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CJ57
04-05-2014, 06:38 PM
I realise just about no one is near here and we just have tomorrow to go but I thought I would share!

It's been a busy weekend with 250 people through my doors over the past 2 days , great feedback and praise which is always good and good sales. One more day to go thank goodness because you do have to speak to every person if they are coming into your house.
The link for the event is at the bottom of this post, there are 78 of us participating and after 9'years we are winning awards and gaining high praise and I'm proud to be part of it for the 4 th year. Having said all that only last week I was doing the why the h... am I putting myself through this? And only one obnoxious couple all weekend!! :)

Keia
04-05-2014, 07:08 PM
So glad it's going well for you Caroline. I know how worried you were about it but sounds like your hard work has paid of =) Times like this I really wish I hadn't left Fife, I would have been there in a shot. Ho hum xx

CJ57
04-05-2014, 07:19 PM
Think you would enjoy being part of this Sian, apart from the few problems we've spoken about!

caroleallen
04-05-2014, 08:40 PM
I'm glad it's going well Caroline. I decided not to do it this year as it was a complete waste of time last year for me. I've spoken to lots of people in the area who all say the same. It's probably because there's not a lot of money in this part of the world but there are a lot of craftspeople and artists.

CJ57
04-05-2014, 10:19 PM
I'm glad it's going well Caroline. I decided not to do it this year as it was a complete waste of time last year for me. I've spoken to lots of people in the area who all say the same. It's probably because there's not a lot of money in this part of the world but there are a lot of craftspeople and artists.

Our promotion is so good and professional that we have visitors from all over the country. We put out 20,000 brochures and the visitor numbers are about the same spread over all the artists but mine have mainly been from Edinburgh, Glasgow , Angus and as far up as Banchory and as far down as Berwickshire. People come and stay in the area for the weekend now and they seem to have been spending everywhere. Mon is usually the quieter day but if I match another 70 visitors like last year there might be another couple of sales and the gallery has also sold a couple. One of the venues there had 350 plus through the door yesterday and there was a knock on to the gallery along with Falkland Palace being open now. Fife is really thriving with I think 15 Festivals of all sorts on the go at the moment

caroleallen
05-05-2014, 09:20 AM
I think I suffer from the fact that I'm the only studio in my town. In the next town there's a large craft-making centre which I think most people went to. I did get some sales and a couple of classes from it but that doesn't compare with online sales.

CJ57
06-05-2014, 12:06 PM
Well 330 visitors over 3 days, some villages less, villages with high tourist rates seemed to get more than 800. From what I've heard a lot of money was being spent. I had a couple from Yorkshire who put their caravan up in Angus for the summer so that they can fit in the OS and Mum and young daughter from Aberdeen, who were down in a hotel having some girl time.
Sales aren't supposed to be the important factor as there is an emphasis about coming to see a crafts person in their working environment. There are a lot of questions from some as people come to talk about the craft , or see where you work, to look at nice things they probably can't afford but maybe one day, and sales are supposed to be a bonus. I will admit that if I didn't sell anything I would be gutted but you can't expect to make a lot of money and I'm pretty sure that the high number of painters got more visitors and sales because they sell prints and cards. I'm still trying to work out what sort of easy money maker I can produce for the event but I get bogged down in producing nice stuff and I don't get past that