Gergely Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 Hi Spanky, I couldn't write earlier and wish you luck. But I read your posts yesterday and was rooting for you all day. I hope everything went nice and smooth. And as far as I can think: 200 pieces of selling-ready objects mean you've left the "total beginner" level behind. Enjoy the prime rib cause you earned it bigtime!! All the bests to you: Gergely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankySmith Posted November 15, 2014 Author Share Posted November 15, 2014 Okay, prime rib settling in my tummy, beer at hand, here's the show report: First I TOTALLY agree with someone who wrote in another thread that swinging a hammer all day is child's play next to doing a show! My "smiler" is worn out and so am I! But I had a good show. I figured for this, my very first show a reasonable goal given I had mostly small stuff would be $300 and that I'd be happy with that. I actually made exactly 3 times that - $900. Beyond psyched! Also have 1/2 dozen orders to fulfill, too. What sold? The pine cones were a HUGE hit, took several orders for those and they were a terrific "look at that" item that made people stop. The Fredericks crosses sold well, particularly the really small, necklace size ones, I had 15 of those and sold all but one. Sold a lot of hooks, mostly to the men but a good number to women. An item I made really as an afterthought to have something different, a tea light candle holder using mini mason jars and antique spoons sold out. The snails were popular, too, another good one for getting people to stop and look. Treble cleft key rings did well, as did fthe floating heart necklaces - the treble clefts are really easy to make and I could have sold many more if I had them. Surprises were simple plant/bird feeder hangers that I really expected would do well...didn't sell a one. Only sold a couple dinner bell sets, though that makes sense, there's a pretty narrow market for those. My coworker who helped me today put some Christmasy decorations on the table, and we had a dozen offers to buy THOSE! Lol! Interestingly I only heard "my grandfather was a blacksmith" twice, had a lot of people tell me they had old anvils but no one willing to part with one. Had a lot of people just fascinated that anyone still does this stuff, and got several very gratifying comments from other vendors, several remarking that my stuff was very different from what they've seen from blacksmith shows elsewhere, I guess because I do mostly smaller items. That's about it. I am BUSHED! Exhausting but fun, my butterflies were all chased away pretty quickly this morning when the sales started coming. Thanks again for all your kind comments. It was definitely a good learning experience and I will continue to forge on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gergely Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 Congratulations!! I'm really happy to hear that! So that pine cone in the picture isn't real? Pretty much beyond my imagination how to do that... Bests again Gergely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankySmith Posted November 15, 2014 Author Share Posted November 15, 2014 Thanks Gerg! The pinecone is made from thin gauge steel. I free-handed the pattern, used band saw and snips to cut out each layer (12 layers), then shaped/formed each of 6 petals on each layer (cold formed, no heat necessary with that thin a gauge). Then in vinegar overnight to remove the zinc (zinc plated was all I had available), then a rusting solution to force it to rust the color of a real cone. Then finally a clear coat. Most of the orders I took today were for those. They aren't difficult, just time consuming, but it's the kind of thing I work on a little bit in the evenings, after work, knock it out pretty easily that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankySmith Posted November 15, 2014 Author Share Posted November 15, 2014 Oh, DSW, meant to say thanks for the long post of ideas. When I priced everything last week I took careful photos of each item with price tags nearby, figured it help down the road. Also had a spreadsheet (I'm a computer geek) with each category and then each item, how many I had of each, cost, cost x #of items carried out. After a day of much needed rest I will compare that to remaining stock to see exactly what sold, what didn't, etc. Such an immense learning curve in all this! Wish I'd picked it up many years ago, I'm a little late (old) to the game! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 Old SHMOLD! There are a lot of folk who've been at this longer that don't do nearly so well at shows. You brought in $900, 3x what you expected! You rocked the house. There's no praise like complete strangers offering money for your efforts. <VBG> Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSW Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 Sounds like you did superbly. Good job. Sounds like you got a really good return on your investment. I'd love to see the pattern for the pine cones. I have a female friend who is a bit put out that she can't play with metal as much as she'd like now that cold temps have arrived. She'd probably love the pine cone thing. It's right up her alley of decorative stuff she can make for the holidays. Maybe you can scan your pattern and post it as a PDF for us. You'll probably find plant hangers and bird feeder racks do better in the spring and summer when people think more about the yard. No big surprise that small gifts like key chains and holiday type items like the pine cones and tea lights did well as we are moving towards the holidays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankySmith Posted November 16, 2014 Author Share Posted November 16, 2014 I'll have to clean up the pattern before I could scan it, I quite literally sketched it on one of those dark green hanging file folders at work one day (I was on lunch break!), and have adjusted it on the fly each time I trace it and make one! Not very exacting or replicable work! After I get thought these orders from today I'll try to clean it up enough to make sense of it to anyone who doesn't think like me (!!) me and post it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianinsa Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 Well done! I'm not sure of prices your side of the pond but for $900( excellent number, if only you could do that every Saturday :) ) you could probably hit Mexico for a weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01tundra Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 You did great! Your booth and your sales approach will always be evolving as you go. Remember - Presentation is key. It's what draws that potential customer in. We've done about eight major shows over the past 1.5 years and have learned a lot. We plan to really ramp up the shows for 2015 and are going to be covering about four states in the process. A lot of the stores that carry our products are due to them seeing us at shows. We've learned that shop owners "scout" arts & crafts shows for potential vendors. We also usually get many custom orders after the shows from people that saw us there. I always seek out the veteran vendors at each show and get great advise from them. From this last 3-day show we did over the weekend I've learned a few new tricks (like making adjustable table leg extenders out of PVC pipe to bring our products to a higher level and prevent people from having to bend down so far to view our products). They also use the extenders to level their tables when at ourdoor shows. A very experienced couple who attend shows full-time also gave me the "list" of all the successful shows they've done for years within a three state radius, it's kind of like the holy grail for crafters. Might want to think about making small display pictures of you working at the forge/anvil, people like to see that kind of thing. You can say "hand forged" all day long and it simply doesn't click with a lot of people, the response is usually "you do all of the metal work?"......errrr. I've learned to have a back-up battery for charging iphones/ipad - http://www.amazon.com/Compact-10000mAh-Portable-External-Technology/dp/B009USAJCC/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1416405472&sr=8-9&keywords=phone+battery+external+charger. The ipad is our primary checkout platform, but I always have my phone with me as well for backup. We now carry at least two card readers, since my ipad slid off my chair and damaged the reader at one show and we barely got by. Also, (I may get static from some of the more experienced people here on this) but don't be afraid of color. We've seen sales of our heart and cross key chains and necklaces jump substantially when we started using Gilder's Paste on them, this increase in sales has been realized both at the shows and at every gallery/store our products are in. So don't be afraid to talk to other vendors to get new ideas. Our booth is always evolving and we are always looking to add more dimension to it to catch eyes. It's all about getting that potential customer to stop at your booth for a split second so you can greet them and tell them about your work. If we were to sit back in our chairs and go on autopilot, our sales would suffer greatly, you have to engage people to draw them in. At first it was difficult for me to do, but now I have gained the confidence to talk to anyone at the shows, I especially like the challenge of trying to break through with the difficult ones :) . This was our booth setup from this past weekend, for the next I'm going to add a mirror section to one of the tables to help display items from all angles, raise the tables up higher, forge one more business card holder, add LED up lighting to our keychain/necklace display tree and add at least one additional table - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankySmith Posted November 19, 2014 Author Share Posted November 19, 2014 Tundra, good ideas all around, and I really wish people would hop on here and share photos of their booths, it's tremendously helpful to see others' setups. I'm not familiar with gilder's paste at all but will be looking into it, I LOVE that on the crosses. Crosses were a big seller for me this weekend. Do you clear coat on top of the gilder's tint or just apply the tinted wax instead of beeswax or ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01tundra Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 Tundra, good ideas all around, and I really wish people would hop on here and share photos of their booths, it's tremendously helpful to see others' setups. I'm not familiar with gilder's paste at all but will be looking into it, I LOVE that on the crosses. Crosses were a big seller for me this weekend. Do you clear coat on top of the gilder's tint or just apply the tinted wax instead of beeswax or ??? We apply the Gilder's with a heat gun, then bake it afterwards, followed up with a clear acrylic coating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtforge Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Tundra, good ideas all around, and I really wish people would hop on here and share photos of their booths, it's tremendously helpful to see others' setups. I use the same tables at the indoors shows for the outdoor shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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