Gary's Third Pottery Blog

When the going gets tough, dragons gonna get going....

Gary's third pottery blog

WRITE TO ME! garyrith@yahoo.com Come see me! Open studio HERE! November 25-26 (11-4 each day); Aurora Art and Design, daily until 12/24; Cooperstown Art Assoc. daily until 12/24; Ellis Hollow Community Fair, 12/10; December 10, Little Red Wagon at the Space at Greenstar. All material on this blog unless stated otherwise is copyright Gary Edward Rith 2016

Monday, December 12, 2011

the aftermath....


OK, busy busy BUSY weekend!
I was at 2 fairs this weekend and had fun, but golly, was I tired Sunday evening. I delight in sharing the behind-the-scenes with you, so let me lay it out for ya:
--I realized that since this was 2 days and 2 events in 2 locations, the reason I was so tired at the end was the complete set up and take down--twice. Usually if you have a 2 day fair, Saturday evening you just leave your stuff and come back Sunday. So this was a first for me: double schlepp! Worth it though, and close to home.
--I do very few fairs now compared with when I lived in New Hampshire. But people have invited me to do some events, so I have tried it out this year. It goes back to the vagaries of the marketplace with fairs, like weather, crowds or no crowds, advertizing, distance, booth fee, and let me explain how this factored in recently: the Saturday event in Ithaca was beautiful and wonderfully well organized and there were delightful people everywhere, but there was an expensive booth fee, but I thought I would try it out. You always wonder "OK, it cost this much to be here, how many mugs do I sell to pay for it?" and for example, the lady with pictures across from me Saturday did not sell a thing all day.....she was very nice but looked a bit depressed...I do not know why the fair was only so so. There were muscians playing carols. Luckily, at the end of the day, they switched to jazz. I read recently that people really get tired of Christmas carols and decorations, people are like ENOUGH ALREADY!
ANYWAY, just to compare Saturday's so-so numbers compared to the booth fee: I came home and had internet orders from strangers adding up to MORE than what I had made all day. The internet is a very friendly place for me :) THEN I went to a synagogue for a Sunday fair. They had invited me and I have never been to a synagogue before, for any reason. There was NO fee for Sunday, none at all, they just collected a small percentage of your sales after. I figured "how can I lose? and the car will already be packed with stuff!" and HOLY CATS it was a blast! First of all, NO CHRISTMAS carols, obviously, yaaaaay! But it was the most lively indoor festival I have ever been to, with singing and dancing everywhere, food, blahblahblah, it was the most fun I have had in a loooong time. And get this, remembering I did not have to put up any money, I made more than twice the sales as Saturday.
So, as I say, you try this and that, see what happens, work hard, hope for the best.....above is me Saturday, below you see some of my buddies, like Werner who is a physicist and sculptor, and Tommy a potter and you will recall is also an old drinking buddy, and Leslie too....


8 comments:

Michèle Hastings said...

get some rest today, two shows in two different places in two days, makes me tired just typing it... oh wait, you can't rest, you have internet orders to pack...
GO GARY, you ROCK!

Lori Buff said...

I love it when the shows are fun and profitable, good job. Now get some rest.

smartcat said...

Shows are always such a crap shoot.....glad that one of them worked out well.

I never think of yellow as a color to use for shelves, but it really makes your pots jump off the shelf. Hmmmm.

Anonymous said...

The cost of the booths was the reason my SIL stopped doing craft shows. You never know how the weekend is going to work out. Glad you had a great time, though!
Jazz = +++++
music and dancing? Awesome

Claudia from Idiot's Kitchen said...

Sooooo, I have the same folding wooden shelf as you and your friend Tommy. Does that mean I should be able to make cool pottery too? If only it were that simple. Sadly, I think it just means that we all shop at Target. Dang.

Busy Bee Suz said...

You can only take so many Christmas songs!!!
Your displays are great....love them.
I forgot to tell you that last week Lo and I went to a pottery show at her college...and of course, we both bought stuff. SUCH fun!!!!
Oh, wait, I bought everything...she just picked out stuff for herself. :)

gz said...

fun but hard work!

Reverend Awesome said...

I'm tired just reading about your weekend! Busy little beaver.

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I am a full-time studio potter, sculptor, and dog walker, married to superhawt Missus Tastycake.