Wings of Spring

A few members of the CK Etsy Team were vendors at the Wings of Spring event held at Rondeau Provincial Park this past weekend. Here's what they had to say...

"Had lots of fun Sat and Sun at Rondeau with Shannon and Christy. We chatted, we discussed, we needle felted, we visited with other vendors, even saw some birds and made a few sales. Christy did a lot of running here and there taking pictures, even lying on her belly in an attempt to befriend a cagey chipmunk who quickly saw through her ruse. She was then upstaged by my husband Doug who had no problem at all convincing 2 chipmunks to pose only steps away from him. While there weren't as many visitors to the park as expected, which meant our sales were down, it was a lovely way to spend the weekend. So pleased I got to know my 2 cohorts a bit better, even meeting some of their family members. I'm now looking forward to September when we can do it all over again, this time outside, at their Monarch Migration Festival."

...   Ann K.

"Even though it was quiet, I had a great weekend and it was so much fun learning how to needle-felt. I'll def be there for monarchs (Monarch Migration Festival).

- Christy

Shannon makes no formal comment, but I overheard her say that she made some sales and had a good time with her friends from the CK Etsy Team. Shannon's a seasoned Rondeau pro, so you can expect to see her at the next event.

A Story of Success!

As some of you may know, I have only been seriously promoting my craft for under six months. My success on Etsy has been very limited thus far, and while I have seen some sales at the Farmers' Markets in Chatham and Ridgetown, my products haven't been selling as I would have hoped.

So..... that changed yesterday at Rondeau's Monarch Migration Festival. This was my first real show (that hadn't been rained out), and I didn't really know what to expect. Imagine my surprise when I had sold over $30 worth of product and had a custom order before I was even finished setting up! My $5 butterfly pendents that I had made on a whim for the show sold out within the first half hour, and the rest of my pendants soon followed. All in all, I made over $240 at Rondeau, which is the most I've done in any event since beginning to sell.

I suppose that all the factors just combined to make yesterday the perfect day. The sun was shining and the weather was gorgeous; lots of families were out camping and biking and learning about butterflies, with little girls looking for a butterfly souvenir of their own; and my booth was placed right next to the barbeque, so as families lined up to eat, they looked over my product.

While I wanted to share this success story with the rest of the team, I also wanted to pass along the lesson I learned: Even if you've never heard of an event, even if you think it won't possibly be worthwhile, you never know when and where you'll find the audience that will appreciate your product!

Best of luck for the upcoming Christmas season!

- Shannon