simply-crafting

Well the Christmas Craft Fair season has begun. This coming weekend I have booked a table at one of the craft fairs in the town next to mine. Below you find some pictures of some of the items that I will be having for sale.

I will be charging $12.00 for the necklaces and $7.50 for the bracelets. Someone had told me that my prices are extremely low. But there is a reason for that. I really do enjoy making the jewelry as a hobby so if I can get my money back from the supplies and make a little bit of a profit as well, I will be extremely happy. Hopefully I sell most of what I have made so I can go out and purchase more supplies and make more jewelry.

Well I hope you all enjoy looking at the pictures and please let me know what you think of all my creations.

As you all know I just recently went back to work outside the home.  When a co-worker asked me what I had been up to in the past year and a half I just had to tell her all about my latest love.  That would be my love for creating unique pieces of jewelry.  She then informed me that she creates homemade jewelry as well.  Then she went on to say that she has a friend who is opening up a small craft store in a town very close to us and if I wanted she would contact her friend about me to see if we could work something out for me to sell my jewelry at her store.  I thought this was an extremely wonderful gesture on the part of my co-worker.  So hopefully she does contact her and hopefully I will be able to try to sell of my crafts there.

I will let you all know how I make out with this experience.  I’m just thankful that my co-worker is willing to talk to her friend on my behalf.

Yesterday I had a very interesting conversation with one of the mothers down at the bus stop.  She asked me for a price of what I would charge her to make her a homemade quilt.  Well I gave her a price and she informed me that it was way to steep.   Honestly for all the work that goes into a homemade quilt I think my prices are quite reasonable.

So I told her to go find a homemade quilt cheaper than that.  She informed me that she seen one that was at Zellers for a lot less than I quoted her.  So I told her to go buy it.  Honestly if you don’t want to pay my prices that’s fine, but don’t insult me by telling me I’m charging too much.  My time is most certainly worth something.

So I have come to a decision.  Even if she decides that she does want the quilt at that price, I’m not going to make it.  The reason for this is because I think it would be a never ending problem with her over everything.  If she’s going to be that hard to get along with about the price I would hate to hear her opinions on the quality.

Well the news is not good.  This past weekend a friend of mine took all my jewelry with her when she attending a craft fair that was out of town.  When I called her yesterday to see how we did, she informed me that we didn’t do very good at all.  She never even sold one piece of my jewelry.  To say I was disappointed was a mild understatement.

But, she didn’t do very well with her stuff either.  She said the main reason for this was because their booth was set up at a pretty crappy spot and they didn’t get much traffic even come to the booth.  But she is going to another one in November and has offered to take my stuff.  So I guess we will just have to see what happens with that one.  Hopefully she will have a better spot with more traffic next time.

I have to say that I’m quite pleased with myself.  Last night I took my box of jewelry to my friend for her to take to her craft sale this coming weekend.  While we were standing there talking about prices and such she started looking at the jewelry.  She gave me a very high compliment.  She asked me if I would custom make a bracelet for her and she wants it by Saturday.  This was no problem as I can create it tonight and take it down to her tomorrow.

The main reason why I am so pleased with this sale is because she is quite crafty herself and she is also quite picky with any purchase she makes.  So if I can please her, then I know I can please just about anyone.  So later this afternoon or later this evening I will be creating this one of a kind piece for her.  I’m just so thrilled that  she ordered a piece from me and that she likes my work.

I have a friend who is attending a craft fair this weekend.  She has a booth booked for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I will not be able to attend this particular craft fair myself as it is quite far away from where I live.  So she has generously offered to take all my handcrafted jewelry and try to sell it all for me.  Hopefully she will be able to sell quite a few pieces of mine so that I can get rid of some of the stock that I have on hand.  But even if she doesn’t, I am still quite grateful to her for her offer.

Later on tonight I am going to take down all my creations to her.  Hopefully she has a successful weekend, and I’ll be sure to pop back in here the first of next week to let you all know how we made out.  Fingers crossed guys!

Last May I had no choice but to quit my outside job due to babysitter issues. Because I lost a paycheck I started thinking of ways in which I could earn a little extra income working from home. One of the ways I decided that I would like to try was to try to start selling home made crafts. I figured since I enjoyed creating so much that I could maybe turn my hobby into a job.

Well I have to say that so far this hasn’t gone the way I would have liked. I did set up a website and have received a few sales through this, but not as many as I would like. So my next method that I’m going to try is to sell my creations at different craft fairs. So far I have two fairs that I’m going to attend this summer. So I guess I will see how these go.

Has anyone here ever participated in craft fairs? If you have, could you please tell me about your experience with them. I would love to hear the good as well as the bad.