Phew…tired but happy after the 2007 Summer Art Market
Another Summer Art Market has come and gone and now I can spend the next few days recovering. It’s a 2 day affair which is physically exhausting but is also so much fun. It’s a chance to meet new people, goof around with booth mates and more importantly, it’s also an opportunity to talk with people about my work. After this weekend, I realized that I need to practice being able to talk about my work better. I think it’s often difficult for artists to do so without getting too technical or esoteric. Although I don’t think people want to hear “I like green and that’s why I did this,” either. Add another thing to my to-do list.
Sharing a 10′ x 10′ space with 2 other artists has its challenges, one of which is deciding which items make it onto the table and which ones to rotate. Mary Cay, Kathleen and I decided that we need a better booth design if we are going to do this again next year. We need more vertical space and perhaps some shelves. We toured around the market and talked about what we thought were some better booth layouts. And, of course, it’s difficult when 3 people with different visions need to come to a consensus. Actually, it wasn’t really so difficult with Mary Cay and Kathleen because they’re both pretty easy going. I’m not quite sure what they’d say about me though….
One of the most magical experiences of the weekend, was being able to meet two wonderful fellow artists that I’ve met via blogging. I was both nervous and anxious to meet them after they said that they would be stopping by my booth. After both ladies introduced themselves to me, I was so happy to be able to put a face to their names. Now there’s a benefit to blogging that I never really anticipated. There are real people behind their online personas and I never imagined that I would be able to personally meet some of them. Though, I have met Lisa Call, in person, through blogging too in the past year on two occasions.
Thank you both for stopping by! I really enjoyed meeting you in person.
Last year, I shared a booth with Holly Buchanan, who makes really whimsical ceramic work modeled after real life everyday objects. Last year I bought a piece of “toast” with strawberry jam from her that I just love. This year we traded work. I was going to trade for another piece of toast with grape jelly, but instead, opted for a red popcicle! Her work is just so much fun. I had a hard time deciding between the red or the green. In real life I like lime popcicles better, but I am such a sucker for the color red.
I didn’t quite make my financial selling goal for the weekend, but, I did double what I earned at last year’s Summer Art Market. So, I definitely think that this was a successful weekend for me. The good news is that I have some new work to put in my Etsy Shop over the next week or so. I also sold out of almost all of my ceramic pendants over the weekend. I am going to go back in the studio tomorrow after a much needed day of rest today and begin making some more pendant designs, along with new functional work. I’m also going to photograph work that is fresh from the kiln as of Saturday morning.
At any rate, I have a lot more to write about the weekend and will share more with you later this week.
And that’s all folks for today,
P.S. Thank you to everyone who left well wishes on my last post!
