Market Day Iowa 2012

beeisforbowers: New dog hoodie display at #vitae … Thanks...

catrocketship — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:57:31 -0600

beeisforbowers:

New dog hoodie display at #vitae … Thanks @joshuabowers for making it! #acanthusapparel #doghoodies (at Vitae)

hipsterhousewife: Market Day is happening!

catrocketship — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:02:24 -0600

hipsterhousewife:

Market Day is happening!

Art Beacon Des Moines: Jolynn Reigeluth illustrates her Alter Egos at Ephemera

catrocketship — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:10:48 -0600

Art Beacon Des Moines: Jolynn Reigeluth illustrates her Alter Egos at Ephemera:

artbeacondsm:

Jolynn Reigeluth’s Alter Egos

Ephemera

Exhibition Review by Rachel

Last Friday, I was introduced to a donkey who is always celebrating his birthday. Above you see him in his party hat, standing patiently, awaiting final judgment in Purgatory. He is one of many…

Submit Your Work to ArtVend

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:01:54 -0600

Remember that cool project from Ames C.art we posted about a while back? ArtVend (aka, the vending machine where you can sell handmade items).

Right. Well, you can submit stuff! (As long as it can fit in a vending machine and handle the drop.) Just visit the ArtVend submission page and fill out a few questions. Ames C.art will let you know how to package and deliver your items.

From the ArtVend website:

[ArtVend] is a vending machine that has been transformed to display and sell the work of local artists and crafters (aka Makers). The machine will spread homemade morsels of Central Iowa where they might not normally reach, and local Makers will have a unique option to promote their work. The presence of the ArtVend will encourage the integration of creativity into everyday life.

[image via amescart.org]

You Can Still Apply for Market Day!

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:44:21 -0600

There’s still time to get in on this year’s action! We’re starting Early Bird Registration today, but that doesn’t mean applications are closed. Just fill out this application form and we’ll notify you of your status as soon as possible.

If you’ve already applied and received notification that you’ve been accepted, you can now start registering for specific Market Day dates. Remember, this year we’ll be assigning booths, but the sooner you register and pay for a date, the more likely you are to get your preferred location.

Visit marketdayiowa.com for more information, and get in touch with us at vending@marketdayiowa.com if you have any questions.

How to Make the Portfolio Website You Know You Need

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:05:50 -0600

You need to have a website so people (read: new customers) can find you in a Google search. So get one! It’s easy — all you need to post is your contact information and a few photos. Here are some tools to make your own portfolio website.

1: Carbonmade. Make a gorgeous photographic portfolio. It’s easy. It’s pretty. It’s free. Nuff said.

2: Flickr. So simple: Just upload your photos and fill out your profile.

3. Re.vu. This fun, interactive resume-making site a fun way to tell your story (and your vital stats).

4. Professional Nameplate Site. Here are a few more suggestions for “professional nameplate sites” via Lifehacker.

How to Make the Portfolio Website You Know You Need

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:05:46 -0600

1: Carbonmade. Make a gorgeous photographic portfolio. It’s easy. It’s pretty. It’s free. Nuff said.

2: Flickr. So simple: Just upload your photos and fill out your profile.

3. Re.vu. This fun, interactive resume-making site a fun way to tell your story (and your vital stats).

4. Professional Nameplate Site. Here are a few more suggestions for “professional nameplate sites” via Lifehacker.

But where does the $50 booth fee GO??

dani-awesome — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:32:06 -0600

We’ve had some questions about booth fees, and we’d like to address them. It’s true, Market Day booths in 2012 will be $50.00 per month. We’ve always strived to be transparent as possible about our policies, so we’d like to outline what you’re paying for when you hand over your dollars to vend at Market Day.

1. We’re stepping up our game. We’ve been planning in a big way for our 2012 season. Starting in January, we’ve been organizing our little hearts out, structuring and fleshing out our event logistics and policies. In 2012, you can expect:

A better schedule. By moving to the first Saturday of each month, we’re positioning ourselves away from holidays and events that have traditionally interfered with our traffic. Our new schedule coincides with the always awesome first Saturday of the Des Moines Farmers’ Market. We’re moving off of June’s Des Moines Arts Festival, and onto the weekend of 80/35, whose large audience should push more shoppers downtown. Our new schedule pushes our fall dates earlier, taking advantage of the warmer weather, and leaves several weeks to garner buzz for our fourth annual Black Friday bash.

More infrastructure. Our new application system is a great addition to last year’s process. Vendors receive instant confirmation of their applications. In addition, we’re mapping out our spaces in order to efficiently place as many vendors as possible into our events, and we’ll be assigning spaces this year, eliminating too-early mornings and standing in line to compete for placement.

More ads. We’re planning a big media push in 2012. More ads = more traffic = more sales. We’re striving to bring as much attention as possible to our awesome vendors — our budget for ad buys has doubled!

More social media. We’ll be blogging, tweeting, and facebooking our butts off to make sure the Market Day digital presence is as strong as ever.

2. We’re sticking to what works.
There’s a lot about Market Day that isn’t broken, and we’re certainly not fixing it. For your money, you receive:

A fantastic location. We love our new home at the Kirkwood Lounge and Des Moines Social Club. For the first time in Market Day history, two consecutive years will be held at the same venue, reinforcing Market Day’s continuing presence in Des Moines. Our second year has seen an increase in rent, but we believe that the benefits are well worth the costs.

A crack team of devoted planners, at a reasonable price. Cat, Scott, and myself are insanely dedicated to Market Day. We work hours and hours, nights, weekends, whatever it takes to keep Market Day growing and thriving. The stipends we take are small, serve to help us from having to spend Market Day time on other jobs, and are not going up this year.

3. More of the stuff you already expect from Market Day. We’ll be posting MORE resources (on our rad new site), MORE information, MORE ideas (like on our Pinterest!), MORE connectedness for vendors, MORE.

4. More value for the money. We like to think we are growing with our vendors. NOW. Some of you have been selling crafts full time since long before we came along. But many of our vendors started with Market Day and found themselves invested in a new business, with new knowledge, selling part- or full-time at other events in Iowa and across the country.

In our third year, we could see that we needed to kick our game up another notch — lots of vendors had leveled up. We needed new training. So we’re working harder than ever on providing more help and information that will help you further your business — and that’s organized nicely.

At the end of the day, we know we’re worth $50 a month. We can never guarantee any vendor will make their money back, but we do know that most do — especially those businesses which work their crafty fingers off, improving products, signage, displays, and customer interaction.

Most of all, we always want to improve Market Day — for the benefit of our vendors and for the city of Des Moines.

Applications are open!

catrocketship — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:36:32 -0600

Get over there and start applying!

Official Market Day Iowa Website

scottrocketship — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:05:35 -0600

Official Market Day Iowa Website:

Hey guys! We’re moving on from Tumblr for the official festival website. We’ll still keep this guy around and post fun stuff to Tumblr about Market Day, but all of the official application business and that kind of thing will be on the full website at www.marketdayiowa.com.

And a reminder: applications open on Wednesday. THIS Wednesday. So yeah.

2012 Regular Season Application Schedule

scottrocketship — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:02:05 -0600

We’ve been meeting regularly over the past few weeks to plan out and establish goals for the 2012 season. One priority for us this year is to increase the clarity of communication between Market Day and our applicants and vendors. To that end, we’ve created a thorough overview and schedule describing the process of applying and registering for Market Day Iowa.

We’ll begin accepting applications on February 15. Read full details of the application and registration schedule for the 2012 Market Day Iowa season.

Announcing the 2012 Market Day Iowa Schedule

scottrocketship — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:12:49 -0600

We’re back, baby!

2012 Market Day Iowa Regular Season Schedule

Regular season 2012 Market Day Iowa indie shopping events will be held on the first Saturday of the month, May through October.

May 5
June 2
July 7
August 4
September 1
October 6

These regular season dates will be held in the Kirkwood Building at 400 Walnut Street in downtown Des Moines, IA. This is the same location as last year.

Black Friday

We are busy planning big things for Black Friday on November 23, so mark your calendars. Expect to once again have an opportunity to shop locally and handmade with thousands of others on the biggest shopping day of the year. Suffice it to say, if you’ve loved prior Market Day Black Friday events, you’re really going to love this year’s event.

Applications

Details on the 2012 application process will be posted later this week. Applications will open much sooner than in previous years, so get to organizing if you know you’ll be applying.

And?

And what? That’s it. We keep it simple. Market Day is back, it’s gonna be great, and you want to attend and/or vend. Put it on your calendar, yo. See ya there.

10 Tips to Rock It At Your Next Craft Show -- from Handmadeology

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:10:16 -0600

Holy cow! We found some great tips about grabbing customers’ attention and encouraging them to buy things. Jacqueline, the tip-master, hosts a craft show (the Made By Hand Show, to be exact) and has been selling handmade for five years — so she knows a thing or two. Take a look and start raking in the dough at your shows. Original post from Handmadeology.

Guest post by: Jacqueline from the Made By Hand Show

Starting out a crafting business can be scary. Most of us start online through an Etsy shop (or something similar). A great way to gain exposure for your company is to showcase at local craft shows and fairs. It’s an opportunity to network and give customers a chance to see, smell touch your products.

Going to a show for the first time can be intimidating. I have been participating in craft shows since 2007 showcasing my handmade cards and paper crafts (Made by Jacqueline).

Last year I started a new venture the Made by Hand Show, hosting craft shows. As we begin a new year, I thought it would be a good time to share my 10 TIPS TO ROCK IT AT YOUR NEXT CRAFT SHOW:

#1 GOT CHA: You have 3-5 seconds to grab a customer’s attention.

#2 DISPLAY: Space, Clean, add height or risers to grab the customers eye

#3 DEMO YOUR PRODUCT: (ie. if you sell jewellery wear it, demo your products if you can) – have a sample out that people can touch, feel, taste.

#4 WHO ARE YOU? When a customer walks by do they know who you are and what you’re selling? Think about a banner or a sign.

#5 ATTRACT: Attract Customers to your booth – Free samples, Candy, games, prize draw.

#6 ADVERTISE: Tell your contacts what booth you’ll be at; maybe offer your present customers a discount for coming to the event. This is where social media and your mailing list comes in handy.

#7 SMILE: Be friendly, start conversation ‘hello’, SMILE (there is nothing worse than a vendor that seems uninterested, grumpy or bored at their booth, it turns away customers).

#8 PRICE IT RIGHT: Vary price points (for example you may have a piece that is $100 but also make sure you have something in the $20 range or lower to grab impulse buys).

#9 BUILD: Have a mailing list on your booth so customers can sign up. It may lead to a future sale and it helps build your client list.

#10 FOLLOW-UP: Post event follow-up with everyone you meet (promptly after the show). It can be as simple as a quick “Thank-you for visiting my booth”.

Now that you have the tips .. I encourage you to apply to a local craft show in your area.

~Jacqueline

Now that you have the tips .. I encourage you to apply to the Spring Made by Hand Show on April 21, 2012 at the International Centre in Mississauga.
Happy Crafting!

Image: Urban Black, Orange and Green Leaves Applique on Natural Linen Canvas 16 x 16 inch Cushion Cover by: ClassicByNature

These are the best, simplest ideas for crafters I’ve read. Or written. Or seen ever.”

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:56:56 -0600

These are the best, simplest ideas for crafters I’ve read. Or written. Or seen ever.”

You Should Shop at Ephemera for Holiday Gifts

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:05:06 -0600

Yep, we’ve reached crunch time—there are officially four more shopping days until Christmas. If you’re starting to panic about what to get your little sister, why not turn to a good ol’ neighborhood shop? No delivery, friendly customer service, and cute, unique gifts.

Try Ephemera, the paper/art/craft beauty—they have “an assortment of handmade lovelies,” which we think means that you’ll love the delicate prints here. Stop by and say hi.

WHO Karen, Arin and little miss ephemera

WHERE 505 E. Locust St., Des Moines, IA 50309

WEB ephemeradesign.com

WHEN

Tuesday to Friday: 10 - 5:30 pm
Saturday: 10 - 5:00 pm
Sunday: by appointment
Monday: by appointment

You Should Shop at Francy Pants for Holiday Gifts

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:05:06 -0600

These guys sell modern and vintage clothing for women—and seriously, they’ve got some goooood stuff here, no matter which style tycoon you’re shopping for. The best part is you can get gifts AND save the earth. They reuse their plastic bags and don’t print receipts to keep bad shit out of landfills.

WHO Emily Zach

WHERE 2417 University Avenue

WEB francypantsdsm.com

WHEN

Wednesday: 3:00pm - 7:00pm
Thursday: 3:00pm - 7:00pm
Friday: 3:00pm - 7:00pm
Saturday: 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Sunday: by chance

You Should Shop at Domestica for Holiday Gifts

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 10:05:06 -0600

Domestica is the sweetheart of Des Moines — the one all the boys pass “check yes or no” notes to in class. Here you’ll find all manner of handmade, quirky gifts for that indie princess in your life, including darlings like bus necklaces, retro screenprinted owls, and armadillo earrings. Stop by and support this local staple.

WHO Chrissy Jensen

WHERE 321 East Walnut Street

WHEN Tuesday-Friday: 11a-6p, Saturday: 10a-5p, Sunday: Noon-4p

WEB shopdomestica.com

You Should Shop at Raygun for Holiday Gifts

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 10:05:05 -0600

Inside jokes make great gifts—especially when the giftee isn’t in on the joke. Raygun’s shirts are funny enough that Great Aunt Ruth From Connecticut will laugh her arse off at that “There’s Nothing Sexier Than a Cornfield” shirt, but you’ll be laughing yours off too. Because you’re a Midwesterner. And she’s dumb.

See Raygun’s holiday deets here (like when they ship, and how you can STILL get your tees on time). And browse shirts, accessories, et al. here.

You Should Shop at Finders Creepers for Holiday Gifts

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:06:06 -0600

This horror-themed gift shop is great for the a-little-bit-odd-but-still-awesome people in your life. Here you can find gifts for “Halloween lovers, monster movie maniacs, morbid art aficionados and everyone else who has an appreciation for the strange and unusual,” according to their site. The shop sells such goods as monster tees, spooky antiques, punk jewelry, and real skulls—yep, real skulls. And remember to check out the art space in the basement, fondly referred to as the “Ghoul Gallery,” for the latest exhibitions.

CONTACT Erin (erin@finderscreepers.com)

SHOP 515 18th Street, Des Moines IA, 50309

WEB finderscreepers.com

How to support Market Day vendors after Market Day (Part 3)

rianemenardi-deactivated2013021 — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:05:06 -0600

Finally — part three of three. Here are the remaining Market Day vendors, so look for gift ideas here. And stay tuned to the Market Day blog for more ideas on how you can support the local creative community this holiday season.

—

Darby Shannon, DarbyCakes

Kyle Newman

Jennifer Thompson, Two Rivers Soap Company, http://www.tworiverssoaps.etsy.com

Amy McCarty, ameileen

Calee HImes, chimesdesign, www.chimes.etsy.com

Sara Price, Whym, http://www.etsy.com/shop/whym

Bill Young, Shade Tree Pens

Alicia Held Morris, maude wren, www.etsy.com/shop/maudewren

Lesley Payne, Lesley Payne Photography, http://lesleypayne.etsy.com

Corey Morrison, Little Sweet Pea Candles, www.littlesweetpeacandles.com

Denise Link, Chantilly Lace DSM, chantillylacedsm.storenvy.com

Holly Leas, Farmageddon