Welcome to the my blog. My name is Lucy Farfort i'm a freelance illustrator & designer maker. This is where you can find out what i've been up to of late, read my attempts at a decent post & the rantings of a visual addict. Hope you like it. You can contact me to say 'hi' by email on lucy@lucyshappyplace.com
If you would like to take a look at my work (& i would very much like you to) please visit my site: lucyshappyplace.com

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Trade anyone?

I got talking to a fellow crafter at a market earlier this year and we agreed it would be a good idea to do a craft trade with other makers/artists for Christmas gifts. With the economic downturn many of us are struggling at the moment and Christmas can be an expensive time of the year.

When discussing this idea originally the thought of organising a venue and stall holders, was quite off putting. Then it hit me - we don't need a venue. Most crafters sell online, so they effectively already have a stall, all thats needed is a central point to host it from = the blog, perfect!
Sorry to exclude people, but I'm proposing this be a regional/local trade, for North East crafters. As this would make numbers more manageable (depending on who's interested) and would also allow the possibly, once all the swaps have been agreed, for us to meet for a drink and actually hand over items in person. It goes without saying that makers outside the NE can set up trades on their own individual blogs, for their region.

At the mo this is just an idea & before I go about setting this up your input is needed:

  • 1. Firstly is anyone actually interested in taking part? Please can you ask your fellow NE crafters if they'd be interested too. Because there is no point if only a few peeps are interested.

  • 2. How to do it. My plan is to list all the makers/artists taking part on my blog & put links to their items online, prices and what they are wiling to swap and for what kind of items.
    **BUT how can the swapping process work so that its diplomatic, friendly and makers don't end up falling out because someone would rather trade for a diff item etc, etc? I guess the simplest way would be to leave it up to individuals involved to contact their potential trade mates by email, but could this also cause problems if say 'Maker A' isn't interested in any items on offer from 'Maker B'.**
    Does anyone have any suggestions?

Please post a comment on my blog or face book wall: http://www.facebook.com/LucyFarfortIllustrator if you're interested in taking part &/or have suggestions on how to run it.
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14 comments:

  1. BoBu14 September 2011 at 02:57

    Yes.. I am interested .. shall be have a meeting??

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lucy14 September 2011 at 03:59

    Hello there. Welcome to blog world :) I followed your new blog.
    I was thinking the whole thing could be conducted online, but if people think it will be helpful to meet, then yeah sure.
    Spread the word as it'll only work if quite a few people want to take part.

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  3. Micha Skinner14 September 2011 at 04:19

    Hello! I am interested I think this could be interesting! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lucy14 September 2011 at 04:40

    Ah good another taker, excellent :) Thats 3 so far then. Please spread the word Micha if you know some makers who would be interested.

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  5. Britt Coxon14 September 2011 at 10:32

    I love this idea. I'm in.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lucy14 September 2011 at 10:45

    Spread the word people. 4 is not yet enough for some serious craft trading action :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. sophie wilson14 September 2011 at 11:30

    Hello!

    A friend spread the word to me! Love the idea of this. I sell designs on Etsy so would be very interested in a nosey (and potential swap!) with other designers :D

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lucy14 September 2011 at 12:56

    Hi Sophie
    Thats great to hear, please spread the word as the more people taking part and the more variety of stuff the better it will be.

    I think perhaps we should have a minimum of 10 people involved for it to go ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  9. thecloudcommission14 September 2011 at 15:32

    How about doing it like the object swap at star and shadow... everyone turns up somewhere with their object at 2pm, leave it and are given a token... then at 3pm, you can trade token for one object... maybe people could bring up to 5 objects/pieces and have as many tokens as prizes brought with?... just pair it up with a 'mend and make do' fair near xmas

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lucy15 September 2011 at 00:29

    Thanks Cloud Commission thats a good idea and would certainly solve a couple of the problems i mentioned.

    Only thing is i'm pretty certain i'm not around for the date of the Christmas Make and Mend market.
    Hmm but maybe another date and venue. Ideally its something i want to take place online, so that as many people around the NE can take part as possible, without having to come to a venue which may be a long way from them. Tricky

    ReplyDelete
  11. karina15 September 2011 at 10:03

    I would be interested in this event, can you send me details please, cheers, Karina

    ReplyDelete
  12. Lucy16 September 2011 at 01:19

    Hi Karina, i will send you some details soon :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Stephen @ Soy of the North16 September 2011 at 09:19

    I'm interested in this. It sounds like a really good idea.

    There will be some tough choices to make though for how to do this. If it's arraanged for people to meet somewhere to swap, some people may be too far away to do that.

    On the other hand, if it's all done online, then people will probably be posting their crafts to each other. This could get expensive with the postage, especially if some people have several items they are willing to trade.

    If this takes off though, it could become a great annual event.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Lucy17 September 2011 at 01:22

    Hi Stephen.
    yeah i know its tricky to work out, because it wold be nice it it could be in a venue but i want as many people around the whole of the NE to take part and having it in a venue would exclude a lot of people.
    I have been working on a proposal as to how this could work and i'm going to post it now. Also it includes a bit about postage.

    ReplyDelete

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