The 3rd "Handicrafts market, Hands-on exhibit in Ishinomaki" Held

On December 14, the third "Handicraft market, Hands-on exhibit in Ishinomaki: Making Handcrafting into Jobs", an event aimed at giving a leg up to women who do handicrafts in Ishinomaki, took place at the central office of Japan Agricultural Cooperatives in Ishinomaki.

This event has been held with the goals of assisting women who have determined to lead a forward-looking life by doing handicrafts; enabling participants to enjoy the taste of success by providing an opportunity to sell their products; discovering people who have an interest in doing handcraft; presenting chances of finding working partners; making a good place to share information among participants and so on.

(The details of the last event in September are available here)

In this event, the third, a record number of twenty-two organizations participated, half of them joining for the first time. With participants having frequent discussions on event planning in advance and preparing the event hall and booths on the day, a networking among participants has evolved.

Many visitors had waited for the event to open at 10 a.m., the event start time.
On that day, Ishinomaki saw the first snow covering, and so there was a worry that the snow would affect the turnout at the event but there was really no time when visitors stop coming and 275 visitors visited the event, exceeding the number of the previous event.

【As soon as the doors opened, many guests visited the event!】



The hands-on exhibition, as December had rolled around, centered on making good-luck bracelets or small seasonal articles associated with Christmas and New Year, people of all ages having a good time.
The event also provided an opportunity for visitors and participants to communicate friendly, enabling them to share the joy of handicraft.




【Are you done well?】



Very new were extra entertainments such as holding a mystery draw and setting up a space where you can relax over some snacks, which entertainments were based on ideas collected from participants.
Mothers with young children could have unhurried pace of time browsing around booths and having talk with booths' owners while their children were amusing themselves by writing graffiti or doing origami at a children's square decorated pleasantly. And a newly set up consultation corner was welcoming women saying "I'd love to open a booth!"

After the event, JEN's staff members and booth owners had a meeting to look back that day's event and prepare for the next one. Among the remarks about the event were "Every booth has set up nice display. I should have taken photos of them!", "I felt closer to visitors than last time, so it was good for me to be able to communicate with them, it was fun." The event was able to provide participants an opportunity to resolve their challenges through exchanging ideas and information with event participants.

JEN will continue helping women doing handicrafts in Ishinomaki arrange next event scheduled in February.

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