Advice re craft shows and open studio days

[JaySpangles]

Spanna and I are thinking about going to some craft shows with our wares. I live in a picturesque village near the North Yorks Moors and the village halls around us often have craft shows that feature uninteresting jewellery at very cheap prices, and I'm not sure that is where we should be.  I have looked on t'internet and there are loads of craft fair organisers, but without visiting some of each I am not sure how I can tell which are the kind we might like to go to. Does anyone have any advice to offer and/or experience of any of the craft fair organisers in North Yorkshire?

Another avenue we are considering is an open studio day.  We would probably do it for charity and use it as a learning experience.  Our house and my workshop are well set up for such a thing, including showing wares, demonstrating and offering light refreshments.  We thought we might invite a couple of acquaintances who do silversmithing and glass to boost and vary the offerings, and also extend the guest list, as well as advertising locally and opening to the public.

Again, from anyone who has experience of such events, advice much appreciated as we are newbies in marketing as well as jewellery making.

[nemeton]

I started out selling at craft shows - everything from the £5 table at the local school to the £200 three-day posh marquee at a National Trust property - and I absolutely loved it (still do)... BUT I don't make the sorts of things that sell well at craft fairs in the UK. Plus for the 'big' shows jewellery is a very saturated category so it can be hard to get a booking (I have had to reinvent myself as a seller of beads, accessories and so on in order to be present at some venues!). You really do need to spend some time just visiting craft fairs and chatting to the stallholders and organizers to find out which might be the best kind for you - another useful source of info is Craft & Design (formerly the Craftsman) Magazine, which has a lot of really good advice aimed at crafters who sell their work direct at fairs.
I occasionally made a big sale at a fair, and I had lots of fun at school fetes and ladies' nites and got quite well known on my local patch, so the fairs were a useful form of advertising and networking but in terms of actual income they were not really significant. This is why I started down the route of publishing projects in magazines - I had made all these (I thought) fabulous bits of jewellery that I just couldn't sell!
A couple of years ago I couldn't do fairs any more (for boring health reasons) and decided I'd have to sell online instead - I tried Etsy first of all and it worked so well for me that I'm still there. (Once again though I have had to reinvent myself, this time as a seller of mainly kits and tutorials, as my jewellery sales were hit hard last summer by the 'credit crunch' and haven't yet recovered.) Even though it would be physically possible for me to go back to doing regular craft fairs, I stick to just the odd school fete for fun now and again - fairs are just not an effective use of my time. And selling to someone in California while I'm asleep wins hands down over getting up at 6.30 to lug a load of crates into the car and then sit around in a damp marquee all day listening to the stallholders next door moaning about what a cr@p day they're having!
This is not to say that fairs can't or won't be effective for you - many people do manage to do very well at fairs - but I think you need to be better prepared and more selective than I was!
As to open studios - I've never done one before but this year will be taking part in our local biennial open studio event (Dorset Art Weeks) for the first time  A photographer friend and I are teaming up to have a go. It's not until the early summer but I'm getting very nervous already! There have been lots of things to think about such as disabled access and insurance and parking... and having enough time to get enough big pieces finished... and enough small things to sell to impulse buyers... and display materials, and cards, and labels, and...
We are having a brainstorming session tomorrow and if anything really useful comes out of it I'll let you know!

Best of luck anyway with whatever you decide to do 

[Josephine]

Open studios are really good. I've done the Somerset Arts Week open studio event for the last two years, although last year wasn't at my studio as it had to be groups of at least 4 and my friend has a lovely big room that she can cut off from the rest of her house. The Somerset event is actually 2 weeks (3 weekends) and although some days, often the Monday or Tuesday, can be very quiet with only a few visitors there wasn't a day when one of us didn't sell something. If you think of craft fair visitors it is probably a small percentage that part with any cash and that could be with anyone of say 20 - 100 stalls. Its a completely different thing with open studios, I would say at least 30%-40% of visitors, probably more, bought  from at least one of us.  We had a good mix which helped draw people in, my jewellery and beads, Charlotte's applique, some stained glass and an artist who does very clever 60's retro pictures, bags, mugs etc. Charlotte and I did by far the best, the stained glass lady never came at weekends which were the busiest and although the artist sold a lot of items she really underpriced herself so didn't make that much money. As a venue we took about £4000 over the fortnight, about 80% of that between the two of us and we had commissions from it and were able to promote our workshops/lessons too. The year i did it on my own I took about the same amount of money but obviously I had to be at home all the time whereas last time we did shifts and were able to get on with work in the kitchen just dashing through to the display when a car came up the drive. Why don't you see if you local area does a similar scheme. The somerset open week costs around £200 per artist, is county wide, and they publish a colour brochure of all the venues with artist details maps etc, send you road signs to put up.

Your own open studio event sounds good too, just to let people know you are there.

Craft fairs are very hard to predict. Even when I have been asked to send photos details of what I sell, supposedly to limit one type of product, uphold quality, i have found myself selling next to someone else selling bought in cr*ppy jewellery. I've spent two days at supposedly one of the big local Christmas fairs and barely covered the £150 it cost to be there. I don't really bother now. Just do the odd school or village event just to keep my name out there locally. Sometimes it is the little fair in a hall that cost you £10 to be there for a few hours that is more successful, it only takes one or two people to come along and buy a nice necklace or bracelet and you've made a bigger profit than at the prestigious event that cost big money to be there.

[JaySpangles]

Thank you for your very informative answers.
I was beginning to think it was a dumb question because no one had responded.

On reflection I think I favour the open studio route, but not the East Coast Open Studios as they are Arts Council funded and they are a bit elitist in selecting participants, (I have had experience wearing my other hat as a painter).
I would prefer a more informal event along the lines of Carl's, so Carl I will pm you when I get my head further around the idea.  Thank you for the offer.

In the meantime I will spend the summer visit craft shows and reviewing the situation, also I think we will dip our toes into the dreaded Etsy.
Regards
Janet

[nemeton]

Thanks for that, Josephine - I'm feeling a bit better about the whole thing now! It seemed  like a lot of money upfront and will be a big commitment in terms of time, but we figured we ought to have a try even if we only did it once

Janet, not a dumb question at all, it's what I should have asked before jumping in with both feet! 
(and if you do decide to give Etsy a whirl, come and join the FHFteam  )

[jammie]

I agree that craft fairs are very hit and miss. The main problem for me has been that about 80% of stalls are selling jewellery and a lot of it tends to be kind of trinket jewellery, buttons and big plastic type beads which seem to be popular and sell well. I have had 2 fairs by the same organisers and just covered costs really, one in May and one at Christmas. But having saoid that, our local craft association Christmas fair is really popular as people actually come to buy gifts, We did great at this one and also at a local hospital exhibition and sale day.
I haven't been sure about what to do this year but dont see the point of doing the ones again that were pretty rubbish with no one wanting to spend money, but I have joined the local craft association and will definetly do theirs as people come regularly every year and it was just great!

Good luck with it, there is a thread somewhere on the forum along similar lines with other peoples experiences and lists of what to take and that sort of thing.

[Josephine]

Its really good fun Lynn, especially doing it with a friend. This year I could do it at home on my own so I could demo but I am going to Charlotte's again instead.

Make sure you do a bit of really local advertising of your own. The brochure draws in the people from far and wide that  go every year...some of our visitors take a week or fortnight off work to travel round! But amazing how many locals don't register it is happening unless you spell it out for them. Posters in local post office window, pub etc all helps. Maybe even do a write up of your venue/work and send it in to your local paper about a fortnight before, they tend to feature a few in our paper.

One thing that has paid of for me is to ask if people want to go on a mailing list. I've then organised a mini christmas/craft fair at my house, invited along half a dozen others, Phoenix cards, etc. It was a bit quieter this Christmas but the one before was really busy and lots of visitors were from Arts Week.

And yes little things are definitely worth having, I sold loads of orphans!

[nemeton]

Good thinking about local advertising Josephine - there is a local group for Dorset Visual Arts members who will be doing some promoting on my immediate patch, plus they're organizing a local 'taster show' in the middle of town with one item from each exhibitor, and printing a local trail leaflet, all of which will help. I will be putting out a press release to all the local papers and mags too 

[Moreton]

Hello to all, Shows, craft fairs etc. A word of warning. When you visit and talk to "exhibitors" they will say that "It's not worth coming here" When you attend yourself those same people will tell you that they have had "a burster" or similar just to be one up on you. Make your own estimate of footfall and look to see if  "customers" are carrying goods bought.

In a previous life at our first show the home made stall (scaffold pipe and ex-army canvas) fell down under the weight of snow and our only "sale" was free gift to a lad who kindly helped us escape from the  wreckage. The next event we took £100 and drove home jubilant that we might make a living from shows.. it was a long time ago.

Good luck. regards Pete