Craft your way to cash at the USE International Craft Fair

Is your passion in all things crafty? Are you busy making monsters out of recycled jumpers or transforming tired old clothes into fantastic new outfits when you should be working or sleeping? Well, don’t keep it to yourself – we want you!

If you have read my previous post on crafts (and if you haven’t, have a peek at it here) you’ll know that I’m really passionate about art, craft, and creative ideas, and am eager to encourage other students to pair their passions and creativity with a drive for business. So, in conjunction with Global Enterprise Week USE is hosting an internationally themed craft fair… with a twist.

Firstly, your average craft fair is brimming with established professionals, people already using their creative skills to make money. While these people are more than welcome at our fair too, we’re especially looking for people that have never done it before but think they’ve got the passion and creative drive to create something really cool and quirky. Often, it can be daunting developing an idea into a profitable venture. We’re here to encourage people that it’s possible.

Secondly, stalls at established craft fairs normally cost upwards of £25, with no guarantee that you’ll actually sell anything and make this money back. Steep, eh? USE wouldn’t do that you. In fact, we have that much faith in your crafting abilities, we’ll do the opposite. We’re happy to loan you up to £15 towards materials to get you going, so that you aren’t daunted by the costs of bringing all your beautiful ideas into being. All profits you make outside of the money we lend you is yours to keep.

There’s only one catch – products have to have an international theme (it is Global Enterprise Week, after all.) That might sound daunting, but it encompasses tonnes of possibilities. As long as it can be loosely linked, we want it in our fair. Think knitted animals that all hail from Africa, tea cosies in the colour of the Union Jack, or a socktopus wearing a French beret (credit to Liz Ree for that pretty fantastic idea). All we want is quirkiness, creativity, and imagination.

If that wasn’t enough of a spin on your traditional craft fair, there’s more. To help inspire you to take your ideas further, we will be having guest speakers who have used their creative abilities to build up viable businesses. Finally, we love to celebrate enterprising activities and reward people for all their hard work – so, there will be prizes for different categories, such as the most money raised, the best idea and quirkiest stall.

Interested? Of course you are.

To apply, you need to fill out a quick application form. You don’t need a pre-established business, or even to have made anything yet. All you need is a brief idea of what you plan to make so we know what to expect.
Click here to access the application form.

The event will be taking place on the 17th of November, so if you’re interested you need to apply as soon as possible so you can get crafting and put together enough items for a stall.

If you’d like to know more about the fair, email enterprise@sheffield.ac.uk.
Also, you can access the Facebook event here , where you will be able to keep up with any changes or goings on.

We hope to see you there. I’ll be the one selling monkeys made from socks.

Harness that creativity and get crafting!

Related Posts:

• Win tickets to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress
• Perfect Pitch
• Christmas is coming….and so is the Christmas Market!
• 2b or not 2b, that is the question

Posted by Sophie Allen at 12:15 pm.

Tagged: Competitions,Student Businesses,Student Opportunities