First Craft Fair - some lessons learned.

I went to my first craft fair on Friday at my place of employment. There were about 15 tables there, five of which had jewelry. I got there a little after 7am to set-up to open at 9am. This being my first craft fair, I figured I would a little to be ready for my second fair. My first BIG mistake was having things packed poorly and with little or no organization. It took about six trips out to my car to get everything to the room. I'd like to make only one trip, and so hopefully next time I will be able to whittle that down a little. I had everything in boxes, which, I then had to take out of boxes to hang on the earring stand. That took a long time, since I first had to take it out of the box, then put the hanger on the earring card (I make my cards myself), then hang them up. First off, I am not going to store my things in the individual boxes anymore. I will store them in plastic baggies, with the hanger already attached. This will cut back on me having to bring three craft cases filled with the jewelry in the boxes, and maybe only have to bring one craft case, and a bag filled with boxes.

Second big mistake, I forgot a pen. ooooppppsss!

Third mistake, I had no way to hang my banner up. I thought I could hang it with ribbon on the table, but the ribbon kept pulling the banner, and the banner kept trying to keep rolling back up. I will have to figure something out with that.

I only had about four busts to hang necklaces on, so I had to keep a lot of necklaces in the boxes on the table. I thought it looked crappy like that. I have ordered a few necklace boards, so next time it will all look a little neater.

On a positive note, I did have small bills, my cards, everything priced and a mirror available for people to try on necklaces.

It was a good day. A bit stressful, but I am looking forward to another fair.