Selling out! Our first try as a vendor at JCCAC Handicraft Fair

by Sanford Poon | September 27, 2014 | 0 Comments

JCCAC Handicraft Fair, 13-14 Sep 2014JCCAC Handicraft Fair, 13-14 Sep 2014
(Top left and bottom: images taken from JCCAC Facebook Page)

2014 marks the 4th year of Misala, but it was the first time we were showing our craft to our friends and family back home, in Hong Kong. Despite the being called a "cultural desert," some groups of people worked hard in the last few years to increase public awareness and acceptance of arts and culture in the city. The Jockey Club, as a charity, was one of the pioneers in the field and organized the first arts and crafts fair, the JCCAC handicraft fair in town.

The fair is located at JCCAC, a historic factory estate turned art centre building. The building is home to local artists' studios, from disciplines ranging from painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, glass art, multi-media design, folk art, film and video art, music, dance, multi-media performance, to community art and art education, with additional space reserved for exhibitions. It is the perfect destination for a leisurely walk on a normal day, but will be converted to a bustling business center on the craft fair weekends, which is only held quarterly.

Knowing full well the popularity of the event, we put our preparation into full-force more than 2 weeks ahead of time. Despite the fact that our products are very time-consuming to make, we worked until the final moment before hopping on a plane, and managed to produce nearly twice the amount of stock we had for our previous fairs.

Before the fairPhotos taken before the fair, which turned out to be the only moment we could take a breath.

The fair began at 1pm, and within 30minutes, the entire building is swarmed by visitors. Our booth was located indoors, which is supposed to be air conditioned. However, the area was constantly full of people and the lack of circulation had pushed everybody to the verge of suffocation at all times.

Our booth was totally overwhelmed
Left: Our orderly "Misala Zoo" quickly becomes an "Animal Platter"
Right: Bombarded by visitors, our booth was full of people at all time.

What really kept us off guard was that many visitors of the fair recognized us from our TV show, which was aired just a week before the event. Knowing our story and determination, many fans bought from us to show appreciation and support, and many of our bestsellers were sold out within the first two hours, and that our other fans who arrived late had a much limited selection to choose from.

Michelle and our JCCAC boothThank you, and see you next time!

 Okay, that shows how inexperienced we are at craft shows. But in any case, we met a lot nice people. They brought us a lot kind words and wisdom, and this is much more important than business and money changing hands. We will try harder next time, delivering smile and inspiration to everyone around us!

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