My first art show: How it went, what I learned, what I'd feared!

This past weekend, June 10th, was the very first time Charm and Strange Crochet was present at an art fair. It was such a smashing success - not just the event as a whole with a great turnout, but for me personally as a business owner!

In the weeks leading up to the Berkley Art Bash, I was getting really nervous. What if I sell out of everything? That would be amazing, except that I have the Opa! Fest next weekend - and there's NO WAY I can replenish all of my inventory in just one week. So sure, selling out of everything would be amazing for that day, but I'd be screwed and embarrassed a week later when I show up to a 3-day event with maybe 25 items.

Or, the alternative - what if nobody buys anything, and I'm left there trying not to cry all day while everyone walks past ignoring me? What if people think I'm overpriced and insult me to my face about it?

Well, thankfully, neither of those extremes happened. I sold enough - enough to be happy with my day's income, and enough to see what was most popular and what might need to be more prominently featured on my table to get more sales, enough that I definitely need to crochet full time this week - but not so much that I'm going to be embarrassingly low on inventory this weekend!

And everyone was SO kind. I got so many compliments on my work! Of course not everyone who stopped by made a purchase - I would never expect that to happen - but many of the people who lingered and didn't buy anything said my work was lovely. One person said that they appreciate seeing a young person crocheting, as they feel it's a dying art form. (Obviously they haven't seen my Instagram feed, which is filled with young crocheters! 😀 ) One woman who bought some of my dish cloths told me that her grandmother used to make her crocheted dish cloths - the grandmother passed away 15 years ago, and this woman kept using her cloths until they pretty much disintegrated in her hands. She said that my cloths remind me of her grandmother's, so I cried a little internally as she made her purchase 😭💙

A few people who stopped by told me that they crochet, too. One young woman admired my farmer's market bags and told me that she is trying to make something similar, but hers don't look like mine - she implied that hers aren't coming out right, and she asked me what kind of yarn and size hook I use. It was nice being able to chat about the materials and the process with the knowledgeable visitors! One of the fellow crocheters asked me about my table runner, which wasn't for sale - I didn't take a great closeup of it in my display, but you can see the edge of it below. I told her that it's the Bavarian stitch. If you've been following me since I was Kate's Crochets, you might recognize this as the third time I've used this stitch to make a table runner!

Having my Pride Poos at the front of my display definitely drew in a lot of eyes. I think most of those sales were actually children who just liked the rainbows or other color schemes! One group of teens came running over and one of them said "Stop these are turning me gay!!" and their friend said "I'm already gay, I love these!" A few other teens saw that I had Asexual and Intersex Pride Poos and I could tell that it made them felt seen, which made me super happy. One youngish father said that his work had a seminar of sorts where everyone learned the different Pride Flags. His kids liked the different colors, and a few hours after they left they came back because one of the kids had decided that after everything he saw, he wanted one of my colorful Poos! Several people were very tentative about them - "Are these.... poop?" as if they were concerned they'd offend me for thinking it was poop. A few people guessed tear drops, rain drops, the tops of ice cream cones, and my personal favorite: "Are these gay drops?" I answered "They are now!" 😂

After my first few paying customers, I realized with relief that I was much more experienced at this than I'd initially thought! In 2018, I worked for Old World Olive Company in Plymouth, MI. That summer, they were participating in a summer pop-up market in downtown Detroit, and I worked there 3 or 4 days a week all summer. It was a loooong summer of 8-hour days baking in a little glass hut - the shop owner had bought a portable air conditioner, but there's only so much one can do to keep a glass box cool in the hot sun. One day in a canopy tent with three open sides was nothing compared to that summer! And of course, I worked retail for about two years, so that had me prepared for talking to customers and for handling transactions. The only new part was that I was my own boss, selling merchandise that I had made by hand - and that I would be getting all of the money I sold that day, instead of a pittance of an hourly rate!

Like I said earlier, the money part had me pretty nervous at first. I had to spend a lot of money in order to be ready to sell at craft fairs. Tables and chairs we already had, so my shopping list was:

• tablecloths (2)
• tablecloth clips
• crates/baskets for display (3 large crates, 2 small ones, a 3-piece set of boxes, two baskets, a shelf, and a tiny crate)
• a vinyl banner with my business name and logo
• business cards (I needed these anyway, but an event was motivation to order them)
• a cash box
• a Square reader (the swipe one is free, but I wanted to buy the chip reader one)
• paper bags and tissue paper
• a tent
• sand to weigh the tent down

This was a pretty big investment for someone who quit her office job over a year ago! It made me even more nervous that I wouldn't make enough sales at the Art Bash. I had a low moment where I feared that I'd have to give up on my business if I didn't sell enough at my already-scheduled summer markets. In the days before the Art Bash, I had fearful visions of myself watching everyone walk by without stopping at my booth, and blinking back tears until I finally broke and needed to run to my car to sob in despair.

So I ended up blinking back a few tears of gratitude instead when I made back my booth fee within the first hour and a half at the Berkley Art Bash! During the day I considered every sale after that to be profit. But after getting home and running the numbers, I found that my sales at the Art Bash had paid for the booth fee and the entirety of my event shopping list! Which means that whenever I sell more than the booth fee at future events, it will be entirely net positive for my business! The only items from my shopping list I will need to keep buying are business cards, paper bags, and tissue paper - all of which are relatively inexpensive, and items that I bought in bulk to reduce the number of times I need to buy them. 

I truly could not have asked for a better inaugural event for my craft fair attending days! The fact that the Berkley Art Bash was in my hometown just makes it even sweeter. I'm super excited for Opa! Fest now - not really nervous anymore! And I am really looking forward to attending the Farmington Founders Festival in July.

Have you ever had a booth at a craft fair or vendor event? How did it go for you? Let me know in the comments!