An unintended side effect of the last year or so of ongoing craft binging is that I have a LOT of stuff built up, and only so many friends and family to gift it to. My sweet and generous friend Deb from South Island Crafts was kind enough to let me worm my way into her booth for the upcoming Dickinson Days summer festival in Manotick.
At first I was thrilled, then I was worried, picturing me with a tiny pile of crafts in front of me while my neighbours walked by and pointed and laughed. Probably in the pouring rain. And then I suffered a crushing bout of imposter syndrome – what was I thinking? I’m not doing anything anybody could do, why would anyone want to buy this stuff? And then I took a deep breath and shrugged that off too, and set to work making things. And let me tell you, aside from a good walk and a belly laugh and maybe a deep breath of salty sea air, there’s nothing better for the soul than making pretty things out of nothing.
I’d recently inherited the most comically large collection of wine corks, so a lot of my ideas focused on those. I instantly fell in love with all the fun and quirky things you can do with wine corks and beads and a sense of humour, and I’ll share some of the how-tos for these a little later.
My first idea for actually selling my handiwork came from creating these felt kitchen witches and gnomes, and my obsession last autumn with acorns.
and acorn caps
And I have been in love with making things from sea glass almost as long as I have been in love with collecting sea glass, a love affair that spans multiple provinces across most of a decade.
And my latest obsession is these little charm bags. I’ve been enjoying slow stitching (or hand stitching) for quite a while, but once I was inspired to make these little patchwork pouches with drawstrings and saw how they were turning out, I couldn’t stop making them. They’re made with linen leftover from other projects and some amazing vintage fabric squares I got from a local fabric flea market.
I like making things that are practical or at least have a purpose other than just being a thing you look at, so I especially like the description I came up with to put on the table along side these: “Magic charm bags, perfect for hiding tiny keepsakes and treasures. Or spell components! Or, write down a wish or intention and roll it up to store inside. Each one comes with magic inside!” And the magic is either a piece of sea glass or a shiny tumbled rock, because ordinary things turned into small treasures are automatically magic. It’s a fact! 😉
I have a few other things, too. I’m really pleased with how most of the things came out, and especially proud of the fact that almost all of it is either upcycled, recycled or found objects – I’ve spent very little on supplies. The fabric is all second hand, there’s a lot of natural and otherwise found objects, some repurposed costume jewelry, a couple of garage sale finds and some goodies courtesy of generous friends or my local Buy-Nothing group. I bought the wire (but found it was cheaper in the picture-hanging aisle of Canadian Tire than in the local craft store) and a lot of the beads and some of the embroidery thread. I also went deep deep DEEP into 20 years of ferreting away bits and bobs and various craft supplies – I KNEW I’d find a purpose for those wooden skewers I’ve had in a drawer for ages. And they make an appearance in not one but TWO different crafts!
I’m also happy with my displays, which were also repurposed from things in my garage. I’ve had the old textile boxes for years (I cannot resist an old worn box at a flea market) and I used to use the empty frames (picked from garbage at the curb one happy night) in my family photography business back before Modern Family made the frame thing cliché and overdone. I’ll post a photo of those after the market is done.
My biggest investment was in business cards, which I needed anyway. I’ve always loved Moo.com for their cards, and went back this time. I designed them myself, and made three designs for various purposes. I’m hoping the craft show serves as good advertising for the home crafting parties I offer, and I’ve made a couple of posters that say “like it, make it, ask me how” to encourage that.
Possibly, my favourite part of this little adventure has been the idea to offer a free one-card tarot reading with every purchase. I thought it was a terribly clever hook, and was delighted when my very good friend, who is much more cool and clever than me, independently came up with the same idea. So I know it’s a good idea — I guess we’ll see if the folks attending the craft show think so too!
Anyway, this came out longer than I expected, but I am really quite excited about the show. It’s in a couple of days, and the forecast is unbelievably perfect. I’ll let you know how it all turns out. If you have any last minute advice or expertise around craft shows, please share. I have a feeling this might be the first but not the last!