First off, the weather was the best I have ever seen for this show.
It is a well-produced show and they do a good bit of advertising.
I have done it off and on since the 1980s.
I showed up with 30 new pieces of art, I wasn't just churning old stuff. I had my second worst show sales ever this weekend at Boston Mills.
Last year was the worst. But it was 95 degrees every day and I was slowly dying of congestive heart failure. So I had a good excuse.
This year, great weather, a healthier heart and sucky sales. Go figure.
This was just me. Other people did darn good there with big sales and numbers, like Wilbat Glass, the Sterns, Vick and his Loungers, Betty Neubauer and others.
I felt the crowds were thin all weekend. There was no real buying energy. Very few be-backs.
Will I do it again. Probably. Will try for the July 4th weekend in 2014.
This is one of those shows where you have to try it yourself and see what happens.
Hopefully, others who did this show this past weekend will weigh in with some helpful comments.
But don't bet on it. More lurkers out there than ones who contribute.
A person on my previous post took umbrage with me because I called it a "Walmart" crowd.
Sorry, that is the way it looked. I just call them as I see them.
It was nice to see Larry Berman, in person, at the show.
The one really nice thing about this show is its location.
It is in the floor of the Cuyahoga Valley outside of Cleveland. The scenery is breath-taking.
You are surrounded by nature every where. Saw lots of deer. Got stood up by Siri, but I will get over it. At least I still have Ellen. Jeez! Do ya think she reads my posts. If she finds out about Siri, I could be in some deep do-do.
Later, Gators.
Comments
Sorry to hear it wasn't a good show for you Nels, I would imagine a 4 July weekend would bring out more people?
There are shows that just aren't right sometimes. They may be well attended, well managed, marketed, etc but they still just aren't the right venue.
Praying you are right about the July show. I'll be there this weekend for my first time exhibiting. Crossing fingers!
It was nice meeting you and your wife there. I wish I could say I did well, but didn't. I did get a chance to look around a bit and it told me to step up my game or go home to stay. There were good artists there. I'm off for seven weeks and it'll be a time of retiring a bunch of work and getting new work done. My section of the show didn't do that hot as a paper artist barely made booth, a painter next to me didn't make expenses and another zeroed out. I'll try the show again, although the July show seems to be the one where the serious buyers come out if the local folklore is correct
meant "tarp", fricking fingers of mine do a poor job of typing.
In the photo you can see my extended tsrp that goes 10 feet back outside of the show's tent.
I figured it out years ago. You just v-clamp the tarp to the outside flap of the tent nd voila! You have ten feet of sheltered space to sit under and also store inventory. Get the fans going, plug in the blender, put on some good tunes and the show goes down easier.