Fairs & Festivals
Beware of the CRAFT FAIR headings!!
One of the biggest bug bares of craft workers is when a craft fair is advertised promoting the hand made goods inside when the reality is that half of the stalls 'buy in' there items from overseas.
You tend to find these fairs listed as 'craft & gift fairs' which is fine as long as the visitor understands that this means that the items for sale may not always be individually handcrafted by the stall holder and therefore may not be regarded as locally made.
Until I started selling pottery at craft fairs I always assumed that the things I found in such fairs were hand made locally. Of course I now realize that this is not always the case, and generally the price tag will indicate this!
Having goods bought in from overseas not only has a detrimental effect on the prices of the 'real' handmade articles but is also continuing to condone the slave labour in other countries never mind what may well be child labour!
In my experience many craft workers are very aware of what would be regarded as a 'reasonable price' for their goods and try to remain in-keeping with what customers would be prepared to spend. After all we want to sell our craft and not have the same things hanging around our stalls indefinitely!
Ok, I will now step down from my 'hand made' orange box!! But just one more tale!