About the only thing I enjoy more than creating my bead jewelry at home is selling my bead jewelry at local craft shows and fairs! I’ve attended hundreds of craft shows and partipated in fair number myself. I am always dismayed, however, to see beautiful jewelry and pieces that don’t sell at shows simply because the artisan forgot some very basic rules of working at craft shows.
Here are some of the helpful pieces of advice and tips I can offer to the beginner bead jewelry artist and anyone else who is just starting out selling to craft shows:
1. Know Your Audience: Try to get a sense of what sort of crowd you are going to encounter at your upcoming craft show and cater your inventory to that crowd. While visiting the show each year is the best way to learn this, there are other methods you can use. Is the town where the craft show being held largely upper class or middle class? You might want to adjust your pricing accordingly. Are the customers going to be children or older people? If the craft show is near or in a school I almost always bring along a few “Kid Displays” where I place all my small plastic bead jewelry. I’ve...