Craft Fairs

Although I now sell my work through galleries and the internet, I spent a lot of years driving up and down the country exhibiting at Craft Fairs and Country Shows. A Craft Fair is a strange way for the public to buy goods. I suppose it works by bringing together products that you would not normally find, into a convenient area where one can wander and peruse articles "made by myself".

But the concept of charging people to enter the fair leaves me quite baffled, after all you could go into Harrod's or a top drawer art gallery and not be expected to pay before purchasing. But that is what happens at the larger craft fairs and some of the charges are so high that the only people making money are the organisers. After a family has paid £20/£30 to get in they don't always want to part with more cash.

The theory of it is this; The craftworker after spending weeks sat in a little shed lovingly turning a piece of old tree into an artistic pen holder and bowl with holes in it, pays £300 to £500 to the fair organiser for a piece of grass 2 metres by 1 metre in a marquee next to other craftsmen/craftswomen who have all paid the same money. Then the organiser charges the public £3 to £8 per person to come in and buy the pen holder. The craftworker then goes home happy to make another pen holder.

The reality is generally this: The craftworker realises he is wasting his time making the pen holder and buys them in from the far east. He still has to pay the £300 or so for his grass and the public still pay to get in, but he hasn't spent weeks making the stuff so if it doesn't sell there he can move on to the next one. Some travel for weeks around the country in caravans camping in the field next to the marquee.

I've met loads of them who sit there lovingly polishing bits of wood, metal, glass and stone who would'nt know a sharpspoke from a chisel. I was at a fair recently where there were two marquees, (tents for northerners), and in one was a couple selling childrens clothing that they had so called 'slaved hours over making'. In the other was the same clothing again 'lovingly produced' by a bloke who looked like Del Boy.

Needless to say when they both realised the organiser had accepted two stands doing identical products from the same factory, they were not happy craft workers. This is not to say all craftsmen should be tarred with the same brush, I mean someone has to make that brush in the first place. There are lots of genuine artisans out there attending fairs and creating original work, but they are getting pushed out by the market traders who now see craft fairs as a better way than the market.

The last time I was in The Channel Islands there was a large stand with loads of cheap canvas art bought in from China. Its the organisers who are at fault. In the early days your craft was vetted for quality and only one stand per fair had that product. But now they let anybody in to fill the fair. Also at some fairs if your not there early enough to set up you could arrive and find you only have half the space you booked.

I've actually seen fights break out between people when they think the stand next to them has encroached six inches into their area. Apart from this I did enjoy my time doing these shows, especially The Channel Islands Craft Fair which was 2 weeks long, and although hard work it was very successful.

I met many new people who are now close friends and had great times with them. In the next few weeks I'd like to introduce you to some of these and the stories about my travels. Cheers Eric.

Published: 1st January 2006   |   Back to Watercolour Memories.

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