Together with some fellow woodcarving students I set up my first stand at a craft market yesterday. Even though sales weren’t fantastic to say the least, it was a great day.
I met a lot of nice people and had a blast talking about our hobby and demonstrating some carving. Many people were interested in the work pieces and the process.
However we also learned that we had some work to do in presenting our works and which type of items sell well. Some of us had business cards with our social media on it, but those didn’t have an e-mail address, so providing ample contact info is another item for the TO DO list.
Next time we’ll have to dress up the booth a bit more. Here’s an idea of the set up we had.
[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”19″ exclusions=”80,82,83,84,85,86,87″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”120″ thumbnail_height=”90″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”20″ number_of_columns=”0″ ajax_pagination=”0″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”0″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show slideshow]” template=”default” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]I mostly had bowls on display and some smaller items, which I learned are more likely to sell quickly. Now the object of our day at the market wasn’t to get rich or sell out everything we brought, but it is nice to have some sales to free up some closet space back home.
Here are two of the bowls I brought that people were most interested in.
[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”19″ exclusions=”87,89,90″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”120″ thumbnail_height=”90″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”20″ number_of_columns=”0″ ajax_pagination=”0″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”1″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show slideshow]” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]It seems that the unconventional shape, which I call an elephant’s foot, of the (darker) elm bowl and the spalting of the birch bowl in combination with it’s bird mouth shape were popular. Still neither item was sold by the end of the market. I didn’t have any information on any of the items, only a price tag at the bottom and it seems that wasn’t enough.
Next time, at least for my part of the stand I’ll add some info sheets on the larger items, explaining what the items are made of and some info on the creation of it.
Perhaps I’ll even add a screen showing some video’s as I also started a YouTube channel last year.
Reading this back it may come across a bit negative, but that really wasn’t the feeling we had at the end of the day. We enjoyed ourselves and people were genuinely interested in our work. So with some fine tuning here and there our next show will not only lead to an enjoyable day, but should also see more people going home with our precious work pieces.
That being said, if would like to support my work. All the items I have for sale, can be found in my Etsy shop.
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