DavesIron

Oh yeah my mistake, been a while since I uploaded anything on here. Thank you for letting me know. Here's the photos I tried to upload originally. Focused a lot on copper work this year, as it was easier for me to work on. Also, I've been making a few frames like this and incorporating metal into them. Wanted to show it to folks and maybe give some ideas. The cats name is coal, I use photos of my pets in frames I sell as people think it's cute.

Oops sorry about the doubled up image. Anyways, it's always good to come back to this thread and see how everyone is doing. Keep up the good work guys, and thanks for all the good tips! Frosty, is this in reply to me? Everything seems good on my end.

Had another crafts fair yesterday, did alright as far as sales go. Not stellar but not bad, but had a very good time regardless. Lots of interest in my stuff but a lot of the sales came from the folks who understand how much work goes into the items. Having a table runner for the first time definitely made my booth look more "professional" and had lots of compliments on that. I'm going to be focusing on more blacksmithing practice to really up my game, I spent a lot of this year recovering from a surgery that took a little longer than anticipated to recover from so that cut into my already sparse time I spend out in the shop. I know I can do better work if I dedicate myself to practicing more. (Btw, some of the bad looking bottle openers are a few years old, they'll sell eventually)

While Spanish Colonial inspired stuff sounds very cool, I think the cowboy and miner stuff would do better around here. I'm in Northern California (Burney area, Burney falls is our claim to fame) and a lot of people really love that "Oregon trail aesthetic", lots of people use wagon wheels as decorations around here too. So I'm certain that open fire cooking set-ups and anything that evokes that image will do well. Thank you for the book recommendation, I'll add it to my ever growing collection. That's a good point about selling with a candle in them, I'll have to remember to make up some candles to go with. Tallow candles would probably be the more historically accurate choice I'm assuming. I've got a large amount of flint to go with my fire steels, and some char cloth too. It's very fun to start fires with flint and steel, even if it's just to start a BBQ. Thank you both for the campfire cooking recommendations, I've only ever made the tripod ones to sell but the gallows frame + tripod sounds like the best to make.

I was going to have a neat table runner to help draw attention, but the person I tried to order from never got back to me. I'll have one next time though. Possibly a banner also, I'll make them myself if I can but if someone else can make one that looks much better then I don't mind ordering one. Thanks for the idea Glenn! I haven't considered using a drill for that. Would definitely have more uniform twists and save me a little time. I'll be making some leaf pendants for next time. Thor's hammer pendants are certainly a good item too. It's funny how the business cards don't always result in sales, seems like folks just like to collect business cards. Though, people liked the design of my card and I had some more shop favorites on my Etsy in the last few days that I think I can attribute to people looking me up. Which reminds me I should update my Etsy. Thanks everyone for the feedback and ideas, I'm glad I have a decent amount of inventory now and I can add to it and make more items. Dinner bells are something I've done before and that did well, but it slipped my mind to make any this time. I did take some notes and have a better idea of what to expect from different crafts fairs. The next one I plan on doing is during a weekend that celebrates my hometowns history, so I'll probably have flint strikers, blacksmiths knives, and wrapped eye tomahawks. Any other "frontier" type items I should make?

Alright guys, I took some tips from this thread and used them at my most recent crafts fair! I had prior obligations and couldn't make as much stuff as I wanted to, and couldn't spend as much time on displays as I should have. Regardless, I think it turned out well enough. Maybe this will give others ideas. I used the roses as a "main attraction", and kept my metalwork on one table and my soap n stuff on the other. The roses were positioned so it would be the first thing people saw as they walked by, and the color from the copper incense holders were also an eye catcher. I shared this space with my girlfriend so she had a table opposite of mine. Saved money on the booth fees, at the cost of maybe not having the most efficient set up for my table, or hers. I also propped the bottle openers up at an angle so they could be more easily seen. I was going to make a firepoker set and have it displayed but things got in the way. I liked the leaf keychain display, but only sold one. This crafts fair wasn't really my demographic though, but I still made enough sales to make it well worth my time. Thank you to everyone who gave tips in this thread, I learned a lot. Forgot to mention that I put price tags on most of these items after I took these photos.

I'll definitely be displaying items vertically next time, and I'll be using price tags also. I'll probably be using two tables next time too as I'll have a lot more stuff this time around. As for the brown blocks and multi colored tubes, the blocks are a coffee scrub soap I made and the tubes are chapstick. The tumblers my sister asked me to sell because I'm "better at selling things." I do a lot of soap making along with ironwork, so there's always a variety of items at my tables. Something for everyone. Though it's a bit of an odd combination.

This is how mine looked last November, I thought I did a good job but you guys just gave me a whole lot of ideas. It was VERY cluttered. I'll be doing more crafts fairs in the next few months so I'll show how mine look with all your suggestions taken in mind. I have never done any demonstrations but it's something I would like to do eventually.