if you are talking to me under ebay it is under my wifes name sherri_kubicko  or scrollersden    there are a few there but if you look up dew_the_dew_20032000   on yahoo i have 3 links on my profile that have more pics and i still have even more if you want to see add dew_the_dew_20032000 to your yahoo messanger and i can show you alot more i have well over 35000  pis and patterns so you name it ill cut it in wood thanks and god bless

merry xmas

bill and sherri

scrollersden

I will be doing the craft fair in Mountain Home, AR this spring and again in the fall.  They want you to send photos of your work before they will agree to rent you a space.  The rules are that everything has to be hand crafted by you, if anyone is found selling mass produced items they will be asked to leave.  This also goes for the Barn Sale in Camden, AR.  This is the largest craft show in southern Aranksas, people from all connecting states come to this one day event.  I do alot of business by word of mouth.  I find if people display your work at home or office, someone will ask about it and before long you start getting phone calls.

 

Kevin

Do you know what date these craft shows are yet? I would like to attend one. Thanks, Jimbos_sroll1

i live in  northwest ohio,and i found out kind of fast that the old standard crafts seem to be falling by the wayside. to sell at a craft show you have to diversify. i sell a lot of fantasy cuttings.dragons, wizards,unicorns,ect. try giving them a lot of choices,you never know what  will sell.one of the bigger sellers are the fairys,skulls,and native american cuttings seem to move.

  money maybe tight in your areaespecially at this time of year.im not doing anything till may. right now im sawing 6 hours a day,building up the inventory. this is just my two cents worth,i hope your luck changes

                      

 

                                                                                                                                     jerry

The buy & sell or 1-800-Restkock crafters are a nationwide (or at least east of the Missoure river) problem. Have done shows from Miami, FL to Grand Rapids, MN and many points in between and they are everywhere.

 

Sad to say but most craft show promoters jurying consists of determining if you can pay booth rental fee. I feel that the buy & sell crafters are one of the bigest reasons for declining craft show attendance and sales.  I know they're one of the big reasons my wife and I retired. from the business.

 

MarvSandy1

Where do you live in NW Ohio? I live in the corner of it. Let me know if you would like to talk shop on emails?

I have been doing shows for 12 years and I had seen the decline after 9/11, but this year things took an upswing for me, I usually do local churches and schools and most of them now want to see photos of my items and I am told that I am to sell no mass produced junk, so it works out good for me, I have seen people go to the Christmas Tree Shop buy $300 worth of stuff peel off the labels and resell at a profit, I try not to associatte with these people and won't sell where they sell because it cheapens my product line. good luck and I hope you do better in the future! woodman

to add to this subjest i do show also and have been trying to find something new well i did and it was great i found a ukc dog show near me and i called about it and i got a 24 wide by 20 feet deep space for only 40.00 for 2 days and let me tell you these people was like thay was starved for someone to be there for 2 weeks before the show i was cuyying only dog faces and dog puzzle and i am very happy to say i sold over 1500.00 in stuff mostly dogs but i did also sell something of everything i brought pens chess sets lords prayer footprints in the sand i did so well i just booked 2 more bigger show with akc and 1 of them is in houston i can only guess how big it will be    o well back to my saw na dmake more sawdusy  god bless all

I have been doing a Harbor Market during the summer for the last three years. They meet every week from the end of May thru Sept. and my sales have been getting better every year. I do it 10 times a summer and have built up a customer list and since it is down by  Lake Michigan, anything boating or fishing sells very well. I plan on doing it for the fourth year. They want a mix of fruit and vegetable vendors, meat and poultry and it is like a farmers market. They have special events and to my good luck, I am the only seller for scroll work. That does help and the cost for the space is only $10 a week.

The buy and sell "crafters" are very hard to compete with. The only thing that can save you are educated buyers that are looking for quality. Quality is something the 1-800-Restock crafters don't have in most cases.

 

Don't know what type of shows you do but if you do mall shows I would look into dealing directly with the mall. For about the last 5 years, before retirement, we rented space directly from the mall and didn't have to deal with craft show promoters. Usually about the only advertiseing the promoters do is the sign outside the mall that nobody reads. Then on setup night you find the promoter has assigned you a space in the broom closet and let 50 buy and sell ":crafters" into their juried show.

 

When you deal directly with malls you usually get more space,  a better location,and usually don't have to compete with buy & sellers. We found it was more expensieve and liability insurance was required but sales were also much higher.

 

I would also recommend keeping a list of past customers in each area and sending them time and place when you're going to be in that area again.

 

Marv

Chuck

 

I appologize if my remarks made it sound like all craft show promoters are bad. It certainly sounds as if you are one of the best and there are some good ones out there.

 

My advice to crafters would be to talk to the promoter to see if they have rules like yours and if they enforce them. My experience has been that some promoters only requirement to get into a juried show is that your check for space rental doesn't bounce.

 

Again I do appologize if I led anyone to believe that all show promoters are bad. This is no more true than saying that all "Crafters" are good and sell only quality handmade products.

 

 

 

Marv