Push to buy local provides a huge boost for craft markets
Buy-local trend benefits artisans
On the opening evening of last November’s Make It Edmonton craft show, organizer Chandler Herbut went to the sold-out Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at Rexall, joking to his friends that the craft fair lineups were worse than those at the rock show.
His observation wasn’t far from the truth. Make It and other local craft shows and markets have exploded in popularity, with artists and artisans competing for admission at more and larger venues filled with crowds of shoppers.
Chandler and his sister, Jenna, both designers themselves, organized the first Make It show at the Bonnie Doon community hall in Edmonton just five years ago with 30 vendors. It was aimed at a younger, hipper crowd than traditional craft shows, with offbeat artisans, cool DJs and a party atmosphere to make it as much fun for the vendors as the customers.
“We felt like there was a huge need for a show that was a little bit trendier, that catered to a younger demographic,” he says. “It’s cool to produce a show from the artists’ standpoint.”
At their most recent Make It show earlier this month, they hosted 140 vendors at the Enjoy Centre in St. Albert, and turned away about 120 other applicants. For the next semi-annual Make It show in November, they’re expanding the space to accommodate 200 vendors and expect to get about 350 applicants. While they accept other Canadian vendors, then make sure at least half are from Edmonton.
“It’s one of the growing trends in shopping. People understand, not only are they getting unique stuff but they’re supporting local people,“says Herbut.
“It’s almost a little backlash from everything being imported. It comes down to community,” he adds.
Other local markets are seeing similar, phenomenal growth.
The Royal Bison, another twice-yearly show, is at its maximum capacity of 80 vendors at its current space just north of the Old Strathcona Farmers Market with more than 300 applicants competing for those spots, says organizer Vikki Wiercinski. She doesn’t want to move to a larger venue for fear of ruining the indie, offbeat flavour of the show, which now attracts about 3,000 visitors, up from the 400 who attended the first show, in 2007.
“We have a really strong ‘maker’ culture in Edmonton,” says Wiercinski. “There’s some very imaginative, weirdo people in this city and they have some great ideas.”
The upstart Mercer Collective, a new, twice-monthly Saturday market for about 40 artisans and artists in the basement of the Mercer Warehouse downtown, is already overrun with applicants — about 300 so far, with another 10 or 15 added to the list after each market, says manager Marissa Loewen.
The Mercer market includes live musicians, plus painters, sculptors, furniture makers, clothes designers and others who don’t fit the traditional craft-show mould, as well as many who do. “It’s not just a craft market. We’re seeing that merge of the art and craft world,” says Loewen.
Vendors love having a more frequent market at which to sell their creations and customers love the eclectic mix of items they find, as well as the personal interaction with the artists, she adds. “I think the craft markets are going to keep expanding.”
Even the weekly, more traditional “farmers” markets, are seeing more applications from crafters looking to sell alongside the usual market vendors of fresh produce, baked goods and preserves.
The year-round Old Strathcona Farmers Market limits its craft vendors to about 40 tables, or about 20 per cent of its 200 vendors, says market manager Stephanie Szakacs. But each month, it receives another 30 to 40 applications from new craft vendors, particularly those creating jewelry, photographs and paintings.
Szakacs says it’s all part of the growing do-it-yourself culture. “It’s really cool to see people turn away from the mass-produced arts and crafts you find at major retailers and instead
“People understand, not only are they getting unique stuff but they’re supporting local people.”
Chandler Herbut
look for things with that ‘human’ touch.
“I think its great and I hope to see it continue,” she adds.
At the outdoor City Market downtown, organizers try to keep a balance of about 75 per cent food and produce vendors and 25 per cent crafts, says Dan Young, chair of the downtown market association. While the market is continuing to accept new vendors, it has had to limit some categories of crafts, like jewelry, because of the number of applicants, he says.
Those who can’t get space at a market, or don’t have time to devote to one, are still finding an outlet in online craft markets like Etsy, where an online shop can be opened in minutes, with vendors paying 20 cents per item they list and paying a 3.5 per cent fee for every item sold.
The Brooklyn-based company launched in 2005 with gross sales of about $170,000. Last year it hit over $895 million in sales, says Nada Alic, the company’s Canadian community manager.
While Etsy has more than 850,000 vendors from over 200 countries, it offers a “shop local” button to give buyers that local-craft-market feel. The feature allows buyers to search by category for all the items available from vendors in a particular city; a search of Edmonton, for example, turns up more than 14,000 items.
Even sites like Pinterest, which allow users to “pin” items of interest in various categories on boards that can be viewed by others, has helped fuel the do-it-yourself frenzy, says Julie Morrison, a local artist who has been designing, making and selling unique, vinyl bags and accessories under her Majesty label at local markets for more than a decade.
“It makes people feel like they’re invincible,” she says of the site, which gives both the crafty and the un-crafty all kinds of inspiration to create.
While the pool of artisans looking to sell is increasing, so too is the market of customers looking for interesting, unusual, locally made products to buy, says Morrison.
“The whole hipster craze — it’s like the alternative movement in the ’90s, where everybody wants to be different and have something no one else has. ‘Oh, it’s made of tree bark? I want that.’”
While the huge growth has made it difficult for vendors in some craft categories to get into markets — “you have to wait for the jewelry vendors to die to get in here,” she says of the downtown market — it has also meant a large and growing base of customers.
“Edmontonians are really good at supporting their local artists,” she says.
The result is thriving community that encourages other would-be crafters to join in, says Herbut.
“I think everybody has a creative side. I really think there’s an artist within everybody.”