Profile of a Subscriber - A Tale for our Times

Do I know you? No, we have never met but let me introduce myself and my wife Linda. LInda started making necklaces out of precious and semi-precious stones after the restaurant she worked at, Bill Knapps went belly-up several years ago. After accumilating more inventory than she could ever wear in a lifetime, we got the idea to take the 'leap-of-faith' and do a small craft show. We made $52 and I said to myself, 'Hmmm, there might be something to this.' So I started making necklaces and earrings and started doing some of the bigger high school shows. That's when we met Debbie LaPratt (Art-Is-In Market in Livonia). We applied to the Crafters Clearance show and she sort of became our 'mentor' and helped us avoid some of the pitfalls that a lot of beginnners make. Four years ago when the BIg Lot's store where I was a manager closed it's doors in March, I realized that the busy Summer Season was before us (when we could never do any shows because I could NEVER get off work) so we decided to do 10 shows back to back, add up what we made and compare it to what I would have made if I had still been working at Big Lots. The decision was easy. So, here we are @4 years later and actually making a living doing about 45 shows a year. We are also jurors for a few shows. Some of the shows we have done are Port Huron, Art on the Avenue, Pinckney, Art in the Park, Tawas Shoreline Art Show and Marysville Fine Art Fair. Preview some of our work and read a brief artist statement at: www.CraftLister.com/AuthenticCreations Hope this all gives you a sort of 'snap-shot' of us. I have been in sales all my life and will do anything to promote the business in general. We have a 1,200 person email list and 'market' every show we do. If every artist did this we could increase attendance at all the shows internally. Just think about this. No two artists do exactly the same shows. If a customer picks up my schedule and then maybe 3-4 other artist's schedules, there would be dozens of shows that they might be able to attend. And what better person to sell to other than a person that is accustomed to shopping Art Fairs or Craft Shows already? Take care and keep up the good work on the site and your blog, I hope this info I sent helps us ALL. Once the Government gets a foot-hold in this business it'll be almost impossible to get rid of them. Joe Ignaczak Hamtramck, Mi
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