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ART OF STAINED GLASS Why Sell At Craft Fairs? For a stained glass crafter looking for a little extra income to bankroll purchases of more glass and equipment, cover some costs, and have a fun experience sharing their love of glass for a day or a weekend, craft fairs offer great flexibility. They don't require much bookeeping, you can decide to lower your prices mid-day, you can negotiate. Your fair experience is also a self-contained event; once it's done, you bring the unsold merchandise home, and you don't have anything to worry about. Finding Good Craft Fairs Craft fair tables are often reserved long ahead of time; by the time you see a fair advertised, it's often too late to book a table, and you might have to place yourself on a waiting list for the following year. If you belong to a local art or craft organization, you might receive advanced notice. You might also find out through the grapevine which fairs are well-visited, and how much value you are getting for your rental fee. If you don't have access to the local craft fair rumour mill, you might just have to take the risk and find out yourself! By experience, you will also find out where the best booth/tent placement may nbe. Presentation Have business cards on the ready, you may be asked about commissions. Your business card, ideally, should refer your clients to a website where your work is attractively photographed and displayed. Once you have secured a reservation for your craft fair spot, try to make the most attractive display possible. One way to accomplish this is to give the viewers a sense of unity in your artistic purpose. Whether you concentrate your efforts on 3D angels, cartoonish painted owls with painted accents, pressed flower suncatchers, abstracts in clear tectured glass, is all good, as long as you have a bit of a specialty and recognizable style. The example was used elsewhere on the site, but it applies here: your display is like a table setting. You don't want a table set with one each of the most beautiful tableware on the market, they will not match, and have no appeal. But a table setting from a single set, with a consistent color scheme and graphic vocabulary is a breath-taking sight. Think of your display as a table setting. Somehow... your products need to match each other. You may wish to invest in some mobile racks that are easily collapsed and fit in a car, but they are not very attractive when displaying objects that are transparent. Some fabric covering might be helpful. Advertise; use social networking and forums to advertise your presence. What Sells? Most craft fair clients just like to look at nice things. Very few, if not none at all, will come with the intent of purchasing a $400 panel. Similarly, no one "needs" a suncatcher or a votive. You will be catering to impulse buyers and people that might view your offerings as possible gifts for grandchildren, holidays, and other special occasions. In light of this, it would be wise to show up with many $8-20 items that manage to be original, attractive, inexpensive and quick to make. It may sound challenging; but in fact, nearly every store is filled with imported merchandise fulfilling these exact criteria. You may need to use a lot of solderable, materials for your assembly, such as brass rods, brass rings, brass plates. Consider have these prepared for you by a manufacturing process, dealing with wireforming companies. You could, for instance, produce votives with a square brass base, with brass rods rising from its edges, and topped with foiled glass scraps or globs, like a fence of glass lollipops. You could solder rays of brass tubing to a center glass cluster. You could solder a hook atop a vertical glass rod, and solder foiled green scrap glass on either side like leaves on a stem. Some traditional glass painting, inspired by contemporary fabrics and fashion, is one way to add value and originality to your work costing very little in terms of materials. Simple, easy, imaginative! 
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