Organizer, vendors get crafty at Lowcountry Artist Market
Whether you know it or not, there is a movement afoot. And that isn't too strong a word; it is a movement, a move to get reacquainted with who makes the products that fill our lives.
Suddenly, lots of people out there are wondering who grows their cucumbers or potatoes, who makes their shoes or soap. Farmers markets are popping up everywhere from parks to bank parking lots, and Etsy.com, the online handmade and vintage market, has buyers and sellers from more than 150 countries.
Finding these handmade products is part of the fun, and the quest is becoming easier and easier. Just like farmers markets, handmade markets are springing up everywhere.
According to Gastaldo, one of the most successful markets in the region is the Lowcountry Artist Market at the Music Farm, which celebrates its one-year anniversary with another event this Saturday.
"I knew something was happening when, at the first one last year, people were waiting outside the door before the market even opened," says Kristen Thompson Gastaldo, general manager for the Music Farm on Ann Street.
From the first market last June, the Music Farm has enjoyed crowds close to 1,000 people, enthusiastic vendors selling amazing products and the perfect storm of location and time to get it all done.
Gastaldo has a background managing music clubs, but she started the Lowcountry Artist Market when she realized that a vendor she bought from on Etsy.com was local. She thought to herself, "Wow, I have a venue open on Saturday mornings, and I'd much rather be buying handmade products locally." And thus this market was born.
Effective marketing
But what makes the market successful, and it is successful for everyone from the Music Farm to the vendors themselves, is not just the handpicked vendors or the location.
It has something that a lot of other handmade markets don't: professional marketing. Gastaldo employs the tactics she has honed as a club manager.
Mark Lawrence of Gil Shuler Designs has created a poster, and Gastaldo has placed ads, dropped fliers and done radio morning shows.
She is invested in the market. It was her idea, and she wants to make sure that everyone is happy: from her bosses at the Farm to the vendors. And all that depends on getting people in the door, ready to buy. But it has not all been smooth sailing.
"I was surprised at the amount of strollers at the first one, and strollers aren't something I usually think about at the Music Farm," she says with a smile.
The layout of the music hall provides some challenges to vendor space, and she constantly is tweaking the booth arrangement of the 35 vendors to provide wider aisles (for those strollers), and create better crowd flow.
The central bar was also a stumbling block, but instead of being frustrated with its placement, she uses it during the market, offering bloody marys and mimosas to shoppers. That, along with a food truck in the back alley, creates a destination for shoppers, who can enjoy a whole morning at the market if they wish.
Market as motivation
For some vendors, the Lowcountry Artist Market is the push they need to take their business to the next level.
Charleston native Sarah Early graduated from the University of Georgia in 2009, and when her frustrating search for employment ended at a frame shop, she made the best of it, taking the time to re-evaluate the concept of success.
"I originally wanted to be downtown in a cubicle, I'm not sure why, but I'm self-motivated, so I started to do creative things on the side: building websites, creating greeting cards."
She put a few of her cards on Etsy, and when Kristen contacted her about the first market, "It was a big deal. I was so broke, but I invested money for paper and killed myself getting ready for the market. It was a huge leap and very strange and surreal," she says.
And suddenly, her side project was a real business, Dodeline Design. She has participated in all the markets and has a booth reserved for this weekend as well.
"I used it as a personal goal and was so excited to see the reaction at the market," Early explains. "Now for me, it's all about meeting customers, the community of crafters and networking. The artist market is the one market I always want to be at."
"I give huge credit to Kristen because the key is that it (the market) has an indie, cool feel to it. And the poster is such a huge part to me."
Corinne Citrolo of The Fresh Stitch also has been a vendor at every Lowcountry Artist Market, and she loves the fact that it happens every three or four months.
Through The Fresh Stitch, the James Island resident designs "non-Southern-smocked" clothing for boys and girls, and she also has bib sets and baby gifts. Popular designs at the market always are her boy shirts with funky little neckties, and the baby gifts are also a consistent seller.
"I love meeting customers and talking about what I do, and the market always drives me to expand my designs, showcase new items and fabrics," she explains. "The market is an amazing day to be around such a talented group of locals and to see how fortunate I am to live in such a talented city."
'Pleasantly surprised'
Although Natasha Shamdasani Madan's company, Taashki Handbags, is established and her unusual line of handbags already is being carried by nine retail locations, she still sees the Lowcountry Artist Market as important for her business growth. She used the venue to launch her Vegan Leather line a couple of markets ago, and the bags, which all retail for below $100, sell briskly at the market.
She agrees with the other artists that interacting with customers is one of the biggest perks.
"It is interesting to see shoppers' reactions. The bags sold like crazy at the first market," she says. "I was pleasantly surprised because there are so many shoppers, but people are there to buy.
"I tend to do mainly neutral (designs) with a few pops and a few accent colors," she explains.
People are drawn to the brighter bags (she has one in fuschia) on the table, but she notices that more often than not the one they walk away with is neutral.
