31 Days - Day 6: Do Research - What Crafters are in the area?

It is important to know what other crafters in your area are making for selling, because you don't want to saturate the market on the same items, or offend other crafters. I think it is better to find a unique product to incite interest in your booth. If you duplicate someone else's idea in the area, you may offend them, which is not a great way to begin in the crafting arena. Here are some ways to do the research:

Visit: The best way to do research about the types of crafts in your area is to visit other shows in the same area. I found in my area at several summer festivals that jewelry making is a really big craft. In fact, I wondered why those crafters hadn't figured out that everyone else sells jewelry in the area. Fortunately, I don't make or even wear jewelry, so I won't overlap the six other jewelry makers in the area. Being unique can be a benefit when beginning in the craft show arena.

Ask the Organizer: The other to research this area is to ask the person who runs the craft show for a list of the crafters entered along with a description of what they do. This can give you a general idea. A good craft show organizer will be tracking what people sell and making sure that there isn't too much of the same things.

Ask Friends: Back to asking friends for their advice I've found that if you ask, most people are willing to give you their advice. One of my friends mentioned that a local lady makes tons of these type of signs:

Homespun Happenings

I love these signs and had even thought I'd make some for the craft show, but I'm going to be careful about not having too much time and effort put into them. I may make some that are more shabby chic than antique looking. I'm thankful that my friend gave me a heads-up with this one, because it would be awful to make a bunch of these and then have a lady who sells these all the time in the area leave my booth unvisited!

If you haven't seen the rest of my posts in my 31 Days to a Craft Show series, be sure to check them all out here: 31 Days to a Craft Show.

Comments

DIY Pig Feeder

This is our second year of raising pigs for the fair. We've had some bumps along the way, one of them was our homemade feeder of last year. I tend to have ideas, and then Mr. Right gets the pleasure of trying to execute my ideas. Most of the time it works out, but last year, our feeder was a fail. This year, we need a feeder that can go a long period of time, since our pigs are not on our property where we live. Our neighbor made a complaint about the smell of the pigs last year to our landlord, so the landlord told us no more pigs. (Keep in mind, there are only 2 pigs on 6 acres and they are only here for 5 months and then go to the 4-H fair and livestock auction) Thankfully, another neighbor graciously allowed us to pen up a corner of her horse pen, to put our pigs in. This year, I wanted to be sure that Mr. Right did a quality version of the pig feeder that would make it through the entire five months, and hopefully...

Recycled Denim Jacket

My 18 year old daughter found this denim jacket for $10 at a thrift store and fell in love immediately! She’s been wanting to ink a denim jacket, so this fit the bill! She’s worked on this while I read history to her in homeschool. My girls enjoy being creative during homeschool time. Supplies for this project: -denim jacket -white ink -Vintage Paris Transfer —Small squeegee Shop for other options HERE! ♻️ Thrift + Create – Giving old pieces a fresh look is a great way to craft with purpose! 🎨 Personalized Touch – No two inked designs are the same, making each project truly unique. 👩‍🎨 Creative Bonding – Crafting together is a beautiful way to share skills and creativity across generations. Want to start your own thrift flip project? Let’s chat about how Chalk Couture inks can transform your wardrobe! Drop a 💙 if you love DIY fashion

Local Harvest

I am so surprised at the amount of people who don't take advantage of local farmers and produce! We heard about a place called "Tomato Toms" and just had to check it out. (Especially since it seems nearly impossible to grow tomatoes in our town. I think it's something about the elevation) We took a Sunday afternoon to drive to explore local produce and find Tomato Tom. This drive, I thought for sure that no one could be possibly growing anything on such dry land (see the background to the first picture, below). Then we drove up a scary driveway and look what we found: Tomato Toms was a fantastic sizable garden of u-pick heaven! We picked 60 pounds of tomatoes in 10 minutes. Then took about twenty more minutes to figure out just what onions and peppers we needed to go with our tomatoes. The tomatoes weren't store perfect, as in no blemishes or anything, but they were beautiful and tasted wonderful off the vine! I don't normally ...

Prairie Scraps

Search This Blog