Great Question! Unlike other retail outlets for artisans, we operate on a membership basis. This helps us serve as many artisans as possible. The process of joining our membership works like this:

-- You submit an application and we review it similar to a juried art show. We will review your pictures, your website and social media. We'll review your products and determine if we have room in our show schedule for a vendor like you! We want you to succeed with us and so we may have a limit on some categories that are uber-competitive like Jewelry and Candles. But, we'll give your application a thorough review first.

-- Once we have approved your application, we will send you an invoice for your desired membership level.

-- After we've received your membership sign up forms and all the legal things are in place, you'll receive a login to our inventory portal. From here, you'll monitor all your sales and all your inventory items that you'll be submitting to us.

-- Once you've checked in your items to the portal, you can either ship your items to us OR you can bring them to our location in Leesburg, VA. (note: we work with artists from all over the country so shipping items to us is 100% okay!)

-- Once we've received your items, we tag them with your number, your price, etc. we verify the quantities match, and then we send you a confirmation email.

-- We are then ready to get to work for YOU!

-- You monitor your sales from our portal and watch to see what items are selling.

-- You'll collect your month's sales on the first of the next month. For example: if you have items checked in and selling in the month of January, you'll have your sales proceeds deposited into your account on February 1st for all sales collected in January!

-- As items sell, you can keep sending us inventory to keep us stocked!

-- Rinse and Repeat!

If an item of yours is sold to an online customer of Artisan Market & Studio, we are notified via our internal backoffice system. We will pull your item from its current location, pack it, and ship it on your behalf. Your account will be credited for the sale just as if the item had sold at an event or in our store as per your membership contract. Shipping and handling will have been added to the item at the time of the sale and so the customer will be charged accordingly.

Depending on your membership level, you can submit anywhere from 25 items to an unlimited amount space permitting. We do inspect and review all items for quality, packaging, safety, and all the important things. We also reserve the right to refuse items if they will reflect poorly on our overall establishment. But we know that you want to provide the best to your customers too so we work with you to be sure you are properly represented based on your membership level.

We specifically offer the GOLD Membership tier so that members who want to just make us an unlimited amount of inventory and keep us supplied can absolutely do so! But, we also offer the BASIC membership level so that those of you who are not ready to make a huge amount of inventory can do so with a much lower risk.

We are located in northern Virginia and have a 'hub' that we use for receiving and shipping inventory. We work with artisans from all over the country so you can absolutely ship your items to us! We are also happy to receive your items in person if you're in the area. Our address for any of these options is:

34 Catoctin Circle SE Suite D

Leesburg, VA 20141

Yes! Our membership packages are designed to get you started and let you test your products with our customers until you are able to reach profitability. As soon as you see regular sales, you can upgrade your membership and give it a try! We do believe that it takes time for a solid fan base to accumulate and so once you upgrade, a 6 month commitment is required. After your 6 month period is over, you can decide to downgrade or upgrade again. You are NOT able to downgrade your membership partway through any 6 month term however.

Each membership level is packed with value and we recognize that not all options are appropriate for all vendors. If you want to opt out of any of our services, you simply have to let us know and we'll respect your wishes. As an example, if you do not wish for your items to travel to a Farmers Market, we will honor your wishes and not carry your items to those events. This does not affect your membership fee however.

Since we operate under a membership model, we are able to distribute our costs across our members to make it cheaper for them to participate in any one event. Some of those events like Farmers Markets, private receptions, wineries, and smaller craft shows are all included in our membership fees. Other events however, like large Expo Center events and VIP Exclusive shopping events, Comic Cons, and Home Shows do cost a bit more for us and we have to charge our members a fee for participation.

You can look at our fees a bit like this. If you were to enter a large craft show with 100+ vendors participating in a large fairgrounds or expo center style, you'd pay anywhere from $300+ per day of the event to have a booth. You'd also have to schlep your stuff there, set it up, pay transaction fees, maybe a hotel overnight, and all the other costs related to traveling to this event. The fees we charge are related to all those same costs on a scale that allows us to represent YOU and our entire membership at that same event. We hire movers to help us with the inventory and setup. We have multple checkouts to help us handle large crowds. We post on social media to make sure our vendors' following knows to find their products. These are all costs that we take on and sometimes, those costs require us to charge additional fees to our members. Note that those fees will always be a fraction of your own costs to do these types of events on your own!