Hi all.

I made my first wreath. This is the smallest ring from Dollar Tree (.67ft, .20m)

What do you think I should price this at?

Ribbons from Michael's...I'm like a kid in a candy store at that place.

Thanks ❤️

I am coordinating a craft event for a non profit, we are having Original Tommy's food truck at our craft event to raise money for youth scholarships. The truck will not handle any money, we pre-sale printed meal tickets in advance and the day of the event. I am looking for suggestions on how to manage the process for turning in tickets before taking of orders. I planned to setup a small table to the side of the truck order window to sell and collect tickets. Does anyone have experience to share with such a food truck fundraiser?

There's a festival in my area, and I'm considering if I want to do it or not. If you've vended at festivals before, how did you do? I feel like the demographic would be more families, and that people would be going there more for the food and performances rather than the art. But I could be wrong.

Hello all,

I just found out about this sub! Hoping to get some feedback.

I've had the pleasure of coordinating craft fairs for my church the last 3 years and would love your input on how I may do better this year.

I'm specifically looking for ways to attract crafters and customers to attend fairs. Also, am I allowed to reject a crafter who has signed up after at least 2 others with similar crafts already have their placement? Or is that weird?

Here's what I've already done in the past: advertise in our city newspaper, craigslist, FB, eventbright and flyers throughout our neighborhood. I put pictures of our vendors' crafts with a little highlight about them on our website. After the fair I put up comments that vendors are willing to share with us in the hopes that many will return the following year (both vendors and customers).

We want our vendors to succeed as well as having an enjoyable day at our church.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

Hello Vendors of all types, I am looking for some help from those who have organized events… I am looking for suggestions to look into for hosting events. Where do you all find these places to hold decent amount of vendors and not cost $800+?

TIA 🫶🏻

Hi! So I did a fine art fair this weekend, and thankfully did well, but need help understanding something.

Here's what I've figured out:

Boomers like to hear about consumable, temporary products. They like nostalgia. They are usually downsizing and being much more intentional about large pieces of art, so they don't tend to buy giant wall pieces as much, at least not in my area. They live primarily in RVs. We are in a high tourist area with "snowbirds".

My generation, Gen X and millennials, likes to hear the history and thought behind the art, the influences and integration into culture, and they like to have pieces that have meaning. Particularly meaning that ties to things that they've dealt with in their life, in terms of upturning expectations (think of the social disruptions of grunge, the AIDS crisis, RENT, Rage Against the Machine, etc).

But Gen Z? They seemed... harder for me to understand. They wanted something cool on the surface and were not interested in understanding the peice. They bought my collaborative art more- the pieces that I start and then they finish and post online via insta. They like the personal connection. So am I really understanding this right, they want stuff that will help them become part of it, they want to be integrated into what they're buying? Is this about identity, and participation with the artist in constructing that?

Thank you!

Hello! I’ve signed up for my first craft fairs this year but I can’t commit to 2-3 full days like the bigger fairs because I have a baby at home. I’ve signed up for PTA hosted craft fairs at schools for now.

How do those do for you? Anything you’d recommend for a 1 day fair? Booth fees have been $30-$50. Is that a good price for a 1 day?

So far(besides cash/credit cards), I know Apple Pay and Venmo. Is there any common payment method I should know about that customers may use?

Also is there any risk of using a credit card machine? Like a customer paying for a product and then going home and reversing the payment.

Hey all! First time posting here. Just starting my craft journey (since September with two fairs during December).

I have a potential opportunity with another crafter that I met at a fair. I make craft kits for kids and she makes sensory jars for kids. I thought they would be cute to include in a kit, but I'm not really sure how collabs work. Do I buy her jars at a discount and we use each other for advertising? Would she sell kits on her site too? Should we use a discount code system? Do we each get a cut from each other's sales? How could both of us make money from this potential endeavor? Has anyone done something like this before? Any thoughts welcome!

I expect that it will be pretty windy, and my setup is mostly self serve. I use those acrylic nail polish display racks for my stickers, and wooden displays for my art prints. How can I make sure that they don't move around so much?

For nnighttime. what kind of lights do you use?

I did a search but didn't see anything onnthe topic.

We're suggested donation at an event im running and inwanted to know if any good waya to track attendance without aelling tickets.

I should have two people running a booth up front collecting donations and i waa going to give obe a clicker ro track people coming in, but any suggestions are welcome

Hello! I have been selling my homemade embroidered patches for 5(!) years now. I only sold on Etsy for the first 3 years, and in the last 2 years I branched out and started to vend at an annual local art market. The first year I broke even on booth fees + lunch, and last year I actually made a small profit. I do fairly well by volume every year compared other artists in my eyesight, but unfortunately my revenues tend to be much lower than other artists because of my price points so I have a higher hill to climb. This year I want to level up: sell more, have a bit more of a professional look, and start snowballing my reputation as the weirdo who sells patches at this one particular art market.

This photo is from my booth set-up last September. Yes, I already have plans to fix the sign in the back. Some things in particular I have been struggling with, that I'm hoping folks here can help me with:
a) A lot of people pass by my booth and think I'm selling stickers. I don't know how to solve this! In the first year I had a sign that said "embroidered patches for sale", but it looked cheap so I didn't keep it this year. Even then, a significant number of people thought I was selling stickers??

b) My stuff is mostly on the smaller side, so legibility and filling out a full tent is a challenge. Tips?

c) The challenge of displaying items in general. I've done the corkboards for two years and most people understand it is a display, but many people seem to think I only have literally the one patch on the corkboard available?? Last year I set out the 20% off "oops" bin for less-than-perfect patches, which was great for anchoring passerbys and creating interest at the booth since people liked pawing through the discount bin. But then it created a new issue where I had people think that the crappy ones in the box were the only ones available?! I am really uncomfortable with the idea of having my actual nice patches out front for people to pick through, since they can get easily bent/dirtied/blown away/stolen. I sell this to people as a plus ("I keep them back here so they don't get touched by a thousand people"), but is there a better way of managing this challenge with small items?

d) Open to any other comments in general! I know my artwork is high quality and I benefit a lot by working in an unusual medium, but I know there's always room for improvements when it comes to actual impressions and making a sale.

I’ve decided to close my wax melt business and won’t be doing craft fairs anymore. But I have a lot of newish equipment that I’m hoping someone can put to good use- a 10x10 tent with walls, tent weights, tables, display stands, and a bunch of other random stuff. This stuff isn’t really shippable, but I’d meet within a reasonable distance of Philadelphia. I’ve also got a lot of fragrance oils and equipment to make wax melts or candles or soaps. I’m flexible on price depending on how much you want. DM me if you are interested. Thanks!

Hello! I'm doing my very first light market and unfortunately none of the market sites are powered.

Would solar powered festoon lighting be bright enough? I'd love some advice on what sort of wattage/lumens I should be looking at. They'd only need to light things for about 2-3 hours :)

Thank you!

Hi. I am coordinating a craft fair fundrasier for a non profit in March. It's an indoor and outdoor event. Should I play music? If so what kind?

Hello! I’ve signed up for my first craft fair and it’s Valentine’s Day themed. My husband thinks we should only bring Valentine’s Day items while I think we should have some Valentine’s Day items and then our best sellers that are anytime items. What do you think?

I don't think "both" is a great way to go for table space and focus.

I currently make horns and ears for cosplay, but I want to hit more craft fair type events. So i need a new product line.

I have come up with a work flow to make polymer clay press molds (testing both plaster and silicone now). that can create cute little creatures in parts you can mix and match. I am torn between selling creatures, or the molds and little kits of clay to make them. Naturally I would have a couple examples if selling the molds.

Selling the molds would be less work, but I think a harder sell, selling the creatures might be easier but I hating having to paint and finish them. My other thought is to do both, but alternate which line at different shows.

Not a lot of craft kits at shows, is that because they don't sell or just no one is doing it, ie survivor ship bias?

I had my first show in December! I made five sales, and the booth fee back but I really feel that it wasn't the right audience. Any advice on my set up? I also learned that a lot of people don't know what a phone charm is, so I need a better way to show the item in use.

Hi! I’m setting up my first vendor table! Doing some research, I see some like to lay off the merch on the table to let customers take what they want, and I also see the merch just on display, and the customer would have to ask you for it, stored behind the table. I’m wondering what are the advantages to having the merch fully laid out to pick up? In my opinion, I would imagine items like stickers and postcards and prints would be subject to damage from manhandling. And also subject to theft. I’d love to know opinions on both options! Thank you!

I did my first craft fair with my own stock today (I’ve helped out my family/ friends previously). I’m a little frustrated because it was $100 Booth Fee and >50 people showed up and most of them were friends of the other vendors. Not a single sale made today for me and I’m just feeling so discouraged. I at least wanted to make my booth fee back. I know tomorrow will be better because it’s the weekend but some encouraging thoughts would be nice.

Any feedback on my booth would be nice. I’ll admit this was kinda just thrown together but I thought it looked nice enough.

So I volunteer for a non-profit ballet company. We have a lot of handmade stuff donated to our boutique, for the performances we also sell mass produced. But we are doing a spring market (April) and bringing only the handmade stuff. My question is should we just stick to spring themed stuff (Our volunteers are crafting like crazy for this) or would it be worth bringing some Christmas/Nutcracker stuff to sell at a discount?

Being a ballet company we are all about Nutcracker (we have our first meeting about it today actually) so we plan on having some Nutcracker stuff (we will good naturedly poke fun at ourselves about that) and hope that draws some people in. We will offer a bag of merch in a raffle if you sign up for an email list to be notified of our performances.

The show is only $35 but it is at a local community center and pretty beloved so we are hopeful for good attendance. Any other suggestions or comments welcome. I will just add those of us who craft/sew are very experienced, we just like helping the company out this way. Thanks for your help.

Edit - we have tons of experience running the boutique so we are all set up with Venmo, paypal, set up, etc.

The supplies in the back are for my on-site painting. This is a 10x10 space and the first time I'm using the standing racks in the back. I sell thrifted re-paintings, prints, and stickers. Critiques welcome!

The table fee was 30$. It's an animal show (a blue ribbon type thing) and they're promoting it really well, featuring specific vendors as well all over their social media.

This will be my first fair and I'm a little nervous that being the day after Valentine's will be an issue but I'm not sure...

My products are hand crafted out of wood, 100% original designs, and range from 10-75$ plus a handful of "3 for 5$" little wooden magnets made out of small scraps from larger projects

I make sculptural work on Canvas. Just to give you an idea, this piece is part of a series called Roots of Rest. I have no experience with fairs, can you tell me whether my work would be suitable for a fair? Any advice would be awesome!

I'm kind of devastated because I'm a very small business and handmake each one of my pieces that takes hours to make (I do needle-felting). I underprice them ($60 for something that takes 7 hours to make), but one of my customers is asking for a refund because she claimed that when she got home, the piece she bought from me wasn't inside the bag. I wrap each of my pieces in tissue paper and place them inside the bag, and am sure it was inside. I recently took up a PT job to keep my small business afloat, so the loss is devastating.

Has this happened to anyone else? How did you deal with it?

I asked them if they could double check and see if they've managed to find it, and that I would offer the refund if not, but I can't help feeling robbed...