This weekend, I tabled for the first time at a little craft fair.
I've mentioned this in a couple of blog posts in the past, but my mom's church has an annual holiday marketplace -- it's a craft fair and a rummage sale and there's a little restaurant aspect, too, where food and desserts are sold from the church's kitchen.
My mom's excessively crafty on top of being a fine artist. My youngest sister's also an artist. They table every year at this craft fair, and between the two of them, they always have a lot of wares. I often also send along a few things for them to sell: felt ornaments, crochet stuff.
This year I asked if I could just have my own table.
Kiiiind of a big deal for me, because this sort of scenario (a crowded room, social interaction, answering questions, dealing with transactions) is full of anxiety pitfalls. I ended up sharing a table with my little sister, and she handled the money aspect, and that worked great.
But I had a lot of crochet rainbow pillows left over from last year, and this year I got really into beading rings as a hobby and I had like, a couple hundred on hand that I wasn't doing anything with. I decided it'd be great to just sell them for a dollar. I thought kids might like them, if any kids wandered through the fair. I thought the price would be kid-friendly too.
In addition to the pillows and rings, I had some felt and crochet ornaments and made some bear ear barettes -- also an item I've blogged about! I made a few sets for me, my sisters, and a couple of friends ~ten years ago. But I still had/have a bunch of fleece and fur fabric on hand, so I cranked out some more pairs at the last minute.
I'm glad I decided to make some, because although I got some looks and comments from well-meaning but bemused people, a couple of young moms bought a pair instantly for their daughters. That made me happy. And selfishly, I enjoyed packaging up the ears and lettering little labels for the packages.
I did sell a few ornaments and pillows, but mostly sold a heck of a lot of rings! About 40, I think. My favorite customers were a couple of young girls (I'd guess they were about 17 or 18), who stopped and pored for several minutes over the rings, picking out ones for themselves and their entire friend group, and also their moms! I was happy I had a ton of rings to choose from so they could pick out colors they thought their friends would like. They were both super sweet and seemed legitimately thrilled. Honestly I will remember these two girls for a long time!
Tabling was a demanding and kind of surreal experience for me overall. Also educational. I don't mean this in a cruel or judgy way, but people are so weird!! Some, anyway. At least if I do this again next year, I'll know in advance to expect the occasional odd comments and stares. And as great as it was to share a table with my little sister, I think we both needed more room to spread our things out.
One of the most fun aspects of it to me was that I got to hear people ooh and ahh over my little sister's art and hand-painted ornaments. She's so talented!!
Today I have a total craft fair hangover, but lots of ideas for wares and presentation! I currently suspect I'll do it again next year.
