I guess you can't win ’em all.

Today was the Woodland Middle School Spring Fever Fair, in which I was a vendor. It was the first annual show there. I was approached by one of the organizers via email weeks ago and then again at the last craft show I did a couple weeks back. I decided that for $30 for booth space, I'd go ahead and give it a whirl. 

Unbeknownst to me, it was slated to be an outdoor event. (Panic!) I've never done one of those before and was completely unprepared... no tent! Fortunately for me, I guess, it had been raining all week and they were forced to move it inside (thankfully). That let me off the hook for running out and purchasing a tent that would either be of good quality and more than I'd like to invest right now, or cheap and probably not that great.

At any rate, the show was today. From 9 am to 4 pm. That is a long show. My goodness, was it a long show. Good thing I was only feet away from one of those big white school clocks with the big black numbers and the slow-as-molasses moving hands so I never lost track of time. (Remember when you were in school and the clock felt like it never moved? Seriously, it felt like that.)

It poured and dumped rain most of the day, so I'm not sure if that kept away shoppers or if the event just wasn't advertised much. I think over the course of 7 (l-o-n-g) hours, we maybe had 60 people through there. Needless to say, no sales for me. Other vendors were having the same luck. It was sad. And boring. Oh dear.

An overdue update

Wow, I haven't really been blogging long enough to neglect it yet. My apologies... So, in a nutshell, here's what's been going on in no particular order:

Last night, I finished up a custom bracelet order that has been hanging around for a couple weeks. I have to get it in front of my customer and see what she thinks, but I really like the colorful chunky look of it. Lots of different smooth tumbled stones, some agate, some carnelian... a nice mix. And the focal point is a sterling silver oval with the Gandhi quote "Be the change you wish to see in the world." I picked that up from another Etsy seller, tropacopy. The style is a bit of a departure for me, so we'll see what happens.

Also this past Saturday was the Dixie Heights Band Boosters 2nd Annual Craft Show. They had a great crowd, so they must have done some publicizing. For me though, it was nearly a flop. My excitement turned quickly into disappointment. I was really thinking it would be a good venue for me, but, eh, I've been wrong before. I ended up with one sale, for which I am thankful, but am a little bit in the hole for the day. On the other hand I received plenty of compliments on my jewelry and my set up, which is always nice. And I got a lead on a show from a shopper, who told me she thought my pieces would be great in the upscale setting. Nice!

I had a bit of a shock when I walked into the place and everyone had these massive set-ups. Mine was still small by comparison, but I ended up scrambling the night before to get another table and dressing for it. I still didn't cram a bunch of stuff on them though. Some of these tables I see at shows... it looks like a bead store threw up on them. And yet, they still get lots of sales, it seems. I don't know, I don't really get it. I still think it's better to not overwhelm the eye. Maybe I'm going about it all wrong. lol Okay, I guess I'll add more pieces next time. Sheesh.

The show circuit - on the look out!

So, I've been spending a fair amount of time looking for shows and fairs to try to get into for the year. I've had some luck, so that's encouraging. One is coming up on April 25 and is a high school band boosters event. I believe this is their 4th annual, so they should have a decent amount of people in attendance, I'd imagine.

After that, I don't have another one until November, which will be my first juried show. I'm very excited about that one. Maybe they really like my work, or maybe I just got my submissions in early enough, who knows? I'm going to go with they like my work for the sake of argument. It is also at a high school, my husband's, in fact. It's pretty large – over 200 vendors – so we'll see how it goes, but it sounds very promising.

There is another in the beginning of October that I am trying to get into. From what I've heard, it's a tough one as far as competition goes. I have missed the official submission deadline, but they allow late entries up through April 18 for an additional $10 fee, so I figure, what the heck, I'll give it a whirl. The worst they can say is "no", but I'm kind of on a high from the afore mentioned acceptance, so I'm choosing to be optimistic about it. I put that stuff in the mail today and won't hear anything on it until May 12. Maybe I'll forget about it and be surprised. Hmm, not likely...

Other than that, I've got some beautiful new beads to play around with. I'll be working with them later on this evening and over the weekend. Check some of them out below... there are some silver pieces, hemimorphite, rock crystal and prasiolite. 

  

  

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!