Craft Fair Blues

So I did it. My very first face to face attempt at selling my photography. Edward Jones Holiday Mart. It was Saturday.

There was so much planning that went into it. Photos printed up to sell, packaging to buy and then all the prints to package up. Business cards to make, order, and put in all the packages. Frames to buy and fix up and large prints to order and frame. A display to make for the frames to hang on. The bins to look for and buy for all the product to go in on the table... Sheesh, not to mention all the thought put in about pricing on all sizes, all sets, all possible and/or potential combos people might want to purchase. What if they want this? What if they want that? I'm not the kind of person to just wing it on the fly... it had to be all thought out ahead of time. And charted, and printed out and put into a binder. And babysitters, waking up early to get ready to leave and set up early for it to start... it was a lot of work.

And on top of all that, this wasn't even my idea. It was my mom's. She wanted to do this with me and I agreed. I don't regret doing it. It was an experience. It was practice. It was something. It was.... a craft fair.

And now for the big question.... How did it go? How much did I sell?
It was a flop. A bust. A bummer.

Okay, that's not entirely true. I did whip up some greeting cards at the last minute (just because I wanted something Holiday-ish at the booth). And I sold one pack of cards. Yep, one pack. All day. One pack. But at least... and thank goodness... I didn't sell NOTHING.

And onto the bright side.... all the work I put into it was not entirely in vein. The prints are still sell-able. The organization is always worth it. And I have a craft fair under my belt... one notch in the experience department. I saw what people liked and what was ignored. I heard lots of comments about how nice it all was, good for the ego. Several people told us we looked very professional, the most professional booth at the fair was said more than once. I was even asked what Gallery my stuff was shown in. (I said, 'You're looking at it!") And I got questions/requests for things that people wanted to see. From one of those inquiries sprang a great idea for a future series I plan to start working on soon.

Now for some quotes and thoughts from the Holiday Mart:

Just because you bought the over sized chef hat in Christmas print at the craft fair does not mean you are obligated to wear it all day AT the craft fair! (with your gray sweat pants and blue sweatshirt with a teddy bear on it)
They aren't selling blinking light-up Santa hats here, so that means you wore that out in public on purpose... interesting....
"Oh! Do you have a picture of the steel mill in Granite city?!" Oh sure, let me just find that one for you real quick... I knew you'd be here looking for it.... Seriously?
"So... uuhh... you just take pictures of different stuff and then frame them?" Umm, yes, it's call photography... Ever heard of it?
Apparently the ladies over sixty are really serious about their black fingernail polish... I saw about 10-15 older women rockin the goth nails.
Children do not like booths with photography. They really, really don't. Especially when there is a tutu/hair bow booth right next door!
And the most frequently asked question of the day: "Did you actually take all these pictures?" Oh, no sir (or ma'am), I stole them all off the internet and hoped that no one would ask. Again, seriously?

So that was my Craft Fair experience in a nut shell. And low and behold... my mom asked me today if I wanted to do it all over again next weekend. Shit... I guess so.