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You know there’s too much jewelry when the 5^th person that walks into your booth on the first day of a show comes in saying, “Oh look, more jewelry”.  270 artists with 57 artists on the program in the jewelry category and at least 10 other booths with some jewelry that were juried in as glass, mixed media, other, etc. and you have a huge jewelry show!  In fact, of the 6 AFI’ers that I know were there, 4 of us were jewelry.  Chi C Lee, Robbie Curnow, and Sharrey Dore were there with their jewelry, Steph Mader with her glass and Lucia Friedericy with her dolls. 

This year’s Fall show was held in Seattle at the Smith Cove Cruise terminal on the north side of Elliott Bay the weekend before Thanksgiving, Nov 18-20.  The wine tasting area had a terrific view of downtown Seattle.  The show is sponsored by the NW Art Alliance which was founded in 1989.  The show is starting to attract a larger audience again and last year was our best show of the year, so definitely one we wanted to keep on the list for this year.

A little history, Best of the Northwest used to host some of the premier shows in the Puget Sound region, one each spring and one each fall. Due to some organizational issues and lack of attention to marketing the shows really started declining several years ago.  In 2009 a new Director was hired and to give credit where credit is really due, Pamela has done a wonderful job of starting to restore this Seattle tradition.  Marketing has increased dramatically under her leadership, attendance at shows continues to grow and she has done a wonderful job of bringing the Best of the NW shows back from the brink of total failure.  The shows have jumped around a bit over the past few years, we’ve had 3 different locations in the past 4 years for the spring show and 2 different locations in the past 3 years for the Fall shows but it does appear that they are finally getting to be more consistent.  The Fall and Spring shows are held at different venues due to the size of the shows.  The fall venue is the Smith Cove Cruise terminal and due to Homeland Security regulations there are some restrictions/regulations that make parking a challenge.  Load in / load out is a bit tedious, due to parking limitations and if you are on the second floor, having to use one of two elevators which can lead to long lines waiting to move your booth setup and products.  Load in is a little more staggered over an 8 hour time period, so not as much of an issue, load out is an exercise in patience.

This year’s show changed dates AFTER applications were already being accepted by Zapplication, no explanation was ever provided, even after contacting the show.  For the past several years this show was the second weekend in November, Pamela now wants to continue to hold it the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Apps were reopened a couple of times which may explain why there was such a high number of jewelers, it seems like they needed to fill spots.  At $600/booth, (more for corner spots, electricity, etc.) plus paying for parking, etc. this is not an inexpensive show to do.

Artist amenities – none.  There were lots of volunteers around, but there wasn’t even water or coffee available for the artists.  Show hours were reasonable, 10-6 on Friday/Saturday, 10-5 on Sunday.  Weather was a threatening factor this year with the possibility of snow in the forecast all week (Seattle residents do not venture out in snow).  Friday night as we were driving home we were hearing reports of snow in the Everett area and other areas north of the city.  Factor in the expectation of freezing temps Friday night and we were kind of wondering what our 30 mile drive into the city was going to be like on Saturday morning.  It turned out to be a non-issue for drivers on Saturday morning, however, crowds were very light for a Saturday and much lighter than last year.  Overall it did seem total attendance was down for the show, but it may have just been more evenly spread over all 3 days, I couldn’t really tell. 

After the spring show, Steph Mader wrote a show review and commented that none of the artists were complaining about sales.  Unfortunately this was not the case with the fall show.  When taking to other artists, sales were all over the board, there were at least a few who didn’t make booth, a few who barely covered expenses, but at least a couple of artists that had great shows including one jeweler who had a repeat customer spend $5000, plus he had several other large sales.   Most seemed to be down substantially by Saturday night, not sure of all the end results on Sunday, quite frankly that turned out to be our best day and I didn’t have time to leave the booth very often which was a good problem to have.

Sales Friday and Saturday were about 40% lower than last year for us, leading to the feeling that this was a mediocre show for sales.  Sunday’s crowd started slowly, but at least for us was the best buying crowd we had all weekend and seemed larger than it was Sunday last year.  We sold more on Sunday than on Friday and Saturday combined which resulted in only being down 10% from 2010, not the 40% we thought we were going to be when we went home Saturday night.  In the end our profit was about the same as the spring show which is a 2 day event, vs. the fall show which requires 3 days which has us concerned about next spring’s show which is resuming the 3 day instead of 2 day format and raising booth fees by $100.  Options for fall art shows (excluding all the little Christmas craft shows) are extremely limited in the Pacific NW so as long as our sales stay reasonable  it’s a show we’ll continue to do.

I just wanted all my friends at AFI to know about a little competition that The ACT insurance program is having. They would like artists and crafters to make and post short videos about their insurance on their Facebook page. It doesn't have to be professionally done and could just be a phone video with OK quality.

You don't have to have their insurance to participate. They will award a $500 cash card to the winner.

I thought this might help with getting some supplies, etc. for the upcoming spring shows!

Here are the details t.co/VmNxdVgv

and their facebook page www.facebook.com/ActInsPro

Their main page with information regarding their insurance is www.actinsurance.com.

OK. Geoff Coe was there too, and he promised to do a full accounting of the show.  Which he will do well once he finds that darn tequila bottle.

But here is a little of art show history.

Both Ellen Marshall, my wife, and me got seperate best in category awards at the show, hers for drawing , me for photography--and they were worth two-thousand smackers each.  First time I have ever heard, but what do I know, of a husband and wife in seperate categories getting best in anywhere-- pretty unique.

My 2nd of 4-in-a-row shows was yesterday.  This show was more like one of your small town shows (but still a long way to go in the form of having some more ART!)

The show was put on by a local branch of the Brain Foundation and has been running for almost a decade.  Situated in a large regional town it is billed as a "christmas fair" and has become a regular outing for the rural ladies, the well-heeled local ladies from surrounding districts ... and some that aspire to that! ... as well as a few locals.   (Other regular shows in the district include the agricultural show (yearly event), a monthly handmade/farmers market held in the main street on a Sunday morning, and a monthly market held at the showgrounds with predominately buy/sell.)

Around 40 exhibitors are hosted under cover (roof but only partial walls) at the local racecourse (it's the betting ring I believe).  There is live music (nice background music, not too loud) in the grassy area adjoining the pavillion where the booths are and the local pipe band do a walk around the fair twice during the day.  Food is limited to healthy lunch plates, bbq sausages/steak and ice cream.  No alcoholic beverages.    Dolly in and out but parking is close by.   If you have large items you can come early and drive in to unload.  

This is more of a craft market/shopping opportunity with about 50/50 handmade/buy-sell.  The organisers endeavour to have a mix of items and attempt not to replicate items (not always successfully, but they try to remedy double ups the following year).  Spaces are 3x3 - you can do what you like within your space for display - a couple erect tents, a couple use the tent frames as display, others just use their display tables/equipment.

Cost of the show is from $50-100 depending on site and $25 extra for power, plus 10% of sales (honour based) at the conclusion of show to the charity.  There is a $5 entry fee for adults to the show.

Show time is 9.30am to 4.00pm.  As it is late in November its getting hot and after experience, buyers have learned to come early to beat the heat.   Yesterday was fairly hot but there was an occasional breeze to revive everyone.  Most of the buyers were gone by 1pm but I still made sales until 3.30pm.

Jewellery - 7 booths  - 1 high end manufacturing jeweller, me mid-range handmade, 1 high end with stamped silver discs etc.- purchased components but hand stamped with personalised message/words and highly overpriced) and 4 with buy-sell mid range (one semi-precious and resin, one costume jewellery with a bit of silver, two with tibetan silver and wood).

Craft -handmade fabric bunting and framed fabric pictures (as in pictures made with pieces of fabric see photos below - they're on the left of the pic); handmade leather goods, buy-sell greeting cards.

Clothing & Accessories for adults - handmade wool garments;  buy-sell scarves; buy-sell ladies tops and dresses;  handmade aprons; handmade canvas duffle bags & shopping bags; handmade (but awful) plastic covered carry bags - childrens versions as well (lucky kids... NOT!); Pakistani jewellery and locally made but Pakistan-inspired clothing (sold by a local woman hailing from Pakistan);  a couple of ladies boutiques sent a selection of items.

Childrens - handmade children's dresses, skirts and aprons; handmade children's accessories ( a few of these); buy-sell toys (three different styles).

For the home -antiques, locally made timber furniture, buy-sell country-style kitchen goods; Polish glass vases and ornaments (apparently designed by the sellers but made in Poland); plants; handmade soaps.

Food items - local olive oil (and olive oil based beauty products) ; local berry products; buy/sell xmas puddings ; locally made spice mixes and gift packs; locally made preserves.

This is my third year at the event.  I had previously attended the handmade monthly market held in the main street a few times so wasn't a complete unknown to the district and my first year sales were good although it was so terribly hot (45 C) that not many people came out.   Last year my sales were down a bit - I thought there were less people through and there was a poorer quality of items on show plus there were two additional jewellery booths with a similar price range to mine (one buy/sell, one handmade) which weren't there this year.  

This year was by far the best out of the three for sales.   Although most of my sales were at the lower end, they made up for it by purchasing multiple items so that the total for each person was a decent amount.  One larger piece (pricewise) sold.  A few customers come particularly to see and buy from me since its the only time I get to the town each year, which is very flattering.   People were definitely shopping for gifts and there were lots of bags of various sizes going past by the middle of the day.    

How did everyone else do?  Up and down to all accounts and I don't think anyone wouldn't have made booth fee as people were definitely there to shop - if you had what you wanted (or could make them think you did, you would sell). 

The girl with the buy/sell stationery did less than last year as did the Polish glass people and the spice girl.   I think the two ladies with exactly the same clothing suffered.  The high end jeweller always does well.   The buy-sell costume jewellery lady opposite me did OK although I think she suffered with others there doing buy/sell in her price range.   Two of the toy people did well as they had items that you didn't see down the street in a store, the handmade soaps did well - they offered gift packages, mix your own and the soaps were colourful.  

The stamped jewellery had a lot of interest (it was their first year) although I don't know how they did at the end of the day.  The buy-sell semi precious jewellery always seems to be happy with her sales.     The canvas bags had a lot less stock by the end of the day as did the pretty children's clothing.   Some of the children's accessories did well, others not (particularly the ones who sat at the back of their booth most of the day and didn't engage with customers!).   The others were too far away for me to see/hear how they did.

And, I even remembered the camera...

My own show next week - this is like a trunk show held in a local shop in town for 2 days, then, finally, an art market to finish the year off.

boulderbrook productions and Richard P Sullivan, renowned for running the Naples National Art Festival to it's 2007 5th Best Show in the nation Ranking invite you to participate in the finest art event in Naples, Florida, for 2012.

We have considerable experience in downtown Naples and  we expect this to be the best show we produce all year.  The  downtown-waterfront location will make this a very enjoyable event for you and your patrons.

This event will feature the finest artists in the nation in a wonderful and popular Naples location. The event features no more than 75 artists. The event will be held smack in the middle of Naples in a wonderful mixed-use waterfront location at Bayfront/Naples. Come and join us for the right sized show in the right section of the city. A small number of artists in a high-traffic area; one of the busiest locations in the city. The right demographic for your patrons.

A picturesque setting winding along the Naples Bayfront in downtown Naples. The location is nearly synonymous with festival-going, in a city ranked by American Style Magazine as one of the top 20 locations cities for art.

While the heartbeat of the festival is its amazing selection of visual artists, the location is also home to a waterfront dining, shops and galleries. We have the full support of The City of Naples and the local businesses who will help to promote this wonderful event.

Parking for artists and patrons is abundant and very convenient. This festival will benefit The Naples Backyard History Museum.

Contact Info:
Richard P Sullivan
www.boulderbrook.net
boulderbrookproductions@gmail.com
239-293-9448

     Five years ago, my first art show ever was Telfair Art Fair, an annual fund raiser for Savannah's premier art museum. At that point it was in its 12th year. Every year, a new director takes the reigns leading to an inconsistency in proceedures. Some years, Telfair took a commission from all sales. Sometimes, if you paid a healthy booth fee, Telfair processed the sales, but kept no commission. Pay a lower fee and Telfair kept a commission. The one thing consistent from year to year was a large "T" shaped tent that covered two city blocks of two intersecting streets at Telfair Square. Inside were upwards of 100 top notch artists from all over the country representing every medium including mine, photography.

     Well this year things were really different with the most ambitious changes in the show's history. Gone was the massive tent. It had become an outdoor show. And additional artists (show total 140+) were added so the festival could be extended two more blocks across Savannah's original main street, Broughton, to Ellis Square, a highly trafficked tourist hub. The hope was that the new leg of tents would act as bread crumbs, enticing passers-by to follow them to the main body of the show. Gone were the commissions. Instead your booth fee was based on your location. Set up for the two and a half day show was also extended. Anyone who wanted to could set after 3:00pm on Thursday; my personal choice. I arrived during a short lived sprinkling of rain and set up my tent. The next day was Savannah's Veteran's Day parade. I arrived early to load-in my art without getting tied up in parade traffic. The show didn't start until 5:00pm so I enjoyed a leisurely set-up in fantastic weather.

     Friday evening saw the Arty Party which ran from 5:00 until 9:00. This event was not open to the general public. Patrons paid from $85 to $110 each to attend this catered event which was billed as a meet and greet preview of the art and artists. My sales at this event have traditionally been low because there is more of a party mood than a buying mood. However, despite the chill and a John Mellencamp concert at the nearby civic center, this year I had record sales.

    Saturday the show ran from 10:00am to 8:00pm. Customers began arriving before ten. Within the hour things really began hopping.  Large crowds maxed out the walkways in my area which had three rows of tents stretching across the street and extending one block. My sales began soon after and I was crazy busy until around six. At that point customers began to wane. By 7:00 most had vacated my area.

     Sunday also gave us beautiful weather. Show hours were short; from noon until 4:00. Once again crowds converged early and I had another brisk day of sales, this time beyond closing time.

     For me the show was very successful. I am a fine art landscape photographer with prices ranging from $15 to $195. Most of my sales were large involving as many as nine photos at a time. 85% of my sales were to tourists. Savannah is my home and tourism is its life's blood. We are a year round destination, not for the spring break type, but for sophisticated travellers who appreciate history and art.

     This year's director was volunteer, Julie Allen. She artfully pulled off an excellent show. She reminds me of Bill Kinney of  Paragon, because of her tireless devotion to the artists. The main difference was she had never previously directed an art show. Julie asked for and listened to advice from artists while planning the show and was in constant communication with all of us. It will be interesting to see what is in store for the 2012 Art Fair.

  In light of my recent rejection from Main Street, I would like to share my experience attending their open jury.

  The jury was held on November 10th and 11th at the Norris Conference Center in downtown Fort Worth.  Open Jury was on the 10th, from 9am to 5pm.  Michele Beniak was at the door when I arrived at nine, greeting the artists.  Jay (?), I could not understand or hear his last name, (I am partially deaf), introduced himself to everyone that came to observe, and explained the process.  He really made it a point to talk about where the show came from and where it was headed, which I really liked.  I think it may have been the director, Jay Downie, but again I just could not hear his last name. 

  So back to the setup. It was held in a fairly large room, "The Red Oak Ballroom", with five screens at the front of the room, with the five jurors sitting behind the tables that held the equipment and cords.  The juror's each had a small laptop that they used to vote with.  Behind the jurors and to the left were a few more tables that held a few people involved in the process.  Our chairs were set behind, with at least eighty chairs.  When I arrived, there were about five people in the room, I was surprised at how few people showed up.  During the entire time I was there, which was until almost 3pm, there were never more than fifteen people at a time.  They worked on the lighting for a bit, getting the jurors opinions on lighting,and settled on mostly dark room, with a few dim lights on the side.  Lighting seemed optimal to me by the time they finished.  Each juror got up and introduced themselves, and explained their medium to the artists.

  Here is how the show proceeded. In the beginning, the setup was configured with the booth shoot in the middle screen, with the works on either side.  Jay explained this was the first year that they were trying it that way, but the jurors did not like this configuration, so they switched it back to the first four picture of works, with the last being the booth shot.  I am really glad for that, I think if the booth shot was in the middle, it really would have broken the flow, but that is my opinion.  They asked us if we had any questions, and one of the artists asked about the importance of the booth shot to the jurors.  The juror that spoke about this was Pam Summers, and she explained that she used it mostly for scale, and reference, and explained that when the works are projected, you really have no idea of their size, until you see the booth shot.  Likewise, she said that it helped determine if the quality was present in the entire body of work.  I got the impression that while it factored into her decision, it was not the ultimate dealbreaker for her unless there were discrepancies.  I speculated though, on if everyone else felt that way, especially since they started with setup the booth shot in the middle. 

    On to the show. Each medium had an initial run-through, with about five seconds with no scoring at all. The exempted artist's slides went first.  The second round began with reading the artist's statement, (100 words, supposed to describe medium, but some did not get the memo...) and then allowed five to seven seconds per artist veiwing, unless the computers froze.  Unfortunately, they were plagued with issues the entire day.  I am not sure what the problems were, I heard mention of intermittent internet connection, but it set them back about an hour and a half by the time lunch rolled around.  Honestly, it was painful, and reminded me of how spoiled I am with lightning-fast technology. Anyway, scoring for this day was just for the K.O. punch,fifty-percent got a yes, and those people moved on to round two the next day. There was a maybe option, which Jay discouraged the jurors from using.  Scoring was one to seven, with a four being knocked out.

  My takeaway from this experience was this: you better have WOW factor in your work, and it better show up in your picture.  Five to seven seconds is nothing!  With 1,472 applications, standing out is crucial.  I was surprised at the number of people with booth shots that had their name plastered in them, and people milling about.  Jay said that they went through all of the pictures one by one, and actually called each and everyperson who had mistakes with the application.  I guess a few got through, as indicated by some of the names in the boothshot.  But, I want to ask Jay, why?  Why do you call the people who don't comply and give them another shot? I think they should be thrown out for jurying altogether, it might be helpful to send an email to the person saying they were not being considered because they did not follow the rules for applying, but you still don't get back your jury fees.  Bet that would only happen once to most people. 

  In conclusion, I was stunned at the sheer amount of quality I saw, and so was the potter next to me.  I marveled at how I did not even see one example of crocheted-doll head toilet paper covers (like my great-granny had sitting on the back of her toilet at her house, I used to turn her around when I used the bathroom because I did not want her to see me go).  I can also say honestly, that jury fee I spent, was on of the best thirty-five dollar investments I have ever made.  This is running with the big boys, plain and simple.  I do not envy those jurors one bit, and I knew the reasons why I would not make it in by the time I left. 

  Sorry about such a long post, I am now slinking off to the studio to make some better art.  Congrats to the people that got in.

1. Detroit Evolving into a Haven for Artists:  http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-detroit-20111113,0,3242102.story
2. Accidental Artist finds his niche teaching senior citizens:  http://heritage.com/articles/2011/11/12/saline_reporter/news/doc4eba988d36bb8487155715.txt?viewmode=fullstory
3. Your first chance to see the "new" Leonardo:  http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Your+first+chance+to+see+the+%e2%80%9cnew%e2%80%9d+Leonardo/24515
4. Mitt Romney would cut federal cultural agencies in half:  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/11/republican-candidates-arts-funding.html
5. Did you miss this yesterday on NPR? Alice Walton's fine art collection in rural Arkansas: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/The+collection+that+Walmart+built/25019

Thanks to the Arts Alliance in AA for some of these tips!

This was the first year for the PA Guiild show to be held in the new convention center smack dab in the middle of downtown Lancaster.  The town thinks of itself as an arty destination and has lots of small shops and galleries and artists studios. A few years ago I was successful with this group when the show was held at F&M college on the outskirts of town. Construction and parking woes caused the end of that location.

The facility is quite large and attached to a new very nice Marriott which gave decent price breaks to the exhibitors although it did not honor the 10% discount we were to get on food and drink purchases during the show.

The load in/out facilities are totally inadequate for a show with 140 art/craft exhibitors.Set up was all day and into the night on 11/11/11 and I was going to space 111 at 1 PM - surely a good omen. We had timed access to the loading dock area and assigned 40 minutes to totally unload and then move to parking about two block away. The loading area could handle about 6 vans or cars and maybe three vehicles with trailers at one time.  From the trailer load out area it was an uphill dolly through other vehicles trying to unload and then one large overhead door and then through a set of double doors that they kept closing. Some people were assigned load in times as late as 7 pm - I don't know how long it took them to get set up but it took me almost 4 hours with multiple dolly trips through the traffic jam.

Saturday there was a line to get in, admission $8.00 with some $2.00 discounts available, show hours 10 - 6.  They advertise heavily: internet, billboards, local TV and radio and postcards.  The crowd was good for the first 4 hours and then was pretty thin and almost non-existent the last hour. A very good blown glass artist from south Carolina was my neighbor with a striking display and he started out doing very well and sold a few of his higher end pieces and lots of his $30 - $60. pieces. He was very happy with his Saturday sales. A weaver/clothing next to me sold slowly but some, A potter friend had made her booth fee, booth fee $450 and up, but not the hotel cost. I had lots of lookers, lots of talkers, lots of artists wanting to figure out how I did whatever. I had two purchasers - both under $100.

Sunday there was no line to get in at the 10 AM open, show to close at 5.  It was virtually empty except for  the exhibitors, until after 12 PM.  People in this area go out to church, then breakfast, etc. After 12Pm traffic was decent with people dressed in their Sunday clothes and ladies in their "arty" clothes.  Fiber and wearables can do well in the area but a couple of my neighbors had pretty slow sales even in this category. Many  of the potters still appeared to have lots of inventory even though I did my part by purchasing from them. Lots of jewelers in the show but I don't know how their sales were - across from me was a local jeweler that was busy talking all day but not sure how many sales she had - she seemed to know half of the town. My neighbor glass blower was selling $20 and $30. ornaments as people admired his work and told him how reasonably it was priced but wouldn't purchase his items over $100.  He did finally have a "be back" come and purchase a nice piece, and it was reasonably priced for the quality. He agonized over a $275. sale for  two full days.  I had people agonizing over $85. beautifully framed reproductions, $3.50 notecards,  The three hours or so that people were there on Sunday I talked until I almost lost my voice.  Results were one sale and a lady who loved my work but it didn't match her sofa.  There were also the artists who wanted to pick your brain. I'm sure some of the more traditional crafts people did well but most were disappointed overall.

By 3:30 or so most of the public had dwindled and we were "bowling in the aisles" and everyone you saw walking around had an exhibitors badge. We were all dreading the impending tear down and load out. At 5 PM we were allowed to bring in our packing materials and begin packing, tear down completely, find one of two people, drag them to your space so they could see it was totally torn down and then be given a load in pass. Now you can walk to the garage two blocks away and then sit in traffic on city streets blocks around the hotel and convention center for about 1 hour or more.  Announcements pleaded with the local exhibitors to kill time, go have a drink, eat, etc. and let those with long drives have first access.  Actually a fair number of them did and I love them all. I was facing about a 3+ hour drive in the dark on back roads. I ended up having time to go have a drink, eat or whatever as I waited almost two hours for my trailer to finally get a loading space after everything was boxed and on dollies.  It took about 45 minutes still to load into the trailer with the same maze of traffic, vans and other dollies, shut double doors, and either a steep ramp or stairs to deal with.

It appeared that about half of the exhibitors were still waiting in vehicles, sitting on their boxed displays and waiting at 8:30 when I left. I was lucky.

I don't know the answer to the load in/out for this facility for 140 exhibitors. They eventually let us use fire lanes and go out the front entrance of the hotel lobby. Traffic was often blocked in both directions. I think the facility was designed without adequate access.  If artists had all day to load out it would have worked but added an extra night of hotel costs.  It should also have closed at 4 o"clock as the daylight savings time took effect and it was dark by the 5 pm close. It was a wonder that someone wasn't hit by a car in the loading area.

I was talking with family in Minneapolis and was surprised to hear that there are no plans to hold the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts next year due to the death of the main person involved and the breakup of the group that usually put it on. Just thought I'd pass this along as we are all in the process of planning shows for next year!

http://blogs.citypages.com/dressingroom/2011/09/stone_arch_fest.php

(I'll also cross post in the forums too. If anyone else has more info to share that would be great)

This is the second year that I've participated in this fund raising Arts and Crafts show for this Presbyterian church here in Tucson.   As with last year, there are always a lot of people walking around and looking but few buyers.   I had a fairly good show this year and for a one day event, did ok.    I had 3 people who bought things from me last year, come back this year to buy more.    That made my day.    How many other people on this list participate in church art shows and do you find that they are worth the effort?

Doing Disney is not always good for the pocketbook but it is always good for the soul.  There are, of course, issues but Disney is one show where I feel respected as an artist and treated like a person, not just a cash cow.

I don’t have to tell them on Friday what time I think I’m going to want to run to the restroom on Sunday.  My section had a block captain who called me by name.  If I needed a break I just went over to the info tent and asked for a booth sitter.  And if I wanted a bottle of water I just asked for one.  I could have as many as I wanted, no coupons, no limit.  Lunch was delivered to my booth daily for me and a helper if I so desired.  No standing in long lines at the concession stand to pay outrageous prices for food.   The rules are stated clearly and enforced across the board.  No bending of the rules for “special” people.  And the awards ceremony is an uplifting experience, as usual, even though I didn’t win anything this time around.  Contrast this with Gasparilla who last year gave out $75,000 in awards, outside in the rain, with not even enough chairs for everyone.  No person standing at the door taking tickets for the awards breakfast.  Just some of the top people in charge of the show shaking your hand and welcoming you.  Just a small example – on Sunday my rug started to “pouf” a little in the front, making it a possible trip hazard.  A booth sitter noticed it and came back 10 minutes later with duct tape to tape it down.  I can’t imagine any other show doing this.  Most shows wouldn’t even have noticed and the few who did would probably be checking my liability insurance not providing duct tape.

Okay happy rant over.  All booth spaces in this show are not created equal.  There are some spots that don’t get as much traffic.  There are spaces that have a little extra storage area and spaces that have none.  The area in the center doesn’t get much sun and can be a wind tunnel.  Sales can be slow and poor.  This year was helped by Friday being a holiday so the attendance on Friday was much higher than normal.   I did quite well this year.  More than my two previous years combined.  It was a happy surprise.  But it is possible to zero at this show.  The people are coming to “see” art not necessarily to “buy” art.  Most of them are spending a whole lot of money on Disney stuff but not art.  A lot of them are from out of town so be prepared to ship.  I did sell one piece to a couple from Switzerland but thankfully they took it with them.  My sales were pretty much across the board, some matted prints, some smaller framed pieces, and some larger framed pieces.

Load in and load out are difficult.  No matter where your space, you will be dollying.  For some spaces you will be dollying a long way.  The show makes it as easy as possible but it still is difficult.

The weather was almost perfect on Friday; just cool enough to keep people off the boat.  I got quite warm on Saturday and Sunday but no rain, still great.

All in all, a great experience.   It is nice once in a while to feel like a respected artist instead of a cash cow.

For anyone who read my blog post two months ago Penrod Art Show vs. Broken Neck  about the 22-yr old son of dear friends who broke his neck while my wife and I were at the Penrod (Indy) Show...here is a brief update...

Tanner Gibson and his wife are back in their home and continuing classes at Tennessee Tech.  His neck halo brace was finally and mercifully removed.  He has movement of all limbs and is rehabbing intensely.  He raised his right arm completely over his head recently, a victory. 

Like any active, young person, rehab is frustrating and taking too long.  He wants to be 100% yesterday.

But he is alive.  He is walking.  He was/is a miracle.  Prayers were lifted up all over the nation and they were answered this time, as requested.  A testimony to the goodness of God...for the rest of his life.

I don't have a full review of this show, for reasons that will be clear in a paragraph or two.  But I wanted to get the conversation started among artists who attended this Howard Alan show, held in Sarasota, FL's St. Armand's Key.

St. Armand's Circle is a shopping district well-known for its upscale shops and fine dining establishments, including the not-to-be-missed Columbia Restaurant, which features the best Cuban-American fare this side of Miami.  Artists' booths are located throughout the shady interior of the traffic circle.  Additional booths run along a block or two of one of the "spokes" leading away from the circle.  Artists within the circle could set up all day Friday; the "streeters" (including yours truly) needed to wait until Saturday morning. 

I've done this show twice in years past (2008 and 2009), when it was held in October.  These shows featured sweltering heat and humidity; the monsoonal rains that hit during load-out in 2009 dumped about 5 inches of rain in three hours and taught me never to stack work along a curb if I ever wanted to see it again.  Anyway, this unfortunate spate of late rainy-season luck prompted a move to November.  And despite my two mediocre sales experiences here, I was anxious to see if both meteorological and sales gods would be smiling on me in 2011.

Well, one of the two delivered.  We couldn't have asked for better weather this year: two days of cloudless blue skies by day, with cool temps at dawn to make setup a comfortable, shall we say, "drip-free" experience.

But the sales...aggh, the sales!  I had  browse bins full of old and new work, boxfuls of 2012 calendars, a new 2.5x3 foot canvas that I shot on Tuesday and printed Wednesday, and high expectations.  But sadly, an early flurry of browse-bin sales in the first 90 minutes died out, never to return.  I sold enough to pay booth fee and make expenses (largely because I opted to commute from Ft. Myers, 85 miles to the south, instead of taking a hotel room).  When your biggest sellers are your $20 calendars and 3-for-ten-buck notecards, you're in for a long weekend.  Sunday was no better, until I knocked some of my $75 16x20s down to $50 to stir up a trickle of buying interest. 

So, here's my problem from a show-review standpoint:  I have insufficient evidence to know if this show was a winning sales experience for others, or not.  I had enough traffic coming by all weekend that I couldn't leave the booth for an extended walk through the show.  What I can report from my neighbors:

* One, who sold interesting, kinda avant-garde long stem flowers fashioned of glass at $100-300 price points, had a killer Saturday and a long, slow Sunday. 

* A husband and wife team with adjacent booths of functional ceramic art both zeroed on the weekend (but had unbelievably great attitudes in the face of no results). 

* A well-known and talented photographer of Italian doorways and street scenes, whose subjects hit the "sweet spot" with buyers seeking to decorate their predominantly Mediterranean style homes, seemed to do his usual gangbuster business.

* A young Florida landscape and wildlife photographer had about the same results I did. 

* A well-known abstract painter, fresh off a strong show in Estero, just covered his expenses.

So, lots of unanswered questions: Was  customer traffic heavier in the center of the circle than among us "streeters"?  Were there lots of buyers carrying packages around?  Were folks there to buy, or were they strolling the show while visiting all the shops and restaurants nearby? My answers are, respectively: "No idea," "Without a clue, " and "Beats heck outta me." 

Some help, eh?  If there's a Pulitzer for blogging, I've blown it with this entry.

So I need you folks who did the show, particularly if you were in the central area, to chime in with comments below and fill out this picture.  As for me, I consider this to be a "Geoff problem, " not a show problem, so you'll hear no whining from me.  I've done five shows in Sarasota now (three with Alan, two with other promoters) and I'm still looking for a strong sales result.  If my bird and wildlife images don't get Sarasota's collective pulse racing but sell strongly in Venice, only 15 miles to the south, well, that's good information to know.

So: How 'bout the rest of you out there?  Chime in, please!

My old booth shot was about 4 years old and getting long in the tooth. So I borrow some space today indoors at a friends business and set the booth up. I decided to go minmalist on it, no small pieces, no flip bin, and just keep it simple.

 Of course things have to go wrong from the get-go and after I unload everything, I realize I grabbed the wrong canopy, an old EZ-Up with exchanged parts and struts. Ah, what the hell, they won't show. I run out of room in the ceiling and wind up pushing some suspended ceiling tiles out of the way and the top gets shoved out of line. That's bad enough, but after I climb a ladder and mount three Novatron flash heads up in the top I find out I don't have the sync cord to connect to the camera. I do have the prints hung, and I've got until Thursday to work on this.

I used an on-camera flash (not the pop up type) for a few shots, and did a few exposures with the modeling lights in the flash. This is not the final image, it's just a test run or work in progress. There's some things I know need to be done, and I'd like to hear what else needs to get done. Here's the set-up, and keep in mind the lighting sucks right now and I've got some work ahead of me to soften the light and kill some serious reflections.

First off, I have no idea how come the middle left panel is lighter than the others. I'll use full lighting tomorrow and if it's actually lighter I'll turn it around or substitute another panel.

Should I drop the left bottom row a few inches and make the entire bottom  row all the way around line up the tops of the frames?

Should I work with the back wall and get even spacing on the far ends?

The carpet is nondescript brown. Should I go ahead and get some indoor/outdoor carpet or just change the color in PS?

I'm using a 15mm focal length on the lens. I can use that lens on a 35mm camera and get a very much wider view and open up the sides, although at the expense of making the back wall a bit smaller. Another thought I had was to take three different shots with a somewhat less wwide view and splice them together so the sides are much more visible.

Are there any concerns about any of the work sticking out badly and not fitting? It won't hurt my feelings if someone says something is weak and needs to go.

Don't sweat the lighting at this point, as I need to find a sync cord and some diffusion panels to soften the light. Any concerns about the cables up there in the top? Should I Photoshop those out, or is okay to leave them in?

Any feedback on this will be greatly appreciated.

Anyone know anything about these shows and which ones are the most profitable?  We sell wooden boxes.......any help is greatly appreciated!  Thanks!!

I posted this before, but never saw it on the site, so will try again.

So far I have gotten 2 Marriott Courtyards on priceline.com for next year: Fort Lauderdale for $42/night and West Palm Beach for $45/night.  Both on the first bid, so they might have gone cheaper.

Has anyone used the auto-bid site that was mention here?  I didn't, in part because I forgot to bookmark it.

The opportunities for getting out and about with my jewellery increase as Christmas looms.   Consequently I have just started the 4 shows in 4 weeks timetable that I love ... but don't think I could keep up with regularly!

Last night I attended the first in these - a 'table' show, held by a neighbouring town's central school.    (Out here in the country we tend to have 'central schools' - that cover all grades from kinder through to Yr 12 as the population base is low.  In larger towns you find 'primary' schools - kinder to Yr 6 - and 'high' schools - Yr 7 through 12.) This town has about 700 people - in town and the surrounding farming areas.   There is definitely a well to do contingent in that population base and have $ to spend.

The event was billed as a "Ladies Night" and was run by the school's P&C Assn.  This is its second year and after a successful year last year, they moved it from a large classroom to their school hall (auditorium).   The hall was generous in size, well lit, had air conditioning for the rather hot afternoon temperature and on arrival was well set up - each 'table' was actually 2x 6ft tables  set up in a  <  shape along the sides of the hall.   A roll of red carpet ran down the centre from the stage for a fashion parade.   The show started at 4.30pm and went to 8pm.  Set up was from 3pm and the only draw back was a rather difficult entry for carrying items in - either steps or a longer (but flattish) walk.  I opted for the latter and used my hand cart (dolly?) but thank goodness I didn't have to take anything heavy/large on the route!

The organisers do a great job but fell down a bit with advertising this year - at least according to some attendees.   They apparently placed an advert in their local paper over the last 3 editions (a fortnightly paper), had radio spots the week leading up on their community radio station, plenty of mentions and adverts in their school newsletter and did some last minute flyers in local businesses but some people only found out it was on by word of mouth. Last year they did a letterbox drop instead of the local paper.  There was no signage so if someone was new to the area they may not have known where to go! 

I was the only one with handmade.   The other people selling were definitely vendors or party plan type people, however the  quality of these manufactured products was pretty
high and the prices were mostly mid range (and probably high range for
this rural area!).     There was only one seller with cheap and nasty.  They could really do with some proper art and I think it would sell quite well to this area, but they limit their art (as happens regularly in Australia) to galleries.

The cost of the show for those there with their wares was a donation of an item to the school's christmas raffle - and they weren't fussy as to what that donation was. 

There was a $10 cover charge which included a wide range of tasty looking nibblies, punch, champagne and more.  Free childminding was provided in the school's library.  I was asked for jewellery for the models to wear in the fashion parade and they brought the clothes over for me to select suitable pieces which they only took just before the parade started and returned immediately afterwards.  One of the pieces worn was sold that evening.

I was set up around the opening mark and people were already milling about.  It was by no means a huge crowd but they were my target market and I made my first sale in the first half hour and it continued with interested and chatty customers for the rest of the evening.  My last sale was around 8.30pm after everyone else selling had packed up and left.   (As usual, I'm always the last to pack up - but I'm sure I get extra sales this way).  It certainly doesn't hurt to have a little bit of champagne flowing to open purses!

Sales were about 40% new customers and 60% previous customers.   Overall sales were up around 30% on last year and I was very happy with them - another instance of just like "the good old days" (pre GFC).   Bonus is that its only 45 min from home. 

I was busy from start to finish so didn't get to chat to any of the other sellers, but the ones near me appeared satisfied/happy with their night.

I failed to take my camera - but will try and remember for next week's show - a large indoor one day event about 2 hours drive away.

Hope you've enjoyed the look into another show Downunder.

Cheers!

Annette

In a couple weeks, I will be have my last show for the year!  The show is at the Chesaning High School and Middle School on Nov. 25-26 (the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving) in Chesaning, MI.  My booth is located in the main room of the middle school.   The show is from 10am-5pm on Friday and 10am-4pm on Saturday. 

This will be my third year doing this show.  I've been doing this show with my dad who does wood/antler and re-purposed art.  It's a much better show for my dad than for it is for me, but we are both wondering if it may be time to move on and replace it with a higher-end art show.  We'll just have to see how this year goes :) !

One of the pleasures of participating in the Florida shows is that many of the shows have some very nice prize money. Congratulations to the following, including friends of mine from the upper Midwest Scott Hartley, Jack & Marian Forney and Allan Teger.

Of more than 225 artists selected for the juried art show, Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival judges selected the following 26 artists for $25,000 in award money:

Best of Show ($3,000):

• Sid Kamerman, Sculpture, Pensacola

Awards of Distinction ($1,400 each):

• Tim Peters, Ceramics
• Don McWhorter, Ceramics
• Susan Gott, Glass - YouTube video, casting glass
  
• Jack & Marian Forney, Jewelry
• Scott Hartley, Watercolor

Awards of Excellence ($1,200 each):

• Katrin Wolf, Jewelry
• Michael Bond, Printmaking
• Russell Grace, Photography
• Royal Miree, Sculpture
• Chris Hartsfield, Watercolor

Awards of Honor ($800 each):

• Dennis Paullus, Wood
• Shadow May, Ceramics
• Tony Krysinsky, Mixed Media
• Hetty and Norman Metzger, Fiber/Leather
• Barbara Laffal, Jewelry

Awards of Merit ($600 each):

• Brad Kelly, Photography
• Teresa Merriman, Mixed Media
• Nnamdi Okonkwo, Sculpture
• Tom and Frances Grow, Ceramics
• Guadalupe Robinson, Ceramics

Judges Awards ($400 each):

• Allan Teger
• M. Kemper, Watercolor
• Mark Rosenbaum, Glass
• Logan Louis, Jewelry
• John Moran, Photography