Anyone have experience with arts/crafts fairs?

Cafe Society
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Does anyone have experience with art and/or craft fairs? I know that there are other artists and crafters here, so I was thinking that some people might have experience. I was thinking about starting to sell some prints of my workat them, and was wondering if anyone had any advice. The most helpful advice would be from people that have sold at fairs or festivals, but if anyone has experience buying things at fairs and has advice one what to do or definitely not do, I’d appreciate that as well.

Since I now have some prints selling at one store, I contacted another similar store that I like shopping at to see if they’d be interested in selling some of my prints as well. The owner wrote back saying she’s not looking for any more artists for consignment at the moment, but that she really likes my work, and asked if I’d be interested in selling at a monthly art/craft fair she’s involved in. I definitely am not ready for the one this weekend, but thought maybe I could get prepared for the one in December, and for other fairs, since there do seem to be a lot of them in Houston.

So does anyone have any advice? My plan would be to sell 8x10 prints of my paintings, though maybe if I do some fancier fairs where people are spending more money, I might bring some originals to sell. These are the things I’m most wondering about:

[ul]
[li] When looking for fairs to sell at, are there certain things I should ask or look out for? Like looking for fairs, I should check that they offer X and allow Y, and should stay away if they do Z, or whatever.[/li][li]How do I deal with the money? How much cash should I bring in order to make change?[/li][li]What do I need to do to deal properly with taxes? [/li][li]Are there any must do or must avoid things for presentation? I know that keeping things organized and nicely laid out so people can look at everything is good, but I thought maybe people might have tips on how to make things look better.[/li][/ul]

Or if you have any other advice or anecdotes, I would love to hear it. Thanks in advance!

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Bumping this to see if now that it’s Monday there might be some responses.

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If you’re my mother, you dealt with it by disappearing when you saw the tax guy coming around checking the stalls and leaving your 12 year old son to say “My mom ain’t around now but she’ll be back later and knows where the tax certificate is.” Rinse and repeat. They rarely if ever came back (I think they’d do one sweep and go home).

I don’t endorse this technique but speak merely from anecdotal experience.

Since my experience with the scene was limited to arts & crafts shows against my will as a disinterested youth in the 80’s and early 90’s, I don’t have a ton of advice except for this: Be prepared to come home with a lot of the stuff you brought. Be ready to deal with lots of lookers. Be ready to have some shows that probably don’t even pay off the stall fee. If you keep at it, you’ll get a feel for which shows are worth it and which are general duds. I’m sure Houston is far different from Chicago but most of their sales came from the indoor shows approaching Christmas as opposed to the “street sales” in the heat of the summer. There were some notable exceptions though; their entire fall season banked on a particular outdoor Labor Day festival. I guess, in short, except it to be tough going at first and a bit of false starts until you get your own feel for what shows are worth it. Because said shows might just be once a year, this isn’t a quick learning process.

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The very first rule that you absolutely must follow: Don’t count on making any money, at all, selling arts and crafts. Think of the art as something you do as a hobby, and the sales as something that helps you recoup costs. Or, at most, think of it as something to maybe get you a little extra for luxuries, but that’s only if you’re lucky. You’re unlikely to get any positive net from your sales, and are fairly likely to actually lose money at it.

Most craft shows have vendors’ fees. Usually, they’re a flat rate for a booth, often as high as $100. Don’t bother with these, unless you’re either well-off enough to be able to afford to indulge yourself, or you’ve already had extensive past experience showing that you can consistently sell that much at a show. The shows that take a percentage of your sales as a fee are much better, even if the percentage seems ludicrously high (say, 50%). That way, you’re at least guaranteed that you won’t lose money, and you have to make a heck of a lot of sales before the flat fee is better than the percentage.

Of course, there are also shows that charge much lower flat fees, like $10 or $20. Better yet, of course, are low percentages. Best of all are shows without a fee, but those are rare as hens’ teeth. Events billed as farmers’ markets usually seem to have lower fees than those billed as craft shows. And if you find one that works well, farmers’ markets usually repeat every week, so you can get a booth the next week, too.

My mom does assorted arts and crafts, and tried selling at shows for a while, but found that most of them just weren’t worth it. I think her biggest day ever, she sold $150 worth, and that was an extreme outlier. Nowadays, she only goes at all to shows that charge a percentage, and mostly concentrates on a neighborhood farmers’ market that’s only 5%.

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First, contact your state department of taxation, and get a resale certificate. In New York (where I live, and the only state I sell in) you are required to have AND display this in your booth. Also, many shows require that you provide them with a copy of this along with your application. While I’ve never encountered inspectors, tax fraud is a serious charge, and not something I want to flirt with. You are required to collect sales tax on all your sales; how you do it is your business. (By this I mean, you can add it on to the purchase price e.g., $50 for the print plus $4 (8%), or incorporate it into the purchase price, e.g., $46.30 for the print plus $3.70 tax). I know one vendor who does it the second way, but that’s too much dicking around with math for me. I just tell people that I don’t charge sales tax, I only collect it.

How are you going to display your work? I’m a photographer, and my largest prints fit (matted) into a 16x20 inch frame. So I have 32 framed prints on my display racks. My display racks are 60" high by 37 1/2 inches wide. I’ve got nine of them, so they fit neatly inside my 10’ by 10’ canopy. If you intend to do outdoor shows, a canopy is an absolute must. I also have about 80 unframed matted prints, also 16x20, in two freestanding folding canvas display bins for people to leaf through. On a four-foot long folding table in the center of the booth I have two smaller folding display bins for 11x14 inch matted prints (8x10 prints, 11x14 mats).

Here’s my booth. Later in the year I got the sides for my canopy (like what the booth to the left of mine has).

If you’re only doing indoor shows, then a canopy isn’t necessary, but display racks are. I don’t know if I’m allowed to link to manufacturers in a post like this, but I used a company in Pennsylvania. PM me and I’ll give you the link. My canopy is an EZ-Up, but there are other brands. Sometimes you can find EZ-Up canopies at warehouse stores for a good price; buying from them direct is expensive.

As far as your wares go, I’ll say this: If you’re going to offer your prints in more than one size, have the same images available in all sizes. I started doing these show this past summer after a ten-year hiatus. Back then I only sold black and white prints, but I didn’t have the same image in all the sizes that I offered. I had some prints in 16x20 frames, some in 11x14 frames, and even some in 8x10 frames. And I had two different types of frames: rounded maple and squared black. So someone might like an image that was in a 16x20, but couldn’t afford it. I’d lose the sale by not having it smaller. I also didn’t offer anything unframed. Big mistake.

Now I have everything in two sizes: 16x20 mats and 11x14 mats. I only offer the 16x20’s framed, but I have all images in both sizes (as well as other prints that aren’t framed). And I only offer a black frame in a square moulding. Back in the 1990’s I was lucky if I sold one piece every third show; this summer I had sales at every show I did, and made back my booth fee.

I’ll let you digest this, then come back and talk about people…

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Get a tax ID. Fees will add up.

Avoid shows that allow resellers. (Mall merch at huge discounts)

Talk to the people in the other booths. They have valuable insights.

Good signage and clearly marked prices avoid buyer confusion. It’s not a garage sale, and it’s also not an art gallery. It’s an arts & crafts show & sale. Price accordingly.

Don’t be a hovering parent type of seller. If they want to know that you took that shot (made that bracelet, knitted that scarf) while standing on top of Elvis (in a vat of lye, right after Kennedy was shot), they’ll ask.

Be friendly and act as normal as possible. The eccentric artist bit only worked for Jackson Pollock.

I’ve made lots of money selling my photography and jewelry at some shows. I’ve also made barely enough to cover the cost of showing up at one. In over 20 yrs, I’ve only actually lost money at one show. Didn’t cover the fee and travel expense with sales and had some stuff stolen.

.

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If you could attend the one that’s occurring this weekend, it might give you a good idea of what people buy and how other vendors set up their booths.

We have a friend that sells at arts and craft fairs and she hasn’t had much luck with making money either. She did recoup her costs, but just barely. Most of the value seems to come from getting your name out there and networking with the other vendors.

As someone who likes buying local art, I have to echo postcards advice. I usually go to these fairs with a budget in mind, and unless I really really love your art, I’m going to pass on it unless it’s within my budget. I never buy framed art because of the extra cost and because I like the flexibility of framing it myself. Smaller pieces of art are better for impluse buys but it’s usually the large pieces of art that will catch my attention.

Think about making some stickers, pins, and stationary as well. If they’re appropriately priced (<$5), they usually sell very well since it lets people own a little bit of your art without too much of an investment. If I like an artist, but they price their art above my price-range, I’ll usually buy a few stickers or postcards to support them and keep them in mind for next time.

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postcards gave a much more detailed answer than I could have but I’ll chime in anyway. I did lots of craft fairs - usually with a friend - for 4-5 years in the 1990s. So I have no really recent experience to share. We did everything from big fairs/shows in convention centers, malls and outdoor festivals to smaller church fairs. Everything we sold was made by us. A few of the fairs we entered were juried - those tended to be the best for selling upscale or more expensive stuff although what we sold was not particularly expensive.

I had a resale certificate/tax ID, which not only kept me legal, but allowed me to buy supplies and raw materials at cost. I definitely recommend being legal!

You will hear the same reactions and statements over and over and over and over and over and over again. “Oh, that’s so cute! It would be really easy to make!” was among the most irritating, as I recall. True story: at one big show, my partner and I had bought some really sticky toffee-coated peanuts. We decided at some point to start flicking the peanuts at people who annoyed us with comments like that, as they walked away. Score if we got a sticky peanut to adhere to someone’s clothing or hair. That was a massive show at a convention center and I think the constant loop of Christmas music spewing out of a speaker above our booth was making us both a bit cranky.

But even if you start feeling cranky, it’s not a great idea to act out on it. :slight_smile: Be friendly, patient, responsive and as mentioned, don’t get pushy about selling your stuff.

I do recommend going to a craft show as a buyer (IIRC many people disliked the term “show” and preferred “sale” because truly, you’re there to sell stuff, not just show it to people for fun) and have a really critical eye when assessing presentation, sales techniques and so on.

People don’t like feeling “trapped” by a cavernous tent with only one way in or out, or a table arrangement that forces them to go into a little corral, especially if the seller is sitting right there with an expectant smile.

For outdoor shows, if allowed, I would bring the Rottweiler I had at the time along. He was very calm, social and well-behaved and brought a lot of people over to our booth or tent. I would dress him up for the occasion, poor dog.

Ditto offering wares in a range of forms and prices. Back then few people had websites, but offering people a card or small brochure with some product info and a website would be a great way to get some after-sales. I’ve bought quite a few things this way.

Network and trade with other vendors! It was a sideline thing for me, and I did OK - always at least covered costs - I figured out quite early that I wasn’t going to get rich doing it, but it was a whole lot of fun, I met plenty of nice people and always came home with some great crafty stuff from other vendors. I agree that it will take some trial and error figuring out which venues are profitable, and which are not a good fit.

We would bring about $50 worth of dollar bills and small change. A fanny-pack was perfect for keeping cash both safe and accessible.

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I’ve been doing juried arts and crafts shows for about four years now. Lots of good advice so far! My art is jewelry, so I’m glad you got advice from postcards!

Finding the right shows is a little bit of a crap shoot. There are a number of sites out there that review shows (for the benefit of the artist, not the customer), and that can be very helpful. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t do anything but juried shows (i.e., you are required to submit photos of your work and a panel of jurors decides whether or not your get in). I heartily recommend attending shows you’re thinking of doing so you can get a feel for whether or not your art is a good fit.

If you have a smartphone, I also recommend SquareUp for credit cards. The reader is free and there is no monthly fee – only a transaction fee. Since I don’t have a huge volume of credit card sales, it works well for me. It’s definitely worth it to be able to take plastic. I’ve done shows where all my sales have been via credit card.

When you’re designing your display, I think it’s important to do so in such a way that someone strolling by is immediately going to “get” what your art is. Make sure everything is clearly priced so people don’t have to ask. Give some thought to the traffic flow, so there are multiple places for people to look at things. If everybody ends up bunching up at one table or wall, people will pass you by because it’s too hard to get in and look at stuff. postcards has a great set-up!

If you’re going to be doing outdoor shows, DEFINITELY have a plan for getting your stuff (and yourself) protected in case of storms.

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Y’all have given me a lot to consider and research further. So it sounds like fairs can be good for marketing/networking and making a little cash, but not to expect huge amounts of money from them.

The fair I talked about in the OP was two days ago, and I went to it and it was tiny, just five tables outside of the store. They all had pretty great stuff laid out pretty well, but it probably wasn’t a huge money making fair. But I might do the next one in December (or some time after that) in order to meet people, and since it would be a low pressure fair and good learning experience. And I’ve been too plenty of other arts and crafts fairs before, but it’s different seeing them as a customer as opposed to a seller.

I’ve been told I need to go to art gallery openings and network with artists and art collectors and it’ll help careerwise. So, I am going to try to network more at art events, and maybe I can get some tips there on good fairs to do or avoid in the Houston area, along with hopefully other advice.

Thanks for the tips!

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And don’t forget another great side effect of committing to an art show of any type… you have to make stuff!

I was in my first show at a gallery (not solo, thank heavens, I was one of ten artists in the show). Not a huge deal… but suddenly I had a deadline, so I had to get into Making Stuff Mode, and couldn’t slack off AT ALL for a month.

Sure, I only sold two pieces, but it was a great excuse to make art, and now I have a dozen paintings cluttering up the basement… time to find another show, or a gallery.

Or some tables outside a store… (didn’t Van Gogh start out with a folding card table outside the Arles Farm ‘n’ Fleet?)

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Join the forum. Ask questions. You will get all the information you need.