We have finally tidies up and put things away after the craft fair. It went very well, with Luke selling 10 canvases for £570.46. The bad news is that this means we have to pay £114.09 to Alison (20%).
I have no doubt that there will be spin-offs from the fair. In fact we have already sold one canvas from the website and had an enquiry about putting someone's own photo on a canvas. It was poor quality, slightly out of focus or handshake, but I have managed to make it look much better. Don't know what size she wants the canvas to be, but I think it would be acceptable after pixel interpolation even up to 30x20. Anyway, most people just look at the content rather than the quality and this photo is of a couple at a party!
Other possible commissions might be forthcoming from George Belsey (turned wood stall holder) who has a photo of iced loch and snow covered mountains, and Brian Iley who wants a picture he already has to be put on canvas with modifications for Alison's Christmas present.
I think this could be a lucrative extension to what we offer. Maybe it should go on the website, and a notice at future craft fairs.
Monday, 25 November 2013
Saturday, 23 November 2013
The trellises and tubes worked well, leaning against the wall. We displayed 16 pictures and ten A5 cards and envelopes(£2.99). Luke sold one large (Derwent Trees) and one medium (Durham) as well as three cards (two Derwent Trees and one Blue Boat). Nice that the Trees canvas was bought by Peter Aitken from Foxes Row.
When he came home, Luke found that someone had bought a Castle/twigs large canvas on the website. Unfortunately because this was the first website sale, he (and I) had no idea what to do next! Luke couldn't access the site because he had forgotten the password, so I changed it for him to one he would remember. Will find out later tonight whether he has managed to find out who ordered the canvas which was paid for through Paypal. All a bit fraught!
Worked out that our profit margin when selling at the craft fair is around 50%. The 20% commission charged really makes a lot of difference. So while we sold £130.45 worth on Friday, we only made £68.58
profit including all costs.
We are both hoping to at least match the sales for today and tomorrow, though last time we had no sales at all on Sunday.
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Preparations for November Craft Fair
We have both been thinking about how to mount our canvases at the next craft fair in the castle. We had assumed that we could use the pegboard again, but last week Alison said she thought they would be needing it for their own use. We had also been offered a new site - on the staircase! It was dirty, dusty, off the beaten track and smelled of cat pee. So we said it wasn't suitable. It wouldn't have been suitable even if it was clean, well lit and in the main area because there was no way to show our canvases!
Last weekend Alison said she would 'up grade' us to the Baron's Hall where apparently the charges are higher. This still left us with the quandary of how to display the canvases. We finally settled on using two framed tressils joined with metal tubes for stability and rigidity. The final assembly would need to be leaned against a wall, just as the pegboard was. We bought the bits and pieces on Monday and assembled it yesterday and it looks good. Disassembled it will fit in the car easily along with the canvases.
Yesterday and this morning I have been printing three copies of ten different greetings cards. It proved impossible for me to print out the cards using just Elements11 tools, so I eventually tracked down a couple of templates, one for upright and one for landscape cards. These worked fine with a couple of 'nudges' towards the middle. I have now printed them all out, put them with envelopes and a business card into cellophane sleeves and they look very swish. I made a temporary box to hold them and maybe it can be used for display. I'll leave that to Luke.
So all I have to do now is print out a few more notices, then tomorrow pack all the canvases I have at home ready to take down. It looks as though it will be dry tomorrow for set-up day, thank goodness, and in fact dry for the whole weekend.
Unfortunately, there is also a 'Christmas fair' at Shincliffe nursery on Sat and Sun, but I don't think it'll be much competition - seems to be Santa's grotto and foodstuffs mainly. So, fingers crossed that we will sell even more than in July.
Last weekend Alison said she would 'up grade' us to the Baron's Hall where apparently the charges are higher. This still left us with the quandary of how to display the canvases. We finally settled on using two framed tressils joined with metal tubes for stability and rigidity. The final assembly would need to be leaned against a wall, just as the pegboard was. We bought the bits and pieces on Monday and assembled it yesterday and it looks good. Disassembled it will fit in the car easily along with the canvases.
Yesterday and this morning I have been printing three copies of ten different greetings cards. It proved impossible for me to print out the cards using just Elements11 tools, so I eventually tracked down a couple of templates, one for upright and one for landscape cards. These worked fine with a couple of 'nudges' towards the middle. I have now printed them all out, put them with envelopes and a business card into cellophane sleeves and they look very swish. I made a temporary box to hold them and maybe it can be used for display. I'll leave that to Luke.
So all I have to do now is print out a few more notices, then tomorrow pack all the canvases I have at home ready to take down. It looks as though it will be dry tomorrow for set-up day, thank goodness, and in fact dry for the whole weekend.
Unfortunately, there is also a 'Christmas fair' at Shincliffe nursery on Sat and Sun, but I don't think it'll be much competition - seems to be Santa's grotto and foodstuffs mainly. So, fingers crossed that we will sell even more than in July.
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