I spent Saturday manning my table at the Winnipeg Folk Festival holiday craft sale. The traffic was fairly slow, although there was never a time when there wasn’t someone shopping (or, rather, browsing). It definitely wasn’t as busy as last year, but I had several small sales and managed to get two sock monkeys stuffed and stitched up. I didn’t come out of there with a pimp-wad of bills, but as far as days go, it was fun and productive. Plus, it gave the mascot a chance to take the bus downtown and hang with his mom for a couple of hours.
On Sunday afternoon, I made my way down to the shop and crammed my section full of everything for our Open House and sale (aka “Get stuffed!) Besides the collective members, we had a few consigners and guest artists (some of whom are now new consigners!) and the store was chock-full of unprecedented levels of handmade goodness. It turned out to be a fairly successful sale for me, but the real bonus was getting to spend 4 hours in the company of some of my very favourite gals. It was less like work and more like a fun holiday mixer....and it was a great chance to get to know some of the ladies a little better. And there were cupcakes, courtesy of Pam at Cakeology. ‘nuff said.
So, I guess that wraps up the craft sales of 2010. I definitely learned a lot this year, but there is still tons more to figure out and make sense of. If I took one lesson from 2010, it is that predictions are generally futile. What works one year isn’t going to work the next, and the best thing to do is just keep developing, refining, and taking cues from your customers. I don’t think you can ever do too much of that; they are, after all, the reason for all of this nonsense. ;-)
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