I survived my first Mod Shop!  For those who aren’t familiar with it, Mod Shop is Modesto’s annual maker/craft fair that happens on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving (aka Small Business Saturday). It features lots of unique, handmade items made by local folks—artwork, jewelry, hand-carved spoons, etc. On a last-minute whim, I applied to have a booth and was accepted (woohoo!). I then spent three months frantically making things for my Mod Shop booth, in addition to keeping the daily Wonky Felt display going. (If you saw some familiar scenes on the floor-hole or some extra long themes during those months–that’s why!)

To prepare for Mod Shop, I had tasks for listed on my calendar every weekend. It was full of plans like: make 12 hot dogs, make 6 piñatas, figure out table design, etc. Most of those tasks took much longer than originally estimated. Then I realize I had to figure out other things that I’ve never done before like figuring out how to collect credit card payments and deciding what appropriate prices should be. Both of those things made me cringe, but I got it done! Below are my takeaways.

Things I think I got right:

• I really liked how my booth turned out, even after stressing about it for weeks. It was colorful and crazy. I opted for a large, retractable banner behind me instead of a banner on the table itself. I probably could have done both, but hey…
• I liked being able to offer a variety of different price-points for things. It helped that I also had some non-felty promotional things to fill in the gaps—like tote bags, shirts, magnets. Having some swag available actually helps the felty efforts.

Things I wish I’d done differently:

• I wish I’d been able to take a break and walk around to see other maker booths! Even though I had someone helping out at my booth most of the time, I felt bad about walking away from it. (What if a big Wonky Felt fan showed up and I wasn’t there?) I follow most of the other makers on social media and there was so much good stuff. I might need to send someone out to shop on my behalf next year!
• I wish I’d made more wacky wavy guys! I was selling those at a low price of $5 and they went fast. It was great seeing everyone’s reaction to them though and even a couple of schoolteachers snagged some!
• I had a really great booth spot. It was on a corner and I really didn’t know which way to face! I ended up just angling my booth, but I wish I’d contemplated the possibility of that in advance. I really wanted the booth to look attractive from all angles.

Crazy ideas that didn’t actually pan out but might still be good for next year:

• Preorders – I was considering trying to do pre-orders for people so there wasn’t that initial rush and panic during the first order of Mod Shop. I might still try that. It would be nice to have things pre-packaged, already paid for and ready to go.
• Accessory Packs – My original thought for the hot dogs would be that they had optional add-on accessory packs (e.g. various hats, costumes, etc).

I will probably stick to Mod Shop as my exclusive, once-a-year event.  After all, keeping the floor-hole covered and working at my full-time job keep me pretty busy during the year! But having more time to prepare for next year’s Mod Shop should make things a lot easier. I’m definitely looking forward to it!