Blog

• New location between the Van Aken Shopping Center and Shaker Heights Country Club, just one mile from Hathaway Brown School
• High-visibility paved surface in a busy shopping, dining and residential area with ample, free parking, ATMs, restaurants and a gourmet grocery.

40 Question Blog Series – First 15 Question Review

It has been about 2-3 months now and I've covered 15 Questions on our way toa total of 40 Questions Craft Artists Commonly Ask. If you missedany of the answers to the following questions or just tuned in, nowis the time to catch up especially with Spring shows fully underway.You may find, if you are willing to adopt some of these tips inexchange for leaving some habits that aren't working behind, myFREE advice very well will help you save money as well as earn more money whiledoing shows. If you have used any of these tips (posted on my blog site as well as here on ArtFairInsiders.com), please share yourthoughts in how it worked for you or if it inspired other tips youwould like to share with others.

Question 1 - Picture yourself with a limitless amount of funds to spendhowever you want. Using that money describe how your ideal boothwould look like. Think about color, texture, fixtures, and usingwhat you have seen at shows.

Question 2 - Because money is an issue, are there still ways you can make yourdream booth become a reality?

Question 3 - What is booth theme and where can “I” find the right displayfurniture to emulate my theme best suited for the medium I work in?

Question 4 - What is merchandising and what are some effective merchandisingtechniques?

Question 5 - What lighting, flooring and canopies should I use?

Question 6 - How can I attract customers into my booth?

Question 7 - How do you find your niche?

Question 8 - How can I prevent creativity burn out?

Question 9 - What are some current and new art forms are hot sellers in themarket place?

Question 10 - How do I price my work?

Question 11 - How can I add value to my art/craft?

Question 12 - What are some signs that what I am making should be phased out?

Question 13 – What is Customer Service

Question 14 – What kind of service do customers want and expect?

Question 15 - How have Gen X and Y's affect how people shop at art fairs?(How can we capture their attention too?)

To find more info on these questions please check outwww.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com(or past blog posts here on this blog on Art Fair Insiders) and scroll through the past blog posts (they are all in order) overthe past 2-3 months. The next 15 will cover topics such asdeciphering customer language, creative marketing strategies, how tofind shows right for you and your art, handling problematic weather,top 10 money saving techniques artists need to know, and how tobattle negativing when it enters your booth. Have a question youwould like answered, use the comment button and I will answer it in afuture 40 Question Blog post! Thanks so much for joining me on thisadventure to help others be a better art/craft business person,please remain buckled in there's more adventure in store! - Michelle,www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com(please visit my business site to see some of these tips in action,www.bythebaybotanicals.com).

On April 21st, I will see a dream come to fruition. I have, with contributions obtained from 3 honor societies at the college I'm attending and the Drake's Nest Studio, obtained a bronze plaque for the Center courtyard gardens. The plaque reads, "Dedicated to the Memory of, and in Honor of, those ACC Students who dared to Dream." The gardens were my late step son's favorite spot and one that apparently not many on campus were aware of. Bart was killed in a senseless auto accident 2 weeks after he graduated and 3 months before his dad and I were married. I made a promise to him that the gardens would be dedicated to ALL students, past, present and future who had a dream and came to ACC to help get it fulfilled. The plaque will remind and thank them for a Job well done and that NO dream is impossible to achieve.

ACC helped this "old girl" obtain her Associates Degree last year and I am not going for my Bachelor's so I can honestly say you're never too old to go back to school or get that degree.

My heart soars on wings of Eagles tonight to know that the honoring of the memories of those students, and my son, will live on in the gardens. I have walked my talk.

• $7,200 in award money
• Artists retain all proceeds from their sales
• Commemorative poster image will be selected from a show participant

• Artist Awards Dinner
• Artist hospitality providing continental breakfast & refreshments
• Booth sitting
• Load-in / load-out at booth space
• Near or on-site parking
• 24 hour security patrols
• Discounted rates at participating hotels

This show is sponsored by the Society of Arts and Crafts (SAC) in Boston, MA. SAC is the oldest non-profit crafts organization in the U.S. SAC also sponsors CraftBoston Holiday show to fill the gap left when Crafts in the Castle ended a couple of years ago. This is a craft only show located in the Seaport World Trade Center on Boston Harbor, there were about 200 exhibitors. The quality of the show is very good and has some non-traditional exhibitors. There are non-profit booths which cannot sell anything but are for inforamation/education purposes only. These booths are heavily discounted. Some of these booths are Fuller Craft Museum, North Bennett Street School, Metalwerx studio. There is usually an international component to this show. This year there were about ten Israel Artists. Their work tended to have a more commercial look as these artists are very tuned to current fashion and interior design trends. They brought a new demographic to the show who were there specifically to visit the Israel artists but then shopped the rest of the show. As usual there were some exhibitors who felt they did not sell as well as they anticipated but most were happy. Feedback from exhibitors was very good, a few said that it was their best show ever. Sales seemed to be up significantly over the last two years, attendance was also up from the past two years. There were more exhibitors from the West Coast than in the past few years which I take to be a good sign.

http://craftboston.org/springindex.asp

martha

• Work must be original and completely created by artist
• Each artist must apply individually
• Work must be in medium & style accepted
• Work must be in proportion to photos.