24.08.09

Well, gosh a’mighty! Those ladies at BUST sure do know how to throw a craft bash don’t they? I had the great pleasure of attending the second ever BUST Craftacular event in London Town this weekend. What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than by browsing (and buying) the work of forty plus talented independent businesses owners and scoffing the yummiest cupcakes known to (wo)man in the cutest pop-up tea shoppe in the land? There is no better way. Really, there isn’t.

I joined the queue of eager craft enthusiasts and curious indie shoppers outside York Hall, Bethnal Green at 11.15am having gulped down a nutritious on-the-go breakfast of strawberry milkshake and cheap cigarettes. I was far too excited to eat. Since I’m usually busy working alongside my fellow Made In The Shaders creating large-scale indie craft events in Glasgow, I rarely get the chance to get out and about and explore the glorious array of DIY marketplaces in other cities. As a longtime reader of BUST, this particular occasion really got the butterflies in my tummy a-fluttering. While waiting patiently for the burly security men to let us into the venue, I engaged in some fun queue watching. A fabulous mix of shoppers had gathered in wait for crafty kick off. As groups of excitable gals and fellas joined the line, they took frantic headcounts in a bid to establish whether they’d made it in time to be one of the first 100 customers who’d blag a highly coveted BUST Craftacular goody bag! My friend Clare and I were photographed by a BUST photographer gal AND we sneaked a peek at the Lady Luck Rules OK Pop-Up Tea Shoppe waitresses as they gracefully glided from their cab to the York Hall entrance. I let out a little squeal of delight at the fantastic vintage hairdos and retro aprons on display. We made friends with boys ahead of us in the line and I was spooked by a wasp.

The crowds were let loose right on schedule. Clare and I paid our entry fee (just £2!), ooh-ed and aah-ed at our complimentary Tatty Devine goody bags and made a hurried shuffle through to the main event space. After some to-ing and fro-ing trying to decide on the most effective shopping strategy, we spun round on the spot a few times, marvelled at the variety of work on offer then got a grip of ourselves and made a bee-line for the first ‘lane’ of makers. Feeling rather overwhelmed by the fabulousness of the whole affair, I couldn’t stop grinning. The poor stallholders must have been a little perturbed by my enthusiasm, but I just couldn’t hold it in. It’s not at all practical for me to list my favourite makers and my product highlights. There are too many. Too many. Instead, I’ll share my purchases with you.

I made a pact with myself not to spend any money during the course of my ‘first circuit’ of the market hall. A pact made in vain. I made it just six or seven tables along the first lane, biting my lip all the way and clutching my pocket money so hard my pennies made red dents in my hands - before I made purchases at Fine City Friends’ stall. The seal had been broken. I bought a print by Gemma Correll for my bedroom I bought a little woolly robot guy as a gift for my husband. I already have a couple of birdie prints by Kate Wilson (Little Doodles) found through the wonderful Hannah Zakari consignment store, but seeing an entire range of her work in real life left me a little short of breath. In the end, I couldn’t decide which of the handmade ceramic object d’arte I wanted to take home most. I plumped instead for two pretty birdie postcards and a little set of stickers. I bought the entire back catalogue of DIY craft zine Sugar Paper and… I bought a pie girl!

Yes. A pie girl. Hand sewn by The Cat In The Shoe, my pie girl spoke to me from her little seat on the trestle table. Right now, I’m a pie. Right now, she’s a pie. I love her. Pie girl (she doesn’t have a name yet) is currently perched in my bedroom beside the handmade ceramic tealight holder I bought from By Louise. My chosen motif was a green and indigo vintage floral gun.

In amongst all the shopping and squealing, we managed not just one, but two trips to the Lady Luck Rules OK Pop-Up Tea Shoppe. We may not have won anything in the Tea Shoppe Tombola, but we sure did enjoy tea-for-two and yummy homebaked vanilla cupcakes at the 60s table, then MORE tea-for-two and cookies at the 70s table. A raucous round of applause is due to the wonderful Tea Shoppe hostess who, despite being utterly swamped by customers, still maintained a friendly smile and a truly ladylike demeanor amidst the madness!

We had such a lovely time meeting people face to face whom we’ve built virtual relationships with through our Made In The Shade work. Lush & Lovely, We Make, Rosie Lee Clothing, Custom Made, Little Doodles, Tatty Devine and Lady Luck Rules OK – ’twas just swell to meet you in the flesh! We’ve never been that great at ‘networking’ (bleugh, even the word makes me feel anxious) but the fun, warm, welcoming BUST environment was the perfect backdrop to shop and chat with a troupe of wonderful designers and makers. ‘Twas the perfect place to make new links and put some faces to some names. When all the pennies had been spent and all our Made In The Shade postcards had been distributed, we said our farewells to our Scottish chums Showpony and Hannah Zakari and skipped off on our merry way – our tummies full of cake and our tote bags laden with freebies and handmade goodies. Now. Must save up more pocket money to return at Christmas time!

by Carrie Maclennan

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Thank you for writing such a great post, Carrie.

This year the V&A Village Fete celebrated its 10th year in traditional British style with a Jubilee celebration, rain and all! We’re sad to say it WAS the last ever Village Fete but with a whole host of talented designers presenting fun and imaginative games for a very up-for-it public to take part in everything was set for a very memorable send off.

In the corner of the John Madjeski garden stood our 8 foot kittens, which formed the centre piece for our game - Rock ‘n’ Roll Tiddlywinks! Players were invited to throw 2 out of their 12 ‘winks through the targets to the sounds of a 30 second snippet of the Ramones to win a limited edition Rock’n’Roll Kitten necklace. It was a frenzy of throwing, whooping, ducking and winning and the two days went passed in a flash. We did manage to quickly skip around the fete to sample some of the other amazing game . . . .

Illustrators Jenny Bull and Sarah Fotheringham from Here’s one I made Earlier were our delightful next door neighbours. Their stand Best In Show featured a game to test your dog training potential in a Crufts endorsed time trial. Picking out a pooch was fun enough let alone navigating them around the cute obstacle course. It was a winning combination!

Across the garden were the well dressed folks from Poke hosting Quick Draw, a wild west style saloon comprising of a Pictionary inspired drawing contest, fastest being the winner! The game was hosted by 5 cowboys, 2 saloon whores and 1 bartender - a truly authentic stand with brilliant details down to the holsters for the marker pens, and cold tea in the Jack Daniels bottle.

Crazy Cashpoint, created by the clever family bunch Mark, Katy, Ace and Zoom in true bank style rocked a crazy queue the whole weekend. Their pop art cashpoint was spitting out bundles of edible cash and other great prizes if you signed up for a credit card at their Bureau de crazy bank. But you had to keep up repayments on your home with a Crazy Bank credit agreement and talk to the friendly account managers for advice. A brilliant concept and lots of fun for all those cost-cutters out there!

If you didn’t come along don’t worry you can see all the fun of the fete on our Flickr page AND you can win your very own limited edition Rock’n’Roll Kitten necklace.

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A big thank you to Lady Luck’s Leona Baker for the guest blog.

Call for applications: 2009 BUST Summer Craftacular, London, August 22.

BUST Magazine’s London Summer Craftacular is a shopping bonanza running from 12pm until 8pm at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, featuring crafters, DJs, drinks and dancing.

Shoppers can down a pint or sip a spritzer as they browse through hundreds of the best in handmade gifts and essential summer accessories, from handbags and ornaments to jewellery, clothing and cards.

Following the success of the Christmas event, BUST Magazine will be hand-picking over 55 of the most unique and talented crafters from across the UK to attend.

Click here for more information about the BUST London Summer Craftacular.

A vendor table costs £70. The deadline for Applications is July 13, 2009.

Website: www.bust.com

Made in Manchester
Craft Shop - Royal Exchange Theatre - Manchester
30th June - 29th August

The Craft Shop at Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre is hosting “Made in Manchester” from Tuesday 30th June until Saturday 29th August 2009.

This new exhibition has been curated to coincide with the Manchester International Festival and showcases the work of artists and crafts people from the Manchester area.

The work will be exhibited in the shop and in the glass cabinets along the colonnade of the Royal Exchange Theatre’s Great Hall. All work is for sale for the duration of the exhibition.

Exhibitors include:

Andrea Lord, Beverly Gee, Cloversoul, Dontbitchstitch, Emma Fozard, Evvy, Faine Day, Helen Musselwhite, Helen Tiffany, Ian Chadwick, Lucy May Schofield, Megan Price, Moots, Rowena Golton, Sarah Malone and Stuart Galligan.

Website: www.royalexchange.co.uk/craftshop

Craft Candy is are proud to present Candyfloss - a superb summer craft fair!

Building on the success of our Spring Fling craft fair we are now taking bookings for Candyfloss which will feature over 30 stalls of art and craft, showcasing the best of Sheffield and beyond.

This time we are holding the fair in Sheffield’s gorgeous Millennium Gallery, the heart of art and craft in Sheffield.

All Craft Candy fairs sell only handmade items and feature a fantastic range of high quality contemporary craft from a variety of UK makers and artists.

Visit our website for further details and to book a stall online.

Candyfloss Summer Craft Fair
Saturday 18th July 09
10-4pm
Millennium Gallery, Sheffield

See you there!
Craft Candy xx

Thank you to Claire, owner of Miso Funky and seasoned crafter, for this practical advice on selling at craft shows.

Seeing as it’s now well and truly craft fair season, I thought I’d share my top tips for getting prepared for market with you. I’ve been going to markets and craft fairs as a stall-holder now for almost 4 years and have learned a lot along the way. I hope these tips will be useful, especially if you’re taking the plunge for the first time this year!

Bring a piece of material to cover your table!

This could be a plain table cloth, or even an old curtain that is big enough to cover the table at the fair. Remember that some of the tables supplied by venues are older than you are and have served more craft fairs than you’ve had hot dinners, so it’s best to cover them up!

You can also use your table covering to show off your wares too - e.g. if you have silver jewellery, a dark table covering would show off your lighter items. You can store all your junk, boxes, packaging, lunch, etc under the table, and use your covering to drape over the front to hide your stuff – clever, eh?

Bring Sellotape!

It’s amazing how useful sellotape is! You can use it to stick stuff to walls, fasten bags closed, tape stuff to your table . . . bring some and keep it handy, you’ll never know when you might need it. You might also want to keep some blu-tak and/or white-tak handy for fussier venues. Always check with the organiser before sticking something to the wall!

Other useful things to have handy are mulitple pens (you WILL lose one), scissors and a notepad.

Bring a project!

Bring along a craft project you are working on to keep you busy during the day. Nothing too elaborate, but, for example, if you’re a knitter, then bring your needles! Your potential customers will love to see you working on something - let them see how the magic happens!

If the worst happens and it’s a day for poor attendance, then you will have something to keep you occupied, but don’t bank on getting your project finished - hopefully you’ll be too busy raking in the cash!

Bring carrier bags!

It’s often overlooked in the excitement of seeing your stock ready to go, but make sure you bring something for your customers to take their purchases home in. This could either be shop bought bags or even recycle your own stack of carriers (I know you’ve got loads under your sink). At Miso Funky, I like to keep any interesting bags from trips overseas to use for my wares. I also use new recycleable paper bags to cut down on the old landfill.

Smile!

It sounds daft, but people are more inclined to buy stuff if you smile! I’ve been to events before where people sit with their arms crossed behind their tables looking surly and really, it just puts people off. If you’re shy, bring along a chatty friend to help - they can do the sales pitch, whilst you beam with pride in the background and wrap the goods!

The organisers of the events do the hard bit in getting people in the door - you do the easy bit, working your charm and showing off your fabulous stuff! After all, no-one knows your stock better than you. Don’t be too pushy though – friendly, polite and helpful is the order of the day.

Chat to your fellow stallholders – you’ll find them to be a mine of information about other events, their experiences of markets, packaging suppliers, where’s best to get lunch nearby. . . . You’ll also hopefully make some new friends and get involved in your local crafting community.

Have a price list!

Again, it can be overlooked, but make sure you think about how much you want to charge for your stuff. Remember to factor your time in when you are coming up with prices, as well as materials. It’s a good idea to have at least a mental idea of what you want to charge for things - you can always haggle with your customers on the day!

For new products, I often print up two lots of price cards – a maximum price and a lower price that I’d still accept for my product. That way, I can experiment with pieces I’m not sure what to charge for and see what the customers think.

Bring your card!

If you have them, bring a stack of them to hand out to everyone, customers and fellow exhibitors alike. If you don’t have a card, then make sure you’ve got something with your website address or email address on it, a flyer, or even handwritten cards. That way, everyone will be able to find out where to go to buy more of your stuff!

There’s no excuse not to have a card in this day and age! It’s your cheapest and most effective way of getting your name out there for little effort. I get mine printed at Vistaprint and designed by Asking For Trouble, both for extremely reasonable prices.

Leave a stack on your table for browsers to take – they may not buy anything today, but more than likely they’ll take your card, visit your website, tell a friend or just remember you til next time.

Be able to make change!

Remember to bring some loose change, especially one pence pieces, if you have x.99 prices. Better still, eliminate the need for change by charging whole number prices. Obviously you’ll still need change, but only then a couple of fivers and some pound coins. It’s better to be able to give change than someone not buying something because they only have a tenner.

Make sure you keep your takings secure, especially if you’re at an outdoors market. Don’t turn your back on it for a second! Invest in a market traders’ apron and keep it close to you – it’s handier as well as more secure. Just don’t compromise and use a bum bag!

Remember to keep a note of what you sell for your accounting records and also to help you evaluate what sells best and what’s not-so-popular later.

Pack your stuff well!

You don’t want to worry about humffing your stuff around in carrier bags - so pack a suitcase! One with wheels is a great idea, so you can roll it along behind you. It looks more professional too to have one well-organised bag than lots of carriers.

If it’s a hard-bodied case, you can also stand things on top of it, or lean things against it. If you’re not using it, then you can close it over, and stick it under your table out of the way. You could even keep bags and change in it out of the way, to give more room on your table for your wares.

Also, of course, a well-packed bag means your stock will be in tip-top condition when you arrive to set up. Remember to repack it well at the end of the day to make life much easier next time!

Practice makes perfect!

Take the time to think about how you want to set out your table. If you have a lot of stuff, decide what will be best to go at the front to catch the customers’ eyes. Consider leaving some stuff off the table if you have loads – you can always restock later in the day, or swap less popular items over.

Common sense applies here - if you have tall items, put them at the back so they don’t hide any smaller items and put light objects against a dark background and vice versa.

Get a few friends to have a look and give their opinions - you can always tweak it as your stock dwindles through sales over the course of the day! Practice at home on the dining table, kitchen counter or even on the ironing board.

I’m not saying you should follow this to the letter, but these things are all points I’ve picked up on through my own experiences and I hope they w ill help you too.

One last tip - HAVE FUN! Remember why you’re doing this, and have a great day. Good luck!

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Check out the Miso Funky website at www.misofunky.com.

Thank you Claire - very useful stuff!

Today’s guest blog post is written by Sheri Jones of Grouse & Badger Gifts. I’d be interested to know if all you seasoned crafters share these experiences. Any comments, tips and suggestions are always gratefully received. Please leave comments below.

With spring just around the corner, I’ve had a number of people ask me about participating in craft shows. I’ve been in the antique and re-purposed jewelry business for a number of years and have learned some of the ins and outs of shows. Here’s the ‘top 5′ things I share with people interesting in doing a show:

1. Ask the promoter how many people they typically have in attendance (if the show is free and they don’t keep track, ask them to estimate) and how many vendors they typically have. Now check the ratio. If they have 500 in attendance and 100 vendors, you’re probably not going to do very well. You need a ratio of at least 100 to 1.

2. Determine if the rent vs number of people in attendance is reasonable. In other words, how much is each person through the door (that may or may not buy from you) costing you? If your booth space is £50 and there are 50 people, those people are very expensive, especially if they don’t buy anything! Keep your booth cost versus attendance to less than 2p each.

3. Determine your “good show” revenue goal. I’ve found that most people don’t know the difference between a good show and a bad show. Making your rent is not a good show! I work on a 10x the rent ratio average. For example: if my rent is £100, a £1000 day is an average show. 12x is a good show. Below 10x is a show I won’t do again.

4. Attend several craft shows before doing your first show. See which booths have a good set-up. Do you like their displays? If you find several booth set-ups you like, ask the vendor if you can take a picture of their set up. Do not just take a picture as most people do not appreciate that and some will get downright hostile. Do not take pictures of a booth if you sell a competing product. Trust me, you’ll run in to them at a show and it won’t be pretty!

5. Talk to other crafters and designers. Ask them which shows they do and which shows are the best. Most will be more than willing to talk to you.

I hope you try a few shows and love it as much as I do! There’s nothing like it.

Visit Sheri’s online shop go to www.grouseandbadger.etsy.com.

Thank you to Amy and Adrian of Craft Crunch for today’s guest blog post.

Driven by the fact that we are currently in recession, we decided, like many others, that it’s time to get back to basics and make do and mend! To research ideas for a stall of our own we went to Brick Lane, East London to speak to other stall holders and get an idea of how they got started and any advice they could offer etc.

Before we knew it we’d profiled four stall holders on our website and realised we were on to something – we could start a sort of ‘database’ of local creatives making beautiful and, importantly, affordable things in our neighbourhood.

Our aim was to encourage consumers to stay away from the big chain stores and overpriced boutiques and support local artists and craftspeople by buying directly from them.

Among our favourite and most popular stalls are:

- Almendra (above) run by Anna who is a bookbinder. She sells gorgeous and very affordable notebooks in differing sizes.

- Pyramid Club run by Jo who sources unique vintage pieces and transforms them into one-off necklaces that would really turn heads.

- Andrea Garland (above top) who cooks up divine lotions and potions in her kitchen - meltingly gorgeous body and lip balms packaged in vintage tins which can be re-filled when the product is all used up.

- Bobby Dazzler aka Rosie and Fumie who hand stitch adorable soft toys which are impossible to resist - each has its own story and every one is utterly unique.

To see these girls and much more come and visit us at www.craftcrunch.com.

While our current focus is on East London, we’re gradually venturing further afield and want to get more talented artists on board. If you’d like to get involved and write a feature on craftspeople in your local area please get in touch.