Mini Show and the Importance of being Flexible

I had a conversation this weekend with the wife of a local restaurant owner. Uptown Kitchen is a great little restaurant in Granger, IN, right in the middle of Toscana Plaza. My husband and I enjoy going to breakfast there on weekends - great food and delicious coffee!

Anyway, they have offered a spot in their restaurant Wednesday morning for me to bring in and sell my jewelry. Another local crafter brings in handmade soy candles, and I have the chance to join her. I got excited to do it, until reality hit {oh, wait...I have a job! I can't just wander off with jewelry in hand, midweek...}

But, family to save the day! I coaxed my husband and my mom into taking my jewelry there for me. Phew! I hate missing out on opportunities to gain exposure to new {potential} customers! So, if you're in the South Bend area, stop by Uptown Kitchen, this Wednesday, November 18 between 9 and 11 in the morning. My husband will be happily answering questions {just be kind and don't ask him to identify stones - he makes things up!}

3rd Annual Open House - Fun, Jewelry and Wine!

Having an Open House is so much fun. Friends come over and hang out. Some friends bring others with them, perhaps co-workers; so I get the chance to meet new people. Not to mention that so many people who I know, but don't see on a regular basis, stop by. So it ends up becoming a time to chat with friends, catch up with people, and make new acquaintances. Oh, and sell jewelry, too!

My open house started on a Saturday morning, and plenty of people stopped by. I was surprised to see so many people, considering that we had freakishly nice weather for November (70's in Northern Indiana!?!), and a Notre Dame football game gearing up just a few miles down the road.

Then, it ended with a Wednesday night open house. I have always had my open house on a Wednesday night, and love being able to run home from work and throw open the door just in time! We have snacks, wine, music, and lots of fun. My mom always helps out by running the check out station. This year was an added trick for her, since she had to learn to run credit cards through ProPay. She got the hang of it, though, and everything went smoothly.

My husband is in charge of food preparation and serving, which is always well done (he's my Mr. Martha Stewart!). This year we had wine, tea, crackers and cheese, artichoke dip, caramel corn and cookies. He also helps out by being social and chatting with people, and generally keeping the party going. I always try to move around, answer questions, rearrange displays when empty spots start to happen, and take custom orders. I have a pile of a few custom orders waiting for me right now!

Between my Saturday and Wednesday shows, my plastic earring cards went missing. Now, this would not have been a big deal, except that I had made about 10 new pairs of earrings between the shows and needed a way to get them displayed. I was at my wits end, trying not to get crazy, but feeling a little crazy as I searched my entire house (and when you're checking your sock drawer, you know you're a lost cause).  Then I remembered this great blog I had read a few months back that offered a PDF for necklace and earring stands that you could make with paper. So, I found the entry on Boo's blog, sent my husband to Hobby Lobby for cardstock, and hit print. I ran the PDF home during my lunch break, showed him how they worked, and handed him a pair of scissors. Like a good sport, he put together a dozen of these little earring displays, and I must say, I was thrilled when I got home from work. See how they turned out?

I decided to try her necklace displays next. I bought round busts from a jewelry store that was going out of business a couple of years ago. See?

So, needless to say, I could use a fresh update. If that goes well, I may even see if I can fashion something to display bracelets... Ah, a project for another day!

Last Minute Preparations

My open house begins Saturday morning, and since I work full time (plus some!), I have precious little time left before the shopping begins. I have made some great preparations so far:

New items created since my last show.
New items have been priced and photographed for posterity.
New items hit a wide variety of price points, so most people will be able to find something in their range.
Gift certificates have been printed for easy gift purchases.
ProPay is set up to accept credit cards at the show. I'll have my computer set up at check-out.
I have some older items marked as clearance, which is always popular!
I have plenty of business cards ready to pass out.
{and a big one}
My house is clean!!!

What I still need to do before the show:
Stock up on bags/boxes for the check-out process.
Print and attach tags to all of my new items.
Get snacks and beverages.
Go to the bank and get some small bills, for those who pay in cash and need change. (I always forget this!!!)

I have a lovely friend who has offered to come over Friday night and help me set up. It's always challenging, figuring out how to turn your house into a store. I need to decide what surfaces will work as displays, bring more lighting into the spaces, and try to make things look good! All while trying to mess up the house the LEAST possible, because our home is currently on the market and for sale. So, we have to be ready for a realtor to call us and be able to pull the house together again on short notice.

What do you think? Am I forgetting anything?? Leave me a comment if you can think of something I should do that would make my open house even better. I'm hoping for a good turn-out, and I really hope that people are pleasantly surprised by what they find!

Less than a week now...

In less than a week, my open house begins. That means, the downstairs of my house will be transformed into a jewelry store. This is extra challenging this year, because my husband and I have our house on the market and are trying to sell. So, not only am I trying to get ready for a big event, but we're doing work around the house, trying to get it ready to be shown. It's hard to balance it all, and sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind. You know how you start cleaning a room, and a couple of hours later, it somehow looks worse than when you started??? Yeah, that's what I'm going through right now. So, with a whole lot of hard work, I'm hoping to pull things together, somehow. Wish me luck!

A Wonderful Weekend of Art!

Art Beat is over, and it was a wonderful, sunny day in the streets of downtown South Bend. The show was a huge success. I’d like to thank the rain cloud, for bugging off by 9 am! And of course the sunshine, for showing up eventually. I handed my camera to my husband, and he got a nice shot of my set up, before it got crowded with people.

I had lots of help from my husband, mother, and mother-in-law, on the day of the big art show. My father-in-law even hung out for a while! (You can see him sitting on the bench behind my tent, above.) We set up in some drizzling rain, but it soon past and we had a sunny and breeze day, with temperatures probably getting close to 70 degrees. Can you say perfect?

In the morning, before it got busy, my mother (in the black sweater) would shop. Partly because she loves to shop, but partly because I asked her to. I've learned that people tend to be more interested in a shop if it looks like other people like it. Marketing 101, I guess...

My dream came true – I was located almost directly across the street from the Chocolate Café, where I had my morning coffee, my afternoon iced coffee, and a snack of German almonds (which just turns out to mean “soaked in sugar”).  Here you can see the blue awning of the Chocolate Café, from the vantage point of my tent.

I ran my contest, and I lucky shopper won a $25 gift certificate for my shop. I ended up giving everyone who signed up a discount code for $5 off their next purchase, to encourage them to check out my Etsy store. It's always work, getting the word out about Etsy!

After Art Beat I removed all of the items that had sold from my Etsy shop. I also felt inspired to tell others on Etsy about my experience, and posted this statement in the forums:

I had a craft show this weekend that really woke me up after the last few months of focusing on developing my Etsy shop. In one day, I sold about half of my inventory (and my inventory was probably 4 times bigger than what was in my Etsy shop, with 112 items). I was so excited, and I realized that while Etsy is lovely, nothing compares to selling jewelry to people who can handle it and try it on.

Selling jewelry on Etsy is a tough business. Because of my craft show experience, I plan to refocus my efforts. I will be looking for more venues to show my stuff in person, and just keep my Etsy shop open as a side effort. I’ll be spending less time fussing over views, hearts and sales on Etsy!

I have to mention that I got so many great tips on doing craft shows; many from this thread: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6028527.

Here’s the few that I put into place that really helped:


Not crowding my displays and just putting more jewelry out gradually as things sold.


Making levels of displays and getting things up to eye level.


Running a give away for a $25 gift certificate to my shop in return for their contact info.


Making a clearance sale area with older items (they went like crazy!).


Taking my tools and findings with me and making custom changes on the spot (silver for gold, remove a pendant, etc.)

I know I see many jewelry sellers complain of the market here being oversaturated. It's true! I'm using this experience to change my focus, and though I'm not leaving Etsy, I'm going to take a deep breath and not worry about it.
 
The thread is here, if you're interested in seeing what others had to say about this topic:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6299125

Let me know if you have any thought on the merits of selling in person versus online, and how you strike the right balance!

Final Preparations for Art Beat

Please, just let this be over with!!!

Art Beat is coming up on Saturday, and the weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms. That would make two years in a row now. And last year was my first year in Art Beat. Are we starting to see a pattern? So, fingers are crossed and eyes squeezed shut, hoping that those storms blow through south of town!

After making a zillion tags, gluing my fingers together, organizing my supplies for the day and printing and cutting out various signs for my table, I think I finally have everything together that I need! Last night I experimented with my set up in my living room. I've mentioned before my extreme lack of ability to do anything with fabric... no sewing ability here! So I pulled my fabric out of storage and realized that it is WAY too narrow to get anywhere close to hanging to the floor. So... straight pins to the rescue!

I have a row of pins holding the two pieces of fabric together. Then I placed it on the table and used a runner to cover the seam. Professional? Not quite. But it will get me through a day (I hope!). Right now I'm just wishing I had thought to iron them BEFORE I had all the pins in place. I guess that will be a challenge for later tonight.

I brought in my props to figure out how the space would work for me. Here are some scenarios that I put together:

So, what do you think? I brought out a few pieces of jewelry to try, and came up with this:

I think it's coming together alright. One thing that's not working out is the cute little sign holders. Turns out, a slight sigh is enough to tip them over, so an outdoor festival is probably not the place for them. I don't have a back up idea yet, so I guess I'll just pack a roll of mailing tape and see what I can do! Anyone else know what might be a better way to display signs on a windy day?

I only have a couple of nicer looking busts. I bought some jewelry displays from a discount store that went out of business about a year ago. They are grey, and some of them are really showing wear. I'm looking forward to the day I can phase them out, but today is not the day! So they are in. (I have stumbled upon some ideas from fellow jewelers, so my next show might have something new.) So now I just have to iron fabric, get everything into totes, and do my anti-rain dance until Saturday morning gets here. Wish me luck!

Still...Getting Ready for Art Beat

As I continue getting ready for Art Beat, I'm getting down to it! I have gotten word about my booth location, and am thrilled to learn that I’ll be right on Michigan St., in the middle of it all! Not to mention, really near a great coffee shop… Ahhh! Coffee!

{The South Bend Chocolate Company}

{the counter where I will be lining up}

I’ve printed out some cute tags to use and spent Saturday evening cutting them out while watching a movie. So I have some tags that look like this:

Now the pain will be figuring out how to attach them to the various necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. My best idea right now involves gluing them to store-bought tags... But boy, if something better comes to me, I'll try it!

I also printed up some special treats for anyone who buys something from me. One is a coupon for 10% off in my Etsy shop for future purchases. The other is an invitation to my open house, which is coming up in November.

{side note - I don't have photoshop, and do my photo editing in Microsoft Office Picture Manager. So at one point this summer, I used this washout function to turn a picture of mine into a background. Too cool - I used it to make gift certificates. Then a couple of weeks past, and I wanted to do it again...but couldn't remember how I had done it! Let me tell you, I lost a day of my life trying to figure it out! (And probably earned a new gray hair or two!) It got so bad that I actually gave up, dropped it, and decided that I was hopeless. Randomly, a couple of weeks later, while working on something else, it hit me! The washout function was in Microsoft Word...(how could I have forgotten that I was in a different program...) I'll never forget that again. So if you want to wash out a photo for a background, and don't have any fancy photo editing software, here's what you do: Insert the photo into a word document and double click it. Under the photo tab, change the dropdown for color: to "washout". Done! And then you can write on top of it!!!}

My sign up sheet is all ready. Plus I'm working on my binder that will sort of serve as a catalog:

My biggest difficulty is setting up my booth in a way that doesn’t look kind of messy. I have no sewing skills, so table coverings for me are really just pieces of fabric roughly cut with a pair of scissors! I’m hoping to do better this year, but I’m not really sure how that will happen…

I’m working on collecting some display items to help get my jewelry up off the table tops. For some reason, I always find the BEST stuff at Pier One {pardon the poor photography - I was being lazy!}

And my newest acquisition... Halloween Schmalloween, I say a glittery black metal tree is always in season! I picked this up the other day and plan to hang some necklaces from the branches.

I hope everyone else is having more luck than I am in pulling together whatever it is that you are working on right now!

Preparations and Plans

Procrastination must end!

It's time for me to get ready for an actual event that I'm a part of. I tend to put things to the last minute, but I'm putting it out there that this time, I'm going to get ahead of things!! I'm going to be a part of Art Beat on September 26. Art Beat is a full day event, on the streets of downtown South Bend in Indiana. It’s free and open to the public, and I’ve always attended this event each year. I always loved walking along the sidewalks, looking at art, shopping for earrings, tasting wine and watching dance performances. Where else can you do all of these things at once?

Last year was my first attempt at joining the fun as a vendor. I had to take a half day off of work (it was on a Thursday night previously!), and had my husband and my mom help me set up and man my booth. BUT…it rained! And I mean it really rained; all day, unrelenting, downpour rain. At the last minute the event was moved indoors. Everyone grabbed a spot, threw up their art, and we had the event. I’ll never know if I sold relatively little because of something inherently wrong with my set up or items, or if I can blame it on the rain! (Sorry to anyone who is now singing Mili Vanili in their heads!)

{me set up at my very first craft show. This was not Art Beat (note the sunshine!). It was before my Art Beat experience last summer.}

I’m very excited that the event was moved to a Saturday this year. I don’t have to try to get time off of work, for one thing. And, I’m hoping that turn out will be greater. Now, if only I could control the weather…

The event is in just a little more than two weeks now! So as I get ready for the event and try out some new ideas, I’ll be sharing them here. After September 26, I’ll be able to talk about how things worked!

I’ve gotten some wonderful ideas from fellow Etsians in the Etsy forums – too numerous to even recall exactly who to give credit to! One of the big things that I’m going to do is accept credit cards this year. This will be a first for me. I just set up my ProPay account. For a yearly fee, I should be able to use a computer or cell phone to take credit card payments. If I sell even a few things to credit card shoppers, this will pay for itself.

Another thing that I will be trying to do is expand my contact list. My plan: create a contest to win a gift certificate to my Etsy shop. By writing their name and email address down for me, they enter themselves into the contest.

After the event, I will randomly pick a winner (announced via email). Now, some lucky shopper has $ to spend in my Etsy shop. My benefits are; new people (hopefully) checking out my shop online, and a few more email addresses to add to my contact list.

I'm working on a couple of other new ideas that are still brewing... More to come!!