So You Want To Do Craft Shows E-Book

Warren Feld

• Herausgeber: Warren Feld Jewelry
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Doing craft shows is a wonderful experience. You can make a lot of money at craft shows, you meet new people, you have new adventures. You learn a lot about business and arts and crafts designing.
IF… you do your homework when selecting them,
        and verify all information 
IF… you are very organized in preparing for them,
       setting up, selling and re-packing up
IF… you promote, promote, promote.

In this book, I discuss 16 lessons I learned, Including How To (1) Find, Evaluate and Select Craft Shows Right for You, (2) Determine a Set of Realistic Goals, (3) Compute a Simple Break-Even Analysis, (4) Develop Your Applications and Apply in the Smartest Ways, (5) Understand How Much Inventory to Bring, (6) Set Up and Present Both Yourself and Your Wares, (7) Best Promote and Operate Your Craft Show Business.

Leseprobe

SO YOU WANT TO DOCRAFT SHOWS…16 Lessons I LearnedDoing Craft Shows

by Warren Feld

SO YOU WANT TO DOCRAFT SHOWS…16 Lessons I LearnedDoing Craft Shows

by Warren Feld

Learn How To......Find, Evaluate and Select Craft Shows Right for You...Determine a Set of Realistic Goals...Compute a Simple Break-Even Analysis...Develop Your Applications and Applyin the Smartest Ways...Understand How Much Inventory to Bring... Optimally Promote and Operate Your Craft Show Business

Warren Feld Jewelry, Publisherwww.warrenfeldjewelry.com2022

 

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWSby Warren Feld

Copyright Page

Published by Warren Feld Jewelry718 Thompson Ln, Ste 123Nashville, TN 37204www.warrenfeldjewelry.comCOPYRIGHT © 2022, Warren FeldAll rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law and fair use. For permission requests, contact: Warren Feld, [email protected], 615-479-3776.Cover by Warren Feld. Showing Susan Thorton, Thorton Metal Studios (https://www.thorntonmetals.com), doing one of the things she does best.

ISBN: 979-8-9865354-0-1 E-bookISBN: 979-8-9865354-1-8 Kindle E-BookISBN: 979-8-9865354-2-5 Print

Disclaimers: This book and its content provided herein are simply for educational purposes. For those aspects of jewelry making and design which require legal or accounting advice, the information provided here is not a substitute for that advice. Every effort has been made to ensure that the content provided in this book is accurate and helpful for my readers. No liability is assumed for losses or damages due to the information provided. You are responsible for your own choices, actions and results.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022912538

Table of Contents

What You Will Learn

Intro To Book and Acknowledgements

LESSON 1: Not Every Craft Show Is Alike

LESSON 2: Research All Your Possibilities

LESSON 3: Know Which Craft Shows Are For You

LESSON 4: Set Realistic Goals / Determine Break-Even Point

LESSON 5: Get Those Applications In Early

LESSON 6: Promote, Promote, Promote

LESSON 7: Set Up For Success

LESSON 8: Bring Enough Inventory To Sell

LESSON 9: Sell Yourself And Your Craft At The Show

LESSON 10: Make A List Of Things To Bring

LESSON 11: Be Prepared To Accept Credit Cards

LESSON 12: Price Things To Sell

LESSON 13: Keep Your Money Safe

LESSON 14: Generate Follow-Up Sales

LESSON 15: Take Care Of Yourself

LESSON 16: Be Nice To Your Neighbors

Some Final Words of Advice

Helpful Resources

Thank You and Request For Reviews

About Warren Feld, Jewelry Designer

Other Articles and Tutorials

What You Will Learn

In this book, I discuss critical choices jewelry designers need to make when doing craft shows.

It is very important for anyone thinking about selling at craft shows, festivals, bazaars, markets, or similar settings to be smart about it.

That means, understanding everything involved, and asking the right questions.

Learn How To......Find, Evaluate and Select Craft Shows Right For You...Set Realistic Goals...Compute a Simple Break-Even Analysis...Best Develop Your Applications and Apply...Understand How Much Inventory To Bring...Best Promote and Operate Your Craft Show Business

Doing craft shows is a wonderful experience. You can make a lot of money. You meet new people. You have new adventures. And you learn a lot about business and arts and crafts designing.

I know you are eager to begin. Let’s get started.

NOTE: This book is also available as a video tutorial. Click here.https://so-you-want-to-be-a-jewelry-designer.teachable.com/p/so-you-want-to-do-craft-shows

Intro To Book and Acknowledgements

For Jayden Alfre JonesJewelry DesignerLife Partner

Also, you might be interested in my SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS video tutorial online.https://so-you-want-to-be-a-jewelry-designer.teachable.com/p/so-you-want-to-do-craft-shows

In the late 1980s, Jayden and I began our jewelry making adventure. First, a garage sale to test out our ideas. We combined Jayden’s artisan jewelry with jewelry making parts and laid them out on the lawn in front of our apartment. Incredibly successful. $6000.00! I worried, what if this was a fluke? So six weeks later, we did it again. We duplicated the finished jewelry and the selection of jewelry making parts, and held another garage sale. Again, a success at $4700.00.

So we took the plunge and rented a booth at the Nashville Flea Market, one of the granddaddy flea markets of all flea markets across the nation. New vendors begin in outside stalls. Every month we hauled our merchandise, our tables, our displays, our chairs, our food and water, and our heater or fan, depending on the time of year. Grueling. Very grueling. But profitable.

Between the monthly shows, we busily made more and more jewelry. We ordered more and more parts to sell.

And loaded the van. Drove to the fairgrounds. Unloaded. Set up. Shivered or sweated. And hawked our goods.

About a year later, an indoor flea market opened up nearby. You had a booth that you could close up and lock up. The market was open Wednesday through Sunday every week, and you had to be there or forfeit your booth. This took some pressure off in that we didn’t have to pack up and load up and unload and unpack. This also allowed us to make and repair jewelry onsite.

Another year later, we were in a storefront in downtown Nashville. Several weekends each year we did one or another art and craft show or bead show.

The rest is history. But you never forget your roots.

Craft Shows Are Great Opportunities

There are many advantages to doing craft shows.

You can make good money.

You can jump-start and enhance your reputation

You can learn a lot of good business tricks

And find out about a lot of good resources

If,… And that’s a big, “if”! You know what you’re doing.

All too often, jewelry designers who want to do craft shows have not done their homework. They have not researched and evaluated which shows to do, and which not to do. They have not figured out how best to set up their booths and displays. They are clueless about what inventory to make, and to bring, and how to price it. They are unprepared to promote, to market and to sell.

I developed this book to help prepare you for doing this kind of craftshow homework.

I discuss:

What information you need to gather

How to set personal and business goals

How to find, evaluate and select craftshows

And, how best to promote and operate your business at these craftshows.

In fact, I go over 16 lessons I learned for successfully doing craftshows.

I have divided these into two groups.

First, I discuss lessons about finding and selecting craft shows. These lessons are about How to find craft shows, and determine how well you and your business will fit in.

The second group of lessons are about how to promote and operate your business at these craft shows. These lessons focus on booth set-up, how best to organize all the various tasks involved, how to promote your business, how to manage money, and how to make sales.

Then i offer some final words of advice.

At the end of the book, I have a page of internet resources links for you to explore in more detail.

Thank You

In 2000, we organized a community group made up of jewelry making instructors, advanced students, and bead store staff. They were tasked with coming up with a design-focused educational curriculum useful for bead stringing, bead weaving and wire working. The goal was to come up with something that takes the student beyond craft – that is, beyond merely following a set of step-by-step instructions. It was important to educate students on both aesthetic, artistic requirements as well as architectural, functional ones. This group did an excellent job.

I want to thank the community group for their hard and insightful work, but particularly Connie Welch, who spearheaded many ideas and efforts.

There was great interest in business-oriented classes for our beading and jewelry making students. Many of them did craft shows, bazaars, flea markets and the like. This book emerged from both my experiences doing these shows, as well as working with these students as they established their own businesses.

Special thanks to the original masterminds behind the Intergalactic Bead Shows. They provided lots of insights and advice for doing craft shows, as well as lots of stories of things gone awry. You learn a lot from mistakes and responses to unexpected situations.

Another special thanks to Susan Thorton. Her business Thorton Metal Studios (https://www.thorntonmetals.com) prominently featured in many local art and craft shows in Nashville. She always impressed me that she knew the best ways to find shows, develop saleable inventories, display her wares, set up her booth, and entice customers to buy her pieces. I have always held her up as the best example for doing things the right way.

Other Books By Warren Feld

So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer

Becoming a Jewelry Designer is exciting. With each piece, you are challenged with this profound question: Why does some jewelry draw people’s attention, and others do not? Yes there are some craft and art aspects to jewelry making. But when jewelry designers turn to how-to books or art theory texts, however, these do not uncover the necessary answers. They do not show you how to make trade-offs between beauty and function. Nor how to introduce your pieces publicly. You get insufficient practical guidance about knowing when your piece is finished and successful. In short, you do not learn about design. You do not learn the essentials about how to go beyond basic mechanics, anticipate the wearer’s understandings and desires, or gain management control over the process. So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer reinterprets how to apply techniques and modify art theories from the Jewelry Designer’s perspective. This very detailed book reveals how to become literate and fluent in jewelry design.

The major topics covered include,

Jewelry Beyond Craft: Gaining A Disciplinary Literacy and Fluency in Design

Getting Started

What Is Jewelry, Really?

Materials, Techniques and Technologies

Rules of Composition, Construction and Manipulation

Design Management

Introducing Your Designs Publicly

Developing Those Intuitive Skills Within: Creativity, Inspiration and Aspiration, Passion

Jewelry In Context

Teaching Disciplinary Literacy In Jewelry Design

Conquering The Creative Marketplace

Many people learn beadwork and jewelry-making in order to sell the pieces they make. Based both on the creation and development of my own jewelry design business, as well as teaching countless students over the past 35+ years about business and craft, I want to address what should be some of your key concerns and uncertainties. I want to share with you the kinds of things (specifically, a business mindset and confidence) it takes to start your own jewelry business, run it, anticipate risks and rewards, and lead it to a level of success you feel is right for you. I want to help you plan your road map.

I will explore answers to such questions as: How does someone get started marketing and selling their pieces? What business fundamentals need to be brought to the fore? How do you measure risk and return on investment? How does the creative person develop and maintain a passion for business? To what extent should business decisions affect artistic choices? What similar traits to successful jewelry designers do those in business share? How do you protect your intellectual property?

The major topics covered include,

Integrating Business With Design

Getting Started

Financial Management

Product Development, Creating Your Line, and Pricing

Marketing, Promotion, Branding

Selling

Professional Responsibilities and Strategic Planning

Professional Responsibilities and Gallery / Boutique Representation

Professional Responsibilities and Creating Your Necessary Written Documents

 

Thank you. I hope you found this introduction useful.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft Video Tutorials online. Begin with my ORIENTATION TO BEADS & JEWELRY FINDINGS COURSE.https://so-you-want-to-be-a-jewelry-designer.teachable.com/

Follow my articles on Medium.com.https://medium.com/@warren-29626

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Check out my Jewelry Making and Beadwork Kits.(https://www.landofodds.com/kits/ )

Artist Statement (http://www.warrenfeldjewelry.com/wfjartiststatement.html )Teaching Statement (http://www.warrenfeldjewelry.com/pdf/TEACHING%20STATEMENT.pdf )Portfolio (http://www.warrenfeldjewelry.com/pdf/PORTFOLIO.pdf )Testimonials (http://www.warrenfeldjewelry.com/pdf/TESTIMONIALS.pdf )Video Tutorials (https://so-you-want-to-be-a-jewelry-designer.teachable.com/ )Design Philosophy (http://www.warrenfeldjewelry.com/wfjdesignapproach.htm )

[email protected]

Add your name to my email list.https://mailchi.mp/4032bd33748d/so-you-want-to-be-a-jewelry-designer