Girls’ Night Out 2007

I had a really great time at the show last night. I was a little stressed due to not having left myself quite enough time, but my man and my mom are fantastic and they got me through it in one piece.

Two new sets of designs evolved for this show: Springflowers, and Chocolate. I’ll have individual photos up later this weekend, and pieces for sale on my site, but for now here are the show photos.

Overall view of the table. The far end is cut off a bit, but you’ll see it later. The pic I snapped from the other end was blurry. :(

My Springflower earrings. I am of two minds about this ribbon thing. I believe it’s gorgeous against the black, and it certainly draws your eye to the table, and I’m very very pleased with the height of the tiers (my quotation dictionary and my shakespeare are under there!) and the little tree things – but I worry that it’s competing with the earrings themselves.

The centre of the table. I’m not really pleased with the overall look here; I didn’t plan well enough ahead. I only had vague ideas of what I was going to do. It turned out OK though – I think I got some good groups together considering I didn’t know what I was doing.

My teeny gemstone pendants which I suppose are still priced too high, because nobody bought any this time either. However, they did at least see the damn things, which is an enormous improvement. I felt like I had just enough on the table that everybody saw all of it. People pick out the things you highlight, so I was constantly replacing the rings I’d placed in display boxes (see previous photo).

And finally, what I thought was the highlight of the table but turned out to be of huge interest but not something you’d buy – the chocolate jewellery. I made all these adorable little chocolates out of clay and turned them into delicious pendants, earrings, and a fantastic neckpiece, and didn’t sell a damn one. What the hell? The neckpiece almost sold, but the lady didn’t have her money; she said to call today and she’d definitely buy it. However, she must have sobered up because when I called she didn’t want it. Le sigh.

The good news is, my old friend Amber was there in her capacity as a chocolatier – right across from me, as a matter of fact – and she decided she needed some chocolate jewellery for her and her partner and helper, so we bartered and she got the caramel set top left, the fancy turtle bottom left, the rum caramel-looking one bottom right, and I think another one, plus a ladybug ring, and I got a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels, a medium-sized chocolate pizza (think chocolate tart with almonds, caramel, toffee and candy on top), two fortune cookies, a chocolate piece that looks like an oreo, and a sampler bag with a bunch of stuff in it. Excellent!

And finally, the triumph: See the triangular piece sitting majestically above my chocolate? I sold it to a woman who’d tried it on at Christmas time, the sister of the painter who was set up next to me at Victoria Park. I’m astounded and grateful and happy, and it looks fantastic on her, and it’s the first big-ticket item I’ve ever sold, and I feel like I won a million bucks.

The interest level seemed really high – when the entertainment was on intermission, I was on full-blast autopilot, no time to sell because I was busy taking money. My mom was fielding things left and right (she actually got to make the big-ticket sale) and I was barely conscious of what was happening. My cousin-in-law Kim was there and she was at the end of the table selling me up so that people thought she worked for me – which, if I have anything to say about it, she will be. Next show I have, she’ll be front and centre, she was awesome – she almost had that other lady buying that chocolate neckpiece :)

I’ve definitely learned a few things. Packaging is better when it’s easy, and I’ll be heading back to the dollar store to get tons more of their little sheer gauze bags – at 8/$1, it’s a steal, plus they’re the perfect size for earrings, a ring, or a pendant, and the larger ones hold my boxes and my black business card shows through really well. I’ll need to remember to get a small stamp for my receipt book, and a large one for my kraft paper bags.

All in all, I’d call it a total success.