November and December are banner months for those of us who admire the handiwork of creative, independent craftspeople, because these are the months when craft fairs (and other opportunities to buy direct from artists) abound. The past three weekends have found me at the Circle Craft Christmas Fair, Fab Fair at Heritage Hall, and of course the inccomparable East Side Culture Crawl, which is less a craft fair and more of a massive open-studio weekend. Oh, and I snuck over to the Abbott Street Studio sale Thursday evening, where I spotted a few of the same exhibitors I’d seen elsewhere.
Every year, I’m excited to find the best of indie, creative, and mostly women-run businesses collide with the one element of mall culture that I like, which is the convenience factor of a single location. But I’m also intrigued by the business questions that each creatrix needs to evaluate when she heads into craft fair season:
- What’s the entry fee for each craft fair?
- At my price point, how much do I need to sell to break even? To turn a profit?
- What are the other vendors charging for comparable products? Can I compete, or do I need to?
- What’s the average price point for this particular craft fair? Is there another fair that’s a better match for my price range?
- What is my time worth — both the time I put into each piece I’m selling, and my time to sit at a table and sell to the public?
- After a full week of making beautiful things, how much energy do I have to spend a weekend making sales? Do I have any friends or family I can rope in (perhaps as volunteers)?
- And on a more personal level, how can I steel myself to watch people pass by my booth with no sign of interest — or worse yet, expressions of dislike?
I spoke to some of the vendors I met about these issues, but didn’t want to take up too much of their time when they had customers milling about, but I’m curious to hear from crafters about their experiences, positive and negative (and mixed) with craft fairs.
Although many of the women I know who sell at craft fairs have years of experience, and have determined what works best for them, there’s still a bit of guesswork and gambling that goes into their craft-fair season planning. At worst, they stand to lose money, but the potential gains — both financial and markeitng-wise — can outweigh the potential losses.
One thing that amazes me, year after year, is that so many members of the public seem to attend craft fairs as bargain-hunters. I mean, sure, there are always newbies who underprice their goods, whether out of ignorance or in hope of generating good word-of-mouth. But your average local artisan cannot generally afford to compete, price-wise, with large chain stores or other sources of cheap pottery, jewelry, handbags, belts, or whatnot. They may have lower overheaad, with no storefront or salespeople to worry about, but local labour, no matter how low the overhead, costs more than importing from Asia. Some people just don’t seem to get that, and I’ve seen someone balk at a $50 pricetag on a necklace, saying, “I just can’t spend more than $30 on a necklace.” I mean, if you’re on a budget, far be it from me to criticize, but maybe you just can’t afford to be buying jewelry at all in that case.
I confess that I have the opposite problem. As a small business owner myself, I’m often swayed in the other direction, spending a little more than I’d hoped because I know what a struggle it is to charge what you’re worth, and I know these gifted craftspeople are often just scraping by. Of course I’m equally influenced by the sheer gorgeousness of the stuff!
I’ve included photos here from two of the ceramic artists whose work I was particularly drawn to this year: Gailan Ngan (top photo in this post) and Junichi Tanaka (the bowl just above this paragraph). Also in the ceramics field, although slightly different in focus, is Jasna Sokolovic, whose 3D wallpaper (photo #2) is simply stunning. (She’s also got beautiful jewelry, accessories for people and homes, and wall art.) And the earrings (photo #3) are my favourite, everyday, go-with-everything earrings, by Refine, a local jewelry design company.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll let you know that Refine’s a solo operation, and its owner, Jackie, is a friend and neighbour. But isn’t that kind of the point? For me, anyway, owning beautiful things created by people I know and love is the highest form of shopping — it elevates it to an exchange of treasures, and whether I’m buying for myself or others, I feel wonderful knowing that I’m supporting the work of local women and men who are making the world beautiful, one hand-made item at a time.
