My Craft Fair experience

[Mike Marmon]

Greetings All;
Last week I posted a question about placing prices on items for sale. I got a number of responses, and wanted to let everyone know what I used. I put paper sticky tags for bowls and hollow forms, stuck to the bottoms. For the Pens and Rolling Pins I used string tags. For the bottle stoppers I used a business card with the price written on the back, laid in front of the stoppers. For the most part I was happy with this. The only thing that I didn’t like was the string tags on the pens. I had an acrylic pen stand and the tags kept getting tangled, when someone would pick up one pen it would pull others out of the stand. So I won’t be doing that again.

Sales were surprisingly good. This was a small craft fair at the local elementary school and I had set my expectations pretty low. So it was a nice surprise. During this fair I was approached to participate in another fair in December. On the road to success? I have attached pictures of my set up.

Happy Turnings,
Mike

[alex carey]

congrats on your success. u have some nice turnings on that table.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Mike that is a great looking setup. Congrats on being asked to do another craft fair. Sounds like you got a great start.

[Kenneth Whiting]

Nice set up and nice pieces. Good to hear it worked out well for you.

[Richard Madison]

Good variety Mike. Did rolling pins sell?

[Dolan Brown]

Mike I use these (except mine are clear and not white - I can't find the link to the clear ones) on pens. I put then on the pen clip. Works great and not messy looking like the string tags.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Mike - congrats on having a successful craft show! Always a great feeling when folks are willing to pay for your art! Wish you luck on the show coming up in December!

[Curt Fuller]

Congratulations! That's a nice display of work. I like your rolling pins, did they sell very well.

[Billy Tallant]

Congratulations on your craft show. Very nice display you have setup. A nice variety to choose from.

[charlie knighton]

success is rewarding to hear, how did the rolling pins do????

[ROY DICK]

Great to hear it went well for you.
Were you rolling in dough?

Roy

[Jerry Rhoads]

Nice looking woodturnings Mike
Congrats on the show turn out

Jerry

[Steve Trauthwein]

Congrats Mike,

And yes you are now on another slippery slope. Five years ago I did my first show with a medium size piece of luggage on wheels that held everything, now I barely get it all inside my full size pickup.

I use the string tags on my pens with good success. What I do is tie a knot in the string to shorten it to about half its length. This way the strings do not interfere with each other or present such a large image.

If I might make a suggestion on your set up, I think the brightly colored cloth on the table tends to compete with your bowls. I would suggest a grey or flat green.

Regards, Steve

[Mike Marmon]

Howdy All;
Thanks for the responses. The rolling pins did sell. I started with three and came home with one. All three were laminated, but the two that sold had laminations of different woods, Cherry,Walnut & Maple. The one that didn't sell was all Maple. So mix up the laminations!

Mike

[Richard Madison]

Thanks Mike. Made one for my wife a few years ago but never thought of selling them.

[Mark Patoka]

Very nice variety and congrats on the show. You should definitely get people stopping at your table with those types of items.

[Michael E. Thompson]

Mike, couple questions. How well did your bowls sell? They really are quite nice. Also, did you keep a few items hidden, so if something sold, you could replace it with one that was hidden?

Mike

[Gary Simmons]

Nice Mike...
I just did my first show as well... didnt like the string tags on anything, got rid of them, to much of a distraction. I printed out and laminated a price list and put it on the side ... made a huge difference...

nice job..thanks for the pics. Gary

[Mike Marmon]

Michael;
I sold two bowl at the fair. One was a spalted maple 10x3 and a cherry bowl that was 7x2.5. Both were very different experiences. The person who bought the cherry bowl talked to me for about 20 minutes, asking questions about the wood, how they were made etc. She finally settled on the cherry bowl because the wood had come from the neighborhood. The person who bought the spalted maple bowl stood in front of my table for about 15 seconds, asked the price of the bowl, then broke out the check book, spent no more than a minute there. The bowl that she bought was the highest priced item I sold that day.

Fun experience.
Mike

[Michael E. Thompson]

Thanks Mike, good to know. In the one show I have done, everyone seemed to like the bowls but I only sold four. Like you, some were quick other took their time. It seems as though bowls don't sell as well as bottle stoppers or lamps even.

Thanks
Mike

[Harlan Coverdale]

Congrats on the first of what I suspect will be many shows. You have nice looking merchandise.