How the Christmas Craft Show at Southarm went

So how did the Southarm Christmas Craft Show go for me this weekend?

 Meh. Not that great.

This show is a popular local un-juried show which I had never attended before. There were several rooms of vendors and there was a fairly steady flow of people which seemed promising. I soon found out though that this was the place to get you Christmas bargains of the year as there were handmade cards being sold for $2.50ea and handknit scarves being sold for $8 (!). The quality of the products being sold was definitely not being reflected in the prices. Most of the vendors were retired ladies with plenty of years of expertise  under their belt. These sellers were asking probably just enough to cover the cost of their materials and not much else.

Needless to say I didn't sell that much but I did get a few people come by and let me know that they felt my work was  unique and interesting. You know what I did get though? I won the vendor raffle draw and I was given $50 and an escort to go around the show and buy whatever I wanted. I think I love having the ability to spend money freely. It's fun!


I changed up my table for this year. Below are some pics. I would love to hear your critique.

New silkscreened aprons, napkins and t-shirts

Art tins, pendants and clay rings and earrings

Original prints, pocket mirrors and art cards

How the show went

As we are now fully into the craft show season, I thought I'd tell you about my first craft show experience in more than twelve years. Last Saturday, Nov. 27, I participated in the Steveston Christmas Craft Show.  This juried show is a popular event in the community and I would attend whenever I could. This year I thought I'd try and make my art presence a little more known locally and snag a table. I'm an avid reader of the Etsy Storque, Handmadeology, and HandmadeSpark articles and I've gleaned a lot of tips from them about doing craft shows. I REALLY wanted this show to go well and I prepared for it as much as I could. I looked at other peoples set-ups like on Flickr's ShowMe Your Booth, I watched videos like this one by Linty Fresh, and I tried to mentally prepare myself for any slumps in the sale day. My attitude during the show was my biggest concern because I knew that the more upbeat I was the more sales I would attract. Because the work I do is important to me and is an expression of who I am, I tend to get upset when my work is passed over. I realize that everyone has their own taste but when someone says they don't really like my art it's like they're saying they don't like ME. Silly, I know, and something I'm getting better at dealing with, but it's still true.

So my tactic for staying positive was to bring a funny book and my sketchbook. My husband had bought me "Sh*t my Dad says" and I have to say that it made me laugh out loud so many times that I was looking a little crazy. Put a smile on my face though. For the other times I took a pencil to paper and did some drawing. I'm currently working on some rabbit images and I felt like I created a couple that I can work with. There's nothing better than creating to make me feel good.

All in all, this show was a fantastic learning experience for me and because it was such a success to me, I'm thinking about how else I can branch out locally. Have you got any tips about shows? Would love to hear them.

Self portraits and self image

 Lately I've been preparing for a local Christmas craft show and I'm trying to remember all the details to make a good-looking table. I haven't done this type of personal selling of my work in a very long time and I've never done it with my more personal artwork. I'm hoping to gain a little exposure locally and I feel my work presents itself best when it's viewed in person.

So I decided that I probably need to have a bio and information sheet at the back of  my packaged prints and that they should probably include a picture of myself. I've been told often that I need to show pictures of myself if I want to sell my artwork but I rather like the anonymity of the internet and the ability to show my artwork as a substitution for my face. Truth be told, I take horrible photos and find it really hard to look at a photo of myself without being critical. My husband says that my face changes as soon as I see a camera. I don't have any decent photos of myself since my wedding. To make matters worse, I'm getting to an age where the years of sleepless nights with young children are catching up with me and the bags and wrinkles around the eyes are showing. See what I mean about being critical? So I'll suck it up and take some pictures. You tell me what you think. Do you want to see the artist head on or is a profile picture fine? Can you tell more about me if you see my face? What I want you to see is a creative and kind soul without my insecurities.

I have a link to a cute animated short  "How Happy are you with the way you look" that I think goes well with the whole self-perception angst. Enjoy.