I finally got my act together and got 9 prints framed and several others printed and put in a binder and got everything priced and put on display at the pumpkin patch. Phew. Only 10 days late... Maybe a few will sell. Maybe not.
The best part was printing up some more business cards. From the preschool art above. To the business cards below. I love these.
Ketchup!
Wasn't (some version of) that joke in a movie? Pulp Fiction?
Anyway, a catch up post. Working backward:
Biscuit has learned to play on the monkey bars. So cute! We stopped by the park on our way home from voting this evening.
The chickens are getting even bigger. Sadly, one died (did I mention that here?) so we're down to seven but all of them seem healthy. Three or four are still nameless--still taking suggestions. I call the one on the far right (in the photo below) Nutjob. It may be true but that seems a bad name for a hen.
Awww, nameless chickie
Also, thanks to my industrious husband the tallest, skinniest chicken coop in the world gained three additional walls and some roof trusses last weekend. These kiddos might just have a place to live when they outgrow their cardboard box.
I don't think I ever recapped my most recent craft shows, IndieSacramento and IndieDavis.
At IndieSac it rained non-stop the entire show but the traffic was amazing and I sold $103 worth of stuff which included one of my dad's $10 prints. Plus I spent $10 on coffee and a hat for a gift plus $17 on the booth so I came home with about $70. Certainly not worth it timewise but I'll take $70! At IndieDavis the weather was great but the traffic was non existent. Luckily the booth was free. I had two whopping sales all day but each was $30 so I didn't feel too bad walking home with $60 in my pocket. I don't have any additional shows lined up at the moment which is good because I don't appear to have any additional motivation either.
Several weeks ago we went camping. Biscuit loved it so we're looking forward to going again for Memorial Day! From our last trip:
S'mores for breakfast
Tricycle ride to (and from) the Indian grinding rocks and ceremonial roundhouse (we got to go inside the roundhouse--a special treat!) That's the roundhouse in the background--it looks really weird from the outside.
Despite forgetting dish soap, functioning matches, a blanket and several other possibly useful items the trip was just dandy.
Whew, I think that brings us up to speed. I'll appreciate this post when I try to catch up on several years of belated scrapbooking!
My friend led me to a treasure trove of sticks (her in-laws' wood pile) and I was able to bribe Mr. H to do some more laser engraving so I finally have some new pendants to share. All are about 1 1/4 inches in diameter and there are four different tree images on them. I'll have them for sale this Saturday at Indie Davis from 1-5 p.m. at Nina and Tom's in Davis.
I hope to see you there. In addition to wood stuff I'll have my dad's photography again so stop by!
It's tomorrow! Saturday, 10-3 at Freemont Park in Sacramento (1515 Q St.). The swag bags are going to be INCREDIBLE so be sure to get there early. Here's the link.
I spent literally the entire week devouring (ha!) the Twilight vampire series so I have very little new merchandise to share save a few felt rock buddies. But I still have some awesome engraved wood pendants and I'll be selling my dad's photography so it's cool.
And I've got the book addiction out of my system (for now). Geez, don't hand me a book when I have something else to do. Mr. H was somewhat convinced I'd taken up heroin. On the up side he had the computer completely to himself for six days so he could read the entirety of the v-drive boat forums (yawn).
I'm off to package stuff up for tomorrow. Hope to see you there!
Hooray, I finally came up with an idea I'm excited about for my upcoming shows (IndieSac on May 2--button on left sidebar and an impromptu show at Nina and Tom's in Davis on May 9).
Charmed, I'm sure
I'll just be selling pendants/charms in all sorts of mediums. Of course I still have a few wood discs that are laser engraved. I'm making clay pieces (and crossing my fingers they'll be fired by May 2) and planning some glass work. I may do textiles pieces if I can get it together and get excited about that.
Everything will be super affordable and fun.
I'll also be offering prints of my dad's photography at both shows as he is interested in testing the market for his work. Hope to see you at a show!
P.S. I'll be putting wood pendants in the swag bags for IndieSac so come early!
If you find the details of selling handmade items boring you might want to skip this one. Sorry. I personally find it fascinating hearing if/how much money is being made and what sells etc.
I created an entirely new collection for this show (does that sound pretentious? hope not!). My organizing theme was "sticks and stones" inspired by my engraved tree silhouette concept and my crochet and felt rocks. It was SUPER fun to put this collection together and I will never look at a woodpile the same. I almost argued with Mr. H over burning (gasp!) firewood logs I deemed too pretty.
The show started off great--I sold my best pendant to a fellow vendor (thanks, Stacey) and had lots of interest and sold a lapel pin. Didn't sell another item over $10 all day. The pins were priced at $18 and the pendants $8 for unengraved and $20 for engraved. Probably a bit high considering how broke everyone was obviously feeling (tons of friendly looky loos, not a lot of shoppers).
Nice necklace, Stacey!
The worst part of the day was realizing that several of the pin backs had gotten glued shut and didn't work AFTER I sold a pin to a lovely lady. If hers doesn't work I assume she'll email since I finally created little cards for my work and my email address was included. I really liked my little cards. It felt much more professional than usual (for me).
The terrariums were a hit (meaning, I sold more of them than anything but still just 4). Small were $5, large $8 and kits (which didn't sell at all and I actually gave away $5)
The candleholders generated NO interest except from other vendors. At the end of the day I sold two pairs to IndieSac coordinators Lauren and Amy. (thanks, ladies). The felt rocks generated lots of interest, reaction, touching but I only sold 3 (price $4 each or 3/$10). Again, I think my pricing was high but apparently they sell these at MOMA and I'm guessing they cost more than $4 there!
So, money. I grossed just $80 then promptly bought an adorable doll from Lauren for $20 (a TOTAL steal). The booth fee was $50. Ignoring the doll purchase I would have brought home $30 which would probably not cover materials costs (bails and chains for jewelry, rocks etc for terrariums).
Still, I'm not disappointed. I was able to give my nice neighbor a terrarium, I have lovely pendants/pins to share with friends for b-days etc and I have increased my personal felt rock collection. More importantly, I had a lot of fun thinking through the collection.
If anyone wants to order anything via the internet, shoot me an email mdhaworth at gmail dot com. I'm not sure if I'll be listing this stuff on etsy or not. I hope to create an entirely new collection for the May IndieSacramento. I'm thinking the theme might be "thrift" :)
Did you make it this far? I'm impressed! Thanks so much for reading this ol' blog. It's really sweet of you to stop by.
Hi. I'm still here. Sort of.
Between work and holiday prep and a short business trip and a general laziness I haven't been around much so here's what I was going to post last Sunday if I'd had the time.
The show was great. My concern going in was a potential lack of traffic but they had 1000 folks pay to enter and that was plenty for us.
Since I'm always curious how folks really do at craft sales, I'll give you all the dirt. Inquiring minds want to know....
Haworth Woodworks wine stoppers were a hit. There weren't any other woodworkers so his stuff was unique, beautiful and priced right. The 2-for deals meant many customers purchased two. His sale stats:
Silicon stoppers:
3 pairs sold at 2/$25 (6 stoppers, $75)
no single stoppers sold (he only had 7 silicon ones to start with)
Cork stoppers:
4 pairs sold at 2/$20 (8 stoppers, $80)
3 stoppers sold at $12 (3 stoppers, $36)
1 out of 3 cutting boards sold and only at the very last minute ($25)
Total income: $216
Plus he got a few inquiries about custom stuff, had lots of folks view his portfolio and gave away about 25 business cards. AND he got a few more wine stopper orders from co-workers.
Haworth Handmade sales stats:
7 book clocks sold at $15 ($105) plus I "traded" one clock in return for the use of goody-goody's credit card machine (we had $80 worth of credit sales and she processed those for me! Thanks, Lauren)
1 ornament sold for $25 ($25) plus I traded one for some prints from an artist at the show
3 card sets of 5 cards for $5 sold (15 cards, $15)
3 individual cards sold for $1.50 ($4.50) and I traded 2 cards for 3 buttons
2 garlands at $15 ($30)
3 sets of little books at 3/$5 (9 books, $15)
1 little book at $2 ($2)
Total income: $196.50
Since I want to beat Mr. H, I'll assume I sold what I traded and that adds $43. I win!
Expenses: booth fee: $75, lunch: about $15, parking ticket (oops) about $25 (I haven't looked, Mr. H will handle it since he parked the car), cheap wine to display wine cork: about $5.
So, not including the obvious expenses of books and clocks and wine corks etc we made $297.50. I think we definitely came out ahead with a little Christmas spending money.
Here are a few other images from the show (my camera battery ran out). Cool display rack from Blue Bicicleta
Dennis Anderson's soap booth. His Etsy shop has gone WILD since I met him last year at IndieSac. Apparently he quit his day job 6 months ago and is doing great. He can barely keep up with his orders. Way to go, Dennis!
Lauren's always darling booth. This gal knows her branding and packaging! Aren't those dolls darling? A total steal at $40.
The screenprinting booth across the way. I Scream Seams:
And then my camera died.
Thanks Amy, Tamie and Lauren for a great sale!
For a while there whenever I teased that Mr. H had every tool known to humankind he would remind me he didn't own a lathe.
Well:
He's putting it to good use making wine cork stoppers to sell at IndieSacramento. For all you science geeks out there; this one is an Erlenmeyer flask and it's one of a kind.
He's also making a lot of sawdust and a graveyard of broken pieces.
Fortunately, some are working out just fine (these are awaiting their stoppers)
Hope to see you Saturday (I have no idea why everything is underlining!)
My H. is ready for the craft show. I am...not. Fortunately we're sharing a table.
I keep getting excited about more ideas rather than getting into production mode. I'm going to have 2 each of lots of different things rather than 20 each of two different things (as I had intended). I don't think I'm cut out for production mode.
All I can think about is paper houses and quilling. Must think about finishing a few things! Say, numbers on clocks?
On a totally unrelated note, I've been meaning to let readers know that Thread Pudding put up an awesome adaptation of my applique tutorial from ages ago. It's very well done; check it out!
Hope to see you Saturday at IndieSacramento!
