To wonder if crafty type businesses have had their day?

[TheoriginalLEM]

We had our school fair yesterday and it was really successful. A lovely day had by all and lots of money raised.

Except for the poor independent stall holders, i felt really bad for them. Hardly anyone was even looking at their stalls, let alone buying :( It was an extremely hot day and we probably had reduced footfall, or at least it seemed that way but we made £££'s so clearly not.

Do you think people are just over that now? I felt kinda sorry for them.

[Teabagbeforemilk]

glitter not at ours. They came for free. Some we enquires with even wanted paying

[mewkins]

I think that to have a successful crafty type business you have to have either a really brilliant idea that no one else (inclding the high street) is doing or be really talented such as a brilliant illustrator, jewellery maker, knitter or crocheter for example. I happily buy handmade stuff if it is well made and I cannot do it myself. I am quite handy though so if I see a few letters stuck in a frame and they are charging 20 quid I give a wide berth.
I am always amazed at how many makers' tastes are very off with current fashion.

[Peshwari]

I am always amazed at how many makers' tastes are very off with current fashion.

I think this can sometimes work in their favour, if what they are offering is widely different to what is currently in the shops. There may be less people wanting that sort of style but equally less competition.

[YeOldTrout]

We have a lovely Hobbies shop in town that is threatening to close down. They tried having a cafe, they are busy from doing clothing alterations, the stock is fairly good (& unique) & prices reasonable, just not enough interest.

[notquitehuman]

I got dragged along to a craft fair, and half the stuff wasn't even handmade. One stall was selling loads of scarves, some of which I recognised as those £2 ones from Amazon, for £7.99 a pop. One stall was selling lots of nice jewellery, but it had clearly been brought cheaply online and just put into expensive looking boxes. Maybe it was handmade... by slaves in China. It's no wonder people are going off these fairs.

I think the whole vintage/twee type look is kinda tired and dated now too. Tastes move on, so these craft people will either have to move with the times or get a different job.

[Teabagbeforemilk]

notquite we go to a craft fair in the village where pils used to live,. They used to have a rule that to have a stall it had to be hand made. Over the last few years it's become any old tat. IKEA stainless steal lamps with a leaf painted on for £12 etc, a hat stall where the hats have debenham labels on etc.

I used to love craft fairs but haven't been to a really good one for ages

[gemdrop84]

I'm a crafter, make jewellery and am self employed, have found school fayres are hard to sell much anyway, as they are mainly kids spending their pocket money! You have to really stand out and be different/original. You also have to know your market. I sell online, as well as at my local town market plus fayres.

[JoffreyBaratheon]

I'm a craftsperson and have never bought from those craft fair stalls at school dos, or anywhere else. It always seemed to me to be along the lines of doilies and crap. I think good stuff will always sell - decent pottery, things made by blacksmiths, etc. But school fairs tend to attract the granny style doily end of the market - always have. I doubt much money is to be made that way.

I know a lot of people who make their living making things by hand and none of them have mentioned a decline in income. In fact I was at a small, local show recently where my trader friends told me they made three times the money in one day than they do at a huge national show in 2 days. So people will spend the money for something beautiful and useful. School fairs tend to attract tat.

Etsy or similar, is the way to go.

[NickyEds]

I used to have a craft business (pre ds) and school fairs were always crap. Everyone just came to show their face, buy a raffle ticket, have a go on the tombola and leave!
It was getting harder and harder to find good fairs. When I started you just couldn't get a stall if you weren't producing something unique, good quality and hand made. Over time there was more "gift&craft" fairs which had mass produced crap on sale. It sounds awful but charity stalls also totally wrecked it for other stall holders- I remember a (business) stall selling beautiful hand knitted baby clothes for £15-20 each next to a charity one practically giving them away.

[NickyEds]

I meant unless you were making something unique!

[HermioneWeasley]

We have a craft fair near us once a month. The only stalls I see taking any money are the food ones. Not sure why anyone else bothers turning up!

[BrieAndChilli]

I make cakes, cake pops and birthday cakes etc. the amount of people who say I should set up a business is unbelievable. But there's just too many people doing it and supermarkets sell unbelievably cheap cakes

For example I made a 3 tier hello kitty cake for Dd's birthday. Once you added up ingredients, cake boards and dowels etc it cost about £30 to make, add in my time (several hours) plus electric and a suitable cake box etc i would have had to charge about £60+ which peoplemwouldnthink expensive because they can go to tesco and get a cake for £10 (although a 1/4 of the size and tasteless!!)

[OstentatiousBreastfeeder]

Oooh I wonder if we're parents at the same school!

Although my stall was a fancy cupcake stall and reasonably priced, and we all but sold out [puffs out chest]

The craft stalls did terribly . We had a lady with handmade cards and various other crafty sellers who didn't sell a single thing. They were gutted.

[GnomeDePlume]

OstentatiousBreastfeeder your comments are interesting. I think that suggests that the crafters just dont understand their market at all. This could mean that they are getting it wrong all the way round with the wrong products in the wrong place at the wrong price.

[WyrdByrd]

Unfortunately I have an artistic husband and child so the walls are rapidly filling up with their oeuvre

Hahahaha! I bet my DH says that about me .

I think it's a valid point that at school fairs there are other priorities.

I used to make cards, but even 7-10 years ago it wasn't the most profitable thing to do for the amount of time and money I'd spend on making them. With so much information and kits available it's easy for a lot of people to create their own and places like The Card Factory knock out decent cards so cheap why would you want to pay silly money for something handmade which will, more often than not, end up in the recycling bin.

With 6 weeks of summer holiday coming up I expect people are being even more careful than usual about spending on unnecessary stuff too - I know I am and I'm usually the world's worst spendthrift.

[TalkinPeace]

Such marquees at big events are known as Landfill Tents round this neck of the woods.

So much stuff that nobody needs
to clutter up houses
bought with money they do not have

[orangepudding]

At a school fair there will probably be a fair few SAHMs who make their own stuff as it's quite cheap and easy to do so at the moment.

[scarlets]

I find that sometimes, the finish is very poor. I bought some girls' headbands and hairclips once, from a friend, as a gift for my niece, but they weren't good enough to give. I ended up binning them. Another girl I know does wooden door plaques that look amateurish. It's so important to be genuinely talented. Some SAHMs think that it's a good route to a bit of extra money topped up by tax credits (as a previous poster implied), overestimating their abilities. I can understand this, given how difficult it is to find school-hours jobs. Stuff like Avon and Phoenix is similarly appealing.

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

When you look at what places like The Range and Wilco sell for a fiver or less (bunting, cushions, candle holders, twiggy shit, wooden 'objet d'art' etc)

I think that there's been such a saturation in the market for twiggy pebbley shit and shabby bloody chic that people are utterly sick to death of it now. And I speak as someone who loves a bit of twee. It's been done to death. To have shabby chic furniture and accessories in your home these days is to admit to the kiss of death for your imagination and originality.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

I don't think quality crafts items will ever go out of fashion but there is a lot of crap out there.

[TalkinPeace]

and SAHMs with hobby businesses are now no longer able to claim self employed tax credits

[BrianButterfield]

For me, the appeal of something handmade is that I made it myself! Or that someone I know has made it for me. A friend made a little quilt for DD. She made it all by hand and it's a bit wonky and wouldn't sell for much but I love it and will never get rid of it. I like it very much more than one I might have bought for £££ from a stall.

I agree the finish is often poor. The truly spectacular handmade things like furniture, polished wood or enameled things, hand-made (as in from scratch) jewellery are worth what you pay but unfortunately they are way out of my budget. If I had the cash I would love to pay genuine artists for those sorts of things. I don't fancy paying for someone to whack some chalk paint and staple a bit of fabric on an old dining chair. If I wanted something like that I would take it on as a little project for myself, for half the cost too.

[londonrach]

Agree. I dont even pop my head into a craft fair now. No way would i pay to go... However a good quality wood turner or similar totally different!

[loveareadingthanks]

Most craft businesses are selling hobby level stuff, that's the problem.

I know a few people with what I would consider to be genuine craft businesses - with skills, tools, materials out of the reach of most people, and they do ok. I know someone with a forge, a potter and a proper carpenter who makes bespoke furniture. Not hot gluing shit together.

[NickyEds]

Not hot gluing shit together . Cruel but true. I did meet some people that i was genuinely worried for though. One woman had decided decoupage was the way forward and accepted redundancy on her job and sunk her pay out in developing a business buying shit and sticking paper to it. Sooo much soap. So many cupcakes.
There were many really good craft businesses too but increasingly they weren't at the Church Hall style craft fairs. Often at fairs half of the stall holders wouldn't take their stall fee and when you consider this was sometimes only £40 a day it sort of tells you everything you need to know really.
I found selling in shops much better.