StoryPress · field notes
Notes from both sides of the table.
What to ask before you buy something handmade — and what to answer when you are the one behind the table. Written from real fairs, not from a marketing plan.
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Why the price ends in 5
Forty sounds like a decision. Thirty-eight sounds like a number someone arrived at.
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The table that is not selling
Good work, fair price, nobody stops. It is almost never the pieces — it is the table.
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What a fair smells like
Floor wax, cold coffee, wet wool — and the woman who comes back at four for the green bowl.
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The 48 hours after the fair
What you do in the two days after the hall empties decides whether the table fee was worth it.
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How to buy handmade without getting it wrong
Six things to ask at the table, so the piece you liked at four in the afternoon does not go home with someone else.