Fall markets & shows: What we've done and what we've learned

July 04, 2026

Fall markets & shows: What we've done and what we've learned

Now that summer is upon us, we begin to get full sway into Halloween in our art, our imaginations, and our festival preps. In light of this "season", I thought it would be appropriate to finally share the blog that I ALMOST posted last year. haha! So here's a retrospective look at our some of our fall shows and what my current thoughts are about going into it again for this year.

So, in September my husband and I did some really fun autumn shows together: First was Vintage Market Days, and then barely a week or so later was our local Giant Pumpkin Festival (SO many people at both...wow!!) . And honestly, the first thing I have to say is...

Shows are hard work!

Doing shows is a lot like a science experiment. You choose a show that you think your audience would attend and then you take the risk and pay your booth fees, which can sometimes be a lot! Then you hope you've designed an eye catching set up and bring a variety of price ranges to cast a wide net.

But you never can tell what a market will do for you 'til you try it. So you go to shows over and over, and try again and again. All the while removing festivals and shows that aren't returning your investment after a few good tries.

Our booth has undergone multiple phases through the years. Below is our most recent booth setup which I was really happy with. I liked the various heights for drawing attention at (or close to) eye level.

We sold under our holiday collectables business name Frost Hollow Farm.

My husband made the vintage sign replicas and they turned out so cool! They were such a good visual draw from far away! I think next year we will do our own designs,

Ironically these signs didn't do as well at the Pumpkin Fest as they did at the Vintage Market Days; that's the funny thing about markets. It's like each season/venue picks a different favorite.

We predicted there would be more Halloween and pumpkin lovers who would show up at the Center street Giant pumpkin Fest than the Vintage Market Days shows, and that definitely proved true.

Looking back I think this (above) display ended up looking too much like a flea market rather than an art exhibit, so we won't repeat this set up again in the future. We thought the simpler set up (below) is easier for people to enter and see all of our offerings.

One lesson we keep learning regardless of the venue is that higher priced art is probably better reserved for real art shows. Thank goodness I had brought my stickers and made some art prints last minute; it was nice for people who liked our work, but weren't ready for originals, to be able to take something home.

At the same time, we did meet some new people that were fast friends and kindred collectors who bought higher priced items. You really never know who will be at a certain show.

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Below is our set up for Vintage Market Days.

I really like the simplicity here. It looks clean and put together.

We had a Fun time at this show.

But oh man,

three days is Exhausting!

We learned a lot and we already have some changes planned for next year for sure.

Firstly we learned that because decor and art aren't priced the same we had some disappointed inquirers hoping these handmade pieces would be priced like cheap Chinese factory decor.

-Pro tip: Never feel guilty for being more expensive than cheap factory stuff!

Also never lower your prices to compete with it! Just make prints or stickers (something you can mass produce) for the cheaper price range.

Never sell your handmade items as your "cheap items".

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Below is our first setup at the pumpkin-fest (last year); we forgot our tablecloths but it all worked out pretty well despite that.

It was our first year at the show and we got placed in an obscure spot off the beaten path, but it was still a surprising turn out and people were happily coming to our booth area to get away from the crowd. We made enough that year to be excited and came again for our second year. (We'll probably request a similar spot next time).

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This was our experimental set up at the 2023 Vintage Market Days show.

Now that we've tried a few different layouts, we think this might be our favorite...it really shows off our art, and in fact kind of reminds us of a museum or gallery display! giving it a high end look.

Pro tip: reflecting the price range when you display your work is important. if you display your high end item in a low end way you'll get a lot of people looking for cheap deals getting sticker shock, and people looking for fine quality handmade goods may bypass your booth entirely.

Presentation matters.

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We had a couple prints available at our last show and they sold well. I also brought some higher priced pieces and even 3 unfinished wall plaque papier-mache girls as a project to work on during slow hours, and ended up selling two of them!! We really hit it off with the collectors and became fast friends! One of my favorite things about these shows is meeting the awesome people who support what we create!

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I made some new handmade clay charms. They didn't sell especially well this year, They might do well next year. you never know sometimes.

That's another lesson markets have taught me:

One season rarely tells the whole story.

One year we sold out of all my "noodle-y arm" pumpkin guys!...

...The year after we sold only a few.

I've also had things move slowly the first year and do great later. This is especially applicable to large priced items. People often save up for items they saw previously.