So I’ve seen a lot of dish cloths, amigurumi, and lovies at markets / fairs but I’ve never (personally) seen anyone offering any crop tops or the like. Since spring market season is starting do you think people would enjoy seeing something like this ?

I have my second fair on Saturday. It's a new music festival type event, with about 14 vendors total, about half of that is food. I am wondering if I should lower my expectations for the day since it's pretty small. I sell stained glass sun catchers and jewelry. My first fair was not very successful, I barely sold anything, and that was a huge craft fair with over 100 vendors. So I'm worrying that this one will be bad. If I have another bad show I really might give up. My prices range from $30-$100 for stained glass, $10-$30 for jewelry, and this time I'm doing stickers for $2 each.

https://preview.redd.it/b9wm4lggcowc1.jpg?width=2370&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=de00c9ce75d37dc9cb61126c76030fcc260d899a

So besides my physical items that I make, I also turn children’s drawings into stuffed animals. I do it through Etsy, but I was wondering if there was a way to “sell” or show that I do that at craft fairs?

I was thinking of making a small poster or display with before and after pics and a little postcard they could take saying how to order it.

Any suggestions appreciated

I am having my first craft fair next weekend. Just wondering how do you take / process custom orders at the fair? Do you take payments up front or during the pickup? I’m a newbie and want to keep my options open but don’t want to mess up too. Please share your experiences and the process. Thanks

I am planning an Etsy business and future craft fair endeavors for fibre arts, and I think I would like to create certain products where the earnings from those are donated to a charity, I haven’t chosen a specific one yet. I want to also advertise that the proceeds are donated so customers know that it’s not going towards me but to a cause. Is it not as simple as just tallying up the numbers and giving that money at the end of the day, or do I need to get in touch with someone at a charity and have this all in writing. What if someone asked to see the numbers and the guarantee that the funds are going where they say they are going, I can’t just say take my word for it. What if a charity doesn’t want to be associated with my business?

I have my very first event on June 8th, and I'm wondering if my price range is a good thing, or a bad thing. I sell bags, keychains, wax melts and decorative coasters. All made by me.

My cheapest item is the keychains I plan to sell for 4 dollars.

Most expensive are the large bags (dual lined drawstring bags) I plan to sell for 15.

Should I look into something that would be in the 25ish dollar range? Or is my price range alright? I like to think that my items are cheap enough for a not so guilty impulse buy, lol.

I’m currently gearing up for my first artists alley this summer and wanted to get some perspectives on the different card readers available. For context the convention is three days, and odds are I will only do a few of them a year, so a monthly or weekly fee is preferable. My products range is $2, $5, $25, $50, $70, $100, $150 so having a machine makes sense.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I sell plant based soap and bath products. Offering everything from laundry detergent, soap, shampoo/conditioner bars, shave bars all things bath related. All the way to candles and wax melts. I want to give my customers a variety of options, but what is too much?

Hi all,

I have a small business of selling incense. This incense I buy it from Gambia and it is a local made product, not mass produced by factories or highly commercialliased for international purposes. It's traditional product of Gambia. I buy it from the locals. I then package it here in the UK and I also create a different product with it which is a type of incense that does not require charcoal to burn, it's warmth only activated similar to essential oils or wax melt for perfuming the house.

Would a craft fair be a good place to also sell it? I see lots of incense stalls but I don't know if they do it themselves or not... Don't attend many to be fair.

I just want to make sure that I respect the environment of a craft fair as I see people sometimes selling stuff you can clearly buy from aliexpress etc.

Thank you

I’ve been doing craft fairs for a little while.. just accepting cash! I’ve only had maybe 4-5 people say dang it I don’t have any cash. Since it’s literally only been a handful I don’t really feel the need to get the card reader thing for my phone. But I think I’d like to start accepting like Venmo, PayPal, cashapp… that type of stuff, so my question is which one should I sign up for? Which one do you think is the most popular/ used? Because I literally have no other use to get one other than my vendor so I don’t want to just get a random one 😭😭 thank you!

Not new to tabling, but not a seasoned pro. I just got accepted to a market coming up in June, organized by a duo who seems somewhat new to putting together markets, but totally capable.

The fee for a 8x5 space seems reasonable ($80) but there's also a cleaning deposit, which I've never seen before, for $100. Reading between the lines, it sounds like the venue charged them a cleaning deposit, so they're charging vendors to cover it.

It's a high fee, and I've never seen it before, so I guess I'm just looking for someone to pat me on the back and tell me it's okay.

Is it common to have a fee of 20 dollars just to register for an event, not even selected just to fill out an application, I saw a event at a restaurant location not a major event and it's 20 to apply

I sell jewelry and I’ve been wanting to do a craft fair but I don’t even know where to begin… I sell mostly through Instagram and/or my friends and family. I have a Depop that I sell on as well and I plan on setting up an Etsy, though I haven’t yet. I have quite a bit of jewelry made and plan on making more but this is kind of expensive and I need to make up my costs. I don’t have business cards or a logo as of current. Sooo If I were to do a craft fair, what would I need to do to get ready? Is my stuff even stuff that people would buy? I don’t know .. I need help ! 🙏

here’s my Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/nostalgia_bound_?igsh=Mm9zd3B2bndhdHN4&utm_source=qr

Hello all!

On Saturday I’ll be going to a fair/festival as a Venmo for the first time and I’m terrified. I’m sure I’m not the first person to feel this way but I was hoping to find some pointers in this community. I’m not sure what else to say so I guess I’ll see how this goes.

Looking for a folding cart type thing that I can use when I have to park far away from my spot. I’ve seen a few on amazon but I would need to go be able to go across grass too!

Any favorites?

My Craft Guild regularly holds meetings with educational topics and we're holding a Zoom meeting on April 21st at 7PM EST on how to apply for a (Juried) show. The meeting is not for members only and is free to attend. (And we're not selling anything!)

Myself and my VP of Standards will be giving insider tips on what we're looking for when people apply and how to plan and fill out the application with the best chance of success for getting in. You would be amazed at the number of good artists who don't make it in the show because they made mistakes when applying.

The information is on the Haverford Guild of Craftsmen's website here: https://haverfordguild.org/up-coming-meetings/

All of my bags, wax melts, and keychains are hand made. But my dad brought up an idea that I like, but not sure how it would be tolerated.

The bags I make are dice bags, but I call them "hobby bags" to market them a little better. My dad brought up selling dice too, along with the bags.

I don't want to mess with resin or appoxy, bit I like the idea. Bulk dice are fairly cheap, so I've been tossing it around to include them as a sale item.

Of course, I'm not making these by hand, I would be selling them at a markup price. Or offering, "because you got a bag, you can get this set of dice half off!" Or maybe getting 2 bags and you get a set for free, like an incentive.

Things like that.

Since I'm not making them, not sure how it would be looked at though by other vendors and what not.

If I shouldn't, that's fine. I did get resin dice molds to make wax melt dice.

I have been researching NY state (Suffolk county) .gov for 8 hours and can still not understand how to get a temporary food vendors permit. I have a food handling certification and process baked goods from home and I want to have a stand at a fair but it seems nearly impossible to navigate

Hi everyone! We will be doing our first night market in May and would love your advice and recommendations.

We need a small electric generator to power a few light strips and 2 neon signs.

If you have one, or know of a great one I would love to check it out. I’m super lost on what strength of one we need for something like this.

Thanks so much!

Does accepting physical cards with square or something important? Or can I just use venmo pay pal and cash app?

Edit: Thanks everyone! I literally was able to set up a square reader for free in like 15min. So much easier than I thought.

At my most recent event, I had two different vendors ask if I would consider allowing them to sell my work at other events they go to. The first vendor makes wooden cutting boards and beverages tumblers; he was interested in selling my crochet long stem flowers. The second vendor makes Hawaiian themed laser cut wooden decor; she was interested in selling my crochet shave ice keychains. Has anyone done this?

Since November 2023, this was my 7th vendor event and my head is still spinning trying to understand how this process works. I appreciate any advice/anecdotes. Thanks for reading.

I am a bookbinder and currently on the shortlist to get into my local Renaissance Faire (with heavy SCA influence, so it has a less fantasy vibes). Fingers and toes crossed! I'm making pamphlet stitch paper journals with block prints, leather traveler's notebooks, hand cut feather quills, and Gothic-style leather bound tomes.

I will also be attending some arts & crafts fairs where I will have more modern things, like a table where kids can customize their journal with stamps and a gashopon machine for with erasers and trinkets inside.

The 16th century was an amazing time for bookbinding (the printing press! books stored vertically! gold tooling! plant based paper! end of nerding out!). I will have period-appropriate tools like a sewing frame and a finishing press at my booth to show how books were made. Do you think folks would be interested in historical how-its-made?

Any advice for me?

I didn’t know about this until recently, but what is event insurance and is it worth it?

Also, how much weight should I be putting on my canopy? I was planning on 10lb each leg, using the bag ones that attach to the legs. But I’ve also seen interlocking ones that look like weights.

Hi everyone, I had my first fair in November and I had about 22 sticker designs at the time. I got some cute little bamboo trays that had a 2x4 grid of squares to display them in.

I'm scaling a lot though and will have > 60 sticker designs at my next fair. I don't really think these trays will be as feasible (both for viewing, table space, and for cost reasons). I feel unsure about the rotating display solutions since those can be difficult to look at when there are multiple people/groups wanting to browse.

I'm also nervous about one big display board because I know people get decision paralysis if the display is visually overwhelming. I will say a lot of the variety in my designs is with color rather than 60 totally unique designs, so visual overwhelm might not be as bad as usual.

Or I could also just not bring all 60 designs and limit my selection a bit.

I guess all solutions have their pros and cons, but does anyone have experience trying different methods, and which worked best for you?

hi :) i’m a crochet business owner and will be going to college away from home soon (in savannah if anyone’s curious)! i’ve done lots of craft fairs and vendor events around my hometown and would like to continue doing them next year in college, but my only big issue is probably having to make my booth a bit smaller, as i won’t have much room to store tables and display (i’ll be staying in the dorms). however, i was wondering if anyone has managed to make do with a small storage space or is in a similar situation? any advice or possibilities is appreciated!! 🩷🙏

I'm in Kansas and I'm just so confused about all this tax stuff.

For one of the craft fairs I did, we were required to register sales tax through the Kansas Department of Revenue, so I had to create my own business. When I filed my taxes this year, I only made $238 from that one fair, and had to pay $28 in taxes. Then I got a letter saying I owed like $400 in taxes???

I reached out to a different craft fair, and it's an annual one put on by a non-profit. They said I would have to report my own sales tax too.

Is there an easier way to sell stuff and do all this? I remember going to a craft fair when I was younger, and I think they provided the tax forms to fill out after the fair?

ETA:

So it turns out I did do my taxes correct. I just had to pay that $28. The $400 was due to me not sending it in time, and they estimated what I needed to pay.

But still, this stuff sucks lol.

Hi! Has anyone here started with craft fairs only to realize that perhaps art fairs would be a better fit? Did you try being a vendor at an art show? How did it go for you? I’m asking because I’ve done a few craft fairs, gotten many compliments, but no purchases. I have a feeling my creations are more for the artsy crowd…🤷🏼‍♀️ I am giving an art fair a try end of May for the first time. We will see. 🙂