap bag and found some left over bobble trim.  I cut the pom-poms off and then mixed and matched them with each brooch and glued them into place.   

I won't be selling these, some may become presents but I have a feeling I will be wearing these myself! 

Autumn or Not

Coming from the north of Scotland and always being a wishful thinker I have classified September as part of the summer.   When others have donned their duffel coats and furry boots I have continued to go coatless and sockless for as long as possible.

I have often been rewarded with good weather and this year was no exception with a trip to Perthshire that demanded that coats and brollies were left in the car! 

However on returning to Derbyshire I was met with rain and mist and autumn seemed to have sneaked up on me.  And my poor garden was looking rather brown and sorry for its self. 

However one bright spot was my favourite clematis which was still flowering its socks off.  It’s colour is so intense, a lovely iridescent purple which never fails come sun or rain, unfortunately photos do not do it justice.  

So this inspired me in my next make.  I was already looking for something small and low cost for my next craft fair as well as something that would appeal to adults and youngsters so why not have a go at making flower brooches?

I wanted something that had the long petals of the clematis but was not too fussy.  I also liked the idea of crochet but still being a beginner I had to keep it simple.  So after a bit of trial and error I came up with a design that combined gingham petals and a crocheted and gingham button centre, stitched with embroidery thread.   

I have now made quite a few and the crochet continues to vary on each one, which I hope gives them charm as well as making each one unique, roll on the next Craft Fair!

My First Craft Fair

I attended my first Craft Fair as a seller last Thursday and it was a great success!  Yes I made a modest profit after expenses but the main enjoyment was meeting the public and other sellers. 

It was a Craft and Gift Fair and held in an old wooden Scout Hut which was rather charming.  It had a good mix of sellers ranging from wildlife photography, vintage jewellery to knitting plus a very nice cake stall (at last someone that does proper Tiffin)!

I was given a corner with two tables which threw me a little as I had planned my layout on only having one; thank goodness I had taken along plenty of tablecloths with me.  Luckily I had plenty of time to rethink my display so it all worked out in the end.  I was also given a chair (which was comfy thank goodness) and had a nice little corner at the end of my table that allowed me to sit and do my crochet during the quiet times.

The Fair was in held in Bakewell a beautiful historic town in Derbyshire that is on the tourist trail.  So a lot of the people that attended were holidaymakers (with children) who had not planned to come along and nor were they looking for anything specific.  Luckily I had lower price items such as my Hedgehog Pin Cushions which proved popular to browsers, adult and children alike.  This highlighted that if I am going to attend further fairs in the future I need to have a wider range of lower priced items, some being attractive to children.   

I also got a lot of positive feedback, as people remembered their grandmother’s embroidered tablecloths and thought it lovely that someone was doing something with them rather than leaving them in a cupboard.   This gave me the opportunity to explain how I had got started and although they often did not buy anything they did take away leaflets and business cards and will hopefully pass these on to friends and family.   

However........

It was hard work and the preparation for such an event must not be underestimated and although I thought I was organised everything took twice as long as expected.   For example I normally only print out labels etc as and when I make an online sale but suddenly I had to do this for 30 or so items plus I needed additional material such as price tickets and carrier bags.

Also you have to have a thick skin!  Some people stood talking about my stall as if I was not there and a couple of times when someone was admiring my stall their friend said they thought my items were too expensive or they had seen something better!

Still I would highly recommend it but you need to be prepared so I have added a check list to My Pages which will hopefully be of help to any Craft Fair novices like me!  

Its a First!

Well two, for me!

My first first is attending a summer school.  It takes place this weekend and is being run by Folksy, the online market place where I sell my makes.  It has talks, demonstrations and lots of advice for crafty sellers.  I am particularly looking forward to meeting fellow makers and hopefully making some new friends!  

My second first is selling at a Craft Fair, I have at last taken the plunge and booked a couple of Thursdays at a regular Craft and Gift Fair that is held in Bakewell. 

So wish me luck, I will post updates and let you know how I get on.

P.S.  I am in the process of updating the layout of my Blog, many thanks to Janet and others who offered me support and advice on the Discussion Groups at Linkedin.   I will pull together all their advice and share it with you.