Craft Show Disappointment

On Sunday, I had my first craft show of the season, the Kaleidoscope show at the Life Christian Church Fellowship Hall in Troy. I was so excited getting all of my things together. I worked so hard to make new and beautiful items over the past few weeks and struggled loading everything into my car. I arrived at the hall almost 2 hours before the start of the show to begin setting up my table among the 40 or so other crafters and vendors.

Scattered over my table I had decorated canvas frames, knit hats, journals, mini scrapbooks, and much more. When the show finally opened, it was noticeably slow and the only people walking around were fellow vendors sipping coffee and snacking on donuts and bagels. We were sure there would be large crowds once the church services were over but we weren't so lucky. People trickled in and out throughout the day but never large crowds.

By 1pm I had only sold two things, a knit hat for a woman's cat and a card to a Chinese foreign exchange student. Things weren't looking well and the vendors were starting to get really frustrated, many vowing not to return, including myself. It became clear that the organizers had failed to do effective marketing and advertising. Someone even informed me that they had even failed to make announcements at the end of their church services about the show held a few rooms away.

Luckily, the show was close to both my family and AJ's family and I was so happy to see AJ, his little sister Kira, his mom and my grandparents. My grandma even brought be a delicious packed lunch and my grandpa wandered around his first craft show ever!

Fortunately, I was able to talk with fellow creators and get a sense of how to set up nice displays as well as which shows are worth doing and those that aren't. Additionally, I received many nice compliments about my things which made me feel really good about what I am doing. So I tell myself, it was worth the experience.