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This will be my fourth and hopefully last time to give Strawberry Days in Glenwood Springs CO a chance to be a decent show.  When I did this show back in 2002 I was disappointed in sales compared to booth fee but if I could have made close to what I did back then I would have been thrilled.  

I know this show has a new promoter and it seemed she was doing her best and working very hard to be sure there wasn't any buy sell and that the artists/crafts people were showing what they juried in with. The quality of the show was decent though I didn't get a chance to walk the full show (even at a slow show I tend to stick to my booth because I would hate to miss a sale or opportunity).

I heard comments that the work was better than past years but really the key issue is the demographics of the show goers.  Generally they were very young and didn't have any inclination to buy even the lowest price pieces.  But they were very engaged and interested in my work- when they were there.  There were many hours of not a person in my booth... which to me is just no fun- even if I'm not selling I would like to at least be showing my work and talking to people.  

The hours are very long and the three days just drag on.  At least I had great neighbors to chat with and could work on my clay.  But I can tell when I have a terribly slow show because I get too much done- not enough breaks to wrap up works of art for customers.

I would love to see this show come back- it fits very well into a CO show schedule and it's in a wonderful community but I think I will wait awhile to see if these young art show attendees can eventually turn into young art buyers.  

I've been looking forward to doing this show, as I finally got invited after a few years of applying. The show is put on by the Yellow Breeches chapter of the PA Guild of Craftsmen.

Boiling Springs is a little south of Harrisburg, about 2 hours 15 minutes away from my home, and I decided we'd just leave really early in the morning to get there for the 6am set up. We headed out at 3:30am, and got there  as everyone was pulling in down a somewhat narrow one way street with booth spaces marked on both sides. The show had a cadre of volunteers that was amazingly helpful. They made sure all artists were parked as unobtrusively as possible for traffic flow, then one or two people jumped in and helped unload...amazing!

We were nervous because we were towing our trailer, which gives us about 3'more width than our SUV and neither my husband or I are incredibly adept at precise manuevering. But after unloading, other volunteers got my husband quickly turned around further down the road and parked facing the fair, so as the show ended, all artist vehicles were poised for exit.

The literature had wisely mentioned to bring shims, as our space was partially on the road and partially in a driveway and partially on a berm. If we hadn't had shims, there's no way we could have gotten our tables level...this was a drastic drop and difference in heights.

My husband and I agreed since the weather was so lovely and there was no wind, we would use our pop-up tent rather than taking the extra half hour to put up our Trimline. BIG mistake, as the wind kicked up around 10 am, and the entire tent was rocking and lifting, which tilted our table-top shelves that we chain to the tent for stability, and kept dumping my jewelry and displays off. 

We spent about 1 -1/2 hours trying to hold onto the shelves before finally taking one down and putting all my work tightly packed on the table top. It didn't look pretty, but left one of us to write up sales while the other held on and talked to customers. 

The customers come early, so even though the show starts at 9am, plan for people to start looking by 8:30. The crowd was friendly and savvy, and our sales were as good there on Saturday as another show that we've been doing for 6 years. There seems to be a lot of customer loyalty to the show, with customers telling us they come back every year.The show closes at 4pm.

The volunteers really made this show a pleasure to do, with offers for booth sitting, water, and all the help loading and unloading. It was a good first year for us there, and we hope to be back in future years.

Just arrived in Tubac, AZ for their annual arts festival and while talking to our neighbor found out about one of the Palm Springs art shows that takes places in the downtown area. In case you hadn't heard. On January 21, 2012 90 mile per hour winds basically wiped out the entire art show. Palm springs is a windy place, hence all the windmills that catch the wind coming through the pass. The extent of the damage to the trees in the park is really something else and considering more people weren't hurt is amazing. Huge trees were knocked down and fell on vans, tents went flying and our neighbor reported that he had been hit in the head and knocked out (he had the shiner to prove it). It only goes to show you how dangerous weather can be and sometimes all the weights you put down are still not enough to keep the tent from flying. Surprisingly, watching the YouTube videos some tents were still standing while some right next to them were decimated!  For more on that show see: the shorter version  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt1NlZNxJCQ&feature=related  OR   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n6DD5CBQJs&fe

It makes ya sort of humble.