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Saturday, December 11, 2010

Craft fair takeaways

So I ended up doing two craft fairs this week, one at NPR and one at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in DC. Both were internal craft fairs, not open to the public, but they went pretty well.

I always bring materials so I can work on pins or other projects if things are slow at the table for a while. Yesterday this worked out great! I had a few potential customers come by who were interested in the pins I had, but wanted something specific--usually different sizes or colors. I was able to take their orders and make their pins right there, so they could pick them up at my table later in the day.

Felt flower pins

One of the requests was for a set of pins to wear for holidays--a pink/red one for Valentine's Day, a black-and-orange one for Halloween, a pink/yellow for Easter, and yes, a GREEN one for St. Patty's Day. Recall an earlier discussion with Brie where she thought no one would want a green flower pin? And I said they would for St. Patty's Day? Well I do...haha. So there!

I also got a few ideas from folks who wanted to see other animals/themes:
  • ladybug bookmarks
  • turtle pins
  • butterflies (wouldn't a monarch be cute on orange felt with black stitching)?
  • seals and frogs (a man came by who said he ONLY purchased things with seals or frogs on them!)
So my takeaways for the week?

1) Always bring projects to work on while you wait.
2) Make what your customers want! I seem to get a lot of requests for pink and purple pins for little girls...must make more!
3) Let visitors to your table know that you are happy to do custom work.
4) Brie is wrong about green things. :)

2 comments:

  1. Glad that things went well! That is too funny about the seals/frogs guy. (Although I really don't have room to speak, given my love of heron legs...)

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  2. Haha the best part was, after the seals/frogs guy walked away, another woman came up (who knew him) and said, "That man is a pain in the butt!"

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