PREPARING FOR A HUGE MARKET!
As my lovely little business is online only, I regularly attend different types of markets all over the UK. I love them. There's something so special about chatting face-to-face with kind folk who have been drawn to my stand in sight of something for themselves or maybe a loved one (..or both!). Getting to know people and building those connections is really important for me, as this helps me understand reactions to my work, my target audience and emotional connections.
I was lucky enough to be invited back to Nottingham's Ay Up Market for my 3rd year this year and it was such an amazing weekend. Hosted at Nottingham's Old Market Square, you couldn't be more in the heart of the city. 3 days, 22 hours of trading and about 2 months or preparation! In this post I am going to go through a lot of the behind the scenes action that you won't hear or see on the day. So stick around if you fancy it! (and maybe stick the kettle on..)
Step one: review, design, make.
I knew I wanted as many new things for this market as I could squeeze in, as well as having all the fan favourites with me. I'd had two ideas in my mind for a while now, my 'Buddy' Vases and Wax Burners, and it started to feel like it was time to make them. Before being accepted onto the market, I had already began my first goal of the year which was to do a mass re-stock of all current earring ranges that there is plenty of stock available online, as I was getting a little tired of things showing as out of stock (and I'm sure you guys were too!) I also reviewed my homeware ranges and made an extensive list of existing and new items that needed stocking up (think mugs, leaf dishes, pinch pots). So that goal paired with alllllll the market prep, had me working very long days on the lead up. Here's a snippet above from my drying shelves, and that's not even half of it!
My Wax Burners and Buddy Vases were made in small batch, almost to test the waters. The Buddy Vases are sculptured pieces, resembling the shoulders and head of a person with a hole in the top to add flowers! I loved this idea and was entirely sure how they were going to play out, but I had so much fun making them, so it was already a success in my mind. You have to enjoy what you're doing, right? I also knew these would be a great way to experiment further with colours, shapes and patterns.
Once I had made everything, it was time to get everything completely dry before ploughing through all those kiln loads! If the clay isn't 'bone dry', which means 100% dry, it will shatter in the kiln.. trust me, I've found out the hard way!
Unloading the kiln and making a glaze plan.
Glaze plans are important, even more so when you have events running along side your deadline! It seems like I've had a lot of deadlines recently so as soon as I was confirmed for this market I planned out the entire month on the lead up. I also took on some work with another creator with a deadline at the start of June, so it was important that work made it's way through the kiln too!
My glaze plans are determined by temperatures. I work mostly at 1050°C, 1100°C and 1220°C for glazing. I decided to start with a 1220°C firing as this includes all my homewares, such as mugs and plates etc. These do not take me long to glaze and take up more space in the kiln than earrings, so by getting this firing on I can use the following 3 days whilst the kiln is out of use to glaze my earring load. I must have glazed well over 200 pendants in the last month.. I don't even want to know! I ended up firing 2 loads of 1220°C and two loads of 1050°C, 6 shelves deep in my kiln and thankfully, barely any casualties!
Firings are complete. Now to prep and pack up.
It's not just a case of making lots of pretty ceramics and then you're done, oh no! There's so much extra work that goes in to preparing my stock and myself for a market. The earrings need building onto metals and adding to earring cards, then pricing. Before anything gets packed away, lots of photos and videos are taken for social media and the website! I then update my online stock (that's already listed) to reflect the new numbers so non-market goers can also shop the goodies. Products are then carefully wrapped and packed away into tubs ready for transporting.
My non-ceramic market day essentials for a swift set up and a successful day: my table and chair, standing pegboard for my table (which proudly holds all my pinch pots), my mug stand, plate racks, feature chopping board, 3-tier shelving for my Buddy Vases, my workshop A-Board and my table blanket and banner are the main components of my set up. I then need my business cards and thank you notes that go inside the paper bags with purchases, price cubes, my jewellery building tin to make amendments on the day, weights incase of wind, notebook and pen to record sales and update online stock throughout the day, tissue paper and bags, my change tin, portable phone charger, snacks and tea!
I've been doing markets through my 3.5 years with my business and I feel like I've got the process down now. Setting up takes much longer than pack down (which I can now do in about 20 minutes!).
Anyway, what do you think of the results? Let me know :-) Hope you've enjoyed reading along. And if you came to the market, you are wonderful.
Love, Heather. x
