I am sooo excited to share with everyone the poster/flyer design for the Spring Brighton Craftaganza event. Maybe I’m biased, but I think it’s possibly the best poster we’ve created yet!

Once again, talented illustrator Jennie Ball was commissioned to create another craftin’ pin-up hottie image to personify Brighton Craftaganza. This one is beavering away creating soft toys to sell at Craftaganza, and managing to do so whilst looking damn fine! A pretty far cry from my own preference for pyjama wearing whilst making things to sell, I must admit!

If you would like to help promote the Spring event, all the sellers and myself would be very grateful indeed. Just click here to download the original image file, print it out and stick it anywhere legal! Do you have a window facing the street? Access to a notice board at work/flat voyer/school/college/university? Are you on good terms with your local cafe/shop/deli/corner-shop/pub/bar/hairdressers/etc? If you could put a flyer or poster up, it would be a great help.

 Thanks in advance!

Please introduce yourself….

Hi, I’m Betty, I have a background in fashion & textile design now I enjoy creating unique pieces of felt art, using vintage buttons and upcycled elements to create my work. After all those years working as a fashion and merchandising designer in Hong Kong my passion for handmade has never stopped. Also, from 1995 I started my own business called “id(identity)co,” until 2005 when I moved back to Brighton.

Briefly describe the products you currently make

I create all my pieces mainly using felt with my original design and freeform embroidery technique for each individual piece. Also I use vintage buttons and upcycled elements for my one-of-a-kind jewellery. You can check out my Etsy shop and in Brighton Handmade co-op.

How long have you been selling your wares and how did it begin? Or is Craftaganza your first time?

After I settled back in Brighton from Hong Kong, my daughters were still young. I started making gift for my neighbour’s kids and hand embroidering their favourite designs on their old tee-shirts. One of my designs, a felt brooch, was originally made for my younger daughter and her friends as a gift. Then a year later I started my business again. Last year I joined Craftaganza’s Christmas fair, it was one of my most successful fairs as well.

Other crafty disciplines you like to practice?

I’m also crazy about collecting antique lace. I love to create and make another product line out of my huge antique lace collection if I have more time.

What inspires the things you make?

I used to travel to Japan very often for my job and work with their local textile designer, so you can tell I have been influenced by their culture in my work. I’m inspired by everything in life. That is why I love to travel so much.

Other crafter/makers you admire?

Emily Wright is one I admired a lot. Not only her beautiful work but also her passion for life and smile.

Personal motto?

It’s never too late to start and learn something new. Just go for it ! Be kind to others and add a bit more creation to your everyday life.

APPLICATIONS ARE NO LONGER BEING ACCEPTED FOR THE

SPRING BRIGHTON CRAFTAGANZA!

I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has contacted me for details and application information for the forthcoming Spring Brighton Craftaganza. The response has been great, particularly considering the Spring event was announced so soon after Christmas. It has been wonderful to see both new and previous sellers interested in this next event (the first of which I’ll be organising solo!). 

The period for accepting applications has now come to an end, and all stalls have been allocated. I also have a list of reserves, in case there are any stall-holder cancellations or people and people are forced to drop out for some reason. However, if you wish receive information about future events, please email me at craftaganza (at) gmail (dot) com, and I will be happy to put you on the mailing list.

As for the successful applicants, some of whom haven’t previously appeared on this blog in the ‘Meet the Seller’ or ‘Seller Update’ features, will hopefully agree to appear on this blog. That way we can get the opportunity to learn more about them and their work in advance of the March 24th event.

Thanks again everyone, time to get back to organising a craft market!!!

The wonderful Handmade Co-op (curently based on St James St in Kemptown) is a truly fantastic entity which has been encouraging and supporting local creativity for over two years now. Since Craftaganza’s beginnings, Handmade has been a kind of awesome big sister to our project in terms of the support, advice and fun the organisers have shared with us, for which I am eternally grateful. 

However, Handmade is currently under threat and is set to be homeless unless new premises can be found soon. Can you provide any leads to prevent this from happening? This is what Kirstin from Handmade has to say about this…    

If you can help in anyway, please email Kirstin at handmade.co (at) hotmail (dot) com

As fan of craft/handmade fairs and markets, I visit them whenever I can. I love seeing a variety of wonderful and lovingly made hand made products, and like picking up business cards or postcards of sellers whose work I’m drawn to. The postcards are great for sending to friends and they give me the seller’s contact details so I can contact them about selling at Brighton Craftaganza if they are from the area.

But of course, business cards and postcards work in the favour of the sellers in many more ways than these. If picked up, they can remind a potential customer of their work at some point in the future when they may have some spare cash or when they have a specific present to buy. Even dropping the business cards or postcards in to any correspondance could mean sales in the future, if they advertise an online shop or Etsy/Folksy link.

I would also argue that stalls at craft markets/fairs that have business cards and/or postcards to pick up can be more appealing than those without. They show that the seller is passionate and committed enough about their work to take that extra step of getting cards printed; it shows they love what they do and that customers are important to them. I can also imply that they make and sell their work regularly, because a more established seller can provide a potential customer with more reassurance than a one-off maker/seller.  

Of course, the business card/postcard needs to provide details so people can contact a you with an eye to making a purchase. Ideally a seller will have an online shop of some description, but if you haven’t got that far, a facebook page or blog can be a relatively easy and free way for potential customer to A) see more examples of your work, B) show your work to their friends, and C) get in contact with you. But even if your card just has a photo of your work, your name, phone number and email address, it’ll show customer that you are serious about what you make and sell.

Plus, don’t overlook the notion of reciprocity. Reciprocity means giving something to someone (be that a physical object, or something more abstract like a smile or the time to chat) which triggers in them the need to give something back to you. It’s something that we spent time discussing during the ‘Sales for People who Hate Selling’ symposium we hosted last year. We talked about it then in different forms, for example, how a seller asking a visitor to a craft market a question (for example, how they are or asking for their opinion on something) and paying close attention to what the visitor says, makes that visitor feel special and will subconciously feel happy to allow the seller to speak in return (at which point the seller will then take the opportunity to tell the visitor about why their products are so fantastic!).

But reciprocity can work really well in the craft market situation in a physical way with things sweets and postcards. By engaging a customer with a smile, a ‘Hello, would you like a free postcard?’ and physically handing it to them, you are creating a situation in which the visitor will feel like they want to give something back to you. If you’re lucky, that might be a sale, but at the very least they’ll probably hover at your stall for a fews beats longer than they might’ve otherwise, which might allow them to see something which catches their eye, or give you the opportunity to show they your work and tell them about it. This may sound like some ‘dark arts’, but they are proven to work! And even if it doesn’t work by directly resulting in a sale that day, they may then refer back to that postcard when they get home (as discussed above) or more generally create a more pleasant atmosphere at the market around your stall which means you’ll have a great day!

So if you didn’t previously have business cards or postcards to give out when selling, I guess you’re now convinced they make sense?! Where do you get some? Here are some popular options:

www.uk.moo.com is a very popular option among designer-makers. They offer attractive formats for creating custom business cards, mini-cards and postcards with very little effort. Another real plus is that you can upload just one single image (of your work or your logo, for example) or lots of images  so your cards can be all the same or you can have a variety.

For greater value, you could try www.vistaprint.co.uk. This company often offer special deal and promotions including 250 free business cards. But be warned, if you choose to order from them or contact them, you can expect lots of advertising emails!!!

I have also seen some designer-makers use www.abacusprinting.com.     

If you have any more tips or links to help other sellers with this form of advertising and promoting, please leave a comment!

Taking place on Saturday 24th March 2012, this will be the third Brighton Craftaganza event. Like the previous events, this will be held at the Fabrica gallery which is situated in the centre of Brighton on the corner of Ship St and Dukes St. It will comprise of 34 stalls selling exciting, unique and excellent quality handmade products representing a wide range of crafty disaplins, all created locally. There will also be hot and cold food and drinks on sale and a seated cafe area.

If you create great quality handmade products and are interested in selling the this event, please send an email to craftaganza (at) gmail (dot) to receive detailed information, including how to apply.

Happy creating people!!!!

There have been some changes taking place in the Craftaganza camp. The Brighton Craftaganza endeavour was started by Steph, Lisa and myself (pictured above, left to right) over a year ago. Lots of work went into laying the foundations for our first event which took place in March 2011. Shortly after that event, Lisa was forced to devote every remaining minute of the rest of 2011 to preparing new patterns and writing instructions in preparation for the release of her second bag making book (check her first bag making bible here). She also received the wonderful news that she is expecting a baby next March!!!! This is one busy lady we’re talking about here! Obviously, Craftaganza planning had to take a back seat in her life, although she has remained with the project in spirit. It was lovely to see her (and her bump!) when came down to see us at the recent Christmas event.

That Christmas event, as she mentioned herself, also marks the end of Steph’s involvement with Craftaganza. She has a lot on her plate coming up with planning her wedding, studying and working. I know that stepping away from this endeavour wasn’t an easy decision for Steph, as the Brighton Craftaganza craft markets were her initial idea and she’s been involved in building it up from nothing for the past year. I really respect her ability to objectively analyse how much she realistically had to give this project in 2012 and chose to step away rather than let it suffer or create an unsustainable inbalance between the organisers.

So what do these changes mean? Well, basically it means that I will be organising Brighton Craftaganza on my own from now on, along with some wonderful helpers on the event days. There are a few changes and improvements that will be made to the events, most of which have been suggested by the sellers from the Christmas event when they generously shared their feedback. I also plan to provide more opportunities to expand the interaction between local crafters/designer-makers, plus lots more ideas that will hopefully come to fruition in 2012. If you have any ideas that you would like to see Brighton Craftaganza involved in or things you would like to see on this blog, please leave a comment or email me at craftaganza (at) gmail (dot) com.

So, these changes come at the end of an eventful year. I wish both Steph and Lisa all the best for the exciting events and changes awaiting them in 2012. And I wish everyone who has had anything to do with Brighton Craftaganza, be that selling with us at an event or glancing at this blog occasionally a very Merry Christmas. Here’s to an exciting, handmade New Year ahead!!!!!

Zoe xxx

Well, after months of discussions, planning and organising, the Christmas Brighton Craftaganza craft market came and went in what felt like a blink of an eye!

Steph and I were at the venue at 8.30am along with our wonderful helpers, Rehanon, Pat and Nik, to set up the furniture and decorate the place with bunting and balloons before the stall holders began to arrive from 9am.  

All the stalls were set up and the doors opened to the public at 11am.

It was so exciting for Steph and myself to finally get to view everyone’s unique product displays. Previously we had only seen images of individual products that the sellers had sent us when they applied for a stall back in the Summer. We could imagine what kind of displays those jpegs would translate to!

It was always important to all three of us (Steph, Lisa and myself) when we started Brighton Craftaganza over a year ago, that the market should include a really wide selection of different types of handmade work. The only similarity we wanted was that everything on sale was of a high quality.

By presenting the best in local handmade products, Brighton Craftaganza is able to prove to the public that handmade things are way better in so many ways than their mass-produced equivalents.

It was so fascinating to see peoples’ personalities expressed in their work and to talk to the sellers about how and why they create what they do. Each seller has a different story, many of which you can read on this blog in the ‘Meet The Seller’ and ‘Seller Update’ features.

Between a third and half of the sellers had stalls at the first Brighton Craftaganza event in March. It was lovely to see these individuals again and to see how their product ranges had developed since the Spring. It was also wonderful to meet the new faces and welcome them to Brighton Craftaganza.

The amount of creative people in this city is pretty astounding. It was so hard to select only thirty two of the many many applications we received. Some of those who sold with us are hardened veterans of craft/handmade fairs, markets and events around town. Whilst for others, this Christmas event was their very first event! I’m so pleased that this blend was achieved, and for our event to be significant for some in their journey towards becoming a successful designer-maker.

The main reason I got involved in what has become Brighton Craftaganza, was to meet interesting and creative people having only moved to Brighton a month before meeting Steph and Lisa and deciding to do this. I feel very grateful to have met so many lovely people through these events, and I look forward to getting to know some of them better through the course of future events.

I’ll stop my waffle now and share with you some more images from last Saturday!

On behalf of Steph and myself, we’d like to say an enormous thank you to all the sellers, helpers and visitors for being so fantastic! We wish you all a truly fabulous Christmas. See you in 2012!!!!

What a great day we all had today at the Christmas Craftaganza. As ever, it was awesome to see so many talented designer-makers in one place, and so many happy customers taking home their lovingly crafted creations.

There was a very festive atmosphere and we even had mulled wine made by our lovely food seller Jan.

I’m sure Zoe will be making a full report of today’s event, but I just wanted to say how much fun it has been to be involved in starting such a great event. I’m taking a break from helping to organise the Craftaganza’s for now, some of you already know I’m getting Married in June and as I know I’m going to be pretty busy till then I thought it best to let Zoe take the reins for next years events. So it’s over to you Zoe, and see you all soon crafters

Wishing you all a happy crafty Christmas and a fab new year!

Love Steph xxx

If you are a resident of Brighton and Hove, it is likely that you are well aware of the free magazine The Brighton Source. In my opinion, it’s the best way to find out what is going on in the city, from big gigs to small art shows. Having moved to Brighton in the Autumn of 2010, I found it was an excellent resource for helping me feel connected with my new home. I told me about many of the bars, restaurants, cafes, pubs, events, festivals, and so on which drew me to living here in the first place. It also includes interesting, amusing and often thought-provoking articles about local culture and more broader topics which make me extra excited to grab the latest copy when I see it in a pub or cafe.

And as if you need further proof that it is a local publication with it’s finger on the pulse, the latest edition includes a little write-up about our every own Brighton Craftaganza in their culture section!

‘Seek out the blog page for this refreshingly unpretentious craft fair and you’ll find a whole heap of beautiful creations from local makers. They range from whimsical felt toys to infintesimal bits of exquisite jewellery, delicately weaved fabrics, cool canvas art and enough nifty needle and thread work to make even the most stringent stitch connoisseur beam. Between this and the aforementioned Ink_d offerings, we reckon we’ve got you sorted for some unique and lovingly made presents. Mince pies all round.’

Well, couldn’t have put it better myself! Thanks Source guys, it’s so nice to feel that what we are trying to create has merit which spans beyond the local handmade and craft scenes!