The Purpose of the Gladwin Winter Wonderland
Artisan and Craft Show
The main reason that most sell our finished projects is that we love what we do, and we desire to earn a profit for our time and money investments so that we may continue to thrive and create. As artists, we want to share our talents with those who appreciate our skills, our hard work and the finished pieces that result from our
creative processes -- I remember a time when I felt defeated because my finished works piled up, unshared and unappreciated; and because all my money was tied up in the stuff I'd already made, I was limited on what I could craft. Farmer's Markets Spring/Summer Sales are Limited Opportunities For Handcrafters
I found farmer's markets a suitable venue for spring and summer sales, as they are relatively inexpensive, and allowed us plenty of room to sort out and grow our business. I also realized, that farmer's markets can be restrictive, competitive, and can become saturated with similar products very quickly because the main focus is on…wait for it… …farmers and their produce. But, as a sole sales venue for a year 'round handcrafter, warm season sales, with maybe a few advanced fall orders are limitations of running a booth at the farmer's market. Farmer's markets provide opportunity to experience and share your community for a few hours a week for the spring and summertime's, but the sales hours available to a vendor do not extend to the fall and winter sales seasons. So just when the harvest takes place, and you've spent the summer stocking products, no sales venue is available. Fall/Winter Handcrafted Sales Venues Needed
In seeking sales venues to get us through the fall and winter, I realized that, for the craft person who invests a large portion of income into their arts, farmer's markets may not provide enough income to support their work on an ongoing basis. Farmer's markets do not give crafters access to sales opportunities for some of the most important merchant holidays--specifically, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Valentines Day. While it may feel 'humble' to 'not participate in all that commercialism'…let me tell you, when everyone around me was still buying, selling, and trading their merchandise and I was sitting there bummed out, because I hadn't made enough from sales to buy resources to craft through the long, cold winter months…I realized that humility is something the big guys want you to strive for so that they can collect all the money from those sales opportunities. I called everywhere to find sales venues in the Gladwin area…for me, there was nothing worth the amount they were asking for a booth space. Anywhere in Mid Michigan? Not really…at least nothing that met my criteria: affordable, accessible to vendors and the public, advertising to vendors and public, with limitations and restrictions that help to assure competition, while preventing market saturation--in other words, keeping everyone from selling the same stuff as each other. Why does this matter? I'm glad you're wondering…
A Vendoring Solution for Local Handcrafters
It matters because if everyone is selling the same items, or similar variations of the same items, then pretty much everyone is going to find themselves not making enough money back to pay for those items costs. I concluded that the best option is to create the events myself. Of course, this is an expensive option because there is rentals, and clean ups, and advertising costs…And paperwork, and travel costs, and…you get the idea. More than I would probably make on my own. Yes, my stuff is great, but are THAT MANY people going to come in to my show to buy ONLY items from TheGreenHouse.Rocks? dehydrated goods, baked goods, syrups, jams and health and beauty stuff? Probably not, and adding handmade kids products wasn't going to bring in the crowds either. I mean, if it WOULD cut it, I'd just get a store front right? So, after much more studying and thought, I came up with the idea for the Gladwin Winter Wonderland Artisan and Craft Show! It helps to solve many of the problems that have been bothering me, and directly promotes the arts, artists, and our community. A Viable Solution for Handcrafter's and Our Community
The Gladwin Winter Wonderland Artisan and Craft Show provides a link between local Artisan/Craft Persons and the public for the purpose of providing the public with high quality, handcrafted, locally made, small batch goods. The primary goal of the show is to help foster relationships between the Citizens of Gladwin County and their local Artisan/Craft Persons, and to encourage Citizens to purchase local goods, thus helping to strengthen our community both economically and socially.
