'First' Craft Show

The spring and summer craft show season is upon us! While many crafters behind the Etsy shops on our NCTriangle team have set up a booth at many craft fairs, others haven't. ReVamped Creations was kind enough to share her first craft show experience! Hopefully her recap of her first show will encourage you to give setting up a booth at a craft shows a try... or least encourage you to go shopping and support the artists who will be at your local art and craft shows.

"My First Show" according to ReVampedCreations

I made it through my first craft show. It was the 2PawsUp show in Chapel Hill. Since I had never done a show, I had no idea what to expect.

I’m a worrier by nature. I worried over my tent. What kind of tent did I need? I worried over the weather. Entering the week of the show, those that predict these things were saying rain on that day. Would I set up if it rained? What if my purses fell in the mud? I worried over the ‘type’ of people that would be there. The show was in an upscale community. Would the people be snobs? Would they insult my wares? And of course, I fretted over how many sales I would make. What if I sold everything??? I have another show the beginning of June. How could I replenish my stock by then? And the biggie…What if I sold nothing?

The day of the show arrived. The weather was gorgeous! I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day! So my husband and I started packing up my gear. We don’t have a van. We don’t have a SUV. We have a Corolla and an Accord. I had a tent. I had a table. And there were several plastic totes with bags. We arranged and rearranged. Finally, we stuffed it all in my husband’s car and took off!

The setup went well. We had done a complete practice setup in the backyard and it totally paid off. Our neighbors on each side of us at the show were great! They were very friendly and experienced vendors. I met several etsy folks too.

Slowly the people started coming in. Lots of people stopped by the booth and looked. I got many compliments on the design of the bags and on the colors schemes. A friend of mine came by and bought something. I had some fabric flowers for sale. I gave a little girl one and later her mom came back and gave me some money for it. But no more sales. I walked around and talked to some other vendors and it seemed no one did really great. I thought I’d be really upset if I didn’t sell anything. But I wasn’t. I wasn’t upset at all! I had a lot of fun and the compliments I received really made me feel good.

My first show was a great learning experience. I learned how to set up my booth and how long it would take to set it up. I learned that I needed to eat lunch during the day! I also got lots of practice talking about my work. I’ve written about it, but the show was my first opportunity to talk about it to people I didn’t know about what I do. I walked away with a good feeling from my first show and I’m ready for the next one!

-- Be sure to visit RevampedCreations' shop on Etsy to see why everyone was so impressed with her work!