James Green's advice

I recently went to an Arts and Crafts fayre in a church where there were only three artists. I found out it is £30 for a stall so i think i'm going to try and give it a go at the next one at the end of March. I wanted to find out more about it from one of the artists there so i emailed him, this was his reply:

hi gabby

as vague as it sounds, you really only know by trying for yourself. i started off doing markets and fairs and thinking a certain way would work, and soon learned that i needed to adjust my approach, relating to display, prices and quantities. it is so individual i'm not sure advice from me would help you. what works for me wouldn't necessarily work for the next person. this is certainly the case for other working artists i know.

perhaps the best advice is to do what you enjoy, and are best at. if you start to try and please everyone your style will get diluted and you're less likely to make a name for yourself...

i do alright, but its taken a while to build up to a point where my stuff is recognised. maybe start off with modest ambitions and build slowly? to get into certain fairs and modern craft market you'll need to be able to present your work clearly, have easily accessible examples of your work online and show that you can present your work well at markets.

handling an admiring audience - i'm not sure i know how to either, but i feel very lucky that people like my work, and it makes me happy!

i hope this is of some help!

cheers

james

James Green - Printworks
Linocut prints, poster prints, etchings and cards

blog: http://jamesgreenprintworks.blogspot.com
webshop: www.folksy.com/shops/jamesgreenprintworks
facebook: www.facebook.com/jamesgreenprintworks

I believe my use of watercolours and natural subject matter would appeal to the majority of people i saw walking round at the fayre. James' work is lino cuts so potencially a bit more of an aquired taste. I liked half of his works i saw but many of the buyers were of the older generation who may or may not like the more graphic style. I would like to try and book a stall for next time and see how it goes, the worst thing that can happen is that no-one buys my work and i lose £30.