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...if a show will always be good!  

I had a single day show this weekend.  It was the fourth year I've attended and I was expecting much of the same sort (and size) of crowd and consequently the same sort of sales as previous years.   Boy, how wrong could I be!  

There has been new management the last two years, aimed at increasing the exhibitors with the result of some buy/sell allowed in.  These 'vendors' had increased a little but I wasn't overly concerned, believing my work would shine through :) .  

BUT, then the wall of people that normally arrive at opening time didn't.   The general 'type' of person was different - more kids looking for presents for their mums for mother's day, and less of the well groomed ladies with their hubbies in tow.

Hours into the show, numbers were still drastically down, interest from people walking around was low and sales were dismal.   I saw a couple of familiar faces from previous years but they were only looking, not buying.  

I started to second-guess my work.  I wondered if I wasn't engaging the potential customer enough (what customer - they weren't even stopping!?).  Was there something wrong with my set up?   I knew the effects of the GFC was still hurting people, but in the four shows I'd done over the last few weeks, there was a reasonable level of purchases.  Did this town suddenly just not want my work any more?

I took a few minutes out to visit some nearby booths.  Anyone with a handcrafted product over $20 wasn't doing very well at all.  However having a look around:

*the lady with the fabric bags (handmade ... poorly done but still handmade) had also gone into a line of buy/sell t-shirts and accessories and seemed constantly busy. 

*the woman with the buy/sell $10 candles in pretty jars had girls and teens 6 deep most of the day. 

*the woman with the $15 glass pendants had lots of blank spaces on her boards.  

*the bloke with the leather belts was doing quite well. 

This was "market" territory, not a proper 'show'!  WHAT was going on?

I ended up chatting to one lady who asked how it was going and I mentioned that there seemed a lot less people this year... she then told me that a lot of people were probably at the food & wine festival on in a nearby town.  Usually a week apart these had clashed this year.  *ahhhh*  All those nice prospective buyers and previous clients must have been living it up with gourmet food and boutique wines a couple of towns away!

Fortunately, towards the end of the day some ladies came by stating that they had promised themselves that if I was there they wouldn't buy 'much'.  Thankfully either their 'much' was substantial or they just couldn't help themselves and they turned my rather dismal day into at least a worthwhile event.

But lesson learned.  I'll now be looking at what else is on around the district and won't be counting those chickens quite so quickly next time!

Belleville, Michigan

200 artists

Deadline: June 1

I just received an email from Harvest Festival about a tour of nine, three-day, indoor (and optional outdoor) shows on the West Coast starting Sept. 9-11 through Dec. 2-4. Booth fees range from $600-775 (expensive) depending on whether you exhibit indoors or outdoors. Eight of the nine shows are in California. One in Las Vegas. Has anyone done any of the Harvest shows? Any recommendations? I exhibit 2-D fine art. Could be that these shows attract lots of buy-sell and low end craft. I'm a midwest artist and never exhibited on the West Coast but a tour of California in the fall has got me thinking...

jleben@lebenart.com

John Leben

This is not a show for everyone.  First of all, it lasts 6 days, from Tuesday thru Sunday.  Day 1 goes from 7:30 AM until 9PM.  The next 4 days the hours are 11AM until 9PM.  Sunday goes until 6PM.  Secondly, this is their fund raiser and they take a 20% commission. Thirdly, they handle all the sales and then send you a direct deposit into your account, which they try to do within 7 days, but, 14-17 days is the reality.  So, you have to pay all your expenses for the show before you see any cash flow.  Fourth, this show never closes early, so, if it is snowing and 32 degrees, you have to be at your booth even though there are no customers.

Loading in and loading out is really hassle free and easy. We can drive right up to our space and we get all day on Monday to unload and set up.  The show provides 36 16' x 16' tents.  Each tent is divided into 4 sections, so, each exhibitor gets a 16' front. The show lasts until 9PM so you need lights.  Most people brought their own lights, but, they had lights if you needed them.  And, they provided ladders, so, you could attach the lights to the top of the booth.  I got there an hour early and they let me right in.  That was cool.  What wasn't cool was that they eliminated a couple of tents right in the middle of the street that had the best location for traffic flow.  Unfortunately, I was in one of those tents.  They ended up cramming those tents on the left side against the curb and facing away from the main traffic flow.  In addition,  I was facing some trees that had really annoying birds crackling loudly throughout the show. And, they ended up perched on the electric wire right next to my space, pooping along the curb.  I was supposed to be facing the afternoon sun, but, I was mostly in the cold and dark. I went from having one of the best spaces in the show to one of the worst.  Because of a numbers mix up, other people were not in the spaces they thought they were in and I heard that some people complained.  The committee was apologetic, but couldn't really do anything about it, this year.  Having said that, the booths for the most part were arranged well and spaced so a customer could get to every booth.  There wasn't really a bad location in the show, except that nobody would trade spaces with me.

There were no awards for best of show, etc. but there were plenty of purchase awards.  There was a pretty good dinner for the artists and a pretty good breakfast one day.  A donut shop that has been in existence for 80 years(I'm guessing at the age) donated donuts in the morning and cookies in the afternoon. They provided very good coffee, soda, and water. Unfortunately, the donut booth was right near my space and I gained back all that weight I lost eating really well in Florida.  This show has an excellent helper system and instead of just booth baby sitting, they would run and get us anything we wanted.  Someone actually went to a restaurant to get my lunch for me.  The artists also had access to a couple of really good clean bathrooms that were close by.

The artwork ran the gamut from really good to "what is that doing here?"  I thought that this show had some of the best painters I had ever seen at an art fair.  Much of it had a Southwest look which was refreshing to me because I usually stay in the East and Mid-East.  There were a lot of California and New Mexico, etc. exhibitors there.  Something I found shocking was that there was a booth with watches that got in as jewelry.  The person in the booth called himself a rep and he talked about the fact that they had 6 "designers" who designed the work.  I don't know where the watches were made but they weren't made by the rep in the booth or the so called designers.  I heard that the jewelers all got together and complained about this booth.  I, also, had a conversation with a committee member who said they would kick them out of the show if it could be determined that the people manning the booth didn't make the pieces. However, nothing was done. There was some other so called "art" like a booth with clocks that appeared devoid of any human qualities, but, most of the booths had really excellent work.

Most of the exhibitors I talked to, in the end, had a really good show. They invite back 2/3rds or so, of the top selling exhibitors.  Since this is basically a 2-D show and a jewelry show, most of these people are jewelers and 2-D people.  This show also tends to be a low end show, to some degree, so, if you had work below $60 you could have done really well.  Consequently, functional pottery tends to do really well.  Doug Becker did an excellent business with his glass selling ornaments and paperweights.  He calls them "birds and balls." The show could be divided into 2 parts--the first part is Tuesday thru Friday afternoon and the second show starts Friday evening and lasts until Sunday at 6.  The show opens at 7:30 AM on Tuesday morning.  There is a heavily supported program where individuals and corporations pledge to spend at least $500 in purchase prizes.  The early opening allows the corporate execs to come through before work on Tuesday to get first crack at the work.  I've been told that at one time, the streets would be full of people Tuesday morning and every artist would have a number of purchase prize cards in their booth.  I've done this show twice and both times there were hardly any early buyers on Tuesday morning.  They could easily eliminate this part of the show.  It's really taxing on the exhibitors to be out there for a 14 hour day when there are no buyers in sight.  The rest of the Tuesday-Friday part of the show had people checking out the show for later purchases and a lot of low end buyers.  By Friday afternoon there were a lot of people complaining about extremely poor sales.  To be fair though, there were a few people that I talked to who had really good early sales with their high end work.  Then came Saturday.  The weather was excellent on Saturday and people started showing up early.  It was definitely a different crowd.  People came to buy.  I sold steadily all day long and I believe the majority of exhibitors had the same experience. In the end, I had 2 purchase awards and a pretty good show.  Almost, everyone I talked to was happy.  I did talk to a couple of people with really excellent work who had bad shows but I think this was the exception. 

The weather had a lot to do with how well sales went.  There was only 2 excellent days out of the 6.  Two days were extremely cold.  I figured the high was 50 degrees.  Friday had extremely high winds gusting to 40 mph.  This was stressful for anyone facing the wind.  There was some breakage.  I think this was the reason why sales were no existent on a couple of the days.  Two years ago the temperature was in the low 90's every day and no rain.  I sold at least one big piece every day.  This year I really only had 2 days of decent sales--Friday, the high wind day and Saturday, when the temps were around 80 degrees and sunny.  The worst day of the show for sales and weather wise was Sunday.  The temperature was in the 50's and it rained most of the day.  There was even hail for a few minutes.  Hardly any customers showed up.  It was too bad because I'm sure Sunday would have been as good as Saturday, but, no one with any sense was out on Sunday.  Except us, of course.  The committee should have had more concern for the exhibitors and canceled the show on Sunday which every other show I do would have done.  Every exhibitor I talked to would have packed up and left.  The top picture has me standing in front of my booth on Sunday with 2 sweaters on, my winter coat, a silly plastic bag over my shoulders, and my wool hat. AND, I was still cold.

Would I do this show again?  I would.  Unfortunately, I probably wasn't in the top sales that get invited back so I have to apply again.  Decorative ceramics doesn't sell as well as paintings or jewelry.  Personally, I think they should take that in consideration and invite me back. lol.

First off I am a lover of Trimline and will always be.  You will see why I say so further in this post.

So it all started 1 week ago when on a sunny yet windy day I got out my trimline to wash it.  Go through the steps of setting it up - never had an issue with this as I can pretty much do it in about 15 - 20 mins. on my own.  I did not rush doing this - in my backyard - as I wasn't setting up for a show.  With the roof on and fairly firmly attached I raised the legs and started to attach the sides to then spray with suds then hose them down.   Just as I got the sides up and about to attach them to the legs a big gust of wind came through.  That time I was able to get it to not fly off.  But just as I was going to try and anchor it, it fell backwards shearing off the joint where the leg and the corner of the roof beams attach.  The one bar did bend as well as the other joint - you should be able to see in the picture - faintly circled in red.  So all in all through this crazy experience the only damage were the two joints and one pole - no legs, no sides, nothing else was damaged.  Lucky.

This led me to really thank my lucky stars that this didn't happen at a show.  I have insurance - that wouldn't be an issue, but the horror of seeing this happen effecting possibly every neighbor beside me and behind me is something I cannot shake.  I have never had this happen - a flying canopy.   I have seen it at nearly every show I have done.  I am fully aware of the importance of anchoring a canopy and do so, but all it takes is a split second. 

Having said this - it is my fault that I did this - not Trimline.  So many times people quickly blame the canopy or some other thing/place.  And am thankful this was with a trimline as with any other canopies I have used you would most likely have to replace it - parts can be expensive and they might not be in (as such was the case with an EZ-UP I had two years ago).  The two joints are only $20 each and the one bar that got bent was about $30.  Also, if the same thing were to happen to any other canopy it wouldn't have been a lot more damage - legs broken, fabric torn, etc. 

So, today I am thanking my lucky stars that I did not set up my booth with in the toppled over canopy, this didn't happen at a fair, and the show I was going to do was a rain or shine event when the tornadoes hit and chose to not go forfeiting my booth fee.  Still have no idea if the show actually happened.  The show, funny enough was infront of a courthouse.  The best thing ever was this happened in my own back yard and with a Trimline.  Now if you want to do the same thing as me: 

1.  Set up your canopy when it is windy without any help - any other weather conditions it is easily doable.

2.  As soon as the legs are on, do not anchor it - it can be done later.  (yes there is sarcasm hidden in here)

3.  Do not properly secure the top - I did the corners and the "seat buckle" straps as instructed, but didn't do the ones on the sides where you would normally attach the sides.

4.  Put the sides on only having used the zippers on the top to create a wind-tunnel to help give the canopy lift. 

5.  Sit back and watch the kite fly. 

In all seriousness - if you are to take anything from this lesson, anchor your canopies and if for some reason you find you can't do it in time, always alway always make sure you have insurance.   The good news, the customer service with trimline is impeccable and got my parts Monday - I am good to go for this Saturday show - on pavement - with anchors already packed.  

- Michelle, By the Bay Botanicals

www.bythebaybotanicals.com

www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com

As you know fine art & fine craft shows are hard to come by in December but I've found a first time show in St. Augustine the week between x-mas & new years that I'm going to give a try. It's on Zapp as The Old Town Art & craft festival.

As I'm always leary about first time shows  I contacted the show director to get the scoop. Lynn Wettach is the show director and she and her husband are both artists on the circut. Last year she was in St. Augustine the week between x-mas & new years and it was packed with people so she decided to host a show there. It will be held in Fransis Field which is where all the busses let out and the main parking garage is, I've done shows there in the past and it's great visibility. There will be no entertainment to draw people away from the artists and she assured me that the selection of artists and crafters will be balanced with no buy sell allowed. The show will be on Wednesday & Thursday with setup on Tuesday, very easy setup & breakdown. The cost is 225. for a standard space and if you want a corner it's 50. more.

If you read my blogs you know I search out smaller or little known shows and  if Lynn does everything she says she's going to I think this show has a chance. Every time I've done this show with the art league I've done over 2K.

Hello!

I am new to this, but I have been reading your comments for a while now and they are so very helpful!! Has anyone ever done the Festival of the Vine in Geneva? This year it's Sep. 10 & 11, they are still accepting applications, but before I send mine and the $175 booth fee, I'd like to know a bit about it!

Thanks!

Hi Connie and everyone else!

Question!  Does anyone know about the Howell Mich.  Melon Fest?

They are adding a section for fine craft.   I was approached, but I do not want to make the trek from Il. if the people attending are budget minded and out for farm goods and handy crafts.

Thanks

Paula Grill

Well, I just got back from the beach and read all the wonderful reviews of last weekend.  Everybody has risen in their writing to incredibly new levels.  I can't blame paucity of sales on gnats, lovebugs or tornado damage, wish I could, but here's my report.

First weekend of May, the fragrance of jasmine weighs heavily in the air, pirates are everywhere whirling their swords and beads, the smell of cooking shrimp permeates your inner cores, the crowds come roaring and jabbering wildly down centre street--yep, its Shrimpfest time in Fernandina Beach.

To give you a little background, Fernandina Beach (hereafter known as FB) is the first town in Florida on the ocean when you cross the St. Mary River south of Georgia.

History is everywhere in this town.  Old antebellum mansions are as common as horsehoe crabs on the beach.   They have a charming historical district downtown and run the show six blocks down Centre Street with additional booths, some antiques, others B/S, down side streets.  Probably close to 350-plus booths.

No shortage of crowds, they come by the thousands for the three-dollar strawberry fruit smoothies (the stand next to me closed out early on Sunday, they used more than four-thousand pounds of ice and sold out on smoothies), they come for the shrimp-pies, heck they come for anything that has a resemblance to a shrimp including plastic ones on a stick.  They come to drink copious amounts of beer, they leave after-effects around most visibly.  They come for the Friday night fireworks which happen when many of us are still setting up.  Some even come to buy original art, and not so original art.

I have done this show for more than 20 years.  Some years it is real winner, other years like this, it is not so great.  I made money, but it was way off the mark.

Part of the charm of this show is because I stay with a number of other good artists at Aileen Moore's historic house which is two blocks from the show.  Aileen puts up with all of us, very gracefully, puts on a great feed on Saturday night with most of us contributing something to the cause.  I can set up my booth stash my van across the street from it for the whole show, have "Position A" for teardown (Someday we will talk about the importance of "Position A", but not now) and stumble home to her house two blocks away.  It doesn't get any easier than that.

You are talking northern limits of Jacksonville, utter-southern limits of South Georgia here which spells for sales in art--very,very traditional, mostly conservative picks of art.  Hey that is what sells best here.  They love to get you down on the price if they can.

The committee is the local Art Association, very parochial, which means they don't get out and about to check out how other shows are run.  You do it their way or the highway.  Some years, long-standing exhibitors find themselves stuck on the side-streets between B/S and dubious antigue dealers. Reason being, if you don't get a high enough jury score than you lose your Centre Street position, and it is off to the netherlands.

This year they had one exhibitor on the sides who was selling B/S of a surfboard with the words "Margaritiaville" and some funny saying on it for $21.  He didn't make it.  He supposedly sold more than $15K of it on Saturday alone.  Artists complained (yeah, they didn't know which warehouse where they could pick up some of those boards) about the guy.  The committee came and basically said, "Naughty, naughty, don't be selling those anymore."  Rebuffed, he put them away for a while and then continued selling to his litlle old heart's content.  What ya gonna do?

So that is some of the buying atmosphere you have to contend with.

For the most part, spaces are generous for stock storage and display.  You can pull right up in front of your booth for setup and teardown.  They have booth-sitters, nice awards (I got second in photo and RC Fulwiler got third) and even some free food for the artists.

It seemed that the crowds were down this year, sales were off by 40 per cent for a lot of us.  There were still lots of success stories.  Serious money was being made, just not a lot of it was going around like years past.

I won't give up on this show, especially since I have a reinvite because of the award, but if it continues to down-spiral I may look for other pastures--but it is hard to give up on Aileen's place and the good times with old friends who come there.  It is a reunion.  It is one of the many beloved perks of this business, being able to reconnect with artist friends over decades of experience.  Oh the stories we have to tell about each other.  I seem to star prominently in many of them for better or worse.

That has always been why I have loved this business for more than 36 years, because of all the like-minded creative personalities I have met and shared good times with.  No money could replace those times, and that is why I keep merrily plugging along at this biz.

Extra little high today.  Got my acceptance to Lexington, which just about sets my summer.  Now, if I could get either AB&E or the Plaza, I would be in hog heaven.

No show this coming weekend, but then I go next for Artisphere in Greeneville SC.  You will get a full report about it.  Only 125 invited artists--it is a good feed and an extremely great opportunity to make mucho moola at.  Aloha, Nels.

beautiful setting in a shady parkfriendly, gentiel southern Georgia folks,  Hi Oliver

Tifton is in the southern part of Georgia about an hour from the Florida line and as removed from the hustle and bustle of the big city as you can get. They have all the chain restaurants and big box stores you could want but they're on the outskirts of town. The downtown area has all the charm of small town america with locally owned stores and restaurants. This is my second year at this long running festival (31 years) and again I was not dissapointed with my sales, I even won a merit award in the 3D catagory (I'm a jeweler).  Let me give you the nuts and bolts of the show. Friday setup and you can pull up to your booth and setup. Saturday morning breakfast, and I mean breakfast, bacon, eggs, biscuts, grits. Awards were in two catagories 2D and 3D with best in show of $1000 awarded in both catagories, 1st place 750, 2nd 500, and six merit awards of 100. They arrange discount rates with the Hilton, but I stayed at the Marriott for $50 a night. No jury fee and show fee of $125. A good mix of fine art and craft with no buy sell in sight. There is local entertainment on two stages, quite good, but not intrusive. Saturday was very well attended, but Sunday was not so much. Mary Ann the show co-ordinator and her staff of volunteers were very helpful, boothsitting when needed & offering to get me food so I didn't have to leave my booth. Beautiful spring weather, crisp and cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon.

This is not a big show so you won't get lost in the crowd and the be backs usually come back. I would recommend this show to just about everyone, you'll make a good paycheck. But if you're one of the artists that doesn't like to interact with people that come into your booth then maybe this show isn't for you as the people of Tifton are very friendly and sociable and they want to talk to the artists.

Just lost my first blog on this show, so please excuse any typos. 

This is a great locals favorite ATL Festival.  The weather was perfect and I would guess 100k people showed up.   This festival has lots going on.  There is a b/s street market, juried arts and crafts, lots of music, tour of homes, one of the best ATL parades and lots of beer. 

Set up is early morning on Saturday.  For being so big they handle it well.  There is free parking for artist althoug it is a bit of a hike.  The booths are set up in an old established neighboorhood very close to downtown Atlanta.  Booths on both sides of the street, with a sidewalk behind the booths.  You have some storage and working area behind the booths.  They also give every one 10'x 15' of space, so plenty of room to move around.  Break down is normal,  put stuff off to the side, go get your vehicle.   I got out in less then an hour.

The crowds are always big.  This is not your traditional art fair crowd IMO.  Near the port a potties and a kid zone there was a student artist tent.  They had a large 36"x 48" painting at the front of a nun hitting a bong and next to that was a large painting of the pope (with out the hat)  smoking a joint.  The kids were curious and the parents just laughed.  If you are someone who has a problem with this, then you shouldn't be at this festival.  The shoes and purses going by are not high end, but $500 price points are not a problem.  Anything over $1k is not as popular, but there are buyers at this festival who can handle this price point.  The jewler next to me had a great day on Saturday and was happy with Sunday.  The booth next to me (you can see their work in the 2nd pic)  almost sold out.  He sold collage type work of Turtle Lisa and Block heads.  I was able to walk around Sunday morning before the show to say hi to everyone I knew and talked to anyone who would talk.   The 2d people I knew and showed around me had an OK day on Saturday, but wanted a better Sunday.  I felt the same way.  Sales on Saturday don't really start until after the parade.  Like I said the parade is fun, but starts in the middle of the day, 2pm, and stops sales.   My booth is along the parade route.  The street is narrow so in and around your booth is filled with people watching the parade.  If you are prepared you will trap potential customers in your booth right before the parade and then you have them for the next hour.  I actually just had to stop writing this because my parade victim just called and I am going to his home next week for a commissioned piece.  Sunday sales start off slow but pick up again later in the day.  By the end everyone I knew and showed around was happy and would be back.  I do feel like there should have been more sales considering the crowd.  Most people going by were only carrying a beer.   I think contemporary, fun and funky things do better at this festival.  I have a photographer friend who shows images of Italy and he had an OK show, but would be back.   A close friend turned 40 this Sunday and I made her delay the celebration until next week so I could do this show.  I am happy I did and will plan around this show again.  If you are  a local artist you can get a ton of contacts that will keep you busy  all year during slow times. 

Attached pics- 1st one shows what the crowds looked like most of the time.  The second one is less crowded and not as typical.  The rest are of the parade, very colorful in more ways then one.

Well, we art show exhibitors quickly learn about how to deal with the vagaries of Mother Nature. Rain, cold, heat, high winds...I've seen 'em all...or so I thought.  But I never expected to have to deal with swarms of "Love Bugs".  And while it's important to keep things in perspective, given the ravages of tornadoes through Alabama this past week, there's no doubt that these amorous insects put the kibosh on festivities--and sales--this past weekend. 

For those of you who don't live in the South, "love bugs" are medium sized insects--a little bigger than fireflies (which they sort of resemble), and 'way smaller than locusts (which also travel in hordes).   What makes them unique is that...hmmm, how to put this, exactly?...once they get it on, they can't get it out.  So they live the rest of their lives (up to a week or so) oddly conjoined, splattering on auto windshields and everything else in their path. 

According to my Internet sources, they're attracted most by four things:

1) White surfaces

2) Asphalt

3) Heat

4) Nectar

All of which made the unfortunate artists and patrons of Howard Alan Events' Siesta Fiesta this weekend pretty much Ground Zero for the little #%*(@s.  Although both days dawned with surprisingly cool temperatures and low humidity for this time of year in Florida, temperatures heated up quickly both days, and by 11 a.m. the bugs started coming in waves.  Although a few of the artists I spoke with eked out a decent Saturday, most did not...and by early afternoon bugs outnumbered customers by, oh, several orders of magnitude. 

At the end of a long, long day--this is perhaps the toughest setup in the HAE stable of shows, with tents back-to-back along the center of a single long, narrow street, necessitating long, repeated dollys--we scraped bug residue off our vehicles and headed wearily to our hotel rooms, hoping that stiff breezes and clouds would  miraculously save our Sunday. 

Alas, Day 2 brought both more of the same (sun, bugs) and less of the same (sales).  For whatever reason, the critters seemed especially dense in my area most of the day, but no one was immune. By lunchtime bugs were rampant--on jewelry, on artwork, crawling in the browse bins, and shrouding the seas of white canopies.  Customers and artists valiantly tried to conduct business, but it was pretty much futile. Artists were surrendering their tents to the flying armies, and customers (if they entered the tents at all)  wouldn't browse the bins.   When I did make a sale, I had to sweep them off my invoice pad to write up the order. In mid-afternoon I was spotting handkerchiefs tied around faces to keep the bugs from getting swallowed. 

Never was 5 PM more eagerly anticipated.  Breakdown was surprisingly cheerful and efficient, given the extra work everyone had to clear the intruders off their artwork and canopies.  (The bugs are acidic--so as to be distateful to birds that would otherwise munch 'em--and it's important to get that glop removed as soon as possible.) 

We were about halfway through breakdown when Mother Nature had one more surprise in store--a pretty strong, but thankfully brief, dust devil that swirled up from nowhere and targeted my tent and about a half-dozen others nearby, flipping my neighbor's E-Z Up into the air and capsizing my canvases stacked on browse bins, pinwheeling my blue 10x10 tarp to parts unknown, and scattering some jewelry and artwork in at least two other tents.   Folks reacted quickly to hold down what they could, and luckily, there didn't seem to be any damage.  And as I finished packing, I thought about last week's Tuscaloosa twisters and decided to count my blessings. 

Yes, the show was an ill-timed financial disaster, and I'll be scrambling to get the mortgage and insurance paid this week.  But the tent and the vehicle will be clean again by Monday night, and  I've still got a home and a livelihood.   And as I drove home, I was really proud to be an outdoor artist, and prouder still of everyone else at the show, who just did what they could, and what they had to do, with a minimum of complaining and a lot of humor. 
(Check out the jewelry counter and the canopy behind my neighbor Brenda)

(By midday on Sunday they were all over the browse bins.  If only I'd used black
mats, I might have avoided this problem!) 

(I'm not sure if my neighbor Dave is ducking to get out of their way, or
attempting to clean them off the white pole)

(The final straw--they were attracted by the citrus in
my unopened bottle of Gatorade!)

     Let me preface this by saying I have been a glass artist for 6 years.  Started out doing small shows and I am slowely working up in caliber of show.

     This is my third year doing Magic City.  It has always been one of my best and favorite.  The staff work hard to make it a good show.  With all the tornado's and bad weather we almost decided not to take the trip.  All the weather came in on Tuesday and Wednesday and we were to drive down on Thursday.  We called and were reassured that the park and downtown were in great shape and they were.  No damage.  Driving down certian parts of the state looked like a war zone.  Total disaster.  But as we got into town everything looked good.  You have to feel sorry for those people in the surrounding area though.  Total devestation.

     Anyway, back to the show.  Layout is great.  Load in is easy, load out is ok.  Lots of ladies wearing red aprons eager to do what they could to help.  We sat up pretty quick with not much trouble.  Off to Dreamland to get ribs.

     Day one of the show was slow.  We didn't expect much.  Citizens of that area had so much more to worry about than the art show.  The crowd was sparce most of the day.  We made a few sales but just a few.  That evening after the show they had a dinner for the artist and gave awards.  While I don't ever expect to win an award (there are people with much more experience than I who are far more deserving) I do have a couple of opinions.  One of those opinions is that there shouldn't be only one judge.  Although they brought in a young California artist who was a qualified artist there should always be more than one.  Then it's not just one man's opinion.  That being said I somewhat agree with who won the awards.  A ceramist friend of mine won Best of Show and deserved it.  Lots of awards were given.  It was a nice evening.

     Saturday the crowd was better.  Weather was beautiful.  Sales were pretty much confined to the $25 to $100 range for me but a glass artist across from me sold a $1000 piece and and $3000 piece.  So money was out there.  (I don't even have a $1000 piece in my booth).  We did sell a $425 woven glass wall sculpture so all wasn't lost.  The crowd stayed pretty much all day.  We had a pretty good day.

     Sunday started out slow.  We had to wait until the church crowd let out.  Around 2:00 the crowd started picking up.  Sales were slower than Saturday but we did make a few smaller sales.  The show was over at 6:00 and by 5:00 all the buyers were gone.  So that last hour was a battle just to stay awake.  Finally teardown.  You had to be totally broken down before you could get a pass from one of the ladies in the red aprons.  You took that pass and went to pay the taxes.  Then you got a load out pass and were able to go get your vehicle.  It got a little crazy trying to find a place close to your stuff to park but it all worked out.

     My only problem with the show was how they placed the artist of the same medium.  Within a row of 10 booths there were 4 glass artist.  There were only 8 glass artist in the show of over 300 artist.  They could have spread us out a little better.  That being said everything else went great.  You could tell much planning and thought went into the event.  Lots of volunteers and it was easy to find someone to answer a question if you had one.  All in all a great show and I hope to do it again next year.

Pat

September 29-October 2                

Ohio Mart is a juried show and will accept only handmade original art. Plan to display your art at Ohio Mart in the fall. Cost for a 10 x 10 space is $450-$525. Jury fee $25.00. Tented and outside spaces available.

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