This craft fair was so much fun! It might even be the most fun I've had planning a craft fair so far. I went into it thinking 'this is the last one' and really put everything into it - I even crowdfunded for donations so that we could get more banners made and more flyers made and generally promote the fair to the hilt. People were really generous and I was so touched. I asked for volunteers to design posters for us and we had two beautiful submissions - one from Jo of Kidish, who sells regularly at the fair and one from Cassie who helps out at Yo!JoJo Handmade and Happy Little Stitches. They were both so great that I couldn't choose between them so we ended up having both!
We submitted our poster to not one but TWO editions of SE20 Community Magazine and we had so many flyers made that I had to climb over them in my hallway to get out of the front door! Also: due partly to hiring out some of our tables as half-tables and due partly to Penge Congregational Church investing in more tables (and due partly to me rejigging the layout of the fair to get a few more stalls in) we were able to meet more of the demand for stalls this time around, so we had about 26 stalls booked in and it was looking on course to be our busiest fair yet.
The run up to the fair was full of flyering and putting up banners and roping people into helping! Thank you to every single person that did, it all helped to make the fair so successful.
Fair day dawned rainy and miserable after several days of crisp winter sunshine. How annoying! Luckily it wasn't too cold, and with several other Christmas events happening in and around Penge on the same day, lots of people were out and about and ready to support local! Everyone arrived to set up and we had zero no shows, and zero last minute cancellations, which was excellent. I had a Christmas playlist made up of 5 hours worth of songs on the go and everyone was looking and feeling very festive. As the fair kicked off, I got my camera out and began my traditional rounds of the stalls to take photos. About halfway round I realised I couldn't move, and then suddenly it hit me - I can't move because the hall is packed!! I looked up - we had so many visitors! Everyone was browsing and shopping and chatting and the atmosphere was light and happy. I managed to get up on the stage to take some photos of the crowded room. It made me feel so good to see that so many people wanted to come and be a part of SE20 Craft Fair!
Fair day dawned rainy and miserable after several days of crisp winter sunshine. How annoying! Luckily it wasn't too cold, and with several other Christmas events happening in and around Penge on the same day, lots of people were out and about and ready to support local! Everyone arrived to set up and we had zero no shows, and zero last minute cancellations, which was excellent. I had a Christmas playlist made up of 5 hours worth of songs on the go and everyone was looking and feeling very festive. As the fair kicked off, I got my camera out and began my traditional rounds of the stalls to take photos. About halfway round I realised I couldn't move, and then suddenly it hit me - I can't move because the hall is packed!! I looked up - we had so many visitors! Everyone was browsing and shopping and chatting and the atmosphere was light and happy. I managed to get up on the stage to take some photos of the crowded room. It made me feel so good to see that so many people wanted to come and be a part of SE20 Craft Fair!
After the first hour it quietened down a bit, but there was a steady stream of visitors all day, with several people still browsing at close of play at 4pm.
The down side of all the hustle and bustle was that I didn't get to take photos of every stall, a fact I didn't realise until the end. I did however get a bit of time to go shopping, although I didn't manage to get round to every stall. I got hold of some lovely buys including baubles for my Christmas tree, which is now covered in beautiful and creative SE20 Craft Fair makes.
The down side of all the hustle and bustle was that I didn't get to take photos of every stall, a fact I didn't realise until the end. I did however get a bit of time to go shopping, although I didn't manage to get round to every stall. I got hold of some lovely buys including baubles for my Christmas tree, which is now covered in beautiful and creative SE20 Craft Fair makes.
So many people have said so many nice things about SE20 Craft Fair over the past few weeks, and so many people have e-mailed enquiring about stalls. I realised about halfway through the planning stages that to not have any more would be a real shame. I decided not to run it twicw a year anymore because of time constraints, financial constraints and also because I started to wonder if it was a frivolous endevour that wasn't community minded ENOUGH. But you know what? Not everyone visits the local library either, but that still does a lot of good for the community just through being there. Not everyone shops in Sainsburys because they prefer Tesco and not everyone likes to go to the pub, but the pubs in Penge still thrive and are great community meeting places. So there we go. SE20 Craft Fair is valulable to a lot of people, and we can also help to forge links between other community groups. Therefore - it will be back next Christmas! And from now on will run once a year, in December. Hooray! I look forward to being able to give all the crafters that missed out on a stall this time around a chance to sell at the next fair.
Something else I've been thinking about is how, when SE20 Craft Fair started in 2012, there wasn't anything else like it in the immediate area, and in fact craft fairs in general weren't too popular. You could usually find them tucked away in village halls in the countryside. But I could see so many of my friends who made things, and I could see that a handmade revolution was about to happen. So we went ahead and started the fairs and 4 years later there HAS been a handmade revolution - craft fairs are everywhere, all the time! This is brilliant. This year in November and early December, there were multiple fairs every weekend in our part of south east London! And that's a really great thing. My personal goal is to go and sell my own makes at more of them in 2017.
Once again, a huge huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped out in any way at all with SE20 Craft Fair!
Have a very happy Christmas and may 2017 bring many lovely things.
Love from Christina xx
To end with, here's the full list of our stallholders at the 10th SE20 Craft Fair, December 2016:
Soggy Bottoms Cakes by Dan and Jackie
Get Crafty by Gabrielle and Amy
Beck's Creative & Beck's Flowers
Hannah Andrews quilting and textiles
Yo!JoJo Handmade
Happy Little Stitches
Art of Yolanta Gawlik
LustrousArt Jewellery
Red Hedgehogs Crafts
Dotty Duck Delights gifts
Lisa Davis Calligraphy
Hooked by Crochet
Crafts by Blaisie
Never Felt Better
Helen Brushett Greetings Cards
SE20 Craft
Cards by Melanie J Baker
Emma Dowley cards and cross stitch
Amy Dowley cakes
Linda of London textiles
All That Sparkles art and framing
Beautiful bows by Lauren P
Stay True Embroidery
Barleywood Studios art and framing
Kidish cushions, accessories and jewellery
Sarah Jarrett Face Painting
Have a very happy Christmas and may 2017 bring many lovely things.
Love from Christina xx
To end with, here's the full list of our stallholders at the 10th SE20 Craft Fair, December 2016:
Soggy Bottoms Cakes by Dan and Jackie
Get Crafty by Gabrielle and Amy
Beck's Creative & Beck's Flowers
Hannah Andrews quilting and textiles
Yo!JoJo Handmade
Happy Little Stitches
Art of Yolanta Gawlik
LustrousArt Jewellery
Red Hedgehogs Crafts
Dotty Duck Delights gifts
Lisa Davis Calligraphy
Hooked by Crochet
Crafts by Blaisie
Never Felt Better
Helen Brushett Greetings Cards
SE20 Craft
Cards by Melanie J Baker
Emma Dowley cards and cross stitch
Amy Dowley cakes
Linda of London textiles
All That Sparkles art and framing
Beautiful bows by Lauren P
Stay True Embroidery
Barleywood Studios art and framing
Kidish cushions, accessories and jewellery
Sarah Jarrett Face Painting
Visit our Facebook Page for more photos of the Christmas Craft Fair!