Bridges Pottery Blog

I am not a craft-show-kinda-girl. 

 I hate the packing. I loathe the unpacking. Comet didn't mind it.

And I hate the super long day. All I can think about is all of the other things I could be doing.  I don't mind the customers or the odd people that ask stupid questions, and I like talking to the occasional person who is craft savvy and is interested in my work.

Yesterday I weathered the craft fair in a slow dribble of people that had seemingly wandered in from someplace. "Vendors" as the sellers are called are a real cult - at least the ones that are regulars. Many of them know each other - come from farther away than I had, and are seasoned setter uppers. The ladies who were behind me were very friendly and definitely good sales people. We commiserated about the lack of buyers.

 

People somehow assume that if you are a potter that you do a lot of craft shows. I don't. In fact I have now done one - not including the Farmer's Market last summer which was a brief stint 5 minutes from home.  Here on long island there are unfortunately not a lot of good "shows" for people like me. Oh, and they need to be geographically desirable - AKA close to home.

They generally fall into two categories and are run by two different organizations on Long Island. One is more like a Flea Market - I call those Crap Fairs.  Loaded with under $30.00 jewelry most of the vendors run the gamut from hand made soaps - to handmade in china sunglasses for $5.00 and made in Honduras sun dresses (kids love these shows).  The other is called "fine art" and there you will find very over priced jewelry - trying to be more hi end, a few painters and a handful of ceramic sculpture work that is priced beyond belief. Last year I visited a fine art show nearby and it was void of buyers. Not sure how some of the sellers even covered their costs?

From a business perspective - craft fairs are NOT an efficient method of moving wares and making money. I did give out a ton of business cards and pushed the idea of people going home and shopping at my Etsy store. They liked that idea, in fact many people said  'Oh I love Etsy'. I will see if I get any orders from that. But based on a per hr. earnings - you would make more with my kids lemonade stand on a bad day.