Make a sign for your stall

Christmas fair countdown tip

Make a sign

If you haven't already done so, it's time to make a sign for your stall with your shop's name on it.
Your stall is a physical advert for your shop, so it is vital that people know who they are buying from, otherwise how can they find you in the future when they want more of your amazing products?!

Make your sign out of anything – wood, painted fabric, bunting – but try and tie it in with what you are selling. For example, if you make bunting, then use that. If you make cards, string some together to spell out your name.


When it comes to displaying your sign, an obvious place is on the front of your stall. You can sew or stick something onto your cloth cover, but be careful where you do so, otherwise if you are at another show with a stall of a different size, your name could get distorted.


Another option is to have an extra piece of cloth to lay over the middle of the stall, kind of like a runner. Put your shop name onto this and it doesn't matter what size table you are faced with.


One problem with putting your name on the front of a stall is that when people are milling about, they won't always see it. To get round this, you could make a small sign that sits on your stall, maybe as part of a display with your business cards (if you are feeling really handy).



Alternatively, take to the skies. Displaying your shop name above you is the best way to get it noticed. You don't need anything more than two pieces of dowling or 2x1 timber, and a couple of clamps to attach to the table legs. Just make sure it is high enough for you not to get tangled in it!

Craft insurance - boring but essential

Christmas fair countdown tip

Sorting craft insurance

We will say it from the start - this is not going to be the most exciting tip in the world. Not even close.

But if you want to take part in craft fairs - especially our Christmas fair - you need to get hold of public liability insurance. This protects the venue from anyone suing them as a result of damage caused by you, so it's best to get it sorted as soon as possible.

There are a lot of specialised insurance companies (with really ugly websites!) who offer this service for craft fairs, and to get you started we have a little list of some of them below. Please always read the policy details and ensure you get the cover to suit you. Other options include product liability cover and stock insurance. It's also worth checking which company underwrites the policy. If it is one you have never heard of, proceed with caution!

One other important thing to note - it's surprising how many companies don't offer online applications. While not a big thing in itself, it does mean that it will take longer to organise, so don't leave it too late!

And please remember that once organised, pass on proof of insurance to Rachel (Dorothy Days).


CMTIA
Mainly for market traders, but also craft fairs, it has a combined public/product liability solution for £48 a year. You can also put two names on the policy.

Graham Sykes
Has a range of options, starting from £37.85 a year.

LRO Insurance
Basic premium covers public, product and employers liability for £40.40 a year, but also offers daily cover for one-off fairs.

a-n
Become a member of this artist network for £36 a year and get public and product liability insurance thrown in!

Ian W Wallace
Products for individuals or groups, starting at £71 a year.

Wild and Woolly Xmas - Selection of stallholders' products from Dorset Team Christmas Fair in Wimborne - 6th Dec

Preparations for the Dorset Team Christmas Fair are in full swing and it has been wonderful to see all the new items that people have been making for the fair. Lynn from Nemeton has kindly put together this collection of items from stallholders coming the the fair to give you all a taster of what to expect.

As you can see there is a huge variety of different items from art prints to needle felt, t-shirts to glass and woodwork to sheepskin cushions! There is something for everyone and it is a great place to pick up gifts for all the family.

Come and see us in Wimborne on Dec 6th, free entry and 80 fabulous stalls. For more information please see our Facebook event page: www.facebook.com/events/1433547900231175/

Bear is the Forest - A3 Print jennisaarenkyla £15.00	Sheep Cushion TERRIPEAY £25.00	Kraken Mug - sea,ceramic, kitchen, gift, nautical jillybirddesign £8.00	Needle felt badger in Christmas jumper Apulina £35.00
Leaping hare screen printed linen cushion lupindesignscouk £35.00	MADE TO ORDER Embroidery Hoop Wall Art 'Milk Time Kitty Cat' - Textile Artwork on Natural Linen - 6" hoop doalittledance £21.00	Icarus Love Bird , art doll thecatintheshoe £68.00	Hard Day at the Office poppydot £10.00
Rustic Pendant Necklace with Heather Flowers Wildcraft £12.00	Elephant GeeShirt GeeShirts £10.00	Wasp Sculpture Mounted In Timber With Red Sting 02 Original GIFTPOINTstudio £459.00	Fused Glass "Scottie" Dog Hanger theartmachine1 £9.00
Relaxing Hare wire sculpture, garden ornament, figurine NicoletteDawn £65.00	Just a little Reindeer Christmas present block DoodleDotGifts £8.50	Sheepskin heart cushion with a Dorset story in chocolate brown and suede reverse side BradstocksofDorset £80.00	Upstream - hand editioned trout and fly fishing print BeneathBrightWaters £30.00

Tips for displaying prices

Christmas Fair countdown tip

How to display prices

Deciding on the prices of your products is one of the hardest decisions to make, closely followed by how to display the prices!

Go too small and you risk people not buying anything because they are too embarrassed to ask how much something is, or they can't be bothered. Go too large and you look like a supermarket.

Here are a few tips to get you on your way. Obviously the final styling is up to you, but it should fit in with your brand, in order to achieve marketing nirvana!

Get real-world inspiration

The next time you are out shopping, pay attention to how the prices are displayed. Pick a shop that has the same kind of feel as your business (even if it's how you wished you felt!) and translate (steal) their ideas into your own display. You'll soon see what works and what doesn't.

Save time - use removable price labels

At Studio Pickles we are a big fan of using luggage tags as a way of displaying prices. We attach them with small wooden clothes pegs and make sure to remove them once a sale is made. This is hopefully construed by the customer as us removing unwanted extras, but in reality it is born out of laziness - the tag can be reused on another item, which saves us writing them out each time!

Group items

It's surprising how long it takes to write out prices, so if you have a bunch of items with the same price, consider grouping them and having just one big price label. If the items are all different, try to give a reason for why they are all together - maybe 'pocket money presents' or 'secret santa gifts'.

Have a 'cheat sheet'

If you have lots of different items with different prices, keep a list of everything at the back of the stall to quickly refer to. That looks more professional than asking the customer how much it costs! If you have large price labels, you can also write them on the back.

Keep the prices facing out

It sounds obvious, but it's surprising how quickly a few browsing hands can disrupt your beautifully arranged stall. Make frequent checks to ensure all the price labels are standing front, centre and proud!

Buy bags in bulk

Christmas fair countdown tip

Buy bags in bulk

After going through the process of lovingly making an item (which we all know, can sometimes be a difficult birth), it's worth having something nice to put it in once a discerning customer comes along and snaps it up. If you sell products that are of a reasonable size, consider purchasing paper bags. It looks professional and if you have a printer (or are handy with linocuts or even a potato), you can put your logo on the outside for a sneaky bit of extra marketing.

The good news is that if you buy in bulk, paper bags don't actually cost much more than flimsy plastic bags (which generally stick together with static electricity, take an absolute age to open and split the moment anything of substance is put in them).

You don't have to buy in thousands - some companies start at 25 in a pack, but 50 seems to be more the norm. If this feels like too many, maybe post on the team forum and find someone to go halves on a pack. Obviously the more you buy, the more you'll save.

After a lot of hunting around online, we at Studio Pickles bought some brown paper bags from Carrier Bag Shop for the Autumn Fair. There are various ones to choose from, but being thoughtful souls we went for the recycled SOS Take Away bags (nothing to do with the fact that they were the cheapest!). We were happy with them - the smallest size is 18cm x 23cm x 9cm and cost £5.04 for 50 (so around 10p each - easily absorbed in the pricing process). The postage was reasonable compared with other companies, too.

Having a nice bag (or box, or whatever) to hand over to a customer is the same thing as buying nice wrapping paper. It makes the whole process a pleasant experience, and makes you look like a super-stylish professional craft genius!

Order business cards

Christmas Fair daily countdown tip

It's business card time

Having some business cards for your stall is essential. You can have them on your stand for people to pick up and contact you if they want to think about a purchase, plus you can pop them in bags when people buy something, just so they remember who you are.

To help you on your way, we've picked some little nuggets of advice to creating the perfect business card.

Include only essential information

Business cards are tiny, so avoid the temptation to add oodles of information. Pretty much everyone uses the internet these days, so you can happily get away with just including your business name, a few words to summarise what you do, your email and the URL of your Etsy shop.

Keep type readable

Pick a clean, clear font and keep the type size reasonably large; the school of thought is no smaller than 8pt. The best combination is dark type on a white background. If you cannot live without your colour, just ensure that the text colour and background colour are complete opposite.

Say it with pictures

Use your cards as an excuse to show off your products. Most companies allow for 2-sided printing, so use one for your details and the other for a photo. Think of the picture side like a book cover.

MOO offers something they call Printfinity, which enables you to alter the outside image on your cards. So if you can't decide what to show, this might be a good option.

Use templates

A lot of online companies will provide templates for you to just drop your information into. This is great if you haven't got any editing software. If you want to do things manually, you should be able to download a template to show you where the cards will be cut. Make sure you keep important information away from this and if you use images, make sure they extend out enough. The cuts can't be 100% accurate, so keep within the lines and you shouldn't lose anything vital.

Check postage and printing times

This tip has come so early in the proceedings because of experience. When I wanted to create cards for the Autumn fair, it may have been a wee bit late in the day, ahem. I was therefore shocked to find that a lot of companies needed 4-5 working days to create the cards, with delivery time on top of that. Delivery could take another week, or there was the speedy post option (or the shame option for slow coached) which worked out costing more than the cards. Plan ahead and you won't have to pay over the odds.

Make your own

Of course, you don't have to get someone else to print your cards. Buy some good-quality card stock, create a design or stamp and create your own. It will take longer, but your cards will be a work of art in themselves!

The Christmas fair countdown has begun!

The Christmas Fair countdown has begun!

This time in four weeks we will no doubt all be busy packing stock, checking through countless lists, adding finishing touches to items and after a few sherries, finally taking a bit of a breather before the big day of the Christmas Fair.

To help you on your way, we will be presenting a useful tip each day leading up to the fair. You can look forward to loads of information about not only setting up a stall and displaying your products to their best advantage, but also other nuggets of advice for promoting yourself and the Dorset team. 

But don't see this as a one-way street - if you happen to be a craft fair veteran and have some words of wisdom, please let us know and we will gladly incorporate your tips into the countdown. Likewise, if you have a slightly different way of doing things, share a comment. These tips are meant as a learning experience, so any and all help is very welcome. 

So with the introduction out of the way, it's time for today's tip. Fa la la!

Make a list of what to make (and when you'll make it) 

Since this is a Christmas fair, items that are Christmas-based (presents or decorations) will probably sell better than something suited to the height of summer.

This might mean you need to make different items for your stock pile, so if you haven't already done so, draft a list of everything you want to make. Doing it this early means you can see if extra materials are needed and if so, have the time to order them in.

Listing what you want to make is just the start, though. It's really easy to get carried away listing all the potential treasures you can craft, which is why you also need to come up with a plan of when you will actually make all these amazing things. Set yourself rough deadlines - it will not only help you avoid last-minute crafting cramming sessions, but you will quickly identify if your plans have any basis in reality. If it is impossible to make everything you want, you can then whittle down the list to what is most important. 

We'll admit that reducing your craft endeavours to lists can crush the creative spirit, but it really will help the next four weeks go more smoothly. And at the very least, you'll get the satisfaction of crossing lots of things off a list!

The Autumn Fair

The Autumn Fair was a huge success! The day was fantastic- the turn out was brilliant and the stalls all looked very enticing. A massive thank you has to go out to Sarah Ricketts at Delicious Bits: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Deliciousbits for organising the event- it was really well thought out and she obviously put in a lot of work, along with her helpers to ensure the day ran smoothly. It was also good to discuss with other stall holders who aren't signed up with Etsy our experience of selling on an online marketplace. As always, you come away with new ideas regarding display, packaging etc as well as items from other makers! (We should fit in a bit of Christmas shopping as well, shouldn't we?!) My only regret was that it was so busy, I didn't get around to saying hello to all the fellow stall holders I have met through Etsy! If you have pictures of your stall, please post them in the comments box below. It would be lovely to have a collection of photos alongside your personal feedback here! Ruth