As requested... Pictures on ABPW...
We survived!! The first day was warm but VERY windy... probably gusts to close to 20 mph.. stuff blowing all over and a few folks had losses when easels of paintings and stuff blew over.. I had a couple of goblets with mild scratches, but they buffed out Saturday night and the weather was wonderful Sunday..
I'm really glad that I decided to try the show, it was a lot of fun.. It turned out that the reason for the entry fee was to hire a couple of guys to help move things and sort of do go-fer stuff... It was also to allow them to screen the entries... trying to separate "arts" from "crafts".. There was also a crafts show at another resort this weekend, so that helped with the separation, too.. There really is a San Felipe Fine Arts Assoc. and I'm a member now... they put together a good show and there were hundreds of people through the area over the weekend.. mostly snow birds done for the holiday weekend, but lots of locals. which was my target market.. As we hoped, several people came by and said "Oh! we thought that you only did pens", which was my reason for doing the show..
Our goal was networking and exposure, which were both much more successful than we expected, so sales weren't really expected... Why set yourself up for disappointment? Saturday afternoon we sold a $50 pen and a $25 round box, so we went home very happy.. Sunday was a lot slower, most folks had either left for the States or already been there on Saturday... and we sold another $200 or so that day... happy checkbook!
The people in the association were very friendly and helpful and generally nice people... that made the whole experience better and a lot of fun.. A huge bonus was that my wife was totally involved.. Helped pick what to display, dusted all the pieces, packed them at home and unpacked them at the show, etc.. Also, she sat at the booth a lot so I could walk around and BS.. one of my specialties.. ;-]
The next show is the weekend before Christmas and sounds like it's going to be a blast... One of the members is a very well known sculptor and he's opening his studio for an association show.. His studio is right on the highway and he gets lots of people stopping to see his work.. What sounds like a lot of fun is that this will be a "working" show... they invited me to bring a lathe and turn during the show.. Other members will be painting, sculpting, welding, etc... How cool is that?
Thanks again for the input from the group.. I was so close to blowing this show off and just the one weekend has opened a lot of doors..
mac
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