Althought geared as a Festival dedicated to raising funds to help preserve and restore our nation's lighthouses, it is also a great art, craft, photographer's and author's dream. There is something for everyone from stain glass to collector's wines, from crocheted works to wood arts, from traditional photography to photography on pottery, glass, and handmade jewelry that was just exquisite.
Being a photographer and fiber artist, I had lots of pictures, watercolor paintings and handwoven baskets for sale. Although I didn't make a ton of cash, I don't think I did too poorly for my first venue as a vendor. I'm taking into account that I was also working the show as their Official Photographer (I also sold CD's containing pictures of the entire 4-day show, plus events) so I was doing double duty, not to mention taking photos at all the dinners. Let's just say that some of those dinners were simply outrageous with fundraising gimmicks, like shaving one gentleman's head while he was dressed in a squaredancing dress (for that the GLLF raised over $1,000). The weather was just fantastic, not too hot and not too cold with plenty of sunshine. I did generate a lot of questions with my ribbon regarding Patron for the Artfair Insiders! Hopefully, more people will visit to see what it's al about and join.
Some of the vendors did great while others did not so hot, but again, it depended on presentation, how affiable the sellers were to the public and how willing they were to ask questions or just chat. Sometimes those chat sessions turned into "sell" sessions. I sold quite a bit of my photo's that way and they were ones that didn't have a lighthouse in the bunch!
Looking forward to doing it again next year and will have a lot more items geared to what I noticed sold and didn't sell. I'll also be making a return visit as their Official Photographer! So I really had a win-win situation.
Hope that if you didn't get to be there this year, you'll be there next year.
Terri at the Drake's Nest in Ossineke, MI
Site: www.drakesneststudio.com
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