Is it possible to sell my arts and crafts on the road?

[Giggles]

So, for years, one of my hobbies was making arts and crafts, such as mosaic mirrors, earrings, gift cards, tshirts, etc...

I was thinking of trying to sell my arts and crafts on the road, and I was wondering if any of you do that successfully, or have tried doing that?

If so, any tips you could give would be much appreciated.

Thanks!!

 

[maki2]

Hard to make a living doing it in person at craft shows, most especially this year. I think the best way is to do it online. You will need a way to list them for sale online. You will also need to have packaging materials zand a s cale. Standing in line at post offices is time consuming so buying the postage online is very convenient. That means you will want to travel with a printer and self adhesive labels. It also means trying to choose camping spots that are a reasonable distance from a post office.

I am telling you this from experience as I make and sell a craft product while I travel. It does get a bit crowded in my rig with the equipment and supplies and that also impacts having a cleared surface to do the work on.

It means having reliable cell phone service for the internet if not everyday at least several days a week. I have to order supplies online and sometimes do thatbstaying in a location long enough to receive them or else figure out the next place where you can go to get them delivered. Otherwise you have to purchase supplies by going into a larger city as the small towns don't carry much if anything in the way of craft supplies other than cellophane tape and basic Elmers glue, pencils and such.

Remember, make products that are profitable. Don't work yourself to death for a few pennies of profit per hour of labor.

 

[ckelly78z]

Have you determined the demand for hand made arts/crafts ? There are alot of folks sitting at home bored with lots of time, but little money to do their own, or buy someone elses.

 

[eDJ_]

When I was in a school of art & design in Columbus, Ohio many of the kids had subscriptions to Sunshine Artist Magazine.   It listed events where arts & crafts would be featured as part of the Fair.  Many of the students made tuition and some of their living cost in this business. There were events throughout the year but many during the summer months. 

Many had Vans and some teamed up where they slept in a couple of the Vans and hauled their materials etc in the other two and followed the events in their area. 

In would be helpful for you to take in a few events to see what people are doing.  Their main thing was making simple items that they could sell for a reasonable price in volume.  They had to give a small percentage of their take to the Fair and issue duplicate receipts to purchasers where they kept copies
to verify their sales. 

Examples of what they did that were hits.   One group purchased small framed mirrors (about 12 X 16 inches with various colored frame.  They painted along on side and top a floral rendition and had many patterns. (not really great art but...)  They painted these ahead of time and displayed them and were always painting them with the public watching.  They would do custom jobs for more $$ if a customer asked or wanted one design on a particular colored frame that would match up with their decor at home.
These were generally sold to go close to the front door of their home or apartment so it could pass as an art item but double as a mirror to "primp" in a second before answering the door.  Those were big money makers for them.  Others drew wildlife scenes of animals from magazines and had printers print these on rolls of various colors of paper.  These were set up as rolls like paper towels in the supply Van.
They purchased frames for them in volume so that if someone wanted one that was displayed one of the group could quickly put together another one to replace that one with.  They were always seen drawing new ones before the public.  These sold fast.

Those going to these Fairs will always want some kind of takeaway that's affordable to them and to have back home for a show and tell.  As for the "artist" it can get pretty busy so many of them team up to take advantage of the fast flow of potential money.  Then having desirable items to sell which cost as little as possible to make will make you plenty of money.  So check out the website below.

Sunshine Artist Magazine

 

[vanbrat]

My son is an online artist and does mmmmmaybe ok, ....most of the time. He is making a living, but right now with everyone figuring everything out and so many broke it is biting into his business. We will be doing something on the road with a small carni booth that sells patches and hubby will be making a few on sight. But of course right now nothing is going so we are home. Son is trying to get me to sell on ETSY but I just have not learned how yet. He says it wouldn't make a living for me, but would make some extra money and be a place I could sell some of my stock pile of 'stuff'.

I think If you are trying to make enough to live off of you would have to think of it as a real JOB, not just a hobby. Which means work long hours and doing the work that is not fun (paper work, prep work, etc.). It means working even on those days that you don't really want to work. It means preparing like any other "job" for down time or nonpay times. Son is very good at his scheduled work hours and being he is working world wide it sometimes means he is on conference calls at 2am with someone. He has his supplies delivered. Can that be done reliably on the road for your craft? He is able to mail out his art reliably. It would be hard for him, even though he is 90% on line, to do the work on the road because he would need to take his whole studio with him. And his art is drawing and/or painting.

I know that the stuff I make and sell is just a hobby. I don't have any thought that it would make any kind of a living for me. I can't compete with target or Walmart. They sell 'stuff' that would do what I make for sooooo cheap and for so many, my self included, that that is what I, like everyone else buys.

I don't know what your craft is and don't want to say don't do it, but think through all the details before you start relying on the income. It might not start out working enough for you, but might (and that is a big might) in the long run.

Our plans for the patches booth on the road would not make us a living, we are living on Social Security. But it will, hopefully help finance our traveling. Even with that though we have someone who will be working on excepting and mailing us out our stock. Someone we can call and say hey we are out of XYZ stuff so we are ordering it please post it to Where Ever we are next. That is important for our business, as we don't know always from spot to spot what will sell hot and what will not.
We did this way back when we were young and dumb but even then we sometimes had some shows that did not work out and did not make the money they should have. For lots of weird reasons.

Good luck with your plans I hope you can figure out what you are doing.

 

[RoamerRV428]

tougher now. Covid has shut down and stopped many a 'festival', 'craft fair', 'town holiday festivals of all kinds' and more. Big people, crowds, ALL cancelled cause I would have said YES cause we made BIG money on following festivals/craft fairs etc in our region selling our homemade farm products but that WAS before covid so?

you best think online now OR maybe think selling to 'local tourism places' where you can stop in a place and say I wanna sell you 50 pairs of earrings for your tourists and the store might bite easily

so weirdo times call for weirdo situations thru it all now but ONLINE is a good way obvy

 

[uncagingmyspirit]

Even before the pandemic it was difficult. Event / vendor fees, materials to go to the event, and at least a little bit of marketing locally. Depending on your craft, I would consider opening up some kind of store online and using the local events to make a little extra money and promote your website/store.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

 

[Gypsy108]

I believe anything is possible if you really want to do it.  There are all kinds of people in this world...what market do you aim to target ?   I'm going to make gorgeous jewelry....some will be expensive...some will be affordable....i see people online making gorgeous beautiful things...some expensive ..some reasonably priced..it's not stopping people from buying...
i ain't rich and i love to spend money and buy beautiful luxurious things for myself and others...i have never been a penny pincher....i blow money like i'm rich...haha...
Anyways...."do what you love...the money will follow"  that is going to be my motto now !   
There are still plenty of people spending money on luxury items...and all kinds of items...i think especially since being cooped up during this covid crises people are bursting at the seams to get back to normal...vacations & splurging will probably be off the charts.....i'm sure Amazon skyrocketed during this pandemic....i know for a fact it hasn't stopped me from splurging on all kinds of things...soon things WILL get back to normal....people that have money love to spend it .

Good Luck Giggles  :heart:

 

[Giggles]

Well, I'm not actually trying to make a LIVING selling my arts and crafts online. I have another career. I was just asking if any of you had had luck selling arts and crafts on the road.

For those who answered, thank you.

 

[HappyLife1977]

Etsy can be a pain in the butt, but you get bang for your buck. Supplement a few ready made things on line with picture posts on Tumblr and a portfolio on DeviantArt (you can sell post cards to posters of your photos and art!), get a reputation up, and take orders for custom made. The customer pays for the supplies as a down payment and the rest when finished. Less to carry, no back stock once you are established. Gab is setting up a market place so get on and join a few craft groups and watch out for the trolls and haters who post to torture. Join the other social media spots out there beside Facebook and blog away. I paid our non rent bills for 13 years that way, and have customers in a holding pattern until the van conversion is finished. Etsy is still very 'vegan, millenial, craftsy' for traffic. If you can paint or work wood or leather or polymer clay, or sew, knit, crochet, it's wonderland. Ravelry, I believe, has a custom knitters market? The biggest problem developing is Etsy is as full of itself as Facebook, and you have to absolutely do the math. I used to add 5$ to an order base price automatically, now their fees are x percent of everthing from sales to postage! Someone has yet to get back to me how 5% on a 10$ item is 12$ in fees. You do all the work and they seem to think you work for Them as sweatshop labor. I ignore their nagging emails to work harder, charge more so they can skim. Still the exposure is worth it. Just don't pay their advertising money like Google ads, it's a scam.
Ahem. Rant over. Just saying what worked for me.

P.S. painted rocks are big on Etsy.

 

[tx2sturgis]

i ain't rich and i love to spend money and buy beautiful luxurious things...

{snip}

...i blow money like i'm rich...haha...

I think I dated you!

 

[Gypsy108]

I think I dated you!

Ha.... I wasn’t like that when I was dating...
I became that way to make myself happy after a lifetime of unhappiness....self medicate I guess.... I’m sure if I found happiness living in nature like all you nomads I would be happy like you too....I never asked any man to buy me stuff....I bought stuff from my own money.

 

[maki2]

I do just fine on Etsy but I dont list lower priced items unless they are digital download design patterns that require no. Shipping. The reason for that. Is the. Labor hours involved in packaging, shipping etc. Low priced items on mail order have you spending way too many overhead hours sevicing the orders versus time that could be spent more profitably In producing products.