My first market stall was a roaring success

I survived the market! After working feverishly on my jewellery for most of the end of last week, Skry and I gathered our bags and headed down to St.George's Market at about half eight on Saturday morning. This is the earliest that we have been up and about for quite a while, so that was traumatic, but we got there in good time and were allocated a stall. Well, half a stall. I knew beforehand that I might be required to share, so it wasn't a huge shock, but we were also told that the person who was meant to go on the other side might not turn up. As it turned out, they didn't show and we could have taken the whole stall, but by the time that became clear I had already laid out my cover and arranged all the jewellery on it, so it was too much trouble to spread it out.

It took about half an hour to lay out everything and make it look nice, then all we had to do was wait for the punters to arrive - and arrive they did. I wouldn't say that we were thronged, although occasionally it felt like that, but we had a more or less constant flow of customers from 10am until 2.30pm when everyone started to pack up. I was hugely relieved to have customers who weren't just my friends making pity purchases! That was what I had been most worried about beforehand, but I needn't have worried at all because people seemed to really like what I was selling. I got lots of compliments, and many people asked if I was coming back the following week. By the end of the day, I had sold a ton of stuff (including three cotton tote bags that were brought almost as an afterthought but did well to fill up the empty half of the stall) and was about £240 richer!

Of course I haven't even come close to covering my costs; I buy too many pretty sparkly beads and things just because I want them, and I've probably spent twice as much as I've earned. But I'm lucky enough to not need to make any money from this at the moment, and I have the confidence now to believe that I could go to another market or craft fair and be able to make some sales.

I also have two pieces commissioned - a necklace to match a bracelet that I sold to one friend, and a necklace and bracelet to match a dress for another. I'll make those in the next couple of days, and also get more stock up onto my website. Now that the market is over, I need to get my online sales roaring in the same way :)