Bohemian Mermaid Palace

Please. Artisans. Advertise Your Craft Shows! Well, it seems I am just writing things that get my attention at any given time. Ha. So far it's working for me. Write when the inspiration hits! So yeah, it's holiday show season right now. I thought this year, since I'm not vending at all (still weird to say out loud), I'd try to hit as many local craft fairs as possible. Just to check them out, see what's happening out there, since I don't usually do that when I'm working. Here's the problem. I just missed I think 3 craft fairs this past weekend because I didn't see ANY reminders on facebook. I am on fb a lot lately, I follow many many artists and local groups. What. The. F. Okay it's not all on the artists, the organizers need to be advertising their shows for sure and getting the word out. But you can't count on only them! It takes so little effort to do a few things yourself, and costs nothing. So I guess it's time for

Taking Custom Orders - Keep it Simple This was on my mind today, as I saw a horror story in one of my embroidery groups. The stitcher had taken a custom order, and the customer fought payment every step of the way. So much back and forth and craziness, until this poor woman was just done with custom orders. It can be frustrating! You put a lot of extra thought, planning, supplies and work into a special order, only to spend days (maybe weeks!) playing email tag and trying to get paid. At some point you have to decide what your boundaries are, and stick to them. Figure out a process that works for you, and spell it out for your customers ahead of time. Everyone will be happy. I guess my general advice here is to make sure you are not doing a lot of extra work for free. A custom order should cost the customer more, not you. And also to keep the process as simple as you can . I'll outline some options in a moment, but overall you want to do this transaction with as

Craft Fairs Need Feedback! Your Fear is Killing Them Ok I'm feeling frustrated right now, so I guess I'll rant a little bit. Just Idk, about how powerless fear can make us! And it's so easy to get fearful sometimes. Ugh, ok start from the beginning.  A concern I see expressed often in many artist groups I'm in, is how they *must* keep out the show promoters from these groups, so we can freely speak about our experiences at shows. I get that, I do. In my own groups, I have that rule as well. *Unless* it's an artist who is also involved in running a show. I feel like we can trust our own people, artist to artist, and I don't think I could regulate that very easily anyway. I've gotten some flack for it too.  But honestly, even though I understand the desire to feel comfortable expressing opinions freely, I don't worry too much about who's listening. Even if the organizers walked into my booth in person, I would absolutel

The Ultimate Craft Fair Checklist As I finished up my last post about Your First Craft Show , I was looking around my fb groups for an opportunity to share it. I actually saw a lot of first timers asking for *specific* items they might need that maybe they hadn't thought of yet. I get it! I have said to put everything on your checklist. But of course you may want to know *exactly* what is on that list! So here I'll share my own checklist that I've used for years. As I've mentioned before, the checklist is maybe the most important thing you can use to prepare for your show. Because, if you're like me, you will be stressed and possibly overwhelmed by alllll the many details and items that you have to remember. Using a checklist will help you organize all those swirling thoughts and worries for you. At least mostly. And I'll bet you one crisp dollar bill that you will sleep a whole lot better when you have one.  I started using my own chec

Your First Craft Show! Everything You Need to Know I am in a lot of different facebook groups for artists and festival vendors. In fact I run 2 of my own: West Coast Artists & Artisans , and Artisan Vendors of Humboldt County . Since I am a total craft show nerd, I soak up all the information posted there. Just like when I attend shows with my booth, I observe and listen to everything. I'm into it! Some of the groups focus on tips for making your booth better, or specifically selling at shows. So I love to chime in, and also take stock of what newer sellers are thinking about. It interests me and I'm always thinking of how I can help.  Very often I see someone say "Help! It's my first show coming up! What do I need to know??" Kind of cracks me up, because that is a huge question! They will get all kinds of answers, long and short. It's always a little chaotic because like, where do you even start? So I thought I'd make a post tha

  Selling at Craft Shows Has Been Great for My Depression Here is something I've been thinking about lately, esp since I've been on craft show break now for about a year. Wow that's trippy to say out loud, but more on that another time. It's all great actually, just unexpected. Suddenly I felt like it was time for a break, didn't see it coming. And I'm not sure when I'll go back, so there's a lot of pondering the path of my life right now. I guess I should start with the fact that I've struggled with depression most of my life. I consider myself a functional depressive. Like I can mostly do everything I need to do in the grande scheme of things, but day to day I sometimes can barely function at all.  I use many coping techniques,  but mainly I set up everything in my life with strong boundaries. Those boundaries help me keep my life really mellow and drama free, and as much as possible stress free as well. Just a way to limit si