To pass my apprenticeship this year I am required to set up a stall. Little encouragement is needed however because I love setting up stalls and playing ‘shop’!
I recently had my first opportunity through a new venture called the We Are Women Festival set up by Laura Currie to bring together women who practice various skills, mostly in the healing arts but also in the crafty arts as well.
It was a great opportunity to really shift gears and get things together for the coming year.
Part of setting up a stall is to create something that is visually appealing and shows off the products. I love the colours that split hazel baskets offer. Its creamy beiges with dark brown bark. And this goes lovely with the green of my sign.
Personally, I prefer stalls that are not too over loaded with different items. When there is too much to look at I can find this overwhelming as my brain tries to focus on too many things at the same time and I’ll usually move away from those stalls fairly quickly. So with this in mind I only set out a few different items, enough to make the table look full, but not busy.
Pricing is always a tricky one and I’ve had some great advice from my sponsor business such as adjusting pricing as the day or weekend goes on and listening to the potential customers as they browse – apparently they will be very open about what they think of your prices, even in front of you!
It can be difficult not to undervalue items because, as a crafter, I am competing with imported, mass produced items, and so it is difficult to charge what I should be charging. A basket, for example, that takes 5 hours to make should be at least £50 but when a customer can go to a shop and buy a basket three times as big for a third of the price its difficult for them to understand why my basket is so expensive.
One remedy to this is engaging customers. I have a friend who is very good at engaging customers and selling her products without, it seems, selling them a thing. She explains to them why her product is going to be beneficial for them and the product sells itself. She sells creams and potions. I sell baskets… it a tougher sell. But what I did notice was that talking to the customers and explaining how things are made, why I make them and all about my apprenticeship got them interested in the items much more than just letting them look at the baskets. Another remedy is to be making the item you’re selling. This gives people an idea of the amount of skill and work it takes to make the items you’re selling and encourages engagement.
I did quite well at this market and I think this was because it was a niche audience. Finding the right stalls may be more beneficial than just finding any old market day. Because my products are sustainable, and with regards to the besom brooms, a traditional witchy item that is used in wiccan ceremonies, I will be on the look out for more specialised markets.
The next one coming up for me is a christmas market day at a local shop run by a lady who wants to encourage local crafts people who are using sustainable products. This is a really exciting project to get involved with as it is part of an initiative run by the local council who will be offering free workshop spaces to people like me!
Over the last two weeks I have been chief elf for one of my mentors Dave Jackson AKA 
products to work on were the bird feeders. One was designed to hold an apple and the other used recycled wine bottles to hold some birdseed. I’m keen to learn traditional skills but I’m glad to have some experience in making high end products that create coppiced products with a modern twist.
them down to £15. Once they started flying off the shelf… he creeped the price up to £18. This didn’t effect the sales but he wasn’t sure they would break the £20 mark so he kept them at this price and managed to almost sell them all. Experimenting like this seems really useful on a weekend market where you have three days to try and understand your customer and work out what they are willing to pay.
