Successful day.

Today was the craft fair in the little village of Edingthorpe. I must say I wasn't expecting too much from the day, it being a small 'out of the way' village.

We arrived at the church which was acting as the 'hub' for the villages event (open gardens,craft fair, local food) and found the lady in charge, "Ah, the woodturner, I have kept you a nice spot inside the church" she said and led us inside to an area between the front pew and 14th century Rood Screen, which has some really good paintings of some of the Apostles on, some worthwhile information on this can be seen here. As we set up the lady in charge returned with cups of coffee and chocolate biscuits for us, she also said we would get a free lunch of the locally produced food that they were selling outside! This was an unexpected and really kind gesture by the organisers and set the day off on a happy note.

I had taken a 6' table with one low shelf at the back and black cloth to cover it all over. We made up the display with a selection of 'craft fair' produced pieces, some of my artistic pieces, which I knew likely wouldn't sell at this type of event but I wanted to show what I do, I also photocopied the cover and page featuring my piece from a copy of American Woodturner and made it into an upright display.

The first hour and a half I had a few conversations with interested people and it was nice that my art rather than the functional items was drawing the attention, a few people wanted my website address but nobody bought anything, I began to think that we were in for a repeat of the last(and only other) craft fair we took part in, where we had a lot of interest and barely any sales.

Then we got brought our 'free lunch'(who says there is no such thing!) and while trying to eat it, it happened, more people were showing up and things started to sell! I'm not saying it was a mad rush but we continued a steady pace of sales right up to 5 o'clock when the event finished, with two very nice older ladies who bought a clock and two pens right as we were about to pack up.

All in all it was a very pleasant and successful experience, we met some nice people who showed a genuine interest, picked up a commission, ate some nice food and made a decent amount of money to feed the bank account! I shall be taking part in this little village event next year too!