This past Friday, I participated in a craft fair in the Fireplace Lounge located in Upper Naz at Marywood University. Over the summer I made a lot of little crochet projects in the hopes that I would sell a decent amount of them. I’m happy to say that everyone appeared to like these creatures I made as much as I do! I did notice a pattern as to what seems to sell more, and how I could better display my pieces. I think this info could be useful to someone who might want to sell their stuff in a craft fair as well.

What I Offered for Sale

I sold a few different categories of products at the craft fair. I, of course, sold my crochet projects, but I also sold some spider plants, and some Keystone Paranormal Society club merch, because hey… you never know. I had two bigger crochet items, three phone chargers, and then many little friends. I also tend to wear my crochet dress in case anyone were to want to commission me for one. This craft fair went better than my first one, since the first one was at a church, which isn’t my prime demographic. People my age tend to be my audience. That isn’t really a surprise. 

What I Sold & What I Learned

All in all, in the crochet category, I sold all 7 little snakes, and all three little orange fish (poisson Steves) I made. This is much better than expected. However, as other crochet projects go, I didn’t sell any. There are, I believe, two reasons for this. Firstly, I placed those items closer to the edge of the table. I think people hesitate to reach over the table to look at other items. They need a sense of separation. I think for the next craft fair, I’ll try to get some apparatus to hang my crocheted phone chargers on, and get a stand to hold some bigger pieces. The second thing I noticed was that the things that sold were all smaller, cheaper items and I had multiple of them. I think having many helps as well. 

What I’ll Do Differently Next Time

Given these things, I want to make many more items over winter break in order to replenish my stock and also to just have more things than before to sell. I do also want to have more business cards for next time, now that I have my ceramic card holder done. I also want to rethink the way I did my spider plants. They tend to create babies, so I just kinda needed them gone. I put them in spare plastic pots I had, but I think I might get some nice pots for them, make some in ceramics even, and then make some macrame hanging structures to hang the pots. I’ve noticed people like to buy plants for the pots they’re in a lot of the time. It really enhances the look of them. I’m excited to get those going for next time as well.

I think I learned a lot over this second craft fair. If you missed this one, I’ll be excited to see you at the next one!

More to come!

~Marissa Schuler, Artist