I attended my first fair last friday, as I’ve been mentioning, I was invited to participate in Homegrown for the Holidays. I’d like to recount my experience, hopefully it’ll give some insight. When my friend Elizabeth and I arrived everyone was in the process of getting setup. We were able to park relatively nearby to the area where my table would be, but we had to be quick. The spot we’d found could not be used for the event, and we kept getting harassed to move. We explained we were unloading really quick because the event parking was very far for us to carry everything. We managed, but I must say, had this been in Puerto Rico, several guys would have immediately offered to help carry what were obviously heavy and cumbersome objects. Hard to find gentlemen these days…
Anyways, my area was in the back part along with most of the other vendors. I was lucky that the angle I was in prevented the sun from beating down or getting in my eyes all day, I think I saw one girl’s back beat red by the end of the day. My table turned out to be a good size, and I was able to fit most everything under it for storage, my two organizers on wheels which contain all my jewelry and supplies. I had originally planned on making jewelry while I was there, but I didn’t manage for several reasons. One being that I worried things would fall and be difficult to retrieve or become dirty, another that space was limited and frankly, I was kept busy and entertained for most of the time. Here’s some pics of my table so you can get an idea of what I did:
After setting up and trying to cram as many of my pieces as I could on the table, I left Liz to watch the things while I did some exploring. I stopped by and chatted with as many vendors as I could, analyzing their wares, displays, prices, attitudes and more. I weened as much information as I could, how long they’d been crafting, how did they find out about the fair, did they know of any other events? I really practiced my social skills, tell you that, normally I’m a bit shy around new people and prefer to sit back and observe before jumping into conversations. It turned out to be worth it, as I was able to learn a wealth of valuable information.
LazyBreeze Jewelry managed to get quite a bit of attention, I’m happy to say! Many people stopped by to look, ask questions, comment on the different pieces and so on. I had a few sales, not as many as I would have liked, but I didn’t expect much. Besides, no one else sold much either. It was a small fair, and most people were just browsing or were broke, not surprising in the current economy. Nonetheless, I was happy. My main goals for the fair were accomplished, namely, garnering as much information and feedback as possible. I now have several events to look into and renewed confidence that my jewelry is indeed liked and considered to be fairly price. Until then I had that gnawing fear that the sales I’d had so far had been sympathy purchases, made to support me and my efforts and not so much because of a real desire to own the piece. I shouldn’t have worried, I received so many compliments for my art that I have no doubt my jewelry is worthwhile.
All in all, I truly enjoyed my experience, it was enriching and incredibly fun. I ran into people I know, met many new artisans with whom I intend to foster good professional and friendly relationships, and left renewed with inspiration and determination to succeed.
