Selling smalls craft sales

[Ax-man]

With the recent cold weather I have been playing around with the wood lathe..

Anyone here make small turned items like mushrooms , spinning tops, snowmen ect. to sell at craft sales or bring them along for impulse spot sales if you have a booth to sell chainsaw carvings. Is it worth it to do these small items ?? Do they sell??

I have thought about doing this but it just doesn't seem to be worth the effort mostly because I can't seem to do small items quickly on the lathe in addition to applying a finish or doing some type of painting. Putting in all the time and effort on an item that might sell for $10 just doesn't seem to add up. Am I wrong ??

I am bored but this some thing I can do when it is too cold to be outside with snow on the ground.

 

[Ax-man]

I put this thread up awhile ago and see no one has replied. I'll answer my own thread . I was invited to a flea market type sale last weekend to do a chainsaw carving demo and sell some of my carvings. In addition to the big items I had some small lathe turned items like deco mushrooms made from different types of wood and sizes, along with trees with crosses on the top ,bowls and a few other things. I didn't sell a darn one of those items. People look at them and pick them up and say how nice they are but no buyers. I did manage to sell a welcome bear and some of my ornamental looking mushrooms so the day wasn't a total washout but not really worth the effort I put into getting ready for this sale.

I don't know if a flea market is a good way to sell carvings and small lathe turned items or not. It was a Sunday sale , rained in the morning but finally cleared and there really wasn't much traffic the whole day or people stopping in to buy . It wasn't a big market but had a good location at a busy intersection with good visibility . The other vendors faired much worse than I did and I felt lucky to sell what I did only because my stuff is something you don't see much at these types of sales.

I have never had luck selling lathe turned items at any kind of sale I have been in .History repeated itself and to me it is definitely not worth the effort or time if your trying to make something that looks presentable to sell . I can make a bigger mushroom just as an example faster and easier than a lathed turned small mushroom. I could probably make a very small shroom with a saw and sell it for a few bucks more than a turned shroom.

Sorry no pics , I had my camera but just didn't take any pictures.

 

[blades]

it is always a hit and miss- craft fairs . flea market, even gun shows. You could have a ton of traffic nothing moves next time looks like bust little traffic and you go home with a wad of green paper. Had one person look at the same unit four different shows- bought it on the 5th time around. Price never changed.

 

[Ax-man]

I hear you . I haven't been in too many of these flea market type sales . I am planning on hitting a few more later on so I'll have to see how it goes.

 

[Nighthauk]

I have been doing a lot of bowls working from the lathe. Just sold my second one through FB and sold a few acorn small containers. Haven’t really done the craft fairs yet though.


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