back once again for the renegade craft fair

This weekend we were at Renegade Craft Fair for the fourth year running! There are always a huge amount of round up posts that go round so we thought we'd get ours up before you were sick of reading them!

Our new beaver vending machine filled with newly designed charms and DIY bracelet kits

Our new display is all the colours of the rainbow!

#squadgoals
i Like CATS | Woah There Pickle | designosaur | hello DODO | Juream Box | Oh Someday 

We were very lucky this year that most of the Brighton crew were placed next to each other so we were able to create a HUGGGGEEEE Brighton booth space which contained Woah There Pickle, i Like CATS, hello DODO and ourselves, next to us were the wonderful Jureum Box and Oh Someday too.

Juream Box hand dies all these super soft gorgeous products in the most beautiful ombre brights!

YUK FUN had lots of new things, dresses, crop tops, make up bags! All the joy!

I got the most awesome gift from Ruth and Brendan aka i am acrylic, a little cheese ring! I'll put a photo up on instagram soon, when it's not so greeyyyyyyy outside.

Zodiac signs by Oh Someday, this are much more delicious in real life! Poor Kate is doing exactly the same markets as us this season, so you can catch her when you see us!

Keith made it to the blog as he won the "Best Male Salesperson" Award for looking after Sally from Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes stall, you should check out her stuff, it's awesome and none of it is shown here... (sorry Sally!)

Renegade, for those of you that have not been before is the biggest and bestest Craft Fair in the UK, it's an established event in the USA and they now run two events a year, here in London in the ever trendy Shoreditch.

Now the problem with my round up posts each year is that we are normally so busy behind our own stall that there isn't much time to escape to go and visit all the other awesome people that are there, BUT we did manage to run around on the Sunday afternoon (when everyone is looking frazzled and sweaty) to say hello to some of our faves and online friends that we only get to see during craft fair season! Obviously they are the most colourful too!

Pygmy Cloud's new egg cups, I want to know if you get the googly eyed egg included?

And Smile had the most beautiful booth! All the colour and Viktorija always has a massive grin on her face!

Kirstin Stride is part of the Brighton Massive! Check these cute little birdy necklaces, each one is individually hand drawn!

If you came along to see us, play with our new machine, and stroke the dinosaurs, then thank you, it was awesome to see you, we have two more markets coming up, The Brighton Etsy Christmas Market and Crafty Fox, find out more by clicking on them!

Woah There Pickle's crazy new Chrtistmas cards and fun prints. She's got sweetie Christmas decorations too!

Deborah Ballinger's stall is an awesome mix of BRIGHT and stylish, mexican themes running though her new Christmas range.

Cute brightly coloured vinyl decorated bottles by Ladybird Likes

Stall buddies, hello DODO's new dinosaur baby wear! Mini clothes for mini people! They are doing ALL of the fairs, so make sure you catch them!

Hopefully see you all before Christmas,

ROAR!

Karli

Dinosaurs and Dodo's Hang Out (Renegade Craft Fair)

Crafty Looking RCF (Renegade Craft Fair) for you slo-mos

Last weekend I was probably thee most tired I have ever been. Working all week preparing stock and then getting up at stupid o'clock to avoid rail replacement wasn't the beginning of a fresh faced and stress free weekend!

I looked a mess, so THANK YOU, to anybody that still approached our stall and bought from us, as we not only looked a mess, but I feel I was also talking delirious nonsense too!

However, now I've got that apology/rant out of the way...

Renegade is an AWESOME-TASTIC weekend for sellers and buyers alike.

Us having all the fun on our joint stall with the Epic-ly Amazing hello DODO

I am going to show you snapshots of my weekend, I'm not going to show you the layout of sellers' stalls because it's Thursday and I've already seen a million posts like that. Sorry if I have mentioned these people before, my taste hasn't changed...

Toby (i like CATS) struggling with all his luggage on the way to Renegade, he struggled on the way home too but no photos of that!

Bredan (i am acrylic) had the best badge. He's very very helpful. 

Jacques kept leaping into all of my photos...

Prawn Brooch by Magasin. I did the really annoying thing of trying to redesign somebody else's product. I really wanted a prawn-y necklace and was trying to work out if I could make this beautiful brooch into what I wanted. Sarah was EXTREMELY patient with me. She's lovely.

Cheska is super happy in front of her stall (mooshpie)

Our Crafty Crewdem leaving Renegade :( including Sally from Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes, and Amy her trusty Stall buddy! (all credit for this photo goes to Sally, except she's in it so ermm.)

So did you like my little wander around Renegade or would you prefer me to do a list of all the sellers I like and their products, because I have all the photos to do that blogpost too... let me know in the comments yeah?

ROAR!

PS I haven't edited my photos, there aren't enough hours in the day!

the BEST craft fairs around...

This is based  entirely on our opinions only. As craft fair season starts up again we thought we'd give our opinion on the BEST craft fairs there are.

So what does BEST mean to us - it is a mixture of atmosphere, footfall, standard of other sellers, promotion and how well we do at the craft fair!

We did a lot of craft fairs last year and here is the pick of the best ones!

Brighton Craftaganza

Our first ever craft fair. EVER. 

The deets:

When? Several each year, Normally around Easter, June and Christmas.

Who? Organised by the wonderful Zoe, who does a sterling job of standing outside the venue ALL DAY, in all weathers. It really is ALL DAY, I think sometimes she even misses lunch - Zoe is Hardcore for the cause.

The Wonderful Zoe, Inside?!

Where? It is normally held at Fabrica which is in the centre of Brighton, on the outside of the South Lanes with a huge footfall of tourists as well as shoppers. 

The lowdown:

In total I think we did three Craftaganza's, and they just got better and better. The first one we did was our FIRST EVER CRAFT FAIR EVER EVER, and it couldn't have gone better. Looking at photos from that first fair makes us realise that we really didn't have very much stock at all! We did however do well despite this and got lots of positive feedback.

Zoe is the most organised person in the world. She manages to organise a craft fair, promote it and jazz up the venue effotlessly. (This is just the impression she gives, I am not saying that organising a craft fair is easy at all.)  What also helps is Zoe is super friendly :) YAY!

Renegade London

The deets:

Where? In the Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London - Prime Location!

When? Once a year in London, but they travel the USA and hold fairs in Brooklyn, LA, Austin, Chicago and San Francisco.

Who? There are a team of people that come from America to set up the fair and it is very well organised, there is even an "Info Booth" for enquires for sellers as well as buyers (that's how big it is!).

The lowdown:

We hadn't heard of Renegade before but from sufficient stalking it seemed that people we knew were attending and it was the place to be. Unfourtuantly we applied late so weren't included on the printed literature and were in an area that was slightly away from the rest of the sellers. (I'd say it was the late corner) I don't actually think that it hindered us in any way, being placed where we were placed and the section you get given is HUUUUGGGE.

We did really well at this fair, but having to travel to London does have added costs. If we decide to do it again we will hopefully share with another brand to cut the cost of the stall. You still get a more than ample amount of space. The event is two days, but Jacques is from South East London, so we were able to stay with his parents.

  

 

This was a lot of fun watching Jacques trying to put up our sign. He thought he was Indiana Jones.

Renegade is playing with the big boys, so you really do have to have confidence in your product, as well as really put an effort into your stand.

We met Sally from Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes, and got drunk with Hello DODO for the first time. Since then it has happened more frequently... they are a bad influence on us.

It was great to see sellers from all over the country and even all over the world!

Crafty Fox Market

The Door Step of the Dog Star

The deets:

Where? The Dogstar, Brixton (Hipster Central)

When? A couple a year, Easter and Christmas I think, maybe more.

Who? Sinead and Stephan, Brixton locals and lovely people!

The lowdown:

Another London craft fair whose reputation had preceded them. We strolled up on the Sunday, walked down a long road off the high street to the Dog Star (I wasn't sure what the footfall would be like at this point!) and set up on our super tiny pub table. It  was Christmas but we were amazed at how many people came through the doors! Etsy goodie bags were given to early arrivers, which meant that people were streaming through the doors from opening. 

There was a DJ - ( a good one) which set an awesome vibe, we could have a pint and it was all very relaxed. It was also CRAZY BUSY. We did really well, the size of our table made no difference to our sales as customers spent an equal amount of time at each stall, investigating the whole building (there were three floors to explore including a Tea Room and workshops).

Overall we had an awesome time and we have applied to go back this Easter! (fingers crossed)

[The fair was also linked with moo.com which meant that we got 100 free business cards to give out. BONUS!]

So that's that, our favourite craft fairs from last year! 

Please tell me your favourite Craft Fair. We would love to do some fairs in the North but just don't know any! The only one we have heard of Reet Sweet, which is meant to be good but we would love to know more details on this if any of you have done it!

There is also BUST in Bethnal Green which we would like to try from good reviews last year.

As usual this is a very rambly post. I hope it is helpful to some of you. 

ROAR!

Karli