Mother/Daughter Weekend.

There was a whole lot of mother/daughter bonding going on this weekend. In fact, I would call it the theme of the event for me. I spent more alone time with my Mom than I have years. This was nice, except for the being sick as a dog on Sunday part. The craft show day was cold and windy which was good for my sales but it didn't help my cold much to say the least. I'm still coughing up a storm and just hoping to make it through the day at work.


I had a lot of support from family and friends at this event which made it extra special for me. It's going to be a very Lenox Knits Christmas at the Barnitz household this year for sure. They are the amazingly supportive neighbors and old family friends that bought many gifts to exchange this year.

Lisa and her daughter were going to have to miss the show on Saturday so they came over the night before to get a advance show all to themselves. They had a lot of fun playing in my tubs and frolicking in the knitwear. Kennedy is an absolute doll and she is an excellent model too. I plan on having her do some modeling for me the next time I'm home for my Etsy shop.
I also made a surprising number of stranger sales which was encouraging. I got lots of compliments from Mom's friends but the rest of my sales were to the hip, discerning shoppers of Rolla like this pair here. They were my last customers of the day and two of my favorites. They are future mother and daughter in laws and they had a lot of fun picking out their scarves. They had a nice camaraderie and they let me take a picture with their chosen scarves.




I think that I will probably do this event next year as well. It's a nice change of pace from the indie shows I do and it was a good day for sales to boot. I can almost fit all of my inventory into one tub which is a first in awhile. You can tell that I have had things priced to move this year for sure.

Rolla Holiday Bazaar!

I'm heading back down to the farm this afternoon for the Rolla Holiday Bazaar tomorrow from 9:00-4:00. Mom and I will be setting up my booth bright and early. It will be fun to have her there for the day. Kai is the only person I've ever had help me with a show before. Something tells me that Mom will do less texting and complaining but I could be wrong.

The above shots are from last weekend at the farm. We went down for the annual hunting cabin party. You can see the good ole blue grass band that Dad and my cousin Beth are dancing too in the panning shot. The top one is of my friend Tif riding Bob. We had a very relaxing weekend which I'm afraid won't be the case this time but hopefully it will be worth it.

Strange Folk Wrapup: The Good

I'm going to break the wrap up from Strange Folk into 2 parts. The good and the not-so good. Today will just be my observations about the weekend so I will probably ramble on a bit. There were definitely some things that I learned from this experience and that's what I'll talk about tomorrow. I'm certainly no expert on shows as I've only been doing them part time for a few years. I do like to share what I learn here so that I don't forget it and so that others can learn from what I do both right and wrong.

I really never got a good shot of the whole booth display. I took pictures both mornings after I set up but the sun was always either too bright or not bright enough. This is from the first morning. When I got there I was in a total tizzy because I couldn't figure out how I was going to configure my booth to fit both quilt racks. About 30 minutes into set up I looked up and saw the other vendors setting up facing outwards not inwards into the tent. Oops. No wonder they were all looking at me like I was overreacting.

This is why I always get there well over an hour before it starts, with plenty of time to get things set up right. So I turned my table around and placed the racks outside of the tent in such a way to draw people in with the bamboo rug as a nice balance. I liked this overall configuration. I sat my stool next to the table not behind it, so that I could come out and talk to people and hold the mirror for them. I was never really happy with my table displays but I will talk about that tomorrow.


I had the sweetest booth neighbors I've ever had in every sense of the word. Sarah and her mom from The Hot Cookie were such a treat to hang out with for the weekend. When I needed a pick me up a great trade was made, cookies for a headband, you can't beat that. Her cookies really are amazing and she sells them on Etsy here. Mike's favorite was the Lemon Tarragon Sables and mine was the chocolate with oats. They each bought a scarf from me and wore them proudly sending customers my way.

Kai was such a great helper this weekend. This was my first show that I had any help since my first one that I did with friends. It made such a huge difference. If you have an agreeable friend, spouse, or teenager I highly recommend it. He took his responsibilities very seriously. His main job was to make sure that no scarves were touching the ground since we were outside and there was a great deal of mud after all the rain. He restocked after things sold and made sure the display was in place. He was also a great help during what he called the Cabbage Patch Kid moments when 4 or more women were in the booth in a frenzy. These were the good times that customers were trying everything on, throwing things to each other, and "fighting" over scarves.

It was so nice to be able to walk away occasionally and not worry about things walking away from the booth. He gave me this update when I came back from one bathroom break. "I explained about the scarflettes to the lady and she liked that one but she didn't think it would match her coat." For some reason I found this exchange cute. He took lots of pictures with his new camera and we traded for some art with one of the vendors nearby.

Staying at the hotel on Saturday night was a good decision even if their wi-fi wasn't working and Mike spent most of the evening complaining. Mike hung out with his brother and Brian most of the time that he was there. He did give me one good suggestion. I was complaining that things weren't moving on Sunday morning and he told me to get more things on the racks. I had decided to just put out $15 scarves on Sunday and a few $30 ones on the table since the lower end was what was moving on Saturday. I had kept it nice and neat but they were beginning to look bare which was not drawing people in as much. Once I put more out I got lots more interest as they was more selection to choose from.

He also entertained some people with his commentary. At one point before he left on Sunday he cracked up a woman who overheard him say that part of his soul had just died from boredom. Luckily she was a fellow vendor and he didn't offend a customer with his sarcasm.

I don't know if I will ever be able to get Mike to come back but I do think that Kai would help again with the proper amount of incentive, i.e. bribery. By the time he is too old/cool to spend the weekend hanging out with his aunt, Ani should be old enough to make a good helper. She and her Dad, Gandolf the Grateful Dead, came out on Saturday and had a good time despite the rain.

Overall it was a successful and fun event. Strange Folk really is my target audience in every sense of the word. The free spirits get me and my aesthetic and I love being a part of it all. The other vendors are such amazing artists and with the music and other activities I always come away so inspired. I also came away with a box of yarn from the Upcycle Exchange and nothing beats free yarn.

Strange Folk Festival!

I got news recently that I made it into the Strange Folk Festival again this year. I posted about my experiences with it last year here. It was absolutely my favorite show ever. It was such a success not only financially but it was the first time I really enjoyed a show and felt like I was in my element. It has a very youthful and free spirit vibe to it which I love. I'm sure I'll be talking about it a lot between now and the end of September as I prepare for it. The website has been completely overhauled and is now a great PR spot for the festival. She has written lots of little posts about the vendors and other happenings for the weekend. I'm excited that one of my scarves is the representation for the knitting page which you can see here.

There is going to be a very green and eco-friendly focus to this year's festival so I'm going to incorporate that as much as possible into my preparations. Here is another update from the website that I'm really interested in:

"This year, Strange Folk celebrates the art of writing by welcoming local and regional authors to showcase and sell their books. We are working to bring in writers from a wide variety genres, and our schedule has not yet been finalized. If you are an author interested in participating, please e-mail christinegerrish@lcls.org by August 31st for more information.

This exhibit will also include a “Live Blogging” station – 10 computers available with internet access provided by The O’Fallon Library!"

So I can blog from the festival which will be cool and maybe next year if Mike has finally finished his book he can participate. They also have bands play but the boys didn't decide until too late to apply for this year.

I've been thinking a lot about my booth display for this year and how I can make it much more appealing and eye-catching. I'll be talking about it next week as I have started to put some of my thoughts into action.

Craft show Ideas

Thanks everyone for all you sweet words in my last post. I'm doing what I need to do to get balanced again. I know it seems early but I am starting to plan for next Fall's show season which gives me something to not only work towards but look forward to. As I've said before I did 3 shows last year and I did a post with my thoughts right after the season was over. I would like to raise that to 5 shows this year. It is not easy deciding which shows are worth your time but let me tell you the thought process I go through when considering a show.

For me it is all about Fall. Spring and summer shows are not worth the time and energy for me. Knitting is inherently a Fall/Winter craft. On this note I really prefer indoor shows. I have one outdoor festival that is the exception but I choose to do it in the covered pavilion. I don't want to have to deal with setting up a tent and keeping my scarves dry and clean outdoors. There is a big advantage to setting up in a tent if you can find a cheap one like my sister in law, Gray Eyed Scorpio, did as you can spread out and can control the display more. She found a very reasonable tent on Craigslist that is supposed to be easy to open although she still needed her husband the first time. Here was her booth at last years Strange Folk Festival in all of its glory.

Weather can be much more of a factor with outdoor shows and if you are set up next to a food vendor you may come away with inventory stinking of BBQ, yes it happened to me once. I did a street show with a few friends just to get a feel for it 2 years ago and I decided that wasn't my scene pretty quickly. These outdoor street events often have entertainment that you are competing with not to mention the resellers peddling their Avon and non-handmade items. Many of the festival goers are there with their kids to enjoy the day and aren't thinking about shopping for handmade.

Another thing to consider when choosing a show is whether it is juried or not. Personally I prefer juried shows since it keeps the resellers out but there is the stress factor of waiting to see if you got in. I am not in the league to consider the high end art shows but if you are than you need to plan pretty far in advance and be willing to put out some bucks in fees. The most I've ever paid for a booth fee is $90 but I have heard of shows that cost in the hundreds of dollars that attract a high end clientele. Shows that have been around along time and have a built in clientele are worth the investment in most cases. You should consider how long they have been doing the event and if possible find out how many attended the year before. I've never done an event that charged attendees to enter but I've been told they bring out people really ready to shop.

The show that I did for $90 was the Lindbergh show which is the largest one in the St. Louis area. It is a more traditional show held in a sprawling High School and draws up to 10,000 a year. I did not make quite as much last year as I had hoped there but I am doing it again this year as it was a good way to connect with a different audience. I got at least one large sale after the fact from it on-line by passing out my cards. It was for 2 days which I really prefer since I feel that if I'm going to devote a weekend to a show I'd rather have it be the whole weekend. You may feel the opposite and there are any number of one day events at schools and churchs with booth fees under $50 that you can use to get your feet wet. I plan on doing one of these in my local area this year so that people at work and friends can come without having to travel too far.

I'm lucky that in my area there are several groups that promote very good indie shows. These events bring out a younger crowd with more dispensable income, always a plus. My scarves/scarflettes have been received well by this market and I consider them my target at this point. It can be harder to find these events if you haven't done them before but you can look into your local craft mafia as they are often behind many of these shows. Indie Craft Shows is a directory of national indie events. It doesn't have any of the ones listed here in MO that I know of, but it is a place to start.

Missouri has a site called MissouriArtsAndCrafts with a list of events and I'm sure your state probably has something similar. It is not complete and many event planners may not have started submitting their Fall shows for this year yet. I will sometimes go back to the year before and see what was offered and then do a google search to see if I can find any info on something if it sounds interesting.

I just discovered a new site called Craft Lister with over 50,000 events listed across the country. You can sign up for free but to access all the details and reviews of the shows it costs a fee. It is $20 for 2 months which should be all the time you would need. You can also get some time for free by giving reviews or referring people. If you are interested please let me know and I will send you an e-mail and if you sign up for the free account I get 14 days of full service for free!

Another comprehensive site is Festival Network Online. You can search events for free here but to get full details and other services it costs $49 a year. This is more than I can justify paying but I do use it to search and then I google events that sound interesting to see if I can find more details.

The Artsy Crafter is a favorite blog of mine that focuses on art and craft shows by an artist that has many years in the circuit to share. If you are just getting started it is good to attend some shows first to get a feel for it and talk to some vendors to get their ideas. Some people will be open to helping while others might be more reserved, especially if you are in the same category. I know there is at least one other knitter in the St. Louis area that I see around and consider my "competition" for shows. Would I share all of my secrets with her, probably not, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you guys might have about shows.

What I Learned About Craft Shows

I survived my first real craft show season. I know that 3 big shows is not a huge deal to many crafters but it was my first true experience in the field. I have learned a lot and want to record some of it for my own reference next year and maybe someone else can get something out of it too.

1. I learned that I can probably handle 5 shows if spread out by a few weeks. Especially if a few of them are the boutique style where I don't have to be there the whole time.
2. Indie shows are the way to go for me. These are designed for a younger more urban target market that seems to like my designs and generally has dispensable income for higher end purchases.
   
3. Make more neutral and black scarves. All of my black scarves sold at Mad Art Gallery. I love working with vibrant colors but I really need to have something for everyone and some people really like wearing darks and black.
   
4. I should continue to expand my lines with all different price points. I want to continue to come up with innovative designs and have some items at the lower end so that everyone has something they can buy.
5. Prices should be clearly marked and consistent. I made the decision this year to have 2 different price points on my scarves instead of having individual prices on things. This made it hard since there were some scarves that I was charging more for on-line, but it made shopping my booth much easier. I decided that it was worth it but I really need to think about the issues of having different prices on-line and at the shows.
6. Too much is not necessarily a good thing. I always brought all of my merchandise to the shows but I found that over filling my quilt racks and table actually overwhelmed shoppers. If someone was interested in a different color I could always get out the plastic tubs with the rest of my inventory and let them look through them. I sold a bunch of scarves right out of the tub.
7. Always have a mirror, the bigger the better. This should be obvious if you are selling jewelry or wearables but at every show I did I had other vendors asking to borrow my nice big mirror I bought at Big Lots for $4.
8. Keep my inventory organized throughout the year. This is a big one. I spent a lot of time organizing and reorganizing my inventory this season. As I'm finishing things, instead of just putting it into the nearest plastic tub, I need to keep them separated by type. This will also make it easier when I'm looking for something that has sold on-line.
9. Keep my inventory list updated all year long. I need to keep the Google documents spreadsheet that I created for the last show up to date to keep record of what I have and what has sold at any given time.
   
10. Renew my Propay account. It paid for itself the first day of my first show.
11. Shows that allow you to set up the night before are much less stressful the morning of. After rushing to the site and unloading everything and then setting it all up I was exhausted the first day of Strange Folk. Lindbergh has you set up the night before which makes that first morning much more relaxed.
12. If you can't set up the night before than at least pack up the car and be ready to go. Have the mapquest directions printed out and read through carefully. Try to get a good night's sleep. I'm always amped up and have a hard time settling down so try a beer or glass of milk.
    
13. I should do one local show. I had several people in the office and whatnot that wanted to go to a show but didn't really want to travel the distance. I should find a small St. Charles show that has a low booth fee next year for the locals.
14. Let people know where I will be. I had at least one person come to the show because they saw on-line that I was going to be there. Hopefully people will come back to the shows next year expecting me to be there which will also be nice.
15. Bring tons of business cards. I ordered 1000 cards before the season started and I'm down to a few hundred left. I know of at least one big sale that came from someone seeing me at a show and then going to my Etsy shop soon after. I should also mention that I used my cards as price tags and wrote info on the back. Next year I want to print little labels to stick on the back with the price, fiber content, and washing instruction typed out.
    
16. Start an e-mail list. I am going to bring a sign up sheet next year that people can put down their e-mail if they like. I will then send out a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter. I will entice them to sign up by giving them some sort of coupon they can use on-line.
    
17. Research the shows ahead of time but have room for the unexpected. I was actually signed up for a different show on the weekend of the Big Ass Show. When I got the e-mail suggesting I apply I signed up on a whim and it sounded like it would be a good venue so I went for it. Luckily I was able to get my money back from the other one.
18. Make friends with the organizers and keep a smile on your face even if it's painful. The last thing you want to do is to be seen as a trouble maker by the organizer, especially if it is a juried show.
    
19. Make friends with your booth neighbors. When I got to the Lindbergh show I noticed my neighbor had her display blocking my entrance to behind my table. I first asked her if I could move it over some but I then just rearranged things so I was able to get out on the other side. If that was not an option I would have had to push it more and had her move but it would have made for a painful 2 days. And come to find out she has been in that spot for many years and I will be doing the show next year in the same space so making an enemy right off the bat would not have been worth getting an inch more of wiggle room. I think you really have to choose your battles. Sometimes it may be worth it but in that case it just wasn't worth it. And in some cases you need your neighbors to watch your booth while you slip to the bathroom so having a friend is a good thing.
20. Wear your product. Again this should be obvious but I found that when I wore wrist cuffs or necklaces they were even more understandable and people bought more.
21. Take off work the Monday after. I work full time and this year I took the Thursday and Friday off before my 2 first shows. If I stay organized I think it would be better to have the Monday after to regroup and reinventory.
    

Feel free to add your own suggestions! I'm always looking for tips on how to improve my shows.