Early Bird Registration Closed, Now the Jury is In!

Although the early bird registration for Handmade Ho Down 2009 is closed, you can still apply to be a vendor at the event with a late registration fee.

We have tons of vendor applications, and the Official Handmade Ho Down Jury is psyched to start the jury process on the plethora of vendor applications that we have received.

With over a 100 applications to review and only 60 vendor spots to fill, the HHD Jury has a lot of work ahead of them!
If you’ve are wondering how the jury works, here’s an inside glimpse into how we are selecting our vendors.
In general, selection is based on quality, creativity, and originality with an eye towards attaining a wide variety of crafts at this show. We accept only original work made by the artist and will not accept any vendors that sell imports, work from kits, or pre-fabricated wholesale items.

If you are sharing a booth, each vendor’s items will be juried. If only one of you is accepted, that vendor will have an opportunity to pay the full vendor fee and still participate in the show without a partner.

The jury process takes about a week, to allow the jury members to meet on a daily basis and go over each application and accompanying photographs.

Each vendor application is judged individually, with special attention paid to photos and vendor statements. From there, each juror is rated based on the following categories:

• Craftsmanship/Skill:
  How well-made are the crafts? We keep in mind some things are meant to look rough or undone, but quality is key.
  
  
• Inventive Use of Materials
  
  
• Labor/Time Investment:
  Was a lot of time invested in the concept/design/product?
  
  
• Physical Design:
  How much thought was put into the aesthetics/function of the work?
  
  
• Rarity/Singularity:
  One of the awesome things about buying handmade and local products, is the unique factor. We want to make sure that each of our vendors has a unique aspect to them. In other words, WalMart has nothing on our event! :D
  
  
• Excitability:
  Would we buy this or recommend it to someone?
  
  
• Appeal:
  We want to make sure each vendor is a success at our event. Given that, we will review each vendor based on their appeal to a large group of shoppers, or to a specific niche group.
  
  
• Pricing:
  We want to make sure there is something for everyone at this event. It is important to us to have vendors that represent a variety of price ranges.
  

While all this sounds super formal and daunting to some, we do want to express that we provide an equal opportunity for all crafters to participate in Handmade Ho Down 2009!

This time around the Handmade Ho Down Jury is comprised of the Handmade Ho Down (Too Live) Crew. Acceptance is based solely on the above criteria, no matter if we know you, have bought items from you in the past, exchanged a toast with you, or know what your living rooms look like! ;p

Vendors will be notified of their acceptance by October 29th, 2009 at midnight!!

We can NOT wait to see you there!