first 2013 show wrap up

This past weekend I had my first craft fair for 2013. It was a brand new show with a very low booth fee, which made it hard to know what to expect. As there was such a low cost, I figured it would be a good opportunity to try out some of my new 2013 show ideas without a lot of pressure. The good news is that not only was I able to do that, it also turned out to be a great experience.

The big picture. The overall layout is still largely unchanged. I'm happy with the open square shape and was able to make the changes that I wanted within it. As I've mentioned before, I am planning to update the banner photos throughout 2013. I haven't gotten very far with that project so I didn't mess with it for this show.

Smaller show items. I brought back the boxed tack set idea from late 2011, and I bought a larger dry erase board and easel display for my glass magnets. Both of these ideas really paid off at this show. There was much less general confusion about what these items even were, and I sold considerably more of both of them than I did at most 2012 shows. I created new price signs for my entire display, but otherwise, my small items displays were largely unchanged because they've been working just fine.

Restocking and reorganizing. As I've mentioned before, I am doing my best to keep best selling items in stock for 2013, which includes these celestial pieces. I had the blue and purple designs back for this show with both bracelets and earrings. I paired down the amount of jewelry that I displayed, which allowed all of the items that were that to be more spaced out. I'm so glad that I did that.

Further reorganization. You get a better idea of the pairing down in this photo. The bottom line is that it is extremely rare that I sell high-end items at shows. My only high end lines that sell consistently are my leaf series and my dagger bracelets. I took everything else above $30 out for this show. I was worried about how this would go, but people were still suitably impressed with my beading skills and were just as interested in these two higher end lines as ever, if not more so, as they really got to shine. I'm still going to keep the higher items on Etsy, but they will be less of a focus at shows.

I also took out my big greeting card box and left the small displays with my few designs that have done well. I'm going to keep adding more sheet music designs in 2013. The "just a note" design was still popular, and I sold at least one additional set as well.

Putting my button lines front and center. The button bracelet line that you can see right in the front is always one of my most discussed lines at shows. They sell decently well, but they always get comments. So I put them up front. As you can see, I really need to add a few more, but people loved what was there and also spent more time looking at the button charm bracelets than they normally do.

I know that I'm inevitably going to have future shows that aren't as great where it doesn't matter what I do with my booth, but it was a huge boost to have such a good show so early in 2013. I'm excited about how well all of my booth changes went and how well people continue to enjoy my original bracelet designs and small ticket show items. Overall a lot of vendors and customers were happy with this new show, so hopefully the school will decide that it's worth considering again for next year.

I already have a "to do" list with half a dozen items so it's probably just as well that my next show isn't until next month! I'm looking forward to it, though.

Does anyone else have spring shows this year? How are your preparations going?

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