Thoughts on my second craft fair

On Saturday I had my 2nd Christmas craft fair. It was held at Belle Isle URC. I was hoping it was going to be better than the last fair. Read on to find out if it did.

I'd managed to get most of the stuff ready the night before so had a fairly smooth morning. I even remembered to take the stocking filler/pocket money items that I forgot last time.

There were a lot more stalls at this fair with quite a variety of products. There were a lot more people coming through as well. I think it helped that it was in a church that was used by the community. It had a community cafe in the church, which was open during the fair. This encouraged more people to come and have a look at the stalls before or after eating. Some even had a look whilst they waited for food to be made. I had a few friends, family and fans of my jewellery come along too, which added to the numbers.


There was a reasonable amount of interest in my jewellery and I made a few sales. Most of them were the stocking filler/pocket money items, which was understandable because they were cheap and meant to draw children's attention and therefore their parents. However I hope they didn't detract too much from my main items. I did make a few sales of my silver items. I sold a necklace and some earrings, and someone ordered a ring. Quite a few people took business cards so hopefully I'll get a few more sales from them in the future.

Overall I'm reasonably happy with how it went. I would have preferred a few more sales, particularly of my silver items, but I sold enough to cover costs and make some profit too. The problem with craft fairs is they take quite a lot of time and effort in preparation and on the day. It's trying to find the balance between the amount of time and effort it takes and how much I will make from it. However, this isn't as straight forward as how much money I take on the day because craft fairs can often act as advertising. As I said earlier quite a few people took business cards, so I'm hoping that it will raise my profile and I will make sales in the future. Plus I do like meeting customers. It's a lot nicer seeing people look at your work and making positive comments than looking at some stats saying that x many people visited my on-line store.

Have you ever been to a craft fair? What attracts you to certain stalls? Is it the products, the display, the seller? What do you like/not like about craft fairs?

Have you sold anything at a craft fair before? How did you find it and how did you find the balance of time and effort versus items sold?