Writing About your Business

Staying in touch with potential and existing customers is important to getting more sales.  This is especially true for websites.  You need to build an online relationship which is similar, but has a different expression, to in-person relationships.  You need develop your online business profile.  Whether you concentrate on craft fairs or wholesale and online sales, you need to communicate about what you do.  Whether you have a website with a shop or just a Facebook page, you need to tell people what you do to build support.

It may seem difficult at first to know what to write about your business that will be interesting to your customers and support sales and be worth the effort.  There are a lot of things you can say about your business.  When you begin to think of the elements for communication with your potential customers there are lots of things you can say that will interest them and give your business a personality and an interesting profile.

But I don’t have a web site.  I sell at craft fairs and to galleries.

This still applies to you.  You need to tell all sorts of people and organisations about your business.  You need to have something for galleries to look at.  You need copy for newspapers and other media.  You need a  statement about you and your business at craft fairs.  You need to use social media to get people to the physical sales points.  You need to think about how these elements can help provide interesting posts.  Of course, not all that is given here is directly applicable to personal interactions, but it will give you the direction you need to present yourself and your business in the best light.

There are lots of ideas to get you to thinking about what you can do to communicate.  What follows are indicators of what you can do. You don’t need to use them all, but employing a range of these elements will give variety and interest to your communications.  It may also, along the line, provide you with a much higher profile and incidentally, sales.  You do need to communicate regularly and consistently with the audience.  An irregular post every month or so, is not enough.  You may have to set a schedule for publishing communications to your followers.

Write -

- About your business

·        What started you in business? what was the inspiration? Talk about any greater purpose than simply making your items. What are your motivations to continue working? What gives you joy?

·        How, and why did you choose the business name? Who did you involve? How does the name continue to be appropriate?

·        Tell people what it is about you and your work that is special or unique.  Indicate what your niche is, make it explicit for your potential customers.

·        How do you do business? Do you take commissions?

·        Share the stories and case studies of your experiences.  For example, take people through the stages of a commission.  Telling about the changes, developments, challenges shows how you work.  Show the results and tell what the client liked most about it. This provides the opportunity to include testimonials.  Include lots of sketches, photos. Importantly, get the commissioner’s permission to share details.  

An example of a site which provides a number of testimonials: http://www.gilroystainedglass.com/gilroy/testimonials/

Another example is this blog which does everything – the way she works, her stories, information, inspirations and there is no obvert selling at all. https://morganica.com/about-me/

- About your Location

·        Tell people where you are located. This helps to increase trust.  Talk about why you chose the area. How does the place affect your work? Provide pictures of your specific location, the area, and elements of landscape or cityscape that interest you.

The Northlands Creative site gives you a sense of place. 

·        Essentially, offer a behind the scenes view of how your location interacts with your creativity.  An inner-city industrial area can be as interesting as the countryside.

An insight to working practice is given in the Bob Letherbarrow website. 

- About your inspirations

·        Talk about people that have inspired you, role models, influencers. What have you learned from them?

·        What events – personal and world-wide – affect your work? Write and illustrate them.

An artist statement example from Bob Leatherbarrow 

·        Write about the kinds of environment that influence elements of your work.

- About things that interest you

·        Reviews of exhibitions, events, books.

·        Share your passions, reveal your personality, what excites intrigues you about your craft.  Why your glass expression than others? Does your work tell stories? Do you have a bigger purpose in making your craft?

·        Write about what is important to you.  This shares your values, and by writing from different angles will bring more visitors to the site.  Recommending other small businesses with similar values not only creates a business community, but a customer community too.

- About the process

·        Share the creative process involved in your body of work.  It can  be in words or images, short videos. 

·        Show the design process – inspiration, sketches, prototypes, final items and then the results at shows.  Use lots of pictures.

- About useful information

·        Share information and guidance about looking after your products.

·        Give information about related businesses.  These will be services or products that you do not supply but are relevant and are provided by other local businesses.

·        General tips related to your area of business shows you are knowledgeable, helpful and trustworthy.

·        General tips on how to display, use or wear your work grab attention.  Pictures are especially important here. 

·        Write useful communications.  Think about what your ideal clients would find useful to know.  Is there any maintenance needed for your glass? How to clean the glass. Give practical advice and suggestions. 

·        Promote other resources or books you like. Avoid a sales post, just include a link to the relevant page of your site as a sign off.

·        Think about having guest writers.  Getting others to write occasionally for you saves you work.  Interviews are another way to vary the voice of your communications.  It is essential to be clear about what these guests are to focus on, and give them the opportunity to promote their own site.

- About your customers

·        Ask your followers specific questions, get them involved in new developments at an early, planning stage, rather than at the end.  This gets people committed early to your work and without any explicit sales pitch. 

·        You can ask about the barriers people have to buying from you or others.  You can get information about what publications, sources they use, by asking.  This can be done on social media, or via direct emails.

·        Answer clients’ questions quoting their words.  This can increase the visibility of your site by using others’ searches, so leading them and others to your site. 

·        Helpful responses create a trusted business source.

- About developments and news

·        Write about the events you are planning to attend. There needs to be a group of communications leading up to the event.  Lots of advance notice is needed for people to plan a visit.  To give this notice, you can produce a number of  notices: Lead them through your preparations, the development of your collections, background to the work you will be taking, show the packed van and the final show setup.  These six notices will involve potential customers and build their interest in coming to the event.

·        Tell the stories of the event. What happened, your best sellers, star purchasers, meetings with fellow exhibitors all provide interest to your customers. You can include links to your price list or catalogue in these communications.  This is much better than sending a bare list or catalogue.

·        Talk about your product of the week or month - why the design, what inspired it, how did you name it, what’s special about it.   Start with a good photo of the work.  Possibly add something special – free p&p, special price in combination with another item, etc., to attract a purchase.

- About outlets

·        Blog about your retailers and wholesalers.  It cements your relationships with them, by showing your commitment to supporting their business too.   It  provides publicity for your work. Photos of your work in the locations is good customer-assuring publicity.

·        Let other businesses know that you have sent out information about them.  It may get you reciprocal mentions.

·        Working with wholesalers has better results when directed to individuals or single companies.  Preparing introductory material that is relevant to the client and adding the relevant images, lists, catalogue, gets better results than generic approaches.

An example of telling people where your work is available in Steve Immerman's website. 

Of course you do not need to write about all of these elements all the time. But they form the background to what you write about your business, craft, current work, and to some extent your life.

Writing specific, focused, timely communications

·        Timely communications are important.  When are customers likely to buy? – send out things prior to that time.  Think about the reasons they might buy and include them.  Gift giving times (such as back to school, springtime, valentines, awareness days) are times for focused communications indicating what you have that is relevant to the event or occasion.

·        Send out notices of an upcoming event through all your communications sources in a kind of countdown to the event giving your activities toward the opening of the event or show.

·        Be consistent in the style of the communications.  Short, direct, and focused posts with lots of pictures are most likely to be read.  Handmade Lives says immediately what it is about (unfortunately now ceased). 

News vs. Newsletters

These communications are not newsletters. Who reads newsletters anyway?

• Stay updated https://www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/
• Use lots of photos.  Make the communications visual. E.g. https://www.designspiration.com/
• This site has busy visuals, but leads by images rather than words https://www.craftscotland.org/

All your posts and communications should be simple and direct.  They should be fairly short (unlike this post!) to be sure they are read.

In Summary

How do you put all this together?  This is an example of a blog which does everything – the way she works, her stories, information, inspirations and there is no obvert selling at all. https://morganica.com/about-me/

Writing about your business is more than just the business.  You are the business.  So, it is writing about you and what you do, not just a dry business description.  You have an advantage over big business. You have a personal story to tell.

The Annealing Range Concept

There is a lot written about the annealing temperature of a glass being at a single exact temperature. This is another fundamental misunderstanding of the concept - much like CoE meaning compatibility.

The annealing point is mathematically defined as the temperature at which a glass reaches a particular viscosity. This is the temperature at which stress can most quickly be relieved. It is denoted as Tg. Each glass has its own Tg according to colour and composition. The manufacturer recommends a good average Tg for their glass. The first section of this blog post gives a description of the glass transition point. 

A description of the physical changes that occur during annealing. 

An informal discussion of the limiting factors on the annealing range is given in this blog. 

A description of the effects of attempting to anneal at the upper part of the annealing range. 

A description of why annealing at higher temperatures is counter productive. 

Bullseye used to publish three different annealing temperatures for transparent, opalescent, and gold bearing colours and gave an average of these to be the annealing temperature. This was before they began conducting research on annealing of thick slabs. As a result, they were able to determine annealing in the lower portion of the range produces good anneals with reductions in time spent in cooling.

A description of the annealing range and the advantages of low temperature annealing is given in this blog post. 

Although written to counter the mistaken view that CoE can determine the annealing temperature, this blog indicates that the annealing temperature is a choice within a range of temperatures. It also connects annealing soaks with cooling rates. 

The general point is that the annealing soak can occur at any point between the softening point at the top and the strain point at the low part of the temperature range. There are good reasons to avoid annealing above the annealing point (Tg). There are also good reasons to anneal near the strain point of the glass – saving time, electricity, and producing a denser glass. Annealing is critical, but the temperature at which you do it is less so.

 

All this has provoked me. There is so much more to say. So, I have begun a writing an eBook on Annealing – Concepts, Principles and Practice.  In the meantime, more information is given in the eBook Low Temperature Kilnforming

The Sol-Gel Manufacturing Process

 

The Sol-Gel Manufacturing Process

Posted on Jul 22, 2020

Sol-gel processes can be used to produce various high-performance solids including glasses and ceramics. In the world of glass production, sol-gel techniques offer a low-temperature alternative to traditional melt-quenching and thus save energy. These techniques can be used to produce an ever-growing group of materials with incredibly broad applications. Glasses produced via sol-gel routes can be highly pure and exhibit a range of other useful properties.

In this article, we take a look at how the sol-gel process was developed, how it works, and the properties of glasses produced in this way.

What is the Sol-Gel Process?

The sol-gel process is a manufacturing method in which bulk solid materials are produced from a solution of small particles. The process begins with the preparation of a solution of inorganic monomers, such as metal alkoxides and acetylacetonates; a hydrolysis agent, e.g. water; a solvent, e.g. alcohol; and an acid or base catalyst.1 The dissolved monomers undergo hydrolysis and polycondensation reactions to form a sol: a colloidal suspension of polymers or fine particles.

Further reactions form cross-links between the particles, solidifying them into a wet gel, which still contains water and solvents. Removing the water and solvents leaves a dry gel, one of the final possible products of the process. Further drying and heat treatment removes residual liquid and induces further polycondensation reactions, which can ultimately produce densified ceramics or glasses with novel properties.

Development of Sol-Gel Techniques

Sol-gel processes were first developed in the 1960s, with the purpose of producing bulk glasses at low temperatures, below 1000 C.2,3 These techniques contrasted greatly with conventional energy-intensive melting methods, which generally involve temperatures over 1400 C in furnaces.4 Years later, the rising popularity of optical fibers stimulated research into the production of silica glass preforms, from which optical glass fibers are drawn, via the sol-gel method.5

Producing silicate glass in bulk, e.g. rods and plates with dimensions exceeding tens of millimeters, was initially difficult due to the formation of cracks during the drying process. However, by the late 1990s, bulk silicate glass could be reliably and efficiently produced via a number of sol-gel routes. Alongside this research, efforts to produce more exotic multicomponent glasses, such as silicon oxycarbide glass, via sol-gel routes were proving successful, and enabling new glass compositions that could not be achieved with melt-quenching.6

Today, a huge range of multicomponent glasses and glass ceramics can be produced using sol-gel techniques, as well as more conventional silicate glasses.

Advantages and Properties of Sol-Gel Glasses

For similar chemical compositions, the overall structure and properties of sol-gel glasses are similar to those of conventional melt-formed glasses.4 Because of the high costs of specialized processing and raw materials for sol-gel approaches, they are not widely used for commercial production of ordinary silicate glass panels or containers. Instead, sol-gel techniques enable the production of specialized glass products which can’t be made using conventional techniques.

Low process temperature is one of the defining characteristics of the sol-gel approach, yet it is capable of producing a vast range of high-performance materials. When it comes to glass production, advantages over conventional melting include better homogeneity, better purity, and less energy-intensive production, although cost can still remain high. Critically, sol-gel techniques enable the creation of new materials with properties outside the range of conventionally made glass. These include useful electronic, optical, biomedical, mechanical and thermal properties that lend sol-gel glasses to a huge range of applications.

Applications of Sol-Gel Glasses

Some of the main applications of these materials are electronics, optics, thermal insulation, catalysis, and various mechanical and biological functions.

Electronics

Electronic components that can be produced using sol-gel glasses include capacitors and piezoelectric transducers.7,8 Novel applications of sol-gel glasses in this field include lithium-ion batteries and electrolytic membranes in fuel cells.

Optics

Sol-gel glasses can exhibit a range of useful optical and photonic properties. Often the sol-gel approach is used to deposit a glassy material in a thin film, where it has applications from colored coatings for car windows to laser elements, optical sensors and photovoltaics.9

Chemistry

Sol-gel techniques can produce materials with highly porous structures and very large internal surface areas. This lends them well to applications in catalysis, where the porous surfaces act as catalyst or catalyst-carrier. Such materials and applications include porous silica for chromatographic separation, and silicate-based catalysts for the production of H2. 10,11

Biosciences

Due to the high surface area and the easily controlled size and distribution of pores in sol-gel glasses, it’s possible to trap biological molecules or living tissues in porous glasses using sol-gel techniques. These high purity and homogeneous materials can be used for biomedical research and have been applied to the development of biosensors and tissue engineering techniques.12

The breadth of achievable properties of sol-gel glasses means that the range of possible applications for this class of materials is rapidly growing. As research continues, sol-gel glasses are redefining the way that we think about glass.

References and Further Reading

1. Sakka, S. Handbook of sol-gel science and technology : processing, characterization, and applications. (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2005).
2. ROY, R. Gel Route to Homogeneous Glass Preparation. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 52, 344–344 (1969).
3. Dislich, H. New Routes to Multicomponent Oxide Glasses. Angew. Chemie Int. Ed. English 10, 363–370 (1971).
4. Mackenzie, J. D. Glasses from melts and glasses from gels, a comparison. J. Non. Cryst. Solids 48, 1–10 (1982).
5. Sakka, S. Fibers from gels and their applications. in Glass Integrated Optics and Optical Fiber Devices: A Critical Review 10275, 1027507 (SPIE, 1994).
6. Pantano, C. G., Singh, A. K. & Zhang, H. Silicon oxycarbide glasses. J. Sol-Gel Sci. Technol. 14, 7–25 (1999).
7. Hatono, H., Ito, T. & Matsumura, A. Application of BaTiO3 film deposited by aerosol deposition to decoupling capacitor. Japanese J. Appl. Physics, Part 1 Regul. Pap. Short Notes Rev. Pap. 46, 6915–6919 (2007).
8. Tsurumi, T., Ozawa, S. & Wada, S. Preparation of PZT thick films by an interfacial polymerization method. in Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology 26, 1037–1040 (Springer, 2003).
9. Yoneda, T., Yasuhiro, S. & Morimoto, T. Sol–Gel Coatings Applied to Automotive Windows. in Handbook of Sol-Gel Science and Technology 1–15 (Springer International Publishing, 2016). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-19454-7_84-1
10. Lubda, D., Cabrera, K., Nakanishi, K. & Minakuchi, H. SOL-GEL PRODUCTS NEWS Monolithic HPLC Silica Columns. Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology 23, (2002).
11. Gronchi, P., Kaddouri, A., Centola, P. & Del Rosso, R. Synthesis of nickel supported catalysts for hydrogen production by sol-gel method. in Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology 26, 843–846 (Springer, 2003).
12. Baino, F., Fiume, E., Miola, M. & Verné, E. Bioactive sol-gel glasses: Processing, properties, and applications. Int. J. Appl. Ceram. Technol. 15, 841–860 (2018).

Preventing dog boning

Firing a single layer, even with decorative elements on top, is most likely to “dog bone” due to lack of volume.  With a single layer you are always going to have difficulties with volume control. 

Photo credit: Paul Tarlow

Unless you are satisfied with an angular tack fuse at the lower end of the tack fusing range, you will always run the risk of dog boning. All the other variations of tack fusing use increased temperatures causing the glass to begin to pull in along the long sides to a greater or lesser extent (more with contour fuse, less with angular tack fuse).

Dog boning occurs because as the glass softens and the edges begin to round, the viscosity takes over from the solid phase of glass as a major force.  Viscosity can be thought of as an approximation of surface tension. 

Glass is a material with a plastic range over several hundred degrees.  This means that the hotter the glass becomes, the less stiff it becomes, and the viscosity force thickens the glass toward 6-7mm in the kilnforming temperature range. The greater the temperature, the more the glass pulls into a ball shape, or in the case of sheets, thickens at the edges and thins in the middle.  Higher temperatures reduce the viscosity to the extent that it becomes as thin as one millimetre.

Trick the glass

To avoid dog boning on tack and full fusing, you have to trick the glass with some special scheduling.

The trick employs the concept of heat work.  The nature of glass allows you to put a lot of heat work into a piece by soaking for a long time at a low temperature.  You might think of it as a kind of sintering.

A description of sintering:

The atoms in the [glass] diffuse across the boundaries of the particles, fusing the particles together and creating one solid piece. [This can be done by heat at low temperatures with extended soaks.]  Examples of pressure-driven sintering are the compacting of snowfall to a glacier, or the forming of a hard snowball by pressing loose snow together.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sintering

By sintering (sometimes called fuse to stick) or - in kilnforming terms - by the use of heat work you can achieve the result you want without dog boning.

By taking the temperature slowly to about 700°C to 720°C and soaking there for two to four hours you can achieve a rounded tack fuse without dog boning.  You will have to experiment with the exact temperature and length of soak to get exactly what you want.

The length of soak time or exact temperature is not vital.  The two in combination will achieve the effect you want.  The importance of observation of your firing is re-enforced in the cases of sintering.  You cannot be sure until you check during the firing whether the edges of the glass are rounded enough for your purpose. That observation will also tell you whether a slightly raised temperature would be useful.  You will learn the time required to achieve the effect by recording the soak time when you advance to the anneal soak and cool.

Further information is available in the ebook Low Temperature Kiln Forming.

By the use of heat work in kilnforming you can achieve tack fused pieces without dog boning.

Aerospace Glass Applications

 

Aerospace Glass Applications

Posted Krista Grayson on Jun 18, 2020

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Glass and glass-ceramics exhibit a huge range of physical properties which can be easily tuned during manufacturing. This makes them popular research subjects for the development of new composite materials. In the aerospace industry, glasses and glass-ceramics are prized for their high heat resistance compared to polymers and conventional aerospace alloys, high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance and comparatively low cost of manufacturing.1,2

Passenger aircraft, satellites, and rockets place incredible demand on their components. As a result, the aerospace sector poses some of the toughest challenges for materials science. From window coatings to engine parts and turbine blades; the aerospace industry uses some of the strongest, lightest, and most heat resistant materials in the world.

It should come as no surprise, then, that glass and glass-ceramics have a range of aerospace applications. Glasses, silicate-based solids with no long-range atomic order, and glass-ceramics, which are chemically similar to glasses but have some degree of crystallinity, are hugely versatile. A tremendous range of compositions and processing techniques means that glass and glass-ceramics can be tailored to suit a large range of technological applications.

When most people think of glass, they think of windows – so perhaps the most obvious application of glass in the aerospace industry is in airplane windows. But this example serves to illustrate just how demanding aerospace applications can be. While simple silicate glass is perfect for windows down on the ground, it’s too heavy to use for the construction of cabin windows, which are in fact generally made entirely from a polymer such as stretched acrylic. Glass is used to make flight deck windows, but only in the form of a thin layer of protective tempered glass bonded to the surface of a thick layer of polymer.3

Other applications of “ordinary glass” – silicate glass – in aerospace are high silica glass glaze used to coat ceramic tiles that protect space shuttles from burning up during reentry into earth’s atmosphere along with LED lighting and cabin interior features such as mirrors and paneling.

Making Composite Materials with Glasses and Glass Ceramics

The wide versatility of glass and glass ceramics materials are realized when they’re used to create composite materials. Composites are combinations of two or more materials which exhibit properties that differ from the individual components.

Composites are increasing in popularity over conventionally used metals for a number of reasons including their lower weight, better fatigue performance, corrosion resistance, and decreased manufacturing costs. For example, composite materials make up more than 20% of the airframe of the Airbus A380 (first flight in 2005); while the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is 80% composite by volume (first flight in 2009.)4,5

One of the advantages of glass (and glass-ceramics) is the ability to vary its structure and properties through composition and processing – this makes these materials a prime candidate for the development of high-performance composite materials. In aerospace applications, glasses and glass-ceramics can play the part of either filler (e.g. fiberglass-reinforced plastics) or matrix within a composite.6

Aerospace Composites with Glass and Glass Ceramic Fillers

One of the most popular ways of harnessing the properties of glass and glass-ceramics in aerospace is in the form of polymers reinforced with glass or glass-ceramic.6,7 Combining the stiffness and low density of glasses and glass-ceramics with the shear properties of a polymeric matrix can produce a number of high-performance materials with aerospace applications.

One such material in widespread use is Glass and Aluminum Reinforced Epoxy (GLARE). This material not only exhibits excellent fatigue resistance, reducing the frequency of needed inspections, but is both lighter and more corrosion resistant than the aluminum alloys conventionally used in aviation. For these reasons it is used in the Airbus A380, both in the upper fuselage and the leading edges of the stabilizers.8

Glass Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) is another example of a polymer-matrix composite material with a glass filler. This material exhibits a particularly high strength-to-weight ratio and is used to make Airbus A320 floor panels among other applications. GFRP exhibits similar properties to Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastics but can be produced at a fraction of the cost due to the relatively low cost of glass.9

Thermoplastic Composites (TPCs) offer the ability to produce high-performance components via straightforward and versatile thermoforming. Glass-reinforced TPCs with are used to produce a wide range of aerospace materials.10

Glass and Glass-Ceramic Matrix Composites

Many useful composites can be obtained by employing the “opposite” approach: impregnating an inflexible and low-strength glass or glass ceramic matrix with high-strength and/or high-ductility particulates or fibers.

For example, dispersing aluminosilicate reinforcing fillers throughout a glass-ceramic matrix has produced highly refractive, temperature-resistant materials with low thermal conductivity suitable for use as heat shielding for jet engines.1 Mechanically strong and highly refractive composites can be formed by the dispersal of continuous carbon fibers throughout borosilicate, high-silica, and quartz glasses along with a range of glass-ceramic matrices.

Aerospace Glass from Mo-Sci

Mo-Sci produces several high-specification glasses for aerospace applications. Our engineers can work with you to research and develop custom glasses for aerospace and other demanding environments. Contact us for more information.

References and Further Reading

1. Solntsev, S. S. High-temperature composite materials and coatings on the basis of glass and ceramics for aerospace technics. Russ. J. Gen. Chem. 81, 992–1000 (2011).
2. Nurhaniza, M., Ariffin, M. K. A., Ali, A., Mustapha, F. & Noraini, A. W. Finite element analysis of composites materials for aerospace applications Related content Finite element analysis of composites materials for aerospace applications. doi:10.1088/1757-899X/11/1/012010
3. What Are Airplane Windows Made of? Available at: https://thepointsguy.co.uk/news/what-are-airplane-windows-made-of/. (Accessed: 18th May 2020)
4. Aviation – The shape of wings to come | New Scientist. Available at: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7552-aviation-the-shape-of-wings-to-come/?ignored=irrelevant. (Accessed: 18th May 2020)
5. Composites flying high (Part 1) – Materials Today. Available at: https://www.materialstoday.com/composite-applications/features/composites-flying-high-part-1/. (Accessed: 18th May 2020)
6. Boccaccini, A. Glass and glass-ceramic matrix composite materials. J. Ceram. Soc. Japan 109, (2001).
7. Dinca, I., Ban, C., Stefan, A. & Pelin, G. Nanocomposites as Advanced Materials for Aerospace Industry. INCAS Bull. 4, 73–83 (2012).
8. Quilter, A. Composites in Aerospace Applications.
9. Dong Goh, G., Dikshit, V., Arun Prasanth, N. & Guo Liang, G. Characterization of mechanical properties and fracture mode of additively manufactured carbon fiber and glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics. Mater. Des. (2017). doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2017.10.021
10. Marsh, G. Reinforced thermoplastics, the next wave? Reinf. Plast. 58, 24–28 (2014).

Quiet Craft Fairs

“A decade ago or so it was possible to predict sales from a craft fair, but that’s much harder now! It’s an unpredictable market out there right now for crafts and design products! … Even doing a show that was successful in the past might not be so good the next year.

All successful craft exhibitors confirm that they have to work harder to get sales and commissions, do more promotion in advance themselves, and follow up after a craft fair as more people delay their purchase decisions.”

Patricia van den Akker, Crafts Magazine July/August 2014 (page 26)

There are many reasons for quiet fairs. Among them is that the recession and recovery from it has created uncertainty among potential buyers.  House moves, which are big drivers of purchases, are less frequent. On the other hand, there is an increasing awareness of craft and handmade which has led to an increasing number of competing craft fairs.  Online selling such as Etsy creates a new kind of competition for craft fairs.

These and other developments are outside your control.  You can’t affect this. You need to concentrate on the things you can do to make things more successful.  

This is about some of the things you can do.

What Can I Do During the Event?

You will have done your research in choosing this event, which lead you to think it would be successful for you.  During the show you can do some things to help inform you about what to do now.

·        Is there good footfall?  What are the numbers to date compared to previous years? The organisers should be able to tell you how many visitors have come so far. You can make the comparison from your research on previous years.  Don’t panic.

·        Consider the composition of the people who are present.  Are the visitors the right people prepared to buy? What does the visitor profile seem to be?  Are there retail and wholesale buyers present? This is a good opportunity to engage with them for future orders if not present ones.  Networking is important and this is a time and place where you can meet a lot of people and discover reactions to your work, even if they are not buying.  Remember that your fellow stallholders can be part of that supportive network, and even sometimes be future customers.

·        Have you put out enough publicity?  Is there anything you can do now to get people to come before the close?  If you have a quiet time, you can use your social media outlets to tell people about your participation in the event.  Possibly you can offer an incentive for people to come to this show.

·        What does your interaction with the visitors that are at the event tell you? What interest and feedback are you getting? What questions are being asked? Which piece was is most popular? Think about rearranging the placing of your work to better reflect the interests of the visitors.  Can you follow up with the visitors after the show? Are you collecting their contact details?

·        Is your display right for the venue? Can you adjust your display to attract more visitors to the stand? Think about a white board for people to post their reactions to your work.  Which is most popular, for example?  Possibly a special offer is in order. 

·        Are the other exhibitors of a similar price level and quality?  If not, think of ways for your products to appear a better fit for the rest of the event.

·        Are the other stall holders having a quiet time too?  If they are, it may be a general problem with the event.  If you are performing less well than other stall holders, perhaps you have the wrong pricing, or glass products with perceived difficulties for transport.  Lots of packaging is necessary.  Offer a delivery or postal service, if appropriate.

Review the Event

Research – how good was your investigation of the event before you signed up?  

it’s crucial that you research craft fairs before you apply. Choosing the right events to suit your work can be difficult and there are no guarantees of instant return. Don’t be afraid to ask some probing questions of the organisers and past exhibitors.   Patricia van den Akker, Crafts Magazine July/August 2014, p.26.

There are a number of things you should look at to determine if this was the right event for your glass work. 

Organisers

Who organises the event? Look at their track record for this and any other events they organise.  There are sites for rating events that you can use such as Folksy’s.  You can look at Trip Advisor show reviews  for the visitor reactions.

Exhibitors

Who the other exhibitors are, or have been, is important in judging your fit within the group of exhibitors.  This information should be available from the organisers.  Are these your peers in price and quality?  Think about how you will both fit with them and stand out from them.

A good craft fair curator should make sure there’s a wide mix of things and not too many of the same.  David Andrews, And at What Cost

Visitor numbers and average sales

The organisers should be able to tell you of the number of visitors to previous events and at least the average sales of the event.

Visitor profile

Does the proposed event seem to be oriented to buyers?  If the craft fair is in support of a main event, you need to determine if your glass work will fit the apparent interests of visitors to the main event.  You may be able to make items that will interest them.  If the craft fair is the main event, you have a greater chance of the visitors being buyers.

The publicity may be oriented toward individuals, or to buyers for businesses and wholesalers.  These will each need different approaches.  The organiser should be able to tell you about the composition of the visitors for previous event.

Publicity for the event

Look at the publicity issued for previous events.  The organisers often give you this information.  This will provide an idea of what they produced and maybe how it was distributed.  Look at what local, and if appropriate, regional and national, press was obtained.  Did they get into lifestyle publications? What business and trade press was received?

Visit the event

If at all possible, visit the event.  This will give you a first-hand feel of the style of the event.  You will be able to see the range of exhibitors, the various styles of stands.  This will help you determine if this is an event you would fit into.  It also will  give you ideas to help design your exhibit. 

You can engage with exhibitors that appear to have a business of a similar size to yours to get the benefit of their experiences. You must be careful about this.  Be honest.  State that you are a potential exhibitor and ask if they have the time to give their experience about this event.  Approach them only when they are quiet.  Be aware of the need to avoid blocking other visitors from the stand.  Do not engage in long conversations.

If you can’t visit, look at the social media of the organisers and any exhibitors you know attended.  This will give some feel of the previous event. 

Location

This is about where the event is being held in relation to your location.  Do you need to travel and stay somewhere to attend, or is it near enough to avoid overnights?

It is also about where the event is located.  Venues range from dedicated events arenas to school gyms.  How easy is it to find? Is it signposted well? What are the parking facilities?  Look at the venue as though you were a visitor and decide on the suitability of the place.

Consider the timing

Craft fairs are held throughout the year, but those in the months leading up to Christmas most often get greater footfall and have a higher proportion of buyers.  Summer shows are influenced by the weather – a sunny day can take everyone to the beach or lakeside, but a stormy, rainy day can keep everyone inside.

Try to make your products relevant to the existing season or the coming one.  Think about opportunities people want for securing gifts relating to celebrations or awareness days.  Trade shows are often working 6 to 9 months in advance so the buyers can get the products into stock for the relevant season.

Promotion

This is not about what the organisers do, although that is important.  It is about what you do to generate interest.  There are going to be a lot of competing products.  You need to generate interest in people coming to your stand. 

My bugbear is exhibitors who expect footfall and sales and rely too much on the organisers. YOU need to do marketing & social media to get sales. – Patricia van den Akken, The Design Trust on Twitter.

You should be prepared to do a lot of social media work in the months and weeks leading up to the event.  You need to be telling people about your participation and preparation for the show.  You should make up a press release about the show and your participation in it.  Even if this is not taken up by the press, the material in it can be used for all the other marketing  you do.

You need to ensure that you provide the organisers with text and excellent photographs well before the deadline they impose.  If you have good images of your glass work and send them in plenty of time, you have a greater chance of being featured in one way or another.

After the Show

You need to consider what lessons can be taken from a quiet show.

Display

Review the layout of your stand.  Does it do justice to the quality of your glass work?  Think about what you can do to make the glass more eye catching – lighting, space for each item to breathe, clear pricing, arrangement, etc.  Make it clear what you do, what you make and why.

Product range

“When planning which products to sell at a craft fair, think 1) affordable, 2) achievable, 3) aspirational, and try to bring a range of products so you have all three covered.”  Folksy

This is applicable to all shows, perhaps with the exception of trade shows, where you need to concentrate on glass work that you can produce in quantity.  If you can produce a variety of glass with a group of price points, you will make it easier for buyers to choose.  Of course, you will need more items in group one, with a moderate amount of group two and only one or two of group three.

After a quiet fair you need to reflect on whether the glass range you brought was a fit for the event.  Were they relevant to location, suitable for the season, relevant to the event, suitable for a range of ages, etc. You need bring only the relevant products, not your full range of glass work.

Engagement

You need to review your performance at the show too.  Look at how you interacted with the people who did stop by.  You need to be sure you maintain a friendly appearance throughout.  Did you enjoy your conversations with visitors?  If not, you need to work on picking up on their cues.  You need to get them talking about themselves and their interests to be able to direct them to the appropriate glass.  Are you approachable?  Being at the front of your stand is important to drawing people in.  Showing your enthusiasm for doing your glass is important, because people like a story about the maker and her glass.  This helps engage people with your work and may lead to purchases.

Transport

Glass is heavy, and perceived to be fragile.  You need to find ways to overcome these resistances to buying.  Some things you can do are:

• excellent packaging (bring lots);
• a pick-up service (after they have paid and given their contact details) before they leave the event;
• after show delivery by post or courier. 

There will be others that you can think of too.  Signpost these services, so people know while they consider their purchase.

Payment

It is essential that you are able to take card payments.  You can use PayPal.  There are a number of companies that either have short term hire of terminals, or do not have monthly charges (although their percentage take is a bit higher).  Without electronic payment facilities, you will lose many sales.

Reflect on the Benefits of Attending Events

Feedback

You get direct feedback on your work, its pricing, and how it fits with people’s lifestyle.  You can learn of misunderstandings about your glass and so correct or anticipate them in the future.  Conversations at shows can be vital in guiding the direction of your work.

Networking 

Communicating with other stall holders makes a community of interest and support.  Also, potential customers can be discovered at shows and some of them may be the fellow stallholders. Making good relations with them has the potential to get write-ups about you from them in their discussion of the fair on social media, just as you may and should write about them even though they don’t do glass.

Meeting people that can promote your work

There is a great variety of people who are not buyers but are looking for things and people to write about.  This is great publicity.  The craft press attends shows looking for items of interest to their readers. Bloggers increasingly are writing about people they discover at events. Stylists, interior designers and influencers are also milling about.  You will not always recognise them from their badges, but treating everyone with enthusiasm for your glass work will include them.  They may give you feedback at the show or be available afterwards to contact and learn of their views.

Stockists

Shows are good places to meet stockists, who may be retailers, shops, galleries, wholesalers and others who want to stock your glass.  Take details and follow up all of these contacts.  You should be prepared for these people by having price lists and  professionally produced publicity material under the counter to give to them.  Business cards are essential.  If you offer one, you will get theirs in return.

Future sales 
It is not only stockists that you need to keep a list of contacts.  Get the details of all the interested people and contact them after the show and in the future when appropriate.

I do believe that craft fairs and events are still one of the best marketing tools for creative businesses. They help you to build your profile, to reach many potential clients in a short period of time who can get to know you a lot better, and events can really boost your confidence too.

But … you do need to … promote yourself! Even if your contacts are unable to attend the event it’s crucial that you let them know through a series of emails, blog posts and social media. Events are one of the best ways to stay in touch with your potential clients!

An event invite can be a great tool to drive more traffic to your website and get online sales instead.

Selling events aren’t there just to get sales but are also a way to stay in touch with potential clients, to increase your profile, and to get new contact details for your database. Start a database and stay in touch. And by following up you can often turn a quiet craft fair into a pretty successful one!

Patricia van den Akker, Crafts Magazine July/August 2014 (page 26)

Take advantage of quiet events to reflect on what you can do during the show and after the show to make for better outcomes in the future.  Reflect on your research of the event.  Consider location, timing, relation to a main event or awareness week or month.  Look at your promotional effort leading up to the show.  Consider how to improve your marketing.  Remember that even a quiet show can provide great contacts and that follow-up with the people you have met can garner purchases.  Not everything is about the immediate monetary returns.