Fresholi | Melting Pot Café

I have just booked my first fair. Craft and Design Show at Liverpool Cricket Ground. Now I just have to decide how I want the table to look, what sort of table cloth I need, display stands etc, etc, etc. Do you think I made a note of all where all the nice shelves are from that people kindly post links too? No. Suggestions gratefully received.

Good grief. It is just over a month away!
http://craftanddesignliverpool.co.uk/default.aspx (http://craftanddesignliverpool.co.uk/default.aspx)

Well done, you'll love it. and looking at that link, it seems to be very well organised.

Have a look at the recent photos on here re stall set ups, and flickr too type in something like 'Soap display' (i spend far to much time than is healthy on flickr)

Good luck, and remember - take your camera and take pics please  ;D (but you knw that anyway)

Good luck Suzanne!

Yay, Suzanne! you're going to have a lot of fun. can't help much with the display as mine is BORING but I can tell you that I love my dark tablecloths but the get a lot of "soap lint" on them after people pick up and put down.

congratulations!

Thank you.

I don't know what I want the table to look like, but I had better decide quickly. It looks like everyone else there is really arty and I bet their tables will look fab so no pressure then! I have just ordered a small table top blackboard which I thought would look quite nice. 

no dark table cloth for you Suzanne - you have cats.... :mwaha:

Shelves are very easy to make, but if you don't want to do that, B&Q, Homebase, Wickes and Ikea are very good places to start, also for wooden boxes to create height under the table cloth. A lot of the other things you will collect over time (also called skip-diving ;-)

Good luck for that fair, it looks great!!

Trouble is MP that my cats cover about every colour you can think of and then some. 

Oooh, how exciting Suzanne!
Don't over complicate your stall display, remember that you're trying to sell your produce, not create a psychedelic masterpiece :mwaha: Keep it simple and allow your products to be seen :buttrf:

Absolutely! Cover every colour then cover everything with mohair if they are anything like mine - I'm sure I spend most of my time checking the tea isn't full of fur, so I don't envy you finding a place to set out and prepare - they know just where to sit when your back is turned don't they? It must be lovely though to be at that stage of "setting up your stall" and presenting yourself and your products to the public. How exciting for you to be at a whole new start...good luck!  :buttrf:

who needs Tussah Silk when you have got cats  :mwaha: cat-hair, the secret ingredient in many of my soaps.... :buttrf:

suzanne - you could always get cheap shower curtain liners in colors to try and set up your stall on those (jsut at home while you're playing with the set up), keeping your actual tableclothes packed away until the big day?

Good luck Suzanne !!

And mine - and I don't charge extra.

I think it's all the "protein rich ingredients" (fur) that adds to the silkiness of my cream experiments as well!  :mwaha:

We need a cat laughing icon.

Oh how exciting! Good luck Suzanne, I'm sure you'll do well. You're a lovely, chatty person, the crowds will be drawn to you and your gorgeous products  :buttrf:

Oh Suzanne, I can imagine you are feeling nervous but I bet, once you have got everything made and packaged, you will love it.  It will be a fantastic experience for you and I really can't wait to hear how it goes.  The very best of luck - I know you will do really well  :buttrf: :buttrf:

Not really nervous yet, but panicking about everything I need to do. It will come around VERY quickly.

Do I have to take pictures?

 :mwaha:

Nooooo, of course you don't have to , but if you want us to still be your friend .....

Good luck I hope you have a real fun day with whopper sales  :) I have my first market coming up next week-end and have had soap boxes made up but not sure if they will be ready on time so may have to rethink my display for this one  :-\

Good luck. Let us know how you get on and erm don't forget the photos.

You're not competing on a artistic stall, you are setting out your creations. Just let the simplicity of the background set off your art , which is your soaps etc.

As the others saod experiment at home, even if it means putting the ir**ing board over the bath and arranging on that( for some reason my cats n dawg dont try going in there  :mwaha:

That's no good at all. My cats see the bath as a play pen!

That's a bit like asking 'what is the definition of stupid'.
Of couse we want photo's. Don't get too worked up over it Suzanne. With each market/fair that you do, you will learn from it. How to make it look better, how to be even more organised, how to make it easier for you..., it comes with doing it a few times. Just enjoy it.

Eire

Mum has started "helping" me search for things to decorate the stand with. Not sure if this is a good thing or not. She has been ringing me every five minutes with websites for me to look at.

 :mwaha:  Bless her

If mine had still been alive and with all her marbles she'd have been just the same - in fact she'd have been trying to take over running the stall!!

I have a feeling that will come!

I can tell you, you will find that invaluable quite soon !!

I'll remember you said that MP. :mwaha:

Good luck!!

Busy wrapping soap. Here is a basket of some of what I have wrapped so far. I really like the way it is looking.

Should look good on the stall Suzanne.

It looks really nice, very attractive.
Kath

Good luck

Looking good, the tags are really pretty

Looks lovely I hope you do really well  :buttrf:

Oh, they look so sweet!!  The best of luck and I really can't wait to hear all about it  :buttrf: :buttrf:

Hope this goes well for you Suzanne, the wrapped soap looks perfect  :buttrf:
Piccies please  ;D

Lovely looking soaps. Hope all goes really well for you.  :buttrf:

This is really pretty presentation!

I'm sure you'll do well  :D

Are you all ready yet Suzanne?

These are very pretty Suzanne, Fingers crossed for you xxxx

Ready! Ready! No I am nowhere near ready. I have bath salts, body butter, foot balms to make. Need a cloth for the table too and a few other bits and pieces.

You'll get there, and I'm sure you'll do well with your lovely products  :buttrf:

I found theses lovely trugs to use instead of "normal" baskets at the craft fair.

Are the soaps wrapped in paper or fabric?

Fabric

Well that is it over with. I really enjoyed myself although I could have done with taking a bit more. I covered the cost of the stand plus a bit. Photo of the stall  below, although I did fill in some of the gaps.

Your table looks beautiful Suzanne - I love the tablecloth and your colours are so pretty. Any tips for those of us yet to do a fair?

Thank you Lilli.

The best tip is enjoy it.  Other than that, I would start looking around for things to decorate the stall before you need them (unlike me, who left it to the last minute, and then panicked).

This one was well organised, although parking was a way away, so I am considering some kind of trolley to save me having to carry everything. It is a great place to learn about other fairs, and then get lots of opinions about them.

I wish the photo could be bigger Suzanne, cos this look so beautiful - very elegant. Well done, you should be proud of a beautiful table, especially for your first.

Glad you enjoyed it, and glad you made some money  ;)

A lovely display, I really like the white cloth with the green one on the top!  Great idea.

Well done, Suzanne. Glad it went well for you and that you enjoyed it.

Eire

I've just had a nosey at your blog so I could get a better view - it really is a lovely display  :buttrf:

Nice to know you had a good time.

Well done, your display looks lovely, I like that is neat, tidy and uncluttered!  ;)

Simple yet chic  :buttrf:

Oh your stall looks lovely, really nice. Glad you enjoyed it. Well done!

Really nice display.  Well done  ;)

And look what it said on the front of the cake tin I found to put the lavender flowers in. Could not have been better!

so glad you have this past you and it was a great time. your table looks lovely - well done! so when is the next one?  :mwaha:

Well  I have plenty to sell, so I am going to see if the local one next weekend has space. It is a 5min walk away. I must be mad. :mwaha:

Oh Suzanne, the stall looks wonderful.  Neat, clean and really pretty.  I love that cloth, it is gorgeous and your products look so beautiful.  Really well done  :buttrf:  Onto the next..................................   ;D

Really good, everything looks lovely - I, for sure, would have made a beeline for your table!

What a beautiful stall Suzanne, really pretty and inviting.

Thank you all.

Next one is two days next weekend. Am I mad? Actually the hard work is done with all the stirring and swearing. This one is a two minute drive away.

yep, just like the rest of us  :mwaha:

This looks gorgeous Suzanne it looks like you really enjoyed setting up your table, have fun  :buttrf:

My Charlotte adores your ribbons on you soaps

Tell Charlotte she has excellent taste.

At the second day of the second fair. Just had a very nice conversation with a lady selling creams. She has no labels on anything! Back to why we bother. She also uses Rose EO which I thought we had to be careful of.

Well, if she has no labels, she probably doesn;t have a clue about what EOs to use/avoid/%s etc. Make you wonder why we bother!

why indeed do we bother? But it's safest to follow the rules, then if there is a problem we're covered. But there is an interesting article in this months Saponifier which suggests that the levels of permitted allergens has been set over cautiously in the EU and in many cases, not very accurately. One comment made is:

Maubert (2007) notes that the Landes Forest in SW France produces more terpenes per month than Europe’’s entire consumption of essential oils in a year. So shouldn’’t the CSC rather be identifying trees and forests as their imagined toxicological threat?

Perhaps we should all just stop breathing!

To add insult to injury she has got someone to bring down a small shelf unit to go on the stand. Copy cat!

oh Suzanne, I know its toally infuriating!!  I missed out on a local fishing festival near here last month and the woman who's soap stall they did have didnt' label her soaps and a friend of mine bought one - the tea tree one because she knows I don't do that (yet!!) and it was bright pink and stained my friends basin, face cloth and towels!! lack of label meant she couldtn' even contact the woman  ::)
so long as we do everything above board (despite having to spend hours working out allergens and labelling, yawn) we are superior sellers IMO!!
your stand looks gorgeous by the way!! 

I picked up a leaflet for this company, and there is an email address and a mobile phone number. No other contact details! It does not give the ingredients in the piggin' leaflet either.

You are quite right though Goaty, I know that I complain, but at least it is in the knowledge that I think I am doing the right thing. I am also going to get a sign for my stall saying "fully insured and safety assessed" of some such.

I think that's a great idea. Also when requesting stalls perhaps we should stress to the organisers that we are insured and have SA's as in the case of say, farming fairs, the organisers might not have a clue that soap/cosmetic makers should have these - therefore we will do our bit to get word out there and stop these others sellign without legislation  :spbox:  I'm going to step away from the soap box now and have a glass of hubby's home made plum wine to calm down ! I do get wound up though about this!!

What a nerve (though at least she must have really liked your stall  :buttrf:)

Really can't tell. :mwaha:

How did the weekend go overall Suzanne?

(getting used to fairs now?)

It was not particularly busy, but as I did not have to make anything it was worth doing because all I had to do was turn up. It only cost £15 for the two days. No-one was very busy, so at least it was not just me.

I enjoy doing the fairs (at least so far). There are some really nice people, especially when they do a completely different craft. Just have find the next one.

I have met some really lovely people through doing the craft fairs, and the more you do, you often meet the same people which is good  :buttrf: