Santa's Stocking Show Review 11-17-14

Hello Friends,

  This past weekend I participated in the 'Santa's Stocking Old Fashioned Craft Fair' hosted by Virginia Beach Parks & Rec. It was my first time at this venue.

This event has been going on for 34 years, but this its the last year at his location as the city is renovating this building soon.  The allotted spaces were only 6' x 8', much smaller than I am used to. The fee was $135 plus I paid $10 extra to have electrical access.  

  I was lucky to have a corner spot and I was happy to see that there was indeed some extra room behind in between vendors which allowed me to hid things behind the screens.  

  I did a practice set up in my garage on Thursday to try and visualize what my display would look like in that little area.  I'm glad I did, because I ended up using a couple of 'unconventional' [for me anyway] fixtures.  

  

The table below the grid panels is a 2x4 folding table that I use in my workshop and the shelving unit on the left usually sits on my display with neck displays and so forth.  I did not use any risers this time since everything was vertical, because if you can't spread out, you have to go up.  I am quite tall so I sometimes forget that most people would have to stretch to reach things, but I had no other choice.

I did get to use my new IKEA "Jansjo" LED lights for the first time and they are awesome, I may have to invest in a few more of those. 

  It's way more crowded than I like. I have been working hard to be less cluttered at shows, but in this case I felt like I had little choice, especially with the smaller space and the higher fee.  

 Over all the sales were average, Sunday was quite a bit slower but I had a few sales that saved the day. 

Another nice thing that happened was the number of people who 'recognized' me. By this I mean saw me at other shows and were previous customers and said things like "Oh, I bought from you at such and so" or "I have some of your earrings and I wear them all the time".  THOSE are the nicest compliments you can get.  I have been in this area 2.5 years now and it's taken me all that time to start to be recognized. Too bad we will be moving again in 18 months and I'll have to start over.

  My up cycled tin was by far my biggest seller along with several beaded/stone pieces.
  I always take some wire wrapping to work on while in my booth between customers. On Saturday I sat and wrapped @ 20 ceramic donuts with copper beads. On Sunday, I brought some copper jump rings and a clasp and put it all together, popped a tag on it and laid it on the table.
It sold within the hour!  That was so funny to me :-D
  So I guess I will be cranking out some more repurposed tin [or RPT as I call it] for my Holiday Home Trunk Show this Saturday the 22nd.

Thanks for reading today and letting me vent a little.  Have a great week!

Warm Regards,
Tammie