Sharing and selling my illustrations

My first market stall at the European Waldorf Doll Retreat (EWDOR) 2025

Dear Reader,

Did you know that I had my first ever market stand selling illustrations last month? It was a small market at the EWDOR, the European Waldorf Doll-making Retreat in the Netherlands and I had a stand for just one day. Being surrounded by friends and fellow craft-lovers, it felt like the perfect place to start and indeed it was. I travelled to the retreat by plane so everything I wanted for the market had to fit into one hold-sized suitcase. Since it was my first stand I really didn’t have many products to sell, but having to fit everything into just one case made me feel much better about my meagre range of offerings. I packed lightweight, fabric collapsing boxes and simple, low stands to display my wares, again because I had a weight limit.

My full product list comprised:

· Prints of my artwork: ten designs but all A4 dimensions for ease of framing and packaging

· Greetings cards with envelopes: one design only

· One cut-out printed mobile kit design

· Printed pattern books (zine format) to make a simple pocket doll

· Printed pattern books (zine format) to make knitted clothes for the pocket doll

· Kits to make a pocket doll with set of clothes

· Square original art abstract paper and fabric collages

That was it. Goodness me it took SOOO long just to pull that much together. I know that it will be easier and quicker the next time I have a market stall because all of the ground-work is done, but just outing those few things together felt like a challenge. New directions always bring new learning, but I had my stock packaged and my display practiced and my card-reader charged. I was ready.

When I arrived at the retreat and saw the size of my stand I was rather alarmed; it was huge! How was I going to make my humble collection fill all of that space? Everyone else at the market was a seasoned stall-holder and their stands looked full and attractive. I thought mine was going to look empty and boring at best. To makes matters worse, when the day for my stand arrived the weather had changed. The sun had gone in and a wind had risen. There was no rain and not quite enough wind to move the market indoors, so we began to set up outside as on the previous market day. Now my light-weight suitcase solutions failed me completely. I arrived on foot to the market, opened my case and put my fabric zip boxes out on the stand… and they immediately blew away. The other, seasoned, stall holders (who had all come from the Netherlands, not Italy) drove up in their cars and unloaded sturdy wooden boxes, heavy shelving units and strong metal racks which all helped to weigh their stands down. My super-light stand was going to be a total disaster.

But remember what I said about a place being surrounded by friends being a good beginning? Three of my doll-making friends had brought a small number of their beautiful hand-made wares to sell to other retreat participants and they suggested that they add them to may stall. It was an inspired idea! Alongside my illustrations, I now had gorgeous doll-clothes by Kateryna, exquisite tiny dolls by Nathasja of @smillahandmade and beautiful hand-smocked doll skirts and scale hobby-horses by Sabine of Bienchen Und Bluemchen . Even better, my friends had not travelled by plane so their wares were displayed in solid suitcases, strong boxes and metal frames.

Kateryna brought books and power banks to weigh down my boxes underneath and I set about taping down and pegging up as much as I could. Perhaps it didn’t look as slick as it might have without the wind, but in the end I was really pleased with the table set-up and I sold much more than I expected. Later in the day the sun even came out to cheer us. And the market was really in a beautiful location; Landgoed Het Laer is a wonderful place to sit and rest and chat to customers!

In the end the only weather casualty was my diving girl mobile; the example I taped up got irredeemably tangled in the wind. I think it’s an indoor product…

One of my pocket doll kits was bought by skilled doll and teddy-bear maker Danielle (of Sew Cute Creations, go and look up her work here), who got started on it already on the journey home! Here are a few photos of the little doll that she made from the kit, isn’t she gorgeous? Thank you very much for the photos Danielle.

At the end of the day the market felt like a huge success for me. I really enjoyed showing my work, talking to people about what I do and hearing their feedback, and even selling work too.

My first greetings card design for sale!

I’m thinking of selling some of my market-stall products online, probably for a limited time with a fixed day for posting everything out (again, trying to start small and achievable). If you had a choice, which would you be most interested in? Prints, greetings cards, the mobile, the pocket doll patterns or the pocket doll kits?

A big thank-you again to Kamrin and Berend Te Kronnie, from Kamrin’s Craft Cottage, for organising the market at the doll retreat, it was a lovely event.

Hannah xx

P.S.

Did you know that I had my first solo exhibition in Trieste at the end of 2024? You didn’t? And you’d love to know more? I have a video tour of my exhibition free to view up on Youtube, you can view it here.

Many thanks to Michael Munnik for allowing me to use his beautiful music in the background of my tour video and also alongside my time-lapse video here, go and listen to his songs on Bandcamp here.