New Friends and Strange Trading

I was truly blessed this year with the perfect conditions and location at the Strange Folk Festival. I was located right next to the stage so I had one quilt rack on the far end of the table and the other on the steps. I set my chair up on the stage so I was queen of my domain and could see everything going on below me. This shot to the right is from my perch with a few customers browsing my table.

I was also blessed with the friendliest vendor neighbors you could possibly ask for. Directly next to me was Lisa from Cornflower Press seen above. I was captivated by her original linoleum block art of rural images that reminded me of my childhood. I bought a plaque with the white barn house image as it reminded me of my Nana's old house. By the end of the weekend we were laughing like old friends and I hope to stay in touch with her. She has been making a living from her artwork for many years and I found her quite inspiring.

Straight ahead of me was the utterly tempting Dyeabolical Yarns. I always enjoy visiting with Rachel and drooling at all of her colorful fibers. I actually got one of her amazing handspuns in my favorite fall colors in a trade for one of my organic cotton creations. Trades are actually as good if not better than sales in my book as you get something that you probably wouldn't have bought otherwise to remind you of the day.

I also traded a hat for a set of all natural beauty products from Erin. I got the anti-aging lotion, the blemish treatment (how sad is it that I need both of these at my age), the mosquito repellent that uses catnip of all things and smells really good, and the cut and scrap balm.

I traded for a very cool fused glass plate from ArtLady Designs that she made out of a recycled shower door. Turns out she lives in the next town over from me and her husband works for the community college.

My goofy trade of the day was for a floppit from Tindlebears. I always need to get one item that will make my husband question my sanity and that will remind me of the inherent strangeness of the event. She also makes some really adorable teddy bears that would make great Christmas presents.

I bought a Christmas present for my Mom from Three Strands who does hand embroidery of nature images from rural Missouri. She is an ecologist from the parks service and I admired some of her photographs she was selling on notecards. One was of a controlled burn and when I told her that my Dad burns every year she got way more excited than a person should at that news. I love when someone is really enthusiastic about things other people don't think about so I instantly liked her.

And finally I once again enjoyed the yummy concoctions of the Hot Cookie. She was my booth neighbor last year and even though she was at a much healthier distance this year I couldn't resist her double fudge drops and Lemon Tarragon Sables.

Meeting unique people and making new friends really is the best part of Strange Folk each year, and is why I look forward to it more than any other event of the year.

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.

Fair Expectations

I did a few little craft shows last year with some friends for fun. The picture is from the Pattonville show I did with my friend Leslie. We hung out, I sold a few scarves, and it was all pretty low key. This year I'm doing 3 different fairs and it is causing me a fair share of stress. I know everyone blogs with tips and lists for preparing for shows. I'm going to talk about my worries and get them out there so I don't have to dwell on them.

The first is next weekend, http://www.strangefolkfestival.com/. It was my first juried process which was the first round of stress. When I got in I was totally excited but as it has gotten closer and closer the worry has gotten more realized. The process of having other people look at the fruits of my labor and creative process always intimidates me. What if I'm not good enough, cool enough, or just don't sell anything. I know I'm not the only one who goes through these emotions. It doesn't matter how prepared you are and how well you set up your booth if they don't like what you're peddling than you're not going to sell.

I don't have incredibly high expectations but I do want to make enough to make it worth my while. My goal for this years show season is to make enough to pay for my trip to France next year to visit my brother. He just moved there for work and it will be the perfect opportunity to see some of Europe, which I've never experienced before. Last year my goal was to make enough to cover what I spent on other people's crafts that day. So there is a bit more pressure this time around. It is certainly not as though my mortgage or dinner depends on how much I sell, thank goodness. I think that would take the fun entirely out of it.

I don't know why I'm so worried. I have plenty of inventory and I'm taking 3 days off work this week to make sure I'm plenty prepared. I will post some pictures when I do my sample booth on Wednesday. I want to get a feel for which of my display racks I will use for which items. I've been picking up spice racks, quilt racks, and boxes throughout the last year for displays. I spray painted most of them a nice glossy tan color for consistency and I'm going to use a white sheet over the table with a tan and brown table cloth over that.

I signed up with Propay to take credit cards and bought a knucklebuster to use with a name plate. I'm a little worried about that process but I might do a practice purchase with my husband's credit card this week to see how it works.

I'm going to use my Moo cards that I was not very happy with as price tags. I bought them on sale and they just didn't turn out how I was expecting. The pics are all cut off awkwardly and the quality wasn't what I thought it would be. I know other sellers are ga-ga over them but not me. So I will have very expensive price tags this year. My info is all printed on them and I will have to hand write the price, yarn content, and washing instructions on the back. I have pretty terrible hand writing so it will take me a long time to get all of them written legibly I'm afraid. I'm just going to price the scarves not all the smaller items. I will make up some signs for the smaller items.

I'm really concerned about how to price things for the fairs as well. I think I'm going to make all of my small items $7. This is less than I charge on Etsy but I just don't think I will be able to get $9 for a barrette or wrist cuff there. I want this to be a success so I'm going to charge what I think I can get not what it is absolutely worth. I don't think I'm going to do a deal for buying in multiples. I've given a lot of thought to this and I don't think the few extra sales it might garnish is worth getting $5 or $6 for something I put time into. I may still change my mind between know and them however.

I also have my standard worries about interacting with people. I'm an introvert and having to spend 2 days sitting next to someone I don't know is intimidating to me. I will bring knitting to work on and I'm sure I will be fine but it is a worry. Then there is the fear of getting lost on the way. I'm helplessly direction dyslexic and despite having directions already printed I'm afraid I will get hopelessly lost in East St. Louis on the way there.

I think that is it. It feels better to get it out there.

Strange Folks

I feel pretty guilty about neglecting my Etsy shop lately. Over the summer I let a lot of scarves go inactive since I didn't think anyone except for maybe a few Australians, would be shopping for scarves. Well, I have continued to be lazy and I now have over a hundred scarves finished and unphotographed, not to mention all of the necklaces and wrist cuffs sitting around.

Luckily I have my first craft show of the season coming up. I'm very excited about it and will probably be talking about it a lot in the coming weeks. It's called Strange Folks and it is Sept. 27-28 in O'Fallon, IL. This is what it says in the press release:

Strange Folk is the heartland's largest indie craft show, having been featured in Readymade magazine, on Craftzine.com, and numerous other online and print publications. Modern handmade goods appeal to people of all ages and gender. It's a way to bring genuine art into everyday life, and directly support those who create it.

From the list of vendors it looks like I'm the only knitter, with one crocheter and one spinner, so that is a good thing. It is focused on using environmentally sustainable materials so I have been working on items in hemp and cotton for the show. I hope it will open me up to a new group of shoppers.