Well the weekend flew by for me. It was jam packed with counting, sorting, packing, driving, unpacking, installing, covering, uncovering, restocking, smiling, speaking, sleeping and repeating. Having only done small local craft markets up until now, it was a real eye opener and learning curve to be thrust in the middle of this epic event, even if I did willingly sign up for it! Next time (if there is one) I shall be more prepared hopefully, although I don't think I did too badly.
I had a lot of help from family and friends to pull all of this together. The Parent's and I tested out building my stand and sorting out my display in my Grandmother's garden as she has more square lawn space. My allotted area was three metres square so we pegged it out on the grass and figured out where my grid walls had to go and the best place for the tables, how much room there was to get in and out and how much space behind for storage and seating. It was a jolly good thing to do as we were well away once we reached the showground, putting everything into position. The only downside was that my space encompassed a really obvious large dip in the ground so once my grid walls were pegged securely down, they lent towards each other and didn't stand entirely straight. A minor thing but something we are already thinking about ways to improve upon.
My Uncle loaned me the use of his van and his toolbox, coming with us to help set everything up. We were the first ones in the massive aluminium frame walkway, which was slightly unnerving as there was nobody else around to ensure we were doing things correctly or to welcome us to the grounds which would have been nice as first time stand owners.
Some things were improvised on the fly, and we raised my banner (now looking tiny against the grid wall- I need a bigger one!) up using doweling and some white pipe that my Uncle had in his van. You've got to love cable ties, string, and a man with a drill! The lights were ingeniously wedged against the mesh with grippers and an s-hook, but in the end we took these down as there was so much diffused light in the tent thanks to the glorious weather, the lights didn't make an impact on the stand at all and were then just taking up precious space.
The worst part was leaving everything there! Especially as there was no one else around. With all of my stock hidden under the tables, and the chairs and tables cable tied to the grid wall for additional security (haha) we left it all there for the rest of the day, not knowing what other people would be doing around it or whether it would all still be there in the morning! The Parent's were especially cautious about the dip and what that would mean if it were to rain as it might pool in my section so nothing was left on the ground that would get damaged should a swimming pool appear under the table.
Happily (and to my great relief) everything was still there in the morning, just as we had left it! The tent had been utterly transformed with lots of stands appearing like magic alongside mine. I had BoConcept Canterbury on one side of me and The Kent Candle Company on the other who were really lovely and very knowledgeable company - plus their products smelt amazing! Having introduced ourselves, The Mother and I quickly set out all of my stock (sounds very professional, doesn't it?) in a well practiced sort of fashion whilst Dad wandered off in search of bacon butties- every stall holder's essential breakfast food item.
Unfortunately the general consensus around the showground is that there really weren't very many attendees this year in comparison to others, on any of the three days. I sold only cards and kits on the first day and was feeling slightly disheartened by the end of the afternoon when covering my stand and wrapping it up for the night. The layout of the marquee we were under was at a perpendicular angle to a tarmac road so people had to step off the tarmac and walk under the walkway along the grass, with a symmetrical walkway opposite me and a gorgeously quaint caravan serving tea, cakes and lemonade in the middle but was amazing how many people were glued to that tarmac road and didn't bother coming onto the grass to have a look!
I was very pleased with how my stall looked though. It wasn't too crowded and there were lots of different types of product with different price points for everyone to consider. It was very interesting watching what people were doing and how they were interacting with the stand. A lot of people walked by and briefly looked then said, "oh there are some paintings" before carrying on. Paintings??!!! Honestly!
My lovely friend Dawn, who is a stitchscaper herself now that I've hooked her onto it, and one of my most loyal fans, lives relatively close to the showground so invited me to stay with her for the weekend, and offered to help out on the Saturday and Sunday!! What a star! I really couldn't have done it without her. She had some very good ideas about ways of presenting 'the stock' and was excellent at encouraging people toward the stand to have a look- a real sales lady!
I had decided the night before to move the card stand into the opposite corner as people seemed to always go to that corner but hadn't wanted to buy the small original pieces that were there. It worked much better, and as the BoConcept stand was so low down, meant that I had space to put out some more little stitchscape pieces so that you didn't get the back of the card stand when walking up. The flat pack display stands that my Uncle had built for me worked an absolute treat and looked fantastic!
We kept moving things around constantly, moving frames around, swapping frames over from stand to stand. From experience of being a punter myself at the South of England Show, a lot of people go around a show like this twice or more. Once to check what's there and get their bearings, and a second time to make sure that they haven't missed anything and to revisit stalls they liked the look of. With this in mind, they might not be attracted to my stand the first time around, but if I move something, they may be drawn in to a previously hidden piece the next time around. (I'm not sure how much movement was really happening though as it was so hot people were quickly wilting and giving up in favour of flopping in their own homes.)
A lot of stall holders also had big roller banners that they put up at the outer edge of the marquee, and whilst I didn't have a roller banner, we did decide to move my large print rack to the edge to try and attract people who were walking along outside the walkway rather than through it, and for those sitting and having tea at the caravan. This then left an unsightly gap where the table cloth didn't go all of the way around the table, so out came the crates and we stacked these with more large prints!
Of course on Saturday afternoon, the England football match was on, and whilst the showground had several large screens specifically for people to watch the game on, the only people who benefited from that were the drink stands and bars that the screens were placed in! Dawn and I had both taken our stitchscapes with us so settled down for a couple of hours of relatively peaceful, undisturbed stitching behind the stand. We could tell from the cheers roaring out across the ground what was going on.
Ice cream and chilled Rosé were definitely called for that evening!
On Sunday we were on a mission as it was supposed to be the best day of the whole weekend, and I was absolutely thrilled to sell one of my larger original pieces, Heather, followed by several of my smaller original pieces. All of my sheep themed originals were sold, along with Little Red Roof, and a couple of pebbles. It absolutely made up for my misgivings after the previous two days and although it is a shame that not more people turned up, hasn't put me off exhibiting at larger events like this in the future. Perhaps next time I should stick closer to home though!
Thank you to everyone who bought a little (or large) something from me. The happy dancing feet were out in force on the Sunday! And thank you to everybody who helped me to get there!!! xx
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