Easter Craft Fair

Today I will be at the Easter Craft Fair in Paull, East Yorkshire, from 12pm till 4pm.


 I will have these new A5 notebooks for sale as well as several other new items.

Cup-cakes in progress....

I'm currently painting and/or embellishing lots of little wooden cup-cake key rings/ bag charms in order to fill up my new display board in time for the Craft Fair this weekend. Here are a few shots of some that are hanging up to dry mid-paint, or ready for their second coat and finally some that are now completed and hanging on the display board!

I will be selling these at the "Made and Sold In Hull" event at The Marist Church Hall, Cottingham Road, Hull, between 11am and 3pm on Saturday 13th October. There will also be a Multi Cultural Market taking place in the adjoining rooms with free food tasting - samples of Indian, Chinese, Russian and African food on offer not to mention the 38 stalls taking part in the Made and Sold in Hull Craft Fair. This time, there is also a pamper room at the fair, where you can get mini treatments at great prices!

Cupcake Display Board

I've recently finished designing and painting a new display board in the shape of a cup-cake in order to display my little wooden cup-cake key-rings/bag charms. Keith cut the board out for me once I'd drawn out the basic shape, and attached the stand at the back, then drilled in 40 holes ready for inserting some square hooks on which to hang said cup-cakes!

Obviously I now have the task of painting all those plain wooden key-rings, but hopefully that should be achieved before my next craft fair, which is the Made and Sold in Hull Market on Saturday 13th October - you can see the event details on the Facebook page by clicking on this link here.

The way I see it....

Today's post is how I view life when I'm doing a craft fair. It's a strange thing, as you are thrust into a room of other people that sometimes you've never met before (which is a big deal for me, trust me!) and that you are, in effect, competing with for customers. I always, always get nervous in the run-up to a craft fair, in the same way that I always get nervous just before performing on stage either in a play or a musical show. I think it's to do with the fear of the unknown - you don't know what the other stall-holders are going to be like, whether anyone will actually buy any of your work, or even whether anyone will look at it as they glide past!

Usually, I can gauge when someone is going to buy something from me - and my heart starts beating just a little bit faster when that happens! Last weekend at the event on Victoria Dock, I had such a moment when a man bought the latest painted jewellery box, "Blythe".  He made a purposeful move to the trinket boxes in general, made a comment about one of the wardrobe-styled ones taking a long time to do, then when I mentioned that the largest one cost more than the rest due to the different compartments and the size etc. he simply said "I'll have this one please".

There were no more incidents last week, other than a couple of children roughly handling my boxes. Some children are sooooo clumsy (and have filthy hands, too) and it's really hard to know how to respond, especially when their parent is with them. I don't want to stop people touching my work - that is often how people decide on buying something, but maybe I could get a sign put up saying that any damages must be paid for - although I've yet to see that on another stall so maybe others have a different way of dealing with it.

Yesterday, at the MadeandsoldinHull fair, which was a great success for all involved, I believe, the sweetest thing for me was the little girl who initially came to each stall with her friend and asked if we had anything for 9p. About 20 minutes later, she returned and the amount had gone up to 20p, then 21p and finally she had £1 in her hand hoping for a bargain. I suppose I could have given her one of my little cup-cake charms for £1 instead of £1.50, but she wasn't really interested in anything that small anyway so doubt she would have accepted it! She turned down a ring on my neighbour's stall for £1 so she was obviously fussy about what she wanted also!

There are times when you wonder why you put yourself through the process of standing/sitting there for hours at a times only to overhear rude remarks about your work. However, thankfully, yesterday was not one of those occasions and I thoroughly enjoyed the day. It was particularly nice to meet some people that I'd only previously spoken to on-line.

Overheard remarks, even though at times they are upsetting (or at least they may dent your ego a tad), are often also amusing afterwards. I remember some from previous fairs I've attended - one woman asked the woman she was with (ignoring me completely) if my mini paintings on easels were "boxes". The woman with her said "No, they're just plaques".  Plaques are obviously lower down the chain of artistic creations, boxes are perhaps slightly higher up, but God knows where mini paintings are! Another woman asked me about the same paintings, squinted at them and said "what are they, then, just ornaments?"

Some people just don't realise that what they say to each other at their side of the table can actually be heard by us at this side! I've often heard remarks such as "Oh, I could do that easily" and "you can buy them in such-and-such for only £2 and paint them yourself" . I just think to myself "yes, but I'm actually doing it, not just saying that I could!" . I just try to spend my time smiling at people and saying hello when I make eye contact with them. Some people just blank you out altogether, however - a customer recently seemed to be taking a lot of interest in my mini paintings, as though she was trying to work out whether they were painted or not - so I just said "these are all hand painted by me" to which she just looked at me and walked off!

I had an unusual conversation yesterday with a man who is running a summer club for Youths and he was looking at my painted notebooks as inspiration for a craft project for them. He took some photos of the ones on display (asked my permission first) and we had quite a chat about how I created them, he thanked me, took my business card and went away. Several minutes later he came back and bought one of the books so that he would have an example to show them before they started. That sort of transaction is always such a pleasure - I feel good that I've hopefully helped someone else and I also made a sale out of it, which is an added bonus!

This is the book he bought - "Royal Crest".

The worst thing about doing fairs is when people just walk straight past your stall without even trying to feign interest. Yes, I realise that everyone has different interests, but to be polite, you'd think just the briefest of looks wouldn't hurt, would it? Perhaps us creative souls just need to switch off when that happens, and concentrate on the people that are interested, but it's really hard sometimes!

I am lucky in that my husband always supports me by coming along and sitting with me, even if he's the only man there (which does sometimes happen) and I really don't know if I could do it alone - so I really do appreciate the fact that he's there with me. He must get bored, I know - he brings a book to read and sometimes goes outside for a walk if it's a nice day, but I don't suppose there are many men that would endure such things - or that have the time to do so.

I sold 3 photo frames yesterday, a cup-cake key ring and a cup-cake trinket box as well, so all in all a really good day. The event organisers (Lucy Lines and Leni Bratten) were very friendly, extremely well organised and knew everyone by name when it came to saying goodbye at the end of the day. I always make a point of thanking the organiser at the end of any fair (provided I can find them) - even if I've not made a profit. I know from experience what a thankless task it can be, so try to show my appreciation especially when it has been organised so well.

Today, our 17th wedding anniversary, incidentally, we are off to a rehearsal for the junior production, followed by a Youth section rehearsal, so will not be back home till gone 7 at least. The weather is rubbish today, so it's not too bad that we are indoors rehearsing for a lot of the time!

I think I may spend more time jotting down the comments from potential customers, and collecting those from others to share in the future - it seems everyone hears something!

Grandadshouses Craft Fair

I am busy preparing for my next craft fair this Saturday - which is being organised by Grandadshouses. They are a husband and wife team who make dolls' houses, garages and farms complete with miniature play animals, as well as a host of money boxes and other small wooden houses!. They are planning to run regular craft fairs in the Hull area as well as teach some craft workshops at the same venue. Here is their blog page advertising the Fair for Saturday 30th June: Grandadshouse blog.

There is a Facebook Page for the event also - if you know anyone who lives in the East Yorkshire area and would like to pop along, I'm sure there will be plenty to choose from with the various artisans displaying on the day.

I am planning to take a couple or 3 new trinket boxes, two new fabric covered notebooks, some new yo-yos and wooden photo frames with me, as well as my mini wardrobe trinket boxes, cupcake key rings and mini art on canvas with easel.

Starting at 11.30am and finishing at 3pm, it's a fairly short day for a change, but I am hopeful as I know a lot of advertising has gone into this event and it's very near to the town centre, so perhaps we will get weekend shoppers strolling down as well!

Forthcoming fairs/exhibitions etc.

I've just updated my website with dates of all the fairs and exhibitions I'm currently booked into over the summer (?) months. I also plan to enter the Summer Open Exhibition at Wolds Village, but have not yet filled in my entry form.

I'm currently working on some more wooden trinket boxes, mini paintings and new cup-cake mini trinket boxes - in between getting props and costumes sorted for the Junior & Youth Sections productions at the end of July!



Here's the list:

Upcoming and current exhibition details:
16th & 17th June 2012:
Holderness Art Show
Burton Pidsea

Saturday 30th June
GRANDADSHOUSES "HANDMADE" CRAFT FAIR,
Victoria Dock Village Hall,
Southbridge road,
Hull,
HU9 1TS.
11.30am - 3pm
Admission £1 includes entry into raffle,the prize is a HANDMADE DOLLS HOUSE!

Sat 7th July:
Made and Sold in Hull Event
11am - 3pm
Marist Church Hall
Cottingham Road
Hull

Saturday 14th July:
Summer Fayre - Endsleigh Mercy Centre, Hull

Sunday 29th July:
Real Aid Summer Fayre and Teddy Bears Picnic,
Tickton Village Hall and Field,
Main Street
Tickton
HU17 9RZ
11am -4pm

Saturday 4th August:
Costello Hull, Family fun day
(details to be confirmed)

Sunday 19th August:
Beverley Rugby Club
(details to be confirmed)

Sat 22nd September:
Newland Craft Fair
(details to be confirmed)

Handbags and Gladrags Event tonight!

Today I am busily working to get all my stock ready for tonight's event in Hull. I have even received some new stock of cute little wooden cupcake styled key-rings, which I'm currently painting and decorating - I've painted a small painting on an easel for the raffle prize, painted a new notebook, some more photo frames and a couple of yo-yos. Hopefully, once I find my clip-board, I can update my list of items to sell (I always tick off items from the list when they've sold so that I can keep account of everything). If I get time later, I will try to upload a photo of one of the new cupcake key-rings.

This event can be viewed on Facebook here.

Sold - wooden trinket box.

I sold "Africana" last weekend - this little wooden trinket box which I decorated with Decopatch. I sold it to my Mother, which I think doesn't really count because she is biased about my work - but I'm also sure that she wouldn't spend money on something she didn't really like so that fact balances it out for me! It will be used as a jewellery box by her.

My sister also bought one of my new mini notebooks. She is similar to me in her list-making, and will be using it to keep a record of all the books she reads this year. It's nice to know what use my creations will get, for a change.

My sister bought the green notebook - which comes with a free pencil.

"Africana" - on the right of this photo, is the trinket box sold to my Mother.

I would have not sold anything at all at the craft fair last weekend if it hadn't been for my family, actually - and that's a first for me. Even my Dad bought a yo-yo for my niece, so it was a true family affair. I really appreciated their support on what would otherwise have been a very disheartening day!