Craft Shows have been a part of BCB since I first knew I wanted to quit my dayjob. I got to talking about it last week with some other crafters on Twitter.
It got me thinking back to my first craft show and thought I remembered that I wrote a post after that first show.
Sure enough, I wrote of the most popular posts on this site, 5 1/2 Shocking Facts about Craft Fairs.
I reread it and I'm delighted by my exuberance.
That feeling hasn't faded in the last 2 years of doing shows; in fact, it's only grown stronger (and has grown into selling at my own shop).
As I prepared for my second show (which was much bigger than the first), I wrote another post about preparing for craft shows. In it, I link to a lot of great basic resources.
It's funny to reread that post, because while I cover all the steps in preparation, I certainly don't go into the details (like, how do you figure out how much to bring?). And the details are what people always ask me about!
Exactly 1 year and 1 day after that last post, I wrote about the Pain of Craft Shows. In it, I share all the agony (and exhilaration) that goes into pouring yourself into a show.
I think it's the closest I've ever gotten to the WHY I do craft shows. I say:
I do craft shows because it’s the one place, the one situation in which being a full-time yarnie feels good, normal, accepted. The people get me. They get my yarn.
It’s a place to be me: handknit clothes, stripey knee-socks, pink-haired, yarn-making me.And when I get home, back to my solitary studio, back to my online conversations, that afternoon of pure me-ness stays with me, buoying me, refreshing me.
Sounds fabulous, eh?
In talking to others about craft shows, I've been asked a lot of questions.
Specific questions.
Questions I don't answer in the above posts, questions I couldn't answer in a zillion posts.
To answer the questions and to help everyone branch out into this very satisfying experience, I put together a class, How to Rock a Craft Show.
If you've been thinking about doing craft shows or you've been wanting to them better, check it out!
If you have questions about craft shows, leave them in the comments!