Despite extreemly depressing surroundings at work etc I had a pretty good weekend.
On Saturday we had the surprise of my brother showing up from college for the weekend and coming with us to go out for my grandparents' 57th wedding anniversary/my uncle's 57th birthday (not their son :) ), and after that he came home with us.
After their craft fair in December, she said I could call in early January (uhhhh...) to talk about selling stuff "wholesale" to the gift shop. So, I FINALLY got my nerve up to call last week and she said I could come in on Sunday.
I spent the week mostly working late at my actual (depressing) job and only had time to make a couple more pairs earrings. On Saturday I decided I needed a way to present all of my "jewish" themed items. After getting all upset all day, that evening I sat myself down and thought "What would Kathy N-V do?". Then I thought "what can I actually do by myself with what is in my own home?" My husband produced a cardbord keybord box. I covered the bottom with my one piece of black velvet (whcih I use to highlight some items in craft shows) and the top of the box with a fancy nature-toned hankerchief, all stuck on with masking tape. The bottom of the box was a mess since neither piece of cloth wrapped all the way around but I hoped noone would notice. The inside of the lid still looked like cardbord. I thought of trying to make some necklaces hang down from it but couldn't think of a way to rig that up nicely with the amount of time I had and the fact that I had to set this up at home and drive there with it on the car seat. So, I arranged most of the necklaces in the velvet-lined box, then put earrings on earring-cards with my 'company' name and slogan on them and lined them up at the back of the box. I also took pictures of everything I was bringing (not great ones, but good enough to see which was which, and against a white background this time!) and printed up a chart of the items with descriptions, one for them and one for me.
On the way out the door I decided to take all the rest of my stuff with, 'just in case'. It meant an extra trip to the car, but turned out to be really worth it!
I ended up hanging around by the glass display case which forms most of the "gift shop" all morning. She wasn't interested in my higher-end items with the RiverStones. The lowest I felt I could go on those even for "wholesale" was $30, since the stones alone cost $16 or around $10 if I buy a bunch of them, and I had semi-precious stones, Bali silver, etc in the pieces as well. Since she was mostly interested in the other items, I asked if she would like to see the rest of my stuff to see if we could come up with any ideas for lower-cost items whcih they thought would sell. So, I lugged in the 2 boxes, earring-roll, and margerine containers of Memory Wire pieces.
I spent the rest of the morning pulling out random pieces. The entire time various synagogue members picking up their children from Sunday school or hanging around for other reasons kept coming by and buying things for themselves, or their wife who's birthday was in two days, or whatever!
I ended up selling only a modest amount to the gift shop, and twice as much to random passer's by (way more then I sold at the Channukah Craft Bazaar!?). I also got several custom orders and several people possibly interested in doing home shows. The lady who runs it might be interested in some other items for the gift shop if some other person says it's ok, and also wanted a custom piece made up, so I'll be coming back in two weeks, lugging everything of course! Since several ladies "were sorry they didn't know I would be here or they would've brought their money", I just might make some more sales!
Some other things went not so well this weekend but I won't spoil the mail. Maybe this can inspire someone like me who is thinking about showing their stuff to someone or some shop or something but hasn't gotten the nerve yet...
marisa2