Post-Craft Show
I'm back from the one-day craft show in Portland, and boy, am I glad it was only one day! So many potential customers on the street, all very engaged and curious. There were very few who ducked eye contact and scurried off as soon as I tried to talk to them, unlike other years. The weather was picture perfect, a bit cool in the morning, never too hot, and our display was on the shady side of the street! We even had a young violinist nearby serenading us for the entire day.
So why am I glad it only lasted one day? Inventory! Oh, and no opportunity to eat. By the end of the day, I had one towel, 2 scarves, and a most smaller pieces left. It was odd, that very few people bought the smaller, more affordable items. One takeaway is that I think I need to raise my prices a bit. They have remained unchanged for years, despite increasing costs of materials.
Here are a few cell phone shots of the booth. Somehow we "lost" the back of the canopy over the last few years, so I need to purchase a new one. I think the display will look more professional without buildings and pedestrians behind it.
And who is that gent back there???
On the way home, we got behind this oddity. A terrible picture, I know, but it's the LL Bean Bootmobile!! The company has this giant LL Bean boot that drives around to functions all over the place. I've only seen it on TV, and I wish that we had had time to pass it so I could get a side view photo, but what a hoot!

Back to the studio I go, to try to replenish my stock. I have one more week of vacation, and so hope to get a lot done, but the house also needs painting, so progress may be slow
As an aside, do any other weavers out there have their own websites? There seem to be some fairly affordable options, but it's hard to imagine that A) I could create and sell enough stock to keep it affordable, and B) enough potential customers would find the site to keep it viable. If not, what else do you all do? Right now, I have my Etsy shop, which is pretty hard to find, and just post stuff on my Facebook pages. Everything else is in person or consignment. Thanks for your input!
So why am I glad it only lasted one day? Inventory! Oh, and no opportunity to eat. By the end of the day, I had one towel, 2 scarves, and a most smaller pieces left. It was odd, that very few people bought the smaller, more affordable items. One takeaway is that I think I need to raise my prices a bit. They have remained unchanged for years, despite increasing costs of materials.
Here are a few cell phone shots of the booth. Somehow we "lost" the back of the canopy over the last few years, so I need to purchase a new one. I think the display will look more professional without buildings and pedestrians behind it.
And who is that gent back there???
On the way home, we got behind this oddity. A terrible picture, I know, but it's the LL Bean Bootmobile!! The company has this giant LL Bean boot that drives around to functions all over the place. I've only seen it on TV, and I wish that we had had time to pass it so I could get a side view photo, but what a hoot!
Back to the studio I go, to try to replenish my stock. I have one more week of vacation, and so hope to get a lot done, but the house also needs painting, so progress may be slow
As an aside, do any other weavers out there have their own websites? There seem to be some fairly affordable options, but it's hard to imagine that A) I could create and sell enough stock to keep it affordable, and B) enough potential customers would find the site to keep it viable. If not, what else do you all do? Right now, I have my Etsy shop, which is pretty hard to find, and just post stuff on my Facebook pages. Everything else is in person or consignment. Thanks for your input!
Your booth looks great! I've had a website for years, but never put in the time and attention to keep it found well in searches. If you can't do it in Etsy, you won't be able to do it in a separate website. At least that's my opinion. When I did a major website overhaul in January, I went for more of a gallery on the site, sending people to Etsy for purchasing (no direct purchases via the website), and I've found I can't even do that much. That's actually the good news, since I had 2 TERRIFIC shows this year, and have decided I'm not even going to do the poor ones again. Thought that meant I'd be going into partial retirement, but after last weekend realized that means I need to weave 6 or 7 good pieces every month, all year long, just to have enough stock for those 2 good shows. And although I really like weaving towels, and they are MUCH more affordable than my scarves or shawls, they don't sell well for me, so I need to weave 6-7 great scarves or shawls each month. Like you, my sales of small items - bookmarks, mug rugs, and similar - is very minimal.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that detailed reply, Peg! So glad that you've found great success this year! Having to work full time as a nurse definitely cuts into my weaving time, so building inventory will always be a bit of a stretch for me, I think.
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