A late Sunday evening post - time seems to be rushing by so quickly at the moment. Too much to do, and as always I have plenty of excuses not to do it all. The beginning of this week made me feel summer had arrived, today makes me feel that it has finished!
My Jacob's Well Country Market trip on Friday did not produce any sales - disappointing, but I wasn't the only one who didn't sell anything. Being tucked away in the corner didn't help and I have been promised a more prominent spot at next week's market. The lady on the stand next to me sold cards to the value of £20 to one customer - I was very pleased for her but, as you can imagine, being a card-maker who cannot sell cards at this event, this combined with my lack of sales made for a rather disappointing event. Still, I won't give up just yet, no sales means no costs apart from petrol (the hall is very close to where I live so travel expenses are quite low), so can I really complain? One visitor to my stand said to me: 'why do they ruin crockery like that by putting a candle in them'. They? Uhm, perhaps this may be one reason why I had no sales this week, am I spoiling the 'crockery'?
However, on the brighter side the plans for the joint workshop Lauren and I are running on 11 June are moving on very well. We have a venue booked (Normandy Therapy Garden), we have started a blog to promote the event and we have three online adverts running - more to be arranged this week as well as local advertising.
I had a card order to complete this week for a fellow student on my pottery course. The brief was 'natural, no glitter and likes homoepathy'. This was a hard challenge, but I am glad to say she was very pleased with the card - as always apologies for the poor quality picture, but here is one view of it:
I printed the photographs and text on to gold-coloured paper and I was really pleased with the effect it created. It gave an out-of-focus, smokey finish to the photographs. I was so pleased with it that I re-printed some of the digi-stamps downloaded from Wendy's links onto the gold paper and here are the results of one of them (not finished, but well on the way):
Something weird happened on my computer and printer, when I printed the quilt digi-stamp it went all black-and-white on me, so I have decided to colour that one myself - here are a few bits of 'colouring in'. Great fun:
My progress work-wise for the last two weeks has been fairly slow - Richard has been on leave and it is hard to work around someone who is 'on holiday'. Sadly back to work for him tomorrow but it does mean I should be able to catch up on everything.
I will be back next week - hopefully having caught up with everything: blogging, an interview, Wendy's digi-stamp feedback, etc, etc. Milly will be back on Wednesday with her 'Life of Pie' tails and I am off now to check out the other bloggers taking part in this week's Handmade Monday.
Have a good week everyone
Jill
Being next to someone who sold so much must have been hard - and as for that gentleman, well, I bet you thought of all the things you should have said for the rest of the day... I like the black and white card with some colour - it gives it a really unique feel. I hope that you do manage to catch up this week :)
ReplyDeleteWell best of luck with the workshop. Comments at craft fairs can be quite odd - shows the person didn't quite 'get' it - ie handmade individual items boughtdirectly from the designer!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear about the lack of sales. It must be very frustrating, especially since you can't sell cards.
ReplyDeletePlease take no notice of that rude person's comment about your crockery candles. It's a lovely way of re-cycling tea-cups xx
The digi stamps look good! And I wouldn't worry about "spoiling" crockery. After all, most of it would be thrown away or left collecting dust in the cupboard if it wasn't recycled into useful things like your candles wouldn't it? Everyone has different tastes that is all. xxx
ReplyDeleteThe card commission looks great and it's lovely to see my images being used. Such a shame about lack of sales - the crockery comment just proves you'll never win everybody over!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry the craft fair didn't go so well, i'm glad you're not to out of pocket though.
ReplyDeleteYour homeopathy card is gorgeous! I love the effect of printing onto the gold paper :) x
You know, Jill, the more I think about it, the more I think an Etsy shop is the way to go. Promote on Twitter, blog etc. Keep costs down. What about theming your candle cups - Royal baby coming up???
ReplyDeletePrinting on gold-coloured paper is fab.
Of course, if you do go for an online shop - you will need good photos x.
Better luck this week :-)
Awesome cards Jill, when I read about the digi stamps I thought what a brilliant idea. I love what you have done with the quilt one makes it even more unique.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the lack of sales, very frustrating. No your not spoiling the crockery that person obviously had no taste and didn't get the whole concept. Can't please everyone all the time.
Good luck to you and Lauren with the workshop, oh hang on I'll see you there xxx
Its very difficult not to be disheartened by a lack of sales but my experience of regular markets is that we all take a turn at that sometime!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you had a bad day at the fair.....it happens to all of us at some point so don't take it personally.
ReplyDeleteThe comments people make at craft fairs never ceases to amaze me......
Onward and upward and hope your next one is more successful xxx
Sorry your fair was disappointing this week. I'm sure it will pick up. I have occasionally had people be a bit rude at fairs. It is very hard when you know how much work has gone into your craft. But the thing that really gets my goat is when adults let their sticky fingered kids touch everything, or even once drip icecream! From Mrs Grumpy
ReplyDeleteLack of sales seems to be a common problem at the moment, I know it is for me.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of the card for your friend, especially the bi-fold 'doors' and the way the design goes over both sides.
I hope your market day is better this week.
It is a rotten time of the year for craft fairs, I have decided that I will focus on Christmas (yes, the C word), am so sorry that your efforts were in vain and hope next time someone with immaculate taste will make for your stall and spend a fortune!
ReplyDeleteMess up the crockery? Dear me! I do think it stinks they won't let you sell what you want there. But hey, that's life, right?
ReplyDeleteHi Jill, your card designs are lovely. Don't feel bad about your card sales as I know how it can be. My etsy store is dead right now but I still have hope. Hope you have a good week.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get a better position at the next market hopefully if the weather improves sales with improve with more people getting out. I really like the card design you came up and the digi stamps look great. I think cups and candles are a lovely idea but you can't please everyone.
ReplyDeleteAli x