A new view of things

Craft events can be very much a hit or miss affair for crafters. I've been reading in a number of forums and blogs that many are struggling this year to find events that work for them. As far as I can tell there is no golden rule, no magic formula, no ancient Greek mathematician's hypothesis that will guarantee a good venue. 

I've had quite a few slow day this season and I have to say it can be quite demoralising.The first few times it happened I started to question everything. Was my product not good enough? Did the display do enough to enhance it? Were the prices to high/low? Had I smiled enough?........the never ending list went on and on throughout the night, leading to the inevitable insomniac e-mails to Alexis questioning why I was doing this in the first place.

All that has changed. "Why?" I hear you say ( well in my mind I hear you say it )

Well I'll tell you why since you asked so nicely. I was having a particularly slow day a few months ago when an old gentleman approached me and started asking me about my handbags.To cut a long story short he asked me whether I would be interested in some off cuts of vintage tweed his grandfather had kept and was now in the possession of his aged cousin. Never one to turn down the opportunity to buy more fabric (you can ever have enough) I said yes. A few days later he delivered the 'off cuts'.......

.....each bale ranging from 1 yard to nearly 4 yards. I wouldn't have had the opportunity to acquire it if I hadn't attended the event. The next weekend I was having yet another crisis of confidence, lots of people looking but no one buying. One woman in particular kept coming back so I struck up a conversation with her and it transpired that she really liked one of my bags but she had just bought one in a similar colour so really couldn't justify it. I offered to send her samples of other fabrics I had available, an offer she took me up on. This was the result of our correspondence....

....made from some of the tweed purchased the previous week.

Just the week after that on yet another sluggish Saturday an adjoining stall holder asked whether I would be interested in supplying her retail outlet.

So you see I now view my calender of events not as 'good days' or 'bad days' but as 'possibility days' . You never know who you will get chatting to, a surprise supplier , a future customer, or just a new friend. 

Besides, it gets me out of doing housework for the day, anything else is an added bonus.