I want to personally thank the staff of the Midwest Pen Gathering for a great 3 days.  The different talented speakers inspired all that attended. I have been making pens for over 25 years and I still am amazed at the creativity and talent so many pen makers have! Looking forward to next year where ever it will be held.

Arrowmont-2016

Now, I am gearing up for a week long, sold out pen making class at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts the first week of June.  Mark Gisi & Dan Symonds will be joining me for a week long intensive class on pen making – looking forward to seeing all those who signed up.

Happy Turning – Barry

Packed Car

Outdoor Booth Setup

The price of craft shows are going up, so in order to get your money’s worth you must think ahead and be prepared. I attended an upscale craft show in the New York City area and paid over $1,300 for the booth and hotel accommodations.  As you can see from the picture my car was packed to the roof to everything I thought I could use.  You would think after all these years of doing shows, I would be prepared at all times, NOT!!!  Like I always do, I checked the weather report and it was supposed to be sunny and in the 80’s all weekend.  A weather person’s job is the ONLY job that if they blow a forecast they still get to keep their job!

The first day of setup was in the 80’s and hot.  The next morning I woke up and it was raining and in the 60’s.  Of course I only packed shorts and short sleeve shirts, glad my neighbor took pity on me and loaned me his jacket for the day or I would still be shivering.  Lesson learned, pack a variety of clothes to make yourself comfortable so you can focus on your customers and not your frozen body!  The show turned out just okay, the weather played a factor in attendance but it could have been much worse if not for my nice neighbor loaning me his jacket!

I am currently doing the Woodworking Shows until the end of March, but I wanted to post some final thoughts about the NYC Grand Central Holiday Show. I’ll be posting them in small chunks on the blog over the next few weeks. I’m hoping you can learn a little from my adventure to help you do better at your own craft shows!

This was truly a mega craft show. It lasted for about 5 weeks, 12 hours per day, 7 days a week, including set-up and takedown. A shopping center of tiny stores was built in one of the largest train stations in the world! In promoting the show, it was told to the prospective vendors that the attendance passing through Grand Central terminal was a million people a day. Obviously a million people did not pass the booth on a daily basis. However, the crowds coming through on a daily basis were intense! Some days it was so crowded that people could not stop and look because they came through like they were in a cattle chute. In spite of that, we did very well selling a total of over 765 pens! I started making the pens as soon as I got accepted into the show, so I had about 4-5 months to prepare. Based on our final results, I could’ve used more pens! You can never really tell what will sell, and if I did the same identical show again, I would probably not see the same results as far as what sold, and if customer’s style and taste has changed. It’s really hard to guess what will be popular.

The demographics of each show may be entirely different based on location and venue type. A buyer at Grand Central Station in NYC will be entirely different than a local craft show in a small town. The organizers of any show should be able to provide you with some statistics about their demographics, especially if it is not their first show. Also your sales techniques may vary based on the customers that you encounter, but that may be a whole post by itself!

Happy Turning!

Cigar Pen display with 1 cigar pen left!

There’s only three days to go, and I am running on empty!

Just this week so far, including Thursday (yesterday), we sold over 130 pens, and I am starting to run out of them!  Since we are literally IN Grand Central Station, which is known to be one of the busiest places on Earth, the customers come in waves while they try and catch their trains.  At one point Thursday afternoon, in the 5:00 hour, 20 pens were sold. That works out to someone buying a pen every 3 minutes!  I still have a few high end watch pieces left, but they will not last until Sunday.  All my Cigar pens are gone. I started with 85 of them. Look at the photo to the left, there is only 1 cigar pen in there, before that got sold later in the day. Only a few of my Abalone and Pheasant Feather pens are left, and I know they will not last till Sunday! Looks like I will be bringing home empty pen cases, which is never a bad thing.

After packing everything up, and driving home, I plan on getting some sleep – maybe a lot of sleep. After I get a chance to slow down and look at the whole experience, I’ll post some final thoughts about this marathon craft show.

PS – Since this post has been sitting here for a couple of hours, someone just bought 2 of my high-end coin pens.

Happy Turning,

There are still a few spots left in my upcoming Fine Writing Instrument -Pen Turning Class next week held at Peters Valley School of Craft.  It is a week long class and we make at least 12 pens including a rollerball and fountain pen.  Stabilization, Clear Casting, Alumilite Casting, Segmentation and much more!  So if you are free call Peters Valley and sign up for the last few spots and we will have fun!

On a bummer note – we have cancelled our trip to the Wildwood boardwalk due to inclement weather. So – we will be open tomorrow Thursday July 6 – the grand kids are disappointed but we will make it up to them!