Last weekend was the time for the annual University of Illinois Mom’s Day Craft Fair in the Illini Union on the campus at Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Beaded Jewelry by Susan has been participating in this event for nearly twenty years. If you’ve read my prior Handmade Spark article called “The Big Transition,” you know that we’ve retired from doing outdoor craft fairs but plan to continue with the indoor shows on campus in the spring and late fall.

I want to do two things in this article: tell you about our experience at this year’s fair and offer some tips on doing craft shows for those of you who are considering entering one this year.

Of course, all arts and crafts fairs, indoors or outdoors, have different requirements and guidelines for application. For many, the forms need to be turned in quite a few months in advance. Be sure to keep a record of which fairs you’ve applied for, with all the pertinent information about dates, locations, fees, and deadlines. In some cases, photographs, slides, or online images are required as well as written descriptions of your work.

The U of I Mom’s Day show is a bit of an exception to the rule in that it isn’t a juried show in which a panel of individuals determine who can be in the show. It’s open to anyone on a first-come first-served basis. Unfortunately, this means that not all of the “vendors” are artists who handcraft their items. Many of us have complained about the unfair competition from “buy-sell” vendors who simple purchase handcrafted items (usually at low prices from foreign sources) for resale. But each show has its own rules, and this one is run by the business school students for experience and to fund student activities.

All shows do require a “booth fee,” the money you pay (usually some time in advance) for a space to sell your work. Often, the space is 10 feet by 10 feet (the size of most standard craft tent setups), but it may also be less. At the U of I show, for example, the spaces are 9 feet by 9 feet and crowded a bit closely right up against each other. The amount of booth fees varies widely by show and by region. A small town show may only charge fifty bucks, but a major art show in a big city can costs hundreds. Sometimes there is also a small fee for the application itself or to cover the costs of the jurying process.

The advantage of an indoor show is that you don’t have to set up a tent, stake it, zip it up at night for two- or three-day shows, or deal with blistering sun, blustering wind, drenching rain, scary lightning and thunder, or numbing cold. Of course, many shows are held in summer, and the weather may actually be delightful – sunny, breezy, clear days when everybody wants to come out and go to an art show and bring their kids and dogs and listen to music and eat hot dogs and so on.

For us, the indoor advantages are important at this stage in our lives because we can sell from rented tables using lightweight display equipment, so the whole experience is much easier physically. Our earring displays, for example, fit neatly into cardboard apple boxes.
Most shows allow for at least two hours of set-up time. This show began at 10 o’clock, so we were there at 8:00 to unload the vehicle. So, once we had brought in the apple boxes and the plastic totes with the rest of the equipment, it was time to go park the car. This is an especially difficult task on the U of I campus, where many spaces are rented and many meters have a two-hour limit. We parked a long ways away and so it took us a long time to make the trek back to the show.

I put Indian bedspreads on the rented tables and add a topping of black felt as a base.

On one table, I set up a line of rotating earring displays with a small card in front of each one with the price. I think you’ll find that no matter how many signs indicating price you have in your booth, many people will still ask how much the items cost.

On another table, I included some more earring displays, a T-bar with pendants, a tote that was designated “the bargain box” (some folks just love to dip into something like that to hunt for half-price items), and my equipment for doing sales.

I use a sheet (on a clipboard with a pen attached) for recording the total price of each sale so that I can pay the sales tax myself — for the whole show (once a year in January, but it varies by state) — rather than carrying coins and having the customers pay the tax. It’s a nice little perk to be able to say, “No, it’s xxx dollars even; I pay the tax.”

I also keep a pouch with change. For a modest show like this one, I started with ten ones, two fives, and eight tens. That works well for me because most of my show items are priced at ten dollars. If you can’t take credit cards at shows (I don’t because I only do a few shows and the credit card companies usually charge per month all year as well as per purchase), you can take checks (be sure the phone and address are on the check), cash, or direct the person to the nearest ATM machine. For checks, it’s handy to have a laminated card with your name on it to hand to the person writing the check (especially if your last name is hard to spell).

I’ve got a purple ceramic cat that my mom made many years ago who serves as my “show mascot” and stands next to my sales equipment. I also keep two mirrors and a funny sign (“Your husband called and said to buy anything you want.”).

I keep the gray plastic hanging cards from my earring displays, so at each purchase I transfer the earrings to a black cardboard card (cut from posterboard) that fits into the plastic bag with my business card in the back. I always thank the customer and say something like, “Enjoy your earrings,” when I hand them the finished package. For necklace sales, I keep a pair of sharp, short, needle-nosed scissors for cutting off the tag, and I have larger bags.

When I did the Holiday Bazaar Show in the Illini Union (same sponsoring group) last December, I spent a lot of time putting out about eighty necklaces – some on black velvet necks and some lying (artfully) on the black felt of the third table. I didn’t sell any necklaces at all, and, of course, it took quite a bit of time to put them out and then later to put each one back in its bag, roll it up, and place it in a tote.

For this show, I was so tired from walking back from the parking space that I just put out a dozen or so of the necklaces (displayed on necks). Of course, one lady wanted to see necklaces and so I wound up showing her most of them in an awkward manner. She ended up buying one that was already out on a neck!

Because we were using tables rather than panels with display boards hanging on them (as we used to do), we didn’t have anywhere to attach lights, so we depended on the lighting in the room. It turned out to be adequate, but lighting is something to consider, depending on your display and the type of handmade craft you are selling.

It was pretty crowded at times in the room, so I wasn’t able to get around much and take photos of other booths, but I did take a picture of the woodworking booth next to us and the handbags across from us.

Selling at shows is thirsty work, especially indoors where the room air may be dry. It’s always a good idea to bring a water bottle, even to indoor shows, and for outdoor shows I always used to bring a washcloth as well as sun protection cream and a wide-rimmed hat. The sponsoring group here gave us vouchers to soft drinks for sale down the hall from the show, and my husband went down to the basement snack bar to get sandwiches at lunchtime.

One of the things I really like about this particular show is that there are so many mothers and daughters who come to it together. It’s funny to see them interact, notice how their noses or eyes or hair are similar, and so on. I like chatting with customers and helping them find what they are looking for. There are a LOT of jewelry booths at this fair and frequently people have bought a pendant, ring, or bracelet elsewhere and want to find matching earrings.

Sometimes people are looking for gifts for others who aren’t there and we wind up discussing what kind of colors they wear or whether they like long or short dangling earrings. My very favorite is the return customer, and many of them say such nice things about the compliments they’ve received on what they bought from me last year.

We were pretty exhausted by the time we finished the show, packed the car, unloaded the car at home, and drove to the Mexican restaurant to celebrate, but it was a good show overall and we were glad to have done it again this year. I hope this glimpse of my show last weekend helps you prepare for shows this season. Please feel free to comment and leave questions for me!