I’ve been thinking a lot about craft fairs of late, having visited the Country Living Craft fair and the local Playhouse Christmas craft fair, where my good friend Sandra was there with her beautiful quilts promoting her classes for the ‘Keep it Crafty’ group. Seasonally this is the best time to hire a stall at a craft fair with everyone thinking of Christmas gifts, and unique and unusual craft items are perhaps more popular now than ever.

Photo By Sandra Montgomery of her Keep it Crafty stall

I feel like I’ve missed the boat a little, certainly for this year. I’ve never considered myself as a ‘crafter’ before, and I’d need to stock to sell!  Sadly the thing about creating stock is “you need to spend money to make money”. It’s a chicken and egg situation, and for this to be a viable option for me I will need to create items for sale gradually, as and when I can afford to. So I’ll experiment with Etsy in the meantime, and perhaps look at some of the UK based online outlets like ‘Folksy’ too. Many exhibitors at craft fairs confess that despite the expense and the chances of just breaking even, they exhibit at fairs for publicity’s sake and the new custom they gain as a result of being seen there.

It’s funny, I used to sell my independent comics at comic conventions, so craft fairs ought to be second nature, right? Yet, a big part of the difficulty in participating in these events for me is about how you define yourself.  What are you there for? And what do you want to achieve?

Crafts can sometimes sound like ‘anything goes’ and the term ‘Crafts’ encompasses many things. Like ‘Art’ its scope is massive, there are various degrees of what can be considered ‘crafts’ and that’s even before you get to the levels of amateur/professional/hobbyist. Some fairs wont let you exhibit unless you are classed as a small business, and not simply an individual…

My custom designed Pony fabric, in rare pink cloud colourway

So where does what you do fit in? Can you mass produce or are you about small quantities of bespoke items? Or are you, like me, creating crafts as a means to show off your design or illustration skills? It’s a little bit of a mine field and I suspect choosing the right event will also help you reach your desired audience. I’m just not sure what that is yet….

At this point feel free to jump in with suggestions ! Honestly, I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below…