Just wanted to hear your experiences and market strategy, if you care to share.

Troutie?

I’m thinking of craft based stuff.

Made from driftwood?

I know bunnyhop does some very nice craft based stuff and sells online. Can’t remember the URL though.

legal or illegal home made stuff ?

Jam and elderflower vinaigrette… Obviously not in the same jar/bottle.
MrsBouy has been doing this for the last 10 or so years, we’ve loadsa fruit around the Farm and have been utilising this to good effect, all stuff left over from distribution around the family gets sold, not for much mind but sold none the less.
Much easier making buckets of the stuff rather than small amounts…

No, it’s Mrs Grips churning out scarves and similar on her loom.

Scarves are a funny old thing because you can get one for £5 or you can pay £100 for a handwoven luxury job. I’m encouraging her to price them high (not that high mind) but everyone we know is saying ‘I’d only pay $15-$20 for a scarf’.. but then again we don’t know rich people.

So it’s a question of marketing and cost I suppose.

I think you mean “Artisan Neckwarmers”…..

get a vietnamese kid in, he’ll make them much quicker

Yep. Hand woven in the rustic mountains of Wales, land of fairytales and castles. Well, near them anyway.

will she no get bored of churning out scarves on a loom ?

not just marketing, distribution network is essential if you want to aim high.

im only gonna pay you £2 for the scarf from a car boot sale and only then cos its got cold and im improperly dressed.
you want to sell them to Tamara as a “checkout purchase” that gets thrown in with that piece “hand crafted one time organic blown refugee toenail art” £20k

Get on etsy.com made for homemade stuff.

I heard woven washing machine covers are the next in thing

will she no get bored of churning out scarves on a loom ?

Apparently not. It’s only a sideline, not a breadwinning thing, so she’ll make what she makes and when they’re gone they’re gone.

Etsy page is in progress apparently. Might also try craft fairs but they seem a bit of a lion’s den. No idea how likely it would be to sell much via Etsy.

My neighbour makes wooden wands from Oak, Willow and Ash

He sells them direct to shops for £20 a spell.

Enough money in wands for a takaway delivery every night 😉

+1 for etsy

Bought a beautiful print from Handmade Cyclist on there not so long back.

http://www.home-dzine.co.za/green/green-pallet-ideas.htm

Craft fairs are dire, soul destroying events, so I’d suggest avoid unless you have a particularly good one nearby. Local markets are better from a sanity point of view, but you have to be a regular to build up trade so there are cost implications. For your first outing in public, Christmas event things at good, local schools can be productive.

Boom tish!

Etsy is the obvious marketplace; Folksy.com is the UK equivalent but is maybe a bit quieter. Both are saturated with resulting downward pressure on prices … You could see if any local shops rent out shelf space to designers (as does one near me – design-a-space). My suggestion, go big on topicality with the designs, find an angle. Tough market for something as basic as a scarf otherwise.

Find niche. Exploit niche.

The advice seems to be make sure you have really good photos. Damn, looks like I’ll need some photography gear then 🙂

Well Cardiff has these craft stalls at Christmas, which would be great but you’d have to be going all year long to make enough stock I think. Maybe next year, I dunno. And I bet they cost too.

Corroded – noted, ta.

I used to sell CD-Rs of motorbike manuals. Which, weirdly, you could download for free, but sell for a fiver. But it could be a fair amount of hassle so I gave up on it after a while

Molgrips, don’t forget the

Get them in your local vegetarian/organic/fusion restaurant/tearooms/farmshop/b&b, by bribery or blackmail if necessary.

If they aren’t seen they don’t sell, and large webshops like etsys are a lottery if you can’t capitalise on word of mouth.

Isn’t there an apocryphal story about a bored wife who starts a business, and thinks it’s a runaway success. Art gallery maybe, but her husband is anonymously buying just about everything she shows, to keep her in a good frame of mind. 😉

Cycling scarves. I like this idea a lot!

We’ll roll out the fibre du jour which is still merino I think.

Has to have a bicycle repair kit and spare inner built into it to.

YES!

Great, keep them coming 🙂

Has to have a bicycle repair kit and spare inner built into it to.

and a bottle opener. Very “niche” is an alcohol habit. (See fatbikes and hipflasks for further info!)

😉

I think you mean “Artisan Neckwarmers”…..

*head pops clean off shoulders*

I think you mean “Artisan Neckwarmers”…..

I think you mean ‘organic neckpipes’.

I can see it now, single speed scarves, fat bike scarves, gnarr scarves. Then the inevitable scarf in the wheel accident, court case and bankrupcy. An epic tale.

Singlespeed scarves. Made from pure hessian.

Fatbike scarves – presumably inflatable?

I can see it now, single speed scarves, fat bike scarves, gnarr scarves. Then the inevitable scarf in the wheel accident, court case and bankrupcy. An epic tale.

Isadora Duncan, a warning from history.

Molgrips,

problem being that if you want to sell, you have to both have the stock to start with, and then get out there and actually sell it – the internet really is a bit lame and quite often pointless. Etsy / Folksy are tough joints to crack; if you don’t have good sales within a few months, forget it. Getting the stock is easy, it’s the selling that is hard, especially at craft fares where you may well find a few people doing exactly the same – cup cakes anyone?

Stall fees vary hugely – some councils charge nothing, whilst some places can be £200 per day. Average seems to be £20 to £30. Don’t forget public liability insurance either; £5m needed at most places. I’d avoid the big bill places as I’ve heard only one person pockets money at those gigs. I met another t-shirt seller who’d dumped £30k on his t-shirts, spent £700 for a three day event, came away having sold 12 t’s.

As for the need for a lot of stock – just get a smaller table and pad it out. If you’re brave, have a table outside your house one morning and see how you get on. Neighbours can be brilliant customers.

Most profitable things I’ve seen; guy who blows balloons up and makes things out of them at £3 a pop 😛 and the woman making pakora products from cauliflower – £5 for four. For fried cauli.

Worst I ever saw was a woman who made greetings cards. In 8 hours she made £2. That was a sale to her mother.

Good luck with it, but don’t expect world domination.

+1 for etsy

+1000 for REGRetsy

My wife makes stuff and sells it through Not On The Highstreet (www.noths.com)
I wouldn’t recommend it as a place to sell, mainly because it’s way too crowded with products but also their entry fees are extremely high.

Our advantage is that we are not expecting to make a ton of money quit the day job. We have a metric shitload of string in our house, a woman who likes weaving, and about 15 scarves already. We are both already well sorted for scarves as our most of our family 🙂