The big crafty was this past weekend, and as always we were a frantic mess. Despite my blog entries about preparing for a craft fair we were not prepared. When we got there almost everyone in our area were already finished setting up, although there were a few other "late screw-ups" too :P. We are very used to being the late people, and we had plenty of time to set up! This time I thought our table looked a lot better, and less cluttered than before. See what you think. We didn't make the mistake of putting out everything this time. So all in all I think it looked a lot better.
We didn't have samples to give away this time. Last craft fair I think it brought a lot of people to our table, but I'm not sure how much that translated into sales. I think we just ended up giving a lot of our merchandise away. The crowd was incredibly huge at the Big Crafty. I wasn't prepared for how enormous it was. They filled all of Pack Place and also blocked off the roads surrounding it. It's amazing what a crafting presence there is in Asheville, and how interested its citizens are in the arts.
The other thing that Rachel and I have been talking about is that we have too much variety in our products. In a craft fair that big, I think it's important to be recognizable. We're still trying to figure out what that realization means for our business. I'll certainly keep you posted!
All in all I think there were a lot of lessons to be learned at the Big Crafty, and I'm pretty sure we've only realized a few of them. I think that both Rachel and I had too high of expectations. We had done our first show, and we thought that we were ready for the big leagues. I'll just say, I think that is still in our future.
