Craft Fairs: Take two

It was only three years ago that I did my first Craft Fair, although this was before Covid, so it seems like a lifetime ago. The craft fair was at the school where I teach. I used my ink sketches to make some prints, some postcards and some calendars, large and small. Considering I was winging it I made a very nice bit of profit after all the costs were taken into consideration. This was just consolidated when the local church held a craft fair a week later, and since I could sell leftover stock, once I’d paid for the stall it was practically all profit, even though I didn’t sell as much.

Then covid happened.

I was offered he chance to take a stall in a craft fair in the same church in June. Bearing in mind the small number of sales I made the previous time I decided to pass. Last Tuesday, though, the school held another Craft Fair. It’s the wrong time of year to try flogging calendars, I reasoned, but I have a huge number of original watercolours to sell, and ran off some more prints and postcards.

I have to be honest, it wasn’t great. There were very few people there, I’m afraid. For most of the evening it looked as if I wasn’t going to cover my costs. Then I sold an original sketch, and a print, which covered the costs, and a colour print, an embroidered bag and a couple of postcards which made a small profit. The profit became a bit larger when a colleague asked me if I’d sold one of the acrylic paintings I had with me on the night, and bought it off me the next day.

Still, one of the things you can find when you do a craft fair is that you can pick up some useful contacts. I was approached by a lady who is running a Craft Fair in Neath next Saturday. The only thing is. . ., well most of the prints and sketches I’ve sold in craft fairs have been of local locations in Port Talbot. I haven’t made many sketches of Neath locations at all. So I held back a little and set myself the target of making four or five sketches of Neath locations in the weekend. If I could do it then happy days and I’d book a stall. If I couldn’t, then I’d save myself £20.

Well, I did book the stall, so obviously I made the sketches. Here they are – sorry that I’ve put the word sample on them. 

A fortnight ago I have a very unpleasant exchange when I posted a painting of an Ealing trolleybus on an Ealing group. One of the people who commented said that he’d bought a frame for it. Which left me a bit puzzled. Was this an offer to buy? A request for a print? I asked him for clarification, and reminded him that the image is copyright, and I had made it clear when I posted it that I do not give permission for anyone to print the image off.

Ho boy.

Can open. Worms all over the floor.

Facebook groups are quite clear. You’re not to post to advertise your work. Fair enough. I don’t even respond publicly when someone posts requesting a print, or to buy the original. I may well respond with a private message, but that’s as far as I would go. But simply reminding people that the copyright on my painting is mine brought a storm of abuse from this numpty. So there you go.

Now, I will have to print off some prints and postcards, so I am gambling that I will at least cover my costs. Nothing ventured nothing gained, though. I’ll let you know how we go.