CraftMafia was a success!

As I mentioned in my last entry, I participated in CraftMafia at Leapin Lizard Gallery this past Saturday. I did get everything packed up the night before, which took me all of 15 minutes, so I'm not sure why I put it off until after 11 pm Friday night.(I guess I'll never learn.) I think by the time I got in bed it was probably around 12:45 am, so I was not too excited when Saturday morning rolled around bringing the annoying buzz of my alarm clock. Good thing for me I have two dogs who won't let me snooze.

I got up around 7 am Saturday, got showered and ran out to grab snacks and water for the day and hit McD's drive-thru and returned home to feed myself and my groggy husband. Then it was off to the gallery. I was so glad I packed the night before. I knew I hadn't forgotten anything and that was a good feeling. I got there in plenty of time to get a decent spot on the main floor and not in the balcony. People were being directed to go upstairs to the few vendors there, but I am always unsure about upstairs or downstairs at these events. You never know if people will make the effort to travel the stairs. They had a good turn out, with people through pretty much all day long.

So it turns out signing up for ProPay on Friday evening was a good idea. My very first sale was a necklace and the lady said, "I love it! I'll take it! You do take MasterCard, right?" I was excited to be able to say yes to that. It went smoothly – although I'm sure I didn't entirely look like I knew what I was doing – and I processed the transaction as soon as I got home. My only other sale was a pair of earrings and that was to one of the gallery owners. I don't know, I was flattered by that... I was happy to be able to cover my show fee and make a bit more on top of that.

There were quite a few jewelry artists there, probably slightly more than half the total number of vendors and also quite a few fellow Etsy sellers, which was kind of funny. We all exchanged business cards and compliments. All of the vendors were quite cordial and Lizz and Jill, the owners of Leapin Lizard, really worked hard to make sure everyone was taken care of and had all they needed.

I'm still perfecting my table/booth set-up. I'll probably add a couple more necklace busts and another earring frame at some point, but I like that my pieces are the focus of my table, so I think I'll stick with the neutral backgrounds. I received a lot of compliments and a couple of the other vendors were interested in my earring frame. There are a few pics below if you're interested in seeing my set-up.

All-in-all, it was a fun show to do. I just need to make myself go to bed earlier the night before next time I'm in a show. I really should know better!