Re-think and Open Morning

Because my home is up two flights of stairs and I can't park close to the front door, taking my heavy wares out to be sold at craft fairs is so much hard work that I came to the conclusion a while ago it was not the way to go.  I have had some success selling online via the web site Etsy but postage costs on large, heavy items means that the post office makes more profit than I do and the breakable nature of many pieces makes that even more impractical.

SO I decided that rather than going to them it would be a good idea to get people to come to my studio to see what I do - I am lucky to have a lovely bright space to work in and I have things displayed all over the walls anyway so an Open Morning seemed worth a try.

I went into a frenzy of making with a purpose (which made me very happy!) and I organised all the details like getting an invitation out to everyone I know and lots I didn't.   A couple of friends offered to help serve refreshments and I asked a friend who is a brilliant portrait artist and a lady who makes jewellery if they wanted to come along too.  On the day which was 11 November they came early and set up in my living room.  I was quite nervous that no one would turn up but then a trickle of bodies arrived which grew into a bit of a flood and soon lots of people milling about enthusing about my stuff and even buying!  I was thrilled to get such positive feedback especially as I have a kind of reticence to put myself out there and OK - I know most were friends but they did seem genuinely enthusiastic.

I also sold a lot of my greetings cards with photo's of local views which are always popular.  All in all it was a very enjoyable and successful event but even so the amount of time and effort involved meant that  it wouldn't really be worth repeating - especially as now those people who came and bought have already seen all the stuff I have left!

I've come to the conclusion that I need to try selling online again via a 'handmade' web site which gets a lot of traffic but I need to find something of potentially high value to make which is smaller and lighter to post.   What a good excuse to go and do some craft workshops!

Beady Things

There's a lady close to where I live who has a bead workshop - I've been meaning to go there to make something for ages so when friends gave me a workshop voucher for my birthday I was really pleased.  It's like and Aladdins cave with halogen downlighters making all the walls covered in strings of beads sparkle.  I was in my element but the huge choice gave me a problem when I had to pick three colours to make my beaded flower.  Several ladies chose red and green to make a poinsettia christmassy decoration but I decided on more subtle colours so that I could keep mine out all year round!

We were shown what to do and spent a couple of happy hours threading and weaving the beads onto wire to make the leaves.  The most fiddly part was attaching them to one another to make the final flower.  I think it would be a bit faster now that I have the hanf of it but I came to the conclusion that it's another thing that it wouldn't be viable to make for sale as I can't imagine anyone would pay what you'd need to charge to cover the time and cost of materials.  I really enjoyed the workshop though and I'm sure I'll be back to the treasure trove to buy some more beads.