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2003
Board of Directors
Les Cook
11222 Sagewillow
Houston, TX 77089-4536
281-481-2457
Richard Boswell
281-356-5205
Dave Koenig
281-855-2869
Frank Walters
281-491-7328
James Porter
1925 Anchor Way Dickinson TX 77539
281-337-5384
Larry Hoff
281-890-8822
HAMMERFEST
at
Oldenburg
Our bi-annual Sales and Show event at Oldenburg is schedued for April 4-6. James Porter is organizing the show this year. Details are in The HABA Letter.
Blacksmiths across Texas, Louisiana and all points from there have an opportunity to show their wares the first weekend of April in Oldenburg, TX. Five acres of land is being made available to blacksmiths during the famous Round Top Antique Show. The Round Top, TX antique show expanded over the years to include the neighboring towns of Warrenton, Shelby, Oldenburg and a few other places in between. The show occurs in April and October each year.
Oldenburg is located about 90 miles northwest of Houston. During the weekend over 1,000 vendors sell and 200,000 buyers enjoy the shows, buy and drive the beautiful countryside.
The owner of the property has an interest in smithing and played in the Oldenburg blacksmith shop while growing up. The original site of the Oldenburg shop is just a few stone throws away from the five-acre site. The original Oldenburg shop is now operating again at the George Ranch Historical Park south of Houston.
Anyone is invited to come to Oldenburg and demonstrate. Our
gracious hosts are Kennie and Susan Hall. There is no cost. A hat is passed on Sunday
to defray the expenses for power, water and porta-jons. Camping is
available on-site with a hot and cold running water shower!All Blacksmiths and friends and visitors are invited to sell, buy or just visit. Remember that the Hammerfest weekend is the same weekend as the Round Top Antique Show. Thousands of vendors and hundreds of thousands of buyers are roaming the countryside between Round Top, Warrenton, Oldenburg, Fayetteville and Shelby during this event.
When & Where :
The Hammerfest site in Oldenburg, TX is located at the intersection of Highway 237 and Bauer Road. The site is on the north end of town on he East Side of highway 237. See maps below.
Friday-Sunday April 4, 5, & 6 :
The schedule looks like this:
- Friday 8:00 : Sign in and setup
CAMPING - Friday - Sunday:
Camping available in the field behind demonstration area.
No charge to members, their families and their guests (donations will be collected to help with expenses)
Portable toilets, water and electricity are available
SALES TENTS - Friday - Sunday:
Club Fundraising Table - Handmade items donated by members for sale to the public
DEMONSTRATIONS - All day – Saturday
What to Bring
Chairs, canopys, tents.
Bring safety glasses with side shields. This is a requirement!
Bring your forge and tools if you have them.
If you do not have a forge and tools, please come anyway. There will be plenty of room at some forge during the workshop and someone to lend you a hand if you need it.
You do not have to be a member to attend our meetings! Bring a Guest!
ABOUT THE EVENT
Hammerfest is held in Spring and Fall in conjunction with the Round Top antique festival
Open to the public - at no charge for admission
Dates- Friday, - Sunday, the first full weekend of April and October
Place: Highway 237 and Bauer Rd. – Oldenburg, TX
PURPOSE
-
:
- To promote HABA and attract new members
- To share basic blacksmith techniques with new club members
- To provide blacksmith tools (anvils, forges, hand tools) for sale
- To provide social opportunity to meet new members
- To provide social opportunity to meet members of other blacksmith clubs
- To raise funds for club through donated items from members
This is going to be a great event. Here are some photos from last year.
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Some relevent on-line links for your viewing....
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Selling Your Products
by Pat Ahuero
To sell your product at retail you must first establish the wholesale price, and then the retail price. There are a variety of formulas for pricing. You may find that you will use more than one formula for your business line. The easiest formula to use may not always be the best. Formulas can serve as guides, but the final price will need to be based on the market price, what the market will bear, or the image you want to project.
1) Cost-base pricing: The standard markup is added to the cost of materials and labor.
2) Customer-based pricing: Market research enables you to target prices. Experience has proven that this is an extremely effective pricing method. You work backwards from competition pricing to determine the amount of labor and material cost you can afford to use thus keeping within the limits of that final price. It is essential to gather reliable information about your competition if this formula is used.
3) Profits and competition: To sustain business growth, it's not enough to meet expenses and mark-up your materials and labor. Your business must earn consistent profits to finance expansion; and this profit must be built into your pricing.
What constitutes a reasonable profit percentage? Although no hard and fast rules apply, traditionally added profits equal 20-30 percent of their product's total cost. For services, a 10-20 percent profit margin is more typical. The best pricing strategy is one that's flexible enough to take profits when possible, or to trim profits when necessary to meet competition.
"Keystone pricing" means you double the wholesale price of the product to obtain a retail price.
Price is only one element in business success. Obviously, your company must back up its pricing with high-quality products. The process identifying the correct combination of product, price, and sales outlet can be a long process.
Selling Retail - First, identify your market by theme, season, and customer base.
HABA Sale and Demo in Oldenburg - Texas in early October is our project this time. Blacksmithing, Iron Art, Public Education, Antique Sale in the fall brings customers from South and Central Texas driving by the pasture location before the Halloween, Fall and Christmas buying seasons.
These facts give you ideas for display, signage, color scheme, and products. Brainstorming will guide a group venture to develop winning ideas.
Fall Colors- dark green, barn red, gold, off-white, and dusty blue are earth tones that will show off metal products.
Props- wooden tables, primitive furniture, vintage textiles, shutters for back staging. Wheelbarrows, wooden benches, and other display items can be for sale too. It will take a lot of products to catch the eye of a speedy driver.
Signage - "Smitty on Duty", "Iron Art for Sale", "Demo in Action", "Free Parking" There should also be "Not Responsible for Accidents" signs.
Booth Location - Should be central and set out in the open so customers flow with ease. Other sales booths could be set next to and back of focus tent. Demos can be active to the outside of the sales tents. Customer parking should be clearly marked in the front. Club member parking should be directed to the far back behind the tents.
Booth Set-up - Ideally a booth should be segmented into sections where consumers can find products for the different parts of their lives, arranged as closely as possible to look as though it might fit in a home. Vignettes - Give a better visual of how the product will work in their lives and ow they work with other products.
Example: Fireplace tools next to a log holder with firewood in place. The benefit to this display, of course, is that they will buy more than one piece.
Sections of Display - Should reflect the different types of ironwork and customer interest.
- 1) Traditional iron work- Old World products and skills.
- 2) Art and jewelry, and gifts.
- 3) Home products and furniture can be dark in one vignette, and hi-tech
- polished steel in another vignette.
- 4) Whimsical yard art and sculpture.
- 5) Tools and trade items.
Colors of display props should flow from one vignette to the other. Making it too busy takes the focus off the product. Using warm color tones in your backdrops keeps the mood moderate. Gold, brown and dark greens are fall colors good for table covers. Add some texture with the use of fall leaves, river rock, grapevine, and berries.
Make your customer feel at home. Have fun, and keep experimenting until you find what works for you.
Directions to Oldenburg
The Hammerfest site in Oldenburg, TX is located at the intersection of highway 237 and Bauer Road. The site is on the north end of town on he East Side of highway 237.
click here for more maps
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Enjoy!
http://www.habairon.org
Last updates were on March 08, 2003
© Copyright 2003 by HABA.
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