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Stained Glass & Mosaics

Craft fairs

16 years ago

Today we went to a HUGE craft fair in Cary, NC. Its close to Raleigh, about 1 hour from our house.

This was the 31st year for the event. It was a one day thing, from 9-5. There were close to 500 craft booths!! It was wonderful, except for it being close to 100 degrees again.

There were several stained glass artist, but I only saw 1 with mosaics. Needless to say, I got so inspired just from looking at everyones stuff.

We also plan on going to Hendersonville, NC next weekend for their Apple Festival. Its a wonderful event with crafts and food..lots of Apple slices with caramel sauce for dipping!

What are some of the events going on in your neck of the woods?

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Comments (5)

kelly6780
16 years ago
Oh my LANTA!!! I'm not real big on garge sale-ing yet, but today I went to a "garage sale" in a convention center. There were hundreds of tables of...stuff. There were also thousands of people (it seemed) and all of them pushing, shoving, grabbing, babies crying, stuff shattering, people complaining. It was kind of scary. I two plates, one silver and one gold each with glitter. Glitter is like my favorite color! I'm dying to order those gliter tiles from that one online source (I'm waiting for the perfect project so I order the correct color!) I need to go to thrift stores around here. I'm really bad about going to antiqe shops. Duh! Way more expensive. Here we have a HUGE (for us) craft fair in the fall. It takes up three or four convention centers all over town. I think that's big. Anyway, most people in the tri-state area go to that one. Are you close to Greensboro?
bamasusanna
Original Author
16 years ago
According to yahoo maps, I'm approx 76 miles from Greensboro. Close to you?
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Laurastheme, where do you live? I live in Northern California, Redding area and there are other people making totems but I haven't seen any other flowers yet. I've seen a lot of really beautiful bird feeders at a fair. The prices are a lot higher than I charge so maybe this year I'll price the flowers at $25 and range my totems a little higher depending on the cost of the colored glass. After all, we make these treasures to sell. Sometimes I like one so much I keep it for myself. My hubby says I'm keeping too many. Winter is so dreary in the garden and a little bling makes it look better. Do you always make your totems to go on a stick or do you make them to sit flat? I never know which ones to do and end up making them for a stick.
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Sounds like you did really good, flowers! My DH & I don't do craft shows anymore but we always did a few for many, many yrs...now we do Farmer's Mrkt on Sat. morns from May - Oct (we pick & choose which Sats...so we do about twice a mo.)...rain, vacations, Gr'kids, etc. are priorities in our choosing. LOL! & setting up & packing IS lots of work! (ugh!) But booth size is a 'killer' for items like yours (& ours...which was birdhouses, feeders, framed photos, benches, etc) ...so that is an important factor which choosing to participate. Your booth looks very pretty for the limited space you had! ;-) Advertising is the key, too...you can have beautiful set-up, beautiful product but you must have people coming thru! Do you have any 'summer' activities nearby? Your flowers would be a BIG hit for gardeners! A town nearby us has a big festival one weekend & they set up crafters/artists for half a day. Around here it seems that 'craft shows' are dying out or changing...not as much 'handmade' items...& also w/stores like Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc (which I LOVE BTW!) can offer so many decorating items ...so that makes a difference, too. I still love a GOOD craft show & enjoy buying gifts! Good luck on the next one...sounds like a great place cause it will be bringing in lots of people! TFS! Jeanne S.
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Plastic bags may be tacky but the ones you take into grocery store mostly can't be washed or aren't & I wonder when there will be outbreak of roaches or bedbugs. They are trying to force us to use our own but we have enough trouble with people throwing garbage around, also when I shred mail I put it in 2 of those inside each other so it doesn't get all over the street, I understand that it is problem with birds but campaign to get people to stop leaving their trash & bags on mountain roads or at the beach makes more sense, it is going to cost a lot of people their jobs out here. So we are supposed to buy larger bags to put our garbage in, don't think that will work, I've found rotting beef stew in alley, try cleaning that up, I used a shovel & plastic bag.When neighbors are careless or overfill their trash so lid is back the wind often deposits bags on the streets, easier to pick up bag then have to figure out what to do with some disgusting trash like people that enter our neighborhood in middle of night & drink & leave their "Trojan" wrappers & contents on the streets. If I use the bags I have I will need help getting them in my car & will be carrying in 5 lb. flour then another trip to car to get couple of more items,when I get home, I do it at Sam's as I save enough, they aren't going to discount groceries at regular stores. The gift bags end up on streets too & larger critters could get caught in handles, don't hear complaints about them. It's not a perfect world, trade-offs no matter what you do.I'm sure someone will complain about bubble wrap too.(Yes, I recycle everything & have so much less trash than most of neighbors, no pizza boxes or TV dinners & wasteful packaging for me. Jan
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This is the thread that won't die. Such a good topic. I didn't see much that interested me at craft fairs still. Except someone was making fairy wings for dolls, I thought they were awful cute, but didn't buy. Then I wished I had for the little girls down the street for Christmas. Well I didn't do too well last year. So I kind of stopped making to sell and managed to put all my plate flowers in my own garden, almost. Then people started asking me for things, and I sold some on word of mouth, so maybe I'll start up again. Last fall may have just been slow. A friend of a friend asked to buy a couple of my coffee bag wallets so I sold them to her. She just emailed me to say that the local coop may be interested in carrying them. Woudn't that be fun. I've been concentrating on my house this spring/summer (repainting, overhauling garden, refurbishing porch furniture, getting ready to build new garage), but I'd like to try selling crafts again. I'm planning to start drilling glass so I can make more elaborate flowers and other things and not have to worry about them falling apart. Kathy
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shrty411
16 years ago
Around here we have the Ann Arbor Art Fair...really art more than crafts but bery inspiring. Ususally hot and humid (mid-July). I haven't gone in a couple years.

The craft sales start in the fall

Maria
kelly6780
16 years ago
Bama- Unfortunately, no. I'm in Southeast Missouri. My brother is as at Camp LaJune (sp) actually he is on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea right now being a Marine. But, his girlfriend lives in Greensboro.
ladyronnie
16 years ago
Hey KELLY! Where in SE MO, and where is that craft fair? I am near Harrison AR.

Around here the biggest thing is the War Eagle Arts and Crafts Fair in October. It is THE A&C fair in the area, but there are lots of others. I have only been to War Eagle a time or two, more than a decade ago. It was fine early in the morning, but it was shoulder to shoulder by noon and NOT FUN (to me anyway). I haven't been back. Give me the little hometown fairs any day. Here in our town, we have Harvest Homecoming, the same weekend as War Eagle.

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