The Craft Craze & Student Market club, otherwise known as CCSM, will be participating in three craft fairs this semester. The club gives students and alumni a place to showcase and sell their handmade work, from art and jewelry to plants and crochet items, while fostering a supportive, friendly atmosphere for makers.
Em Conroy, the president of the club and a junior psychology major, says anyone can be a vendor, “It’s literally whatever you want to do. You make your stuff, you sell your stuff, you make friends, and you have fun. That’s all we’re looking for.”
The club’s events will be on the Dahlonega and Gainesville campuses:
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Thursday, Oct. 16: The Fall Festival will be on the Gainesville Quad
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Thursday, Oct. 23: The club’s main Gainesville Market will be in the Robinson Ballroom
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Friday, Nov. 7: A collaboration with Kaitlyn Klein on the Dahlonega campus’s Promenade
The November event is split into two sessions: noon-2 p.m., primarily featuring CCSM vendors, and 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m., which will include CCSM and non-club vendors. This market will be managed by Klein for her senior Capstone project about building and growing a student-run business.
Club vendors pay $5 per event, with all fee-based proceeds going back to the club to fund meetings, supplies and future projects. Conroy says she hopes the club can build up enough funding to pay for a table at the Gold Rush Festival.
While CCSM encourages a wide range of creative expression, the club also maintains clear standards for what cannot be sold. Conroy says the club will not accept selling AI art at their markets. “If, for whatever reason, someone shows up and has AI art, we are going to have to ask them to take it off the table,” she says.
Valerie Vaeth, vice president and senior psychology major, says the club’s goal is to “let people be creative… For people individually, that might be their own personal goal by selling their items, But I think a lot of it is just, we want people to have a creative outlet to showcase something that they’re passionate about.”
“If you look at people individually, they might have different goals, but I can say with a lot of people that craft, you know, everyone wants their stuff to be bought and looked at because they spent time and money making it,” she says.
That welcoming environment has attracted a growing community of student artisans, each bringing their own style to the table. Kyleigh Hardy, a freshman music education major, has found her niche selling plants she grows herself. She has also been selling plants at markets for four years. She would go to markets on the weekends, while staying “busy throughout the week with just like taking care of the plants, propagating and growing.”
At the moment, alumni and current students are the only people allowed to sell at CCSM events, ensuring the focus remains on supporting UNG’s creative, small-business community. Information on participating in markets or keeping up with the Craft Craze & Student Market club’s schedule can be found on the group Instagram and UNG Connect page.
