Blonde Chicken Boutique » Craft Shows

Today! In Portland!

Tara — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:42:11 +0000

The yarn and I will be hanging out, knitting and spinning at Twisted PDX today, from 5:30-8pm.

Join us and be among the first to see the new Stabby Packs

Today! In Seattle!

Tara — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 13:02:04 +0000

Come see me at Urban Craft Uprising today and tomorrow!
And on Monday, stop by Twisted PDX at around 5pm to say hello!

See you soon!

Westward Bound Chicken

Tara — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:53:50 +0000

This weekend the Blonde Chicken (and all the yarn) is setting out on a westward tour.

On December 4-5, I’ll be at Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle.

This is my third time to this show and I absolutely love it and my darling Seattle yarn-lovers and well, everything about Seattle (especially the yarn shops. And the cupcakes. And the coffee). The last December I was here, I sold out by 1p on Sunday.
Get all the details right here.

On December 6th, I’ll be at my (first!) trunk show at Twisted PDX.

It’ll be, piles of yarn, a spinning wheel and snacks. Come, chat, shop, knit. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to just sit around with yarn-lovers. No crowd, no rush, just hanging out.
Get directions right here.

Even if you can’t make it to say hello, I’d love to know your favorite place to eat, sip coffee or knit in either Seattle or Portland. Leave a comment and let me know!

Knit together?

Tara — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:59:08 +0000

I am so super excited to be planning a trip to New York City!
I’ll be at the Maker Faire, September 25-26 with piles and piles and yarn.

(this is just the begininning of the pile)

While I’m in town, I’d like to hang out with knitters, crafty biz people and, well, YOU.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to best meet-ups (where everyone is invited, whether we’ve met or emailed or not) + knit nights. I think the easiest way is to just email everyone who wants to hang out. Sign up and I’ll keep you in the loop!

If you’re in the NYC area (or will be 9/24-26), let me know by signing up here or leaving a comment.

I hope to see you soon!

The Biiiig Crafty!

Tara — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:24:54 +0000

The Big Crafty was awesome!

A big thank you to everyone who came out and said hello, we were so happy to meet so many of you (despite how serious I look in this photo – I was hot!)

Our booth was spilling over with handmade yarn from me (of course!)

and a bunch of other yarnies.

For the full list, check out A Novel Yarn.

PS. If you got a pattern at the show? I’ll be posting those videos I promised tomorrow! Come back for them or just subscribe and it’ll come right to your inbox.

See me this weekend in Asheville!

Tara — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:00:08 +0000

I will be at Big Crafty this Sunday, 7/11 in Asheville (with bunches of yarn!)!

My favorite part? The delicous Short Street Cakes (the ONE place that makes gluten-free cupcakes!) will be there with cupcakes. Woo!

You can get directions to the show here.

I will be in spot #5, which you can find on this map (pdf).

Need even more incentive? Mention that you saw this blog post and you’ll get a FREE pattern. It’s super secret and not for sale yet, but it looks like this:

Let me know in the comments in you plan on coming!

But do you make any money?

Tara — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:15:43 +0000

While getting ready for tomorrow’s How to Rock a Craft Show class, I surveyed a bunch of crafters and asked them for their craft show questions.

The most-oft asked question:

Do you make any money at it? How much?
Did it REALLY help you quit your dayjob?

To answer this, I think it’s best to look at hard numbers.

What percent of last year’s income came from craft shows?
Could I have quit my dayjob without that income?

To figure it out, I added up all my sales both online and off of yarn + fiber + lessons.
Then I added up my craft show sales.
I divided my craft show sales by my total sales to get the percentage.
(Note to the more-math-minded…did I do this right?)

I got .48

48% of my sales came from craft shows.

I did the same math for 2008: 42%.

Considering I only did 2 shows in each year, I think that’s pretty significant!

To get a really clear picture, I looked at the months around the craft shows. In the month preceding Urban Craft Uprising, I had 1/5 of my normal online sales. In the month following UCU, I traveled extensively (and didn’t reopen my Etsy shop) so I made about 1/10 of my normal online sales.

So while doing the show made up for those two months, it’s clear that the percentage would have been different had I kept my online sales going and didn’t do the show.

In other words, I sacrificed sales before and after the show to make one big chunk of income in 2 days.
Had I not done the shows, my online sales might have made up for it.

But another consideration is that I prepared for the show during July, the slowest month for yarn sales (both in my shop and throughout the industry).
I probably would have low online sales even if I hadn’t done the show.

Is there no clear answer?

I’ve left one thing out of the equation: post-show sales.

And those blow everything out of the water.

The people I meet at craft shows become online customers at an incredibly high rate.

It’s a little hard to track, since I don’t have any way of knowing how many hundreds of people I talk to at a show.
But I do know when they come online, because I recognize their names or see it in their address.

And I do know that many become repeat customers, buying yarn every month for years after the show, because they become my friends. On Twitter, in the blog comments, in my inbox.

Post-show sales come as quickly as the night after an event, when people I met that day log-on to my online shop.
Post-show sales come from people who sign up for my newsletter and buy something after getting that first newsletter.
Or the fifth.
Post-show sales come from someone at the show blogging about what they bought.

In other words, it grows.
By meeting people, talking to them about yarn, sharing my passion.

This is the aspect that makes the answer to today’s question an unequivocal
YES.

It’s worth it, for the people.
It’s worth it, for the marketing.
And it’s worth it (as I wrote yesterday), for the fun.

If you want to learn HOW to get those fabulous post-show sales, check out the class How to Rock a Craft Show.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments!

Growing with Craft Shows

Tara — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:37:34 +0000

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!

The Pain of Craft Shows

Tara — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:20:30 +0000

I want to tell you all about Craft Attack, but my camera’s not cooperating and I can’t extract my pictures from it, so that will have to wait.

Instead, let’s talk about the doing of a craft show.

It’s a lot of work.

More than you think. Maybe more than you would sign up for if you really knew that ahead of time.

There’s the actual making of wares, on top of keeping a steady stream of new yarn into the shop.

There’s the packing and the planning (extra tags, a sign-up sheet for the newsletter, and on and on).

There’s the setting up (tent, tables, lifting, carrying – always UPhill!)

There’s the actual 6-8 hour show. The work of talking to people about what you do, why you do it and yes, why that yarn costs that much.
The standing for 8 hours without sitting. The lack of food (I hate to eat when I’m working a show, my stomach’s usually too tense and I hate to talk with a mouth-full of food). The excess caffeine. The blasted heat.

Then there’s the packing back up. Maybe driving (or flying!) back home. And the unpacking.

And finally, there’s the aftermath. Credit cards to run, emails to answer, names to add to the newsletter list, packages to locate (every time I’ve done a craft show, something has gone wrong with my normal shipping. EVERY time.)

So why do it? Why inflict the pain upon myself (and loved ones)?

Because it’s fun.

Sure, it’s stressful, but it’s the good kind of stress. The push-yourself-farther stress. The make-more-yarn-than-you-thought-possible stress. The talk-to-lots-of-people-despite-being-painfully-shy stress.

It’s the chance to hang out with other people who do what I do. Who make and sell what they love. Who are clever, funny and so good at what they do. Who don’t ask “Why?” but instead, “How?”

And oh! The customers! People see my yarn in person! And squeeze it! And talk to me about it! And then take it home and love it!

While writing this it dawned on me: 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.

To answer your 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!

Seattle A-Go-Go

Tara — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:02:52 +0000

Since starting my West Coast Adventure more than 2 weeks ago, I’ve been wondering how to possibly share it all here, with you. 14 days of travel, work, play and visiting is a lot to sum up but here are some of the highlights of the Seattle leg of my trip.

Urban Craft Uprising was unbelievable. Kim Werker’s post on the show gives a great perspective. I met so many customers from Ravelry, from my Adventure Club and from Twitter. I met Jenny Hart, Sister Diane and Tara.

I even met a couple that graduated from my alma mater (which is bizarre, since we were in Seattle and Lee is in Tennessee) and were interested in learning to spin.

Shows like this are big and fun and completely exhausting. It’s so refreshing to chat with people who get what I’m trying to do and exhilarating to meet new people who want to know more.

But at the end of the day, it was relaxing to go home to my college roomates who were hosting me for the weekend. They showed me around Fremont and Wallingford. I saw Stalin.

We ate cupcakes at Trophy.

I visited Hilltop Yarn and spent over an hour chatting with Jessica (of Rose-Kim Knits) at the Fiber Gallery.

I thought about reviewing all the yarn stores I visited and cupcake/chocolate/ice cream parlors I tasted, but decided I’d rather just tell you that if you’re in Seattle, see it all! Experience it all, eat it all, talk to all the supersmart fiber people. It is just an overwhelmingly awesome city filled with amazing people and fabulously cute food.