The Festival of Spring craft fair in May went very well. That one always does. I appreciate the beautiful surroundings of the Paine Art Center and Gardens; it makes for a very good backdrop to showcase some beautiful art. Our booth was next to a guy who made wooden frogs which, when you ran a stick across their back, made a noise quite similar to a croaking frog. Of course, I totally had to buy one. The noise was annoying to my booth partner, but I loved it. On the other side of us was a seller of Pampered Chef. Don't get me wrong; I support your right to make money however you choose, but there's always something about resellers at a craft fair that rubs me the wrong way. Just two booths down from us was someone selling bulk cheap jewelry for as low as $1. It was flying off his table, but it was plastic and shoddy and I just don't understand how you can bring such a low-end mass-produced product to a craft fair.
The last craft fair was the Taste of the Dells in Wisconsin Dells. Being a high-tourist area, I was really expecting that one to be very busy. The crafters around us, for the most part, were very talented and there seemed to be much less in the way of resellers. I was thrilled to get started. A two-day craft fair, and the booth fee was pretty cheap for such a huge event, I thought. Well, I soon understood why. I did passably fair, my booth partner unfortunately did a little less than fair, and all in all it felt disappointing. The actual "Taste" festival was over three blocks away from our little craft fair, which was not on the main drag of the Dells like I had thought, but just off of it. It felt like two different festivals with not much traffic between them. I'm always grateful for the customers I did have, though, and for the people we meet around us. The booth next to us had unique vinyl records (scratched) which had been partially melted under high heat and bent to form bowls which could be used for pots or just decorative bowls around the house. They also had purses made from "garbage" like Capri Sun wrappers, and bracelets woven from other wrappers. It was very fun. The vender who really caught our attention made fantastic candles and lotions from soy, with really unique scents like Ceder and Sage, White Zinfandel, Macintosh Apple, and more. In fact, here's her website: Makenna Del (I would share the website of the frog guy from the first craft fair, but he doesn't have one :P)
Our next craft fair is the Faire on the Green in Oshkosh at the Paine Art Center again. I hope it goes as well as the first, and I'm looking forward to seeing what unique venders will be joining us this time. Here's the info on Facebook: Faire on the Green and on my website, in case you're not a Facebook fan: Faire on the Green. That said, I'd like to introduce a new product that I've been working on for about a month or so now: Jewelry! I will include some pictures at the bottom, as always. Of course, I encourage you to check out my booth partner's jewelry as well, seen here: Lily Kay Designs I think our jewelry has a very different style. My friend's jewelry is trendy and fun, good for a night out or dressing up at the office or a lot of different things. She showcases several styles, with some hemp jewelry, a lot of sterling silver, large pendants, and several themes.
For my jewelry, I prefer to use as much natural material as possible. I use bamboo or cotton string, sterling silver when I can, natural stones and shells, polished stones, cameos, feathers, and more. My jewelry is more for people who have a sense of style similar to mine, I suppose. My friend likes to call me a goth hippie, and I suppose it's kind of true. I love my natural materials, but I also love the dark glamour of skulls and Victorian style cameos and other things. My jewelry is a perfect example of that. One thing I started doing which I really love is making hoop earrings that fit through gauged tunnel earrings. Finally, I can wear dangley feather earrings like all the cool kids, I just have to attach them to a hoop through my tunnels! Lol. I don't have pics of those yet; I'll post those later, but I do have pics of the rest.
Ok, that's a long enough post for this time. I promise to stay more up to date in the future! I won't let another two months go by before I update this again. I'll let you know what fun and interesting vendors and customers I have at the next craft fair.
Listening to: Hungry Lucy
Pics: New jewelry :)
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