So the show! Had to load and unload the car in the pouring rain; had a four-hour set-up that was completely killer on the back and knees and feet on the concrete floors, which became a recurring theme throughout the weekend. BUT we suffer for our art, no? I think the booth was worth it. Check it:
How we envisioned the booth, blankly:
How it came about:
Which now I see the front was a little messy but whatever, you couldn’t notice in person, promise.
I had the COOLEST neighbour, Lynda Lou MacIntyre, from whom I bought an extremely gorgeous mounted watercolour print of an Ingonish shoreline.
I remembered everything except bags (duh) but I bought paper grocery bags for Saturday. I did a lot of upselling of neckwires, both manufactured and handmade. People absolutely adored my Mix & Match Fruit & Veggie earrings.
I made only about half of what I expected, and many exhibitors said it was very slow; much slower than last year. HOWEVER. I got a LOT of interest including an official invitation into www.arts-north.com. Gave out a bunch of business cards to people who were very interested. Almost nobody walked right by; some people who were going to keep going, instead stopped in the middle of the aisle and came over! Also many many many people said some variation of “your work is beautiful / stunning / amazing / different / unique / gorgeous” … “different” cracks me up, ’cause it’s the caper way of saying it’s weird :)
We were judged on new products and while I didn’t win, I got Honourable Mention for Best New Product!!! That was based on the two neckpieces I did for show-stoppers, which can be found here and here.
I did a couple of really great pendants based on the style of that last piece, one of which is here, a rough-tumbled emerald which I love:
As you can see part of here, I printed and cut and folded wee cards that had some information about various gemstones and placed them in appropriate areas.
I learned that people don’t look up; that nobody knows what a pendant is unless you put it on a string; that if you don’t watch it, rings will get stolen; that people love buying earrings; and that people try on jewellery to see how it looks on them, not just to see if it fits (that would never occur to me – if I like a piece I BUY IT).
My parents were an enormous help and I can’t love or thank them enough. My dad even bought Swiss Chalet (mmmm ribs) for a Sunday night break-down treat!
More pictures in the Flickr Set, plus if you pick “all sizes” on them you’ll get larger pics that show more detail!