Monday, August 17, 2009

Fine art festival!!

Well our Washington Fine Arts Festival is over and it was a doozy! (for me anyway). We had over 90 artists in alot of booths and they all had excellent products for sale. I shared a booth with my friend that makes incredible crystal jewelry. Its beautiful stuff and she does well.
Day 1: We used her tent and had a fun (ahem) time setting it up for the first time. I borrowed a friends display. It had a metal frame with magnetic strips that had large sheets of "rug" type material on. I had to call her to figure out how to set it up. I got it put together and the wind blew it over, taking my table with it. I realized I needed to use 2 different tables to make it wider and more level. I did that and loaded on probably 2oo pendants onto it. The sale started at 10 am. It was nearly 11 now. Then the wind picked up again and yes.... it blew over again. So I put bricks behind it on the metal bars. Got the table under it all loaded and pretty. Hung up some canvases next to this display and yes........ it all blew over AGAIN!! (The canvases did too) The wonderful lady next to me suggested hanging the 2 "rugs" up from the tent and we did that. It worked great. I went home and cried....
Day 2: "Its gonna storm. No its going to pass us by... no its going to rain lightly all day." I sure wish the weathermen would talk to each other. Well I decided to set up differently so I could move everything into the center of the tent easily IF it did rain. I layed the pendant rugs on a table and clamped them down. That worked ok but they weren't as easy to see. I was determined to stay for the whole sale. Traffic was slow-just a few small sales. Look at the sky....black clouds rolling in fast. Its raining a couple miles away. There is light sky behind the dark ones so I'm determined to stay. It sprinkled. The wind is picking up and so are many of the venders. Now its POURING! We got soaked packing up. UG. I got everything into my car and went home. I layed down for a short nap and slept for 3 hours! Was it worth it? I think so. I love seeing all the art-chatting with the other vendors and seeing friends I haven't seen in ages. My sales weren't great but I did come out ahead.
The next sale is in a month or 2- another outdoor one. We will be there! sigh...........