2013 Christmas designs

One of the toughest part about shows is keeping inventory stocked because you never know what will and won't sell from year to year and even show to show.

I had no idea that my Christmas designs, both new and old, would do so well this year.

But it's been keeping me busy this month. That's a good thing.

As many of you know, one of the things that I love about my customers if that they come up with some of the best ideas for new designs.

I hadn't made button dangle earrings in this style with Christmas colors before, but I had a customer at a show who wanted earrings with silver bells to match the coordinating bracelet. So here they are, in both silver and gold.

All of the designs featured in this post are available in the jewelry shop. As always if you have any questions about anything or are interested in a custom order, please don't hesitate to ask.

What have you been working on lately?

2013 craft fair update

Three shows down, two shows to go. As far as sales go, the first show wasn't great, the second show was solid but not amazing, and the third show was good. All of the shows have been well run and generally enjoyable, which is refreshing, because we all know what it's like to do shows that aren't a lot of fun for any number of reasons.

I get pictures like this when I vend next to people that I know.

And then I get to take pictures like this when things slow down in the afternoon. If you vend shows, you know how there is almost always a slower period later in the day.

I made a few minor changes to my display this year, but it is largely the same as what I did last year.

As I mentioned previously, I did decide to add a little tree and button music ornaments. You see the flowers in the above booth shot (front left)? I swapped them out for this display. I'll switch it up again for the spring shows.

Usually I take show pictures with my cell phone or point and shoot, but I've been bringing the SLR with me so I can get some more professional shots.

Right now I have my button magnets on a single display where people can pick and choose. I've been thinking about creating a similar display to this one with large packaged sets and a handful of smaller two or three button sets so people can still mix and match a little if they like. Any thoughts?

When you stare at your display for hours and hours, it's really funny what you end up noticing.

Sometimes you resort to things like browsing Instagram when you don't really know your neighbors and things are slow. You also get to see how I cover my dollar store storage bins to create raised platforms.

For the Sunday show this past weekend, I had to create a long display instead of an open square display for the first time in more than a year. It wasn't nearly as much of a challenge as I feared.

It's interesting taking pictures of other people's displays for a change.

That pile of F-bombs sold in less than an hour on Sunday. Crazy, right?

How are your holiday craft shows going?

April / May show wrap up

Today I'm sharing photos of and feedback about the craft shows that I had the past two weekends.

One of the biggest things that I did for these two shows is shoot, edit, and prepare a whole new set of photos for my banner. You can see the previous set here. I love the white photo backgrounds with the white banner. I'll be able to use this set for the remainder of 2013, if not longer.

I am really glad that I moved the bulk of my button bracelets to this spot in my set up. They get a lot more attention over here. I don't necessarily sell more of them, but they draw people into my booth.

My $15-$40 lines have lots of space to shine in the middle of my display.

My lower end show only items get a lot of attention in this spot, which is great, because I count on them always selling. It's great to get the bigger purchases, but the smaller purchases add up, too. I really like the way that I've organized the earrings as well. It's much less cluttered, and as a result, I have already had a good number of earring sales for 2013.

The first of the two shows was okay. The set up and tear down process was somewhat of a logistical nightmare, but the traffic was better than expected. Sales were a little slow but steady. For the most part, customers were cheery and happy to engage in conversation with the vendors, which goes a long way toward making a day go more quickly.

The second of the two shows was great. I had done it the year before and was looking forward to being back there again. I didn't set any sales records, but it was a solid day for me. We had really great crowds all day. I love shows where there are a wide range of customers from families with little kids to high school and college couples to older people, and this was definitely one of those shows.

Out of the three shows that I've done so far in 2013, I would definitely go back to two of them, which is a pretty great way to start the year. I also did well enough at the other one to make it worth the day so I can't complain.

Finally, this is what happens when I vend craft shows with friends who like to take pictures.

You know you wish that you could hang out with me all day at shows.

How are you 2013 craft fairs going?

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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2012 shows completed

This past weekend I had my final craft fair for 2012. I had two open houses and seven craft fairs  this past year. It has been an exciting ride with lots of ups and downs, but for the most part, it has been a great experience. I'm also happy to report that it ended on a good note.

This was one of the few juried shows that I did this year. It was by far my largest show and was the only one that I had on a college campus. You may or may not be able to tell that I had a huge window right behind me. This was so much better than sitting in a gym, but it made it a little hard to take pictures of my booth.

The show had one of the best crowds that I had seen anywhere this year. It was a great mix of young families, older ladies, high school students, and college students and facility. The juried atmosphere made for a huge quality mix of items that catered to every aspect of the crowd. I had some of the best conversations with customers of the season at this show.

I also had my best sales record to date for 2012. It was a thrill to end the season on such a high note. Additionally, it was great to have another show to add to my "will come back" list. It was not perfect but was definitely one of the best from this year.

My mom was able to come up from Chicago for this show, and Jake and his dad also helped with the set up and tear down process. I am pretty fearless about doing shows on my own, but I appreciate the company and help when I get it.

What's next? It is surreal not having another show date on the horizon yet. It's also a relief to get my trunk back for a few months (most of my show supplies have lived in my car since the beginning of November and have time to regroup. I came away from this year of shows exhilarated, and I have a lot of ideas for tweaking my booth and products for 2013. I'm not planning to change anything radical, but I'm hoping to maximize my strengths to create a more successful booth. I am going to organize my thoughts on all of that over the next few weeks and put together a comprehensive booth/shop plan and a list of potential shows at some point in January.

How did your 2012 show season go? Does anyone still have shows the next couple weeks?

final two November 2012 craft shows

I had my final two November craft fairs on Saturday, November 10 and Sunday, November 18. As I've already written a couple craft fair posts this fall, I decided to wait and post about both shows together. Interestingly enough they were respectively my best and worst shows in terms of sales for the fall season so you get something of a comparison here.

This was the November 10 show. I have gotten really comfortable with my 2012 open square layout.

After my back to back November 3 and 4 shows during which I sold only a handful of button magnets, I had a wake up call that I needed to change something. During 2010 and 2011, they had their own display. When I started making glass magnets, I put them on the same display. I didn't think much of it, but it has definitely affected the button magnet sales. So I revamped part of my display for these two shows.

I've been planning to package my glass and bottle cap magnets like this forever and finally got around to putting some packages together and put them in their own display. I still have smaller sets as well in close proximity, as you can see here. A lot of people don't get that these are magnets when they are in sets as opposed to on the dry erase board display. I need to create some better signage for magnets my 2013 shows. With that aside, people still liked the packages, and I have sold a handful of the small and large sets.

In past years, I have had a much fuller button display and did again for the 18th show. This is what I had this weekend. I sold all but 15 or so of this selection.

My small items have done well this year, and I restocked pins and rings for this show. Most of what you see here sold during the day so I did some major restocking before the 18th.

In order to give the magnets packages their own display, I rearranged some of my jewelry. I am deeply conflicted about how much higher end jewelry I want to display for my 2013 shows. I don't want to cheapen my entire display and not showcase some of my jewelry making skills, but the bottom line is that I sell a very small amount of pieces at shows that are $35 or more. I don't see that changing any time soon. I think that it would be more beneficial to expand and showcase some of my less expensive ($10-$25) lines. I'd appreciate thoughts on this.

I have done this show the past two years and was excited to be back again. As I previously mentioned, it was my best show to date for the fall. We had steady traffic all but the final hour of the show, and I had a handful of people give me positive feedback about items the items that they purchased from me last year. All of the revamping for small items paid off and most of them did well at this show. I sold a decent number of larger items, too.

Having such a good show put me in high spirits for my November 18 show.

For those who wonder why my banner photos are never in the same arrangement, thanks to Velcro dots, they are removable. I simply take off the photos before I roll up my banner after each show. I don't have a set arrangement so it constantly changes.

My new friend Steve also vended at this show. At the last minute we were able to talk our way into neighboring booths.

Ironically enough, the other show that we had vended together at this fall was also one of our worst. It is always nice to have good company at shows, but it is especially nice when sales are terrible. The short of this show was that it was primarily filled with older clientele shopping from older clientele. A couple other 20 and 30 something vendors came over to us during the show to commiserate.

Meanwhile, since we didn't have a lot of sales, particularly in the afternoon, we had more time than usual for taking pictures.

It's been frustrating to have such a mixed bag of shows this year, but I have to keep reminding myself that I'm still very new to the Milwaukee scene. I have had some good shows that will be worth repeating next year and can add recommendations from fellow vendors. Hopefully each year I can keep taking it up another notch.

The other mixed blessing of not having a lot of sales is that I'm already well stocked for my final 2012 show, which will be in early December. I am looking forward to not spending time gluing lots of small ticket items during this holiday week.

How have your November shows been going?

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