Get my act together and be a seller at, at least one craft fair this year

Last weekend I had a stall selling my book sculptures, it went really well and I made a profit. I was hoping that it would help me to define my market but I’m still utterly confused as to what/where my market is. There appears to be nothing I can compare it to, which is brilliant because I’m doing something new and unique, but it’s also frustrating because I am left to second guess everything from pricing my work to deciding where to sell my pieces.

I was always slightly pleased that I was making something that could belong to an art market, yet wouldn’t look out of place in a craft market. Art and craft I hear you scream, is there a difference? Well yes it appears that there is, as well as the sort of people who go there and therefore buy there. It does no good to stereotype people but in this case it may just be needed.

So craft I suppose in simple definition is an object that is both demonstrating a particular skill and an object that is perhaps functional. There are far too many arguments about the definition of art, but in relation to craft there appears to be no emphasis on function (and in some cases not delivering a particular skill) but that really is another discussion entirely. In relation to the book sculptures, we can see that they are not functional, does this consider them to be art? The act of folding may have some relation to the craft of origami, does this make them a craft object?

Certainly looking around me at the market that I did on Sunday you could say that the various stalls were a mix of vintage, handmade and craft related products. Somehow even though I am quite happy to sit in the craft box I didn’t feel like I entirely belonged there. In fact I came away thinking that I should do more art markets and this was purely down to the clientele. I felt that the people who came to the market were there for a bit of a bargain, some vintage find, or even an unusual necklace, I didn’t feel as if they were after some unusual piece of art for their shelf. However I can’t deny that I didn’t make any sales because I did, which brings me to the conclusion that I am neither craft nor art but something in between or even a bit of both. I suppose the only way to find out is to do an art market and compare the two which is of course my next plan of action.

for the market on Sunday. I only have to update my price list, set up the folding table to make sure it works, fold a few more tower books and iron a sheet for the table, all of which will be done tonight.

The one thing I am stuck on though, is how to price my photographs. I have blown up 5 photographs to A4 size on matt and will be selling these. I’m really pleased with the photos, they are of a high enough quality. I want to price them right. They cost £3.00 each to print, but the photos are of the sculptures which took me at least an hour to make, some are of duplicate sculptures and I set up the environment too so I think that this should all be considered when I price them. I was thinking around £20 each, is this too much/too little? I really have no idea.

I decided at the beginning of the year to have achievable goals to get my creative work off the ground. They basically consisted of:

Have 1 exhibition in 2008
Have 1 stall at a craft fair in 2008

We’re just into April and it looks as though both these goals are definitely going to happen, so now perhaps I should step up my game?

Star and Shadow are a small independant cinema that have a gallery sort of space where some people have decided to run a monthly craft fair. I sent them an email a while ago asking for a stall and now it’s going ahead, in three weeks in fact, which really doesn’t give me much time at all to make, but it’s not impossible. First things first.

5 designs x 10 = 50 Sculptures

I will also sell prints of the sculptures in sizes A4 and A3, not sure how many to get printed, maybe 20 of each???

I wanted to make tote bags called ‘book bags’ that could be used to carry the sculptures (they come in their own recyclable box) it would also discourage plastic bags, I’m not sure I have the time to make these, but we’ll see how we get on.

find a folding table – Going to ask a local pub to borrow one, funnily enough the same pub I used to work in.

shelf unit to display the sculptures on

portfolio stand which can be used for the photos

cash box

Rotary index holder to sign people up to my mailing list

order more boxes

Design a price list

Make 50 tags for sculptures

Order more business cards

There’s a chance if this goes to plan to get the chance to have a stall at the next one. There’s also a chance to get a stall at the Newcastle Community Green Festival which could really help exposure. The deadline for this is the day after this stall so I’ll see how things go first before filling out the form.