Monday, November 1, 2010

Craft Markets, Displays, Business Cards -- Money!!

The Aotea Centre, venue for the Auckland Art & Craft Fair on December 11th, 2010

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you might have seen that I was accepted as a vendor at the Auckland Art & Craft Fair on December 11th. I am thrilled about this – the Fair ran for the first time in July of this year while I was still in the U.S. and I was so excited to see this sign of the growth of the handmade market in New Zealand. The venue where it is being held (the Aotea Centre in downtown Auckland) is very nice and of course being two weeks before Christmas is prime gift-shopping time.

With this excitement though has come some major stress! December 11th is only six weeks away. My stocks are dwindling and I can no longer source the same copper pendant bezels I have been using. I have been thinking about making a move into making brass and silver items as well, so there is my push to do that. However, that means sourcing and buying whole new “sets” of supplies in each metal – chain, clasps, jump rings, and bezels. I ordered a small amount of silver supplies from a supplier in the States on Etsy but it has been two weeks and they still haven’t arrived.

I also need to create (read: buy and make displays for) my table at the fair. I didn’t have room in my baggage to bring anything with me, so I am starting over from scratch. There are several Flickr groups of craft fair displays so I have been perusing those and found some ideas, but when it comes to materials I have nothing!

On top of this, I am out of business cards and need to order more. I am in the middle of trying to focus my branding (hence all the new photos), so need to redesign my business cards, stickers and address labels. Also, the website (yes, I’m going ahead with that idea), so that I can put the address on the business cards, and packaging/little freebies for the craft fair. When in the States I used Vistaprint and then Moo for my cards, but I don’t think that’s going to be the most time or cost-efficient option for me now. Any Kiwis have any recommendations?

It’s all money, money, money. I haven’t started getting paid yet for my part-time job and well, you saw what happened with the money I earned from Emily. I am waiting on some U.S. cheques for my apartment security and car insurance refund to clear but they take 21 BUSINESS days to clear, so essentially a month after I put them in. It’s very frustrating to see my available balance today is $19 when my account balance is much higher but I can’t touch it!

Six weeks. Can I do it all?!

1 comment:

  1. You can do it!! I think getting into the show is a great sign to start =-)

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