_______________

Christine Hilbert of bean & the sprout in a write up in the Des Moines Register (previously featured in a vendor video here).

Challenges: Hilbert said she has been fortunate to have been featured on the front page of Etsy.com and on admirers’ blogs, but she still has to put in a lot of work updating her shop and renewing items to keep it fresh. “When so many people are making something similar, the most important thing I can provide is good craftsmanship and really good customer service,” she said.

_______________

• Erin Stover of soZealous participated in her first Market Day in July and followed the day up with a nice post and snazzy photos (and even more snazzy photos of the Mad Men party she hit that night).

_______________

• Emily Beckmann of The Dish on Des Moines went the journalistic mile with her own photos and reviews and a ringing endorsement:

Clear your schedule for the last Saturday of the month for the next three months, because you’ll be busy shopping at Market Day in downtown Des Moines – that is, if you know what’s good for you.

Um, wow!

_______________

• Maker Meg Pitt of Twice Studios put Market Day at #1 on her DM Top 5 list in Juice. Check out the full list for other worthy finds.

_______________

Those are the bits that we’ve found so far this month. Thanks to everyone for the glowing reviews and for sharing links you find. If you’ve come across something else, drop us a line!

Thanks to everyone who came out – we cruised way past May & June’s attendance numbers. Thanks for lining up to wait for the doors to open, for leaving your “I bought at Market Day” tick marks on our board, for buying from our fantastic vendors, for spending the day with us.

Let’s do it again! August 28.

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

Yeah, yeah – you don’t need help shopping, right? It may sound silly, but we’ve been doing this long enough to know that plenty of people feel unsure when it comes to making one-on-one buys at arts events. It’s up close. It’s personal. You’re buying handmade items and art. What should you look  for? How do you find quality pieces? What if you have questions?

Always a good idea: Ask about the product.

There’s no set rule, just feel free to ask whatever strikes you as you browse a vendor’s goods.

• Where did you get the idea to make this?
• How long does each one take you?
• Do you ever try ____?
• How do you make this? What is the process?

These questions not only give you a good base to start talking with a vendor who is likely a chatty, friendly person with interesting knowledge, but also help you learn about their product. There are lots, and I mean lots of events with “handmade” goods lacking origin information. They are often factory made, or shipped in from China, or simply not as handmade as implied – screenprinted shirts are an easy target.

There isn’t a wrong answer, necessarily. What you want to buy is entirely up to you – just make sure that the answers match up with what you’re looking to buy.

What’s a Limited Edition?

Lots of arts fairs are crawling with prints – Market Day sure is! When it comes to buying them, there are maybe a half-dozen choices in product. None of them are any “better” than the others, but there are certainly differences.

Some prints are actually considered original art work: Screen prints, lithos, letterpress, woodcuts. (What are all these? That’s a great question for your vendor.) If they are “limited edition”, they should be numbered on the bottom with something like “3/50″ meaning it was the third print pulled in a run of 50. There will only be 50 of this image, with these colors, on this paper.

Limited Editions are considered more valuable than unlimited runs. Posters and unlabeled prints may get reprinted over and over again. This isn’t a bad thing – it’s just something you should know about your purchases and their price.

What to bring

Sometimes it takes a bit of prep to get the most out of your visit to a show. Be sure to bring:

• Cash. Most vendors take checks, some take cards, but all take cash.
• Shopping bags. Vendors usually have their own, but they’re nice to have. Market Day has some up for sale if you’re in the market!
• A gift list. Think about upcoming weddings, birthdays, big kids, little kids, employees, boss’ days, new babies. Events like Market Day are perfect for gift shopping. Lots of carefully make original items, many of which fill a niche need, and are super affordable.

That’s a pretty good run-down. It’s not like this is a complicated event – you’ve all been shopping before! If you’ve had any questions at an event like this – leave ‘em in the comments or shoot me an email: cat@marketdayiowa.com

When we took on Market Day, we were thinking a lot about how many talented Makers we know in our city alone. They make everything from shirts to wall sconces, from fine art to hair clips. But all of them are under the radar. We saw our neighbors driving out to Target in the ‘burbs to buy pretty goods made in China, shoddy giclee prints of anonymous paintings, and faux-vintage jewelry.

Target's take on the internet-popularized vintage posters and their remakes.

And it’s easy to see why: big box stores like Target and Walmart have added a heavy dose of new, aesthetically pleasing goods in recent years. They’re fashionable, creative, accessible and affordable. Target’s got it down – I have a hard time even walking past their displays of seasonal dishware without stopping to coo over a crab-shaped cup that is just so cute!

So yeah, it’s easy to find cheap, pretty, cool, edgy things at the Big Box. But I’m here to convince you to venture out to Market Day (or your own local indie craft event) to see what your neighbors are making. I feel confident that you’ll be surprised at what you find.

We’ve Got the Goods

Every month I see people come in to Market Day who pull out their cells by the time they get to the Info Booth midfloor,  call a friend to say, “You’ve GOT to get here. You won’t believe it.” Newcomers always seem surprised, but Market Day’s vendors have a wide range of goods that can rival any Big Box line up – and they’re in the same price range, with better craftsmanship, and a bigger variety of original products.

And We’ll Prove It to You

We hopped over to Target and took photos of their cute goods last week. Then we dug around in our vendor’s product shots to show that our goods can win out over Big Box creative wares. These are just a few examples – we could go much deeper!

Target’s goods are on the left, Market Day vendors’ on the right. Click on any image for a better look.

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

We’ve got goods that rival the snazziest out there, from 40 different vendors – come take a look this Saturday! Want to see more vendor goods? Visit Market Day’s photo page.

I’ve been on all sides of all kinds of juries – organizer, jury member, artist in craft shows, juried fine art events, requests for proposals, you name it. Thousands of entries have passed in front of me, and so many of them have made me wish I could fill out a little suggestion card to send back along with the jury’s decision. It can be difficult to understand how your entry will be read – you’re so intimately familiar with the information that it can be unclear whether or not you’re saying all the the essential stuff and only the essential stuff.

Let’s start with Hello Craft.

Vendor Statement.

If you know who you are and make something awesome, your vendor statement shouldn’t be too difficult. Sometimes the vendor statement will have a character limit, which means you have to make every word count. Let’s break down my vendor statement from last year:

Tina Seamonster silk screens shirts and cards in small batches at her kitchen table with a Print Gocco. She is inspired by her life as an urban mom of twins in DC. Her designs are mostly about overcoming fears (of zombies, etc!), dealing with stress and living life with humor above all else.

The first thing that I do in my vendor statement is establish my brand identity. This is who I am. Then I immediately tell you what I make and how I make it. One former judge thinks that explaining how you make your items is very important. He says: “One tip that I have is to explain, explain, explain. We received more than a few applications that didn’t really specify the crafter’s role in their work. For instance, if you sell screen-printed shirts, explaining that you draw your own art, burn your own Gocco screens, source your own t-shirts from Africa, and hand mix your own inks from natural pigments is much better than leaving it up to the judges to guess. ‘Cause they just might assume you sent an image to the screen printer and — viola — 2 weeks later 400 shirts show up. And that isn’t gonna win you fans. Explaining why you’re all DIY is good.”

So, I explain first who I am, then what I make and how. Next I tell you where I am coming from. This might not matter for everyone, but for me, my crazy lifestyle as a twin mom living in the city is key to what I do, so I mention it. If your crazy lifestyle as a traveling lion tamer is important to your handmade flutes, then let us know! And lastly, I explain the style and subject matter of my work. This is not at all a hard and fast rule to creating the perfect vendor statement. We all have our own style. Maybe your statement will be funny or provocative or memorable in some other way. Just make sure you make every word count!

What a great breakdown! The most important part is that bold bit in the middle. On our Market Day application, we ask makers to explain, in four sentences or less, what they do. We want to be wowed here, and so many of you are wowing us. Go ahead and get sassy, just make sure that the essential info is in there. What parts do you do? Are there any parts you don’t do? (Not necessarily a deal-breaker!)

You do often have to limit your character count. Even if you don’t, choose words as if you can only fit so many in. Make every word impactful and keep it truly related to what you do. What does this mean? Stay away from words like unique, whimsical or great, which don’t tell me anything. It’s also wise to avoid overused words like handmade or original – of course they are. If they weren’t then you wouldn’t be applying.

What about photos? Hello Craft?

Photos.

The dreaded photos. I hate this part. I truly do. But it is so so important. My first advice is to send new photos. Don’t assume that because you got into a show last year or every year that you can send old photos. I nearly made this mistake a few years ago. Don’t do it! As much as you love or are still selling a million of the same items from last year, do try to show something new. That said, a former Crafty Bastards judge, Liz of Trees can say the rest better than I can:

First off, and I can’t stress this enough, submit bright, clear photos of your work! Judges look at hundreds if not thousands of photos when jurying a show. Not only do you want your work to stand out, you don’t want to contribute to their eye strain! You are being judged by your submissions and if the judges can’t see how great your work is because the photos are too dark or too fuzzy, you won’t get into the show. Also, if your work is highly detailed with say 10 different decorative stitches on a skirt, make sure this comes through.

Second, show variety in your work. If you make hand-knit scarves as well as kitten booties and iMac cozies, send in a photo of each so the jurors can see the breadth of your work. Don’t just send in three separate photos of scarves.

Third, I’d recommend showing your work in action. If you make pottery, take a photo of someone enjoying a steaming cup of cocoa in a hand-thrown mug or if you make pillows, take shots of them on a couch or with your cat napping on them. It gives the viewer context.

Fourth, inject your personality and style and vision into your photos. If your craft consists of making fun, irreverent clothing, take photos of people wearing the clothes doing fun, irreverent things! If your artwork is somber or goth or melancholy, take your oil paintings to a cemetery on a cloudy day and stage a photo shoot.

Thanks Liz!

A few more photo tips. If you make shirts for the whole family, I suggest that you show that in your photos. Many indie crafters only make shirts in standard sizes. But if you make stuff for plus sizes, as well, try to convey that in your photos. If you make stuff for babies and kids, too, make sure you have a whole family wearing your gear. You don’t need models, just use your family!

In the end, you do not need professional photos. All you need is good light, interesting backgrounds and a little imagination.

Also helpful tips. I’d add: Frame your photos well. It’s fine that you just went into your backyard and took a photo against a backdrop of foliage, but it’s distracting if I can see a tiny swingset in the distance.  Take a moment and make sure that you mean for everything to be in the frame that is in there.

Other advice:

• Don’t burn bridges. If you aren’t accepted, emailing or calling to press your case won’t help. Do keep lines of communication open – you never know when you’ve been placed on a waiting list and might be called up later.
• Do ask for feedback. Personally, I’d love to give a reason to applicants who don’t make it in. Sometimes it simply doesn’t fit the scope of the show and we can say that without ruffling feathers, but otherwise we usually keep quiet unless asked to expand.

The most helpful tip? Find an honest friend – not a Nice friend. An Honest friend. Ask them to look over your materials with fresh eyes and see how they’d review your work.

I hope these help you out! Submitting applications is nerve-wracking no matter how long you’ve been doing it, but it does get easier with practice and research.

The girls from Carpe DM stopped by in May and June and wrote us detailed, articulate reviews (May is here, June is here). You know what, ladies? Your May review was really helpful and we put a little extra time in focusing on making the entrance bigger and more noticeable to match the atmosphere inside. Thanks a lot!

ReadyMade Magazine blogged a feature on October Market Day vendor June Craft, out of Cedar Rapids. Hop over to see what you can expect from here later this season – we’re stoked to have her on board.

Thanks to designer Dani Ausen’s killer layouts, we’ve had a lot of people ask for Market Day swag. It took some thought: many of our vendors offer shirts and bags, and it’d just be in poor taste if we made shoppers choose between us and the makers at Market Day.

For that reason, we’ve only got two pieces of merch – both are reuseable shopping bags. They’re cheap ($8 and $10 in person, $10 and $12 if you can’t make it in and want to snag one online) and perfect for the Saturday shoppers we get who often hit multiple events. We have a large natural canvas bag featuring the Market Day logo and a smaller orange bag with the grid of Market Day icons. Check them both out on our itty bitty Etsy shop. Both were hand screenprinted by us.

The proceeds of the bags go back into setting up and promoting Market Day.

We do have tees, but the only way to get them is to volunteer – if you’re interested, email Cat!

Read her post here.

“It’s a mix of sunshine breaking through the windows, chatter of close-quartered shoppers and smell of wood (not the musty kind, but more like an old, beloved book). And, you know it’s going to be a great experience when you’re greeted by a table of cupcakes.”

We’ll have a big photo post later this week, but in the meantime check out Juice’s photo gallery of Market Day – click through the photo of our greeters and baby Charlie in his one-of-a-kind Market Day onesie to catch it.

And Twitter was abuzz with finds (thanks to Twitter’s new Blackbird Pie magic, you can click through on the links):

Thank you to everyone who stopped through. We’re fast gearing up for the June 26 Market Day, with more vendors, more food, and more vinyl tunes in a DJ booth in the freight elevator. Plan your weekend now to hit the hat trick of Des Moines activities: the Des Moines Arts Festival, the Downtown Farmer’s Market, and Market Day. We run 9a-2p on that day, just like always.

Christine Hilbert of Bean and the Sprout welcomed us into her home studio and talked about her process and her business. You can shop Bean and the Sprout this season at Market Day!