I know this show in new in the last couple of years and was put together after the Sugarloaf show pulled out of the center. They do host the Great Lakes Art show here twice a year.
I know I am taking a bit of a risk doing this show because it is open to anyone who wants to pay the booth fee. However I feel my work is different enough to make some money over the buy and sell people that might be there. Just wondered if anyone has any input.
Thanks in advance
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Well the best things I can say about this show were the ease of setup, the cleanliness of the building and the ease of breaking down. The attendance was not what I had expected , there was more of a crowd at a show a did this summer and it was raining… Also I do hate doing a show where venders start to pack up early…the show was unit 5 on Sunday and people stated packing up at 3:45! What the heck…I have had some of my best sales of the day be in that last 15 to 30 minutes of the show.
I applied for this show understanding it was just juried and anyone that wanted to pay the price of the booth space got in. I think they would have been better off calling it a Holiday Gift Extravaganza instead calling it a Holiday Craft Extravaganza. My husband ran into an past co-worker, he and his wife were there, he had seen the sign and told her about the show because for the last few years she had done all her Christmas shopping at Craft Shows. He made a comment to my husband that she was very disappointed there weren’t more hand-made crafts, that is was mostly buy and sell items. Oh and I wasn’t surprised to see bootleg and counterfeit product being sold at this show as well.
All of the other venders I talked to had not done this show before...all of the ones I talked to on Sunday had yet to make booth space ($150). I did just OK at this show, making space and some over mostly from the sale of the small $5 ornaments I made specifically for this show. I did sell two of my mid-range prices pieces on Sunday.
I also gave a way a piece to a young man who was there with his care taker, he was confined to a wheelchair; he was looking for gifts for Christmas. He has spotted a one of my larger Penguins and she was trying to get him to think about getting one of the smaller ones. I walked up alongside of her and quietly told her he could choose any of the penguins he wanted… it was my gift to him for Christmas. She turned and looked at me with a stunned look on her face… “Are you sure?” “Yes, I am!” She told him and the smile on his face was priceless! He couldn’t speak and kept doing the sign for Thank You! This one little gesture made him so happy he could hardly contain himself…his caretaker said, “I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time, thank you” and she gave me a hug. It’s the little things that make a lasting impression.
Oh and I must tell you about a short conversation with one of the two sisters that had a booth across from me. They were selling Gold Canyon Candles and Body cream. She started with the usual questions…how are you doing…oh, you have some nice things… to there has been a good crowd at this show… this made me ask how long she had been doing shows…this was her second year and she had not done this show before. I told her I had done busier shows outside in the rain, a busy show the isles should be packed with people to the point you can’t count them. She then asked me what shows I did and I rattled off my list. She then wanted to know about getting into one of the ones I do. I told her it was a juried fine art show and they didn’t have buy and sell in the show. She put both hands on her hips and said, “You know the organizers of those fine art shows need to realize they could make more money if they let us in. They could put us all in one area away from you fine art people and let us sell. I hope you realize that we don’t like your type of Fine Art at OUR SHOWS because you take away too many of our sales!” Oh, there were just so many things I could have said, instead I looked at her and said, if you are having a hard time making sales it has nothing to do with me being across from you, it is all marketing, presentation and product. I then asked her what her most expensive item was she had at the show, $18 jar candle; she then proceeded to tell me that people were trying to talk her down on her $7 hand cream that sells for $18 on the web site.
I told her my most expensive piece here at this show was $225 and I brought it knowing I wouldn’t sell it. I brought it to display it so visitors could see some of the different things I make.
I felt like telling her if she would great people as they walked up to her booth and just let them look she might make more sales than she was jumping up and practically running at each person that come up and shoving a scented candle or jar of cream in their face to smell.
Anyways to sum up doing this show, if they could change the name and maybe have a semi-juried hand crafted section and a buy-n-sell section if could be better for those who sell the handmade items. If you know of someone that sells the “party-sell” items this maybe a good show for them.
Live and learn, I applied to the show knowing it would be what it was. It was a shame they didn’t get a better attendance.
Chris
I have never done the show but Christina and the whole staff at the show are wonderful to work with. Novi is a good area where people support art/craft and the building is as easy of a site you can do a show. Good Luck if you do it!
I am with you on that, Scott. Kristina Jones and Blair Bowman are some of the most dedicated people I've ever worked with. They love their business and do all they can to make your participation at this facility a success. The entire staff takes "ownership" of their events and acts accordingly.
I am signed up to do the show. I will post back after the show to let you know how it went.