Christmas Craft Fair

On the 13^th of December eleven little ladies from fibre art rolled into their beds at an unsavoury hour. There they lay, tucked into the covers fighting a crisp wintery cold, and a feeling of satisfaction washed over them. Resting their sleepy heads, they knew those weeks of work was soon to come into fruition as tomorrow was craft sale day. 

BCFE’s Christmas Craft Fair is an annual event organised by the second year students from Fibre art and Illustration. The fair is held in order to raise funds to pay for the graduate show. Therefore as part of Professional Practice we, the students, are assigned the task of producing a series of hand-made crafts to be sold to the tutors and students of BCFE.

And so we, the fibre artists, began our mission as we were pushed to be innovative yet, business smart. There was much to consider when designing a product; that perhaps wasn’t fully ‘appreciated’ once we begun the task. Of the utmost importance was to consider our target market which was not the easiest of markets. As students ourselves we understood the story of purses that only seemed to ever carry the €1.20 needed for the bus. But at the same time we had a sly advantage of knowing what our peers would be willing to part cash with for. 

So as the different ideas flooded in it was organised that each member of fibre art submitted a proposal and a prototype. From this, a daunting panel of experienced critics peered, pricked and prodded at the prototypes to decide what where worthy of production. Well it was actually not that dramatic as we were grouped into three teams based on what products where similar to each other. Therefore everyone had their own individual input. 

Here we saw the birth of three incredible forces:  TEAM FELT

        TEAM THREAD

                                                                                TEAM PRINT

Each team worked together combining their ideas and techniques and threw in endless hours of arduous labour. There were many aching arms from felting; many fingertips sliced from scalpels, many hands numbed by needle prods, which we all endured and sacrificed for the sake of the production line. However as ‘treacherous’ as it was, the teams stayed strong and pulled through to create a series of exceptionally beautiful crafts for the Christmas fair. 

On offer to the ‘oh so lucky students and tutors’ was everything from coil and wrap bracelets to daringly brilliant brooches and fascinators. From bead embellished felt ball earrings to cosy knitted collars and cuffs (and for an equally cosy phone; iphone holders). Also the classic Christmas card that had been hand painted, stitched, printed and embellished. A photo of such cards can be seen below.

And finally the day came. We congregated at 9 o’clock in the arts block; here we were divided into 2 groups; one to sell their pieces in the arts block and other team to flog their gems to the prey in the main building. The 2 teams then switched after lunch. This is the only fault I had with the craft fair. It would have been more effective if there had been a small selection of all the products in one stand and merely swap the people at the lunchtime break.

Heads and hands were busy in the morning to set up an enticing display. It took roughly half an hour to set everything up and organise the presentation.

A tad messy as the display slowly came together.

The stress bringing out a vicious side to the team print leader . . .

 . . . and the sleepy side in others!

Then with Shauna’s finishing touches and Sarah’s beaming smile the presentation was complete and there was nothing left to do but SELL, SELL, SELL!!!! Tutors and students alike were enticed with curiosity and once they were in sniffing distance we would subtly close in on them. They didn’t stand a chance against the ladies of fibre art.

There was a steady paced trail of customers in the morning but both teams found that in the afternoon sales began to slow up. However the fibre art class alone had a target of €400 to earn, this was exceeded as a grand total of €435 was achieved. The craft sale was a success! The hard work had paid and we felt more than the money was earned.

Each of us feels that we have learned a lot from this experience. The craft fair gave us an idea of survival in the business world; learning the importance of marketing, good quality production and acting in a professional manner. We have all learned and gained skills that will definitely be used throughout our careers as artists. And this, was the greatest achievement to come from the fair. It truly was a success.