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Friday 28 September 2012

Renegade Craft Fair

As you may or may not know, a few weekends ago I had a stall at the Renegade Craft Fair in London. Renegade is an American string of craft fairs, but last year they brought Renegade to the UK. I had been so excited about having a stall there, but with only two weeks to prepare there were lots of late nights and minor (ahem, major) tantrums in the run-up. On the day I didn't know what to expect. It's not exactly a cheap fair to do, but I hoped to use it as an opportunity to advertise and promote my work too. Turns out it was AMAZING - we were so busy for the whole two days I only took a handful of photos (which you can see below) and we sold out of lots of products plus handed out about 400 business cards!

the night before the fair (check out how super organised I am HA!) I painted this sign and wasn't sure how it would look at all as it was pretty unprofessional compared to other vendors who had amazing specially made signs! if you want to make one yourself I just used a font in photoshop and made one letter at a time as big as possible on the screen, and then flipped it so it was back to front and traced it onto tracing paper. then I transferred it from tracing paper onto A5 pieces of card, and painted over it in white acrylic paint. to hang it I just punched a hole in each of the top corners and threaded some string through.


 another handmade element of our stall - I covered the inside of the lid of this kiddie's vintage suitcase in book pages and mod podge (thank you Blue Peter), and my dad made the compartments to go into it


 my beautiful typewriter got its first outing as a display piece for my typewriter key necklaces - it was a huge hit and several people asked if they could buy it off me!


 I realised I didn't have enough price tag holders the day before the fair, so I sawed a little groove into some old cotton spools which turned out rather sweet (think I saw the idea on pinterest originally - it definitely wasn't a unique idea that's for sure!)


 I debuted several new products at Renegade, and the best sellers were these owl sweater clips and moon collar clips - both will be available to buy online very soon


 please excuse this awful photo - but i wanted to post it as it's not very often I get a photo of myself with my work, and I thought you might like to see what I look like when I'm on the brink of a nervous breakdown!


 teeny ladybird likes sign, and my new tablecloths (another homemade attempt - the two tablecloths are actually one double sized Cath Kidston duvet cover! basically I bought it ages ago in the sale, but never used it on my bed as I felt it was too much grey, especially as my bedroom walls are grey! then I wanted to buy some grey polka dot fabric, but couldn't find anywhere online in the UK that had what I wanted and that wasn't really expensive. so we cut the duvet cover in half and hemmed the two pieces, and voila!)


 my bestie, Emma, showcasing my moustache disguises


 our next door neighbours at renegade were the awesome duo from designosaurYEAH and they brought with them this amazing fluoro t-rex model which everyone loved (until someone knocked it over boooo)


 a few stalls down from us was an amazing looking workshop where you could make your own paper flowers, and they'd put some of them on the wall - aren't they gorgeous?


 eeeeep, LOVE the renegade branding, and that owl is too cool
 

 the only stall I actually took a few shots of was that belonging to Kim from Art Equals Happy - isn't it SO cute? I bought some beautiful Rob Ryan quote cards from her which I'm going to frame and put on the wall of my craft room.


Thanks to the renegade team for an awesome event, and I'm already excited for next year!

7 comments:

  1. Sounds like such a fun, yet stressful day. It's so good to hear how people get on at fairs as I'm fairly new to it all so advice and tip are always good. I can imaging how amazing it was and your display looks gorgeous! Well done :)

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  2. Just discovered your fabulous little blog! Always nice to find other London bloggers. I couldn't go to the Renegade Craft Fair which is such a shame because it looked fab. I have a typewriter the same colour as yours too :) Sally x

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  3. You and your sign look gorgeous Zoe! Wish I could have come down and visited but I had plans all weekend. Missed Renegade 2 years in a row now, dammit! Glad you had such a great time xx

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  4. I wish I had remembered when this was on!!! I love Dinosaur yeah! I met them at Craftaganza in Brighton and bought so much of their stuff! xxx

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  5. amazing! you stall is adorably beautiful. I hope you made a lot of sales! I wish I could go to this fair, I'd have a ball!

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  6. ive been waiting for your renegade post...we've been tempted a to apply but were put off buy their application. glad you found it worthwhile,im not surprised you did well, your work is super!
    x

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  7. Your stall looked amazing! I've added SO many great ideas to my 'awesome ideas for craft fairs' book! That suitcase is the raddest thing I've seen in a long time!! And I love how you've incorporated your typewriter as a display piece - brilliant!
    Renegade sounds like an amazing fair. Makes me wish I lived in London...xo

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