Betsy Youngquist. Wow. Here: http://www.byart.com/ I met her at the American Craft Council St. Paul Show. Seriously, Wow.
When exhibiting at the American Craft Council’s St. Paul show, I asked two different women about their amazing shoes. I loved them.
This was their answer: http://cydwoq.com/index.html
OH, how I loved them.
An elder cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them,
“A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
“The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
“This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.
The children thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old cherokee simply replied,”The one you feed.”
(from http://www.aaanativearts.com/article658.html)
To recognize our epoch flooding here in Fargo Moorhead, a compilation of flood songs about the Red River. Yes, there are actually songs out there about this river flooding. I threw in a couple of non-flood Red River songs at the end of the list. The links take you to iTunes:
If the Red River Floods Hogg Maulies, Here to Stay
Red River Rising James Keelaghan, Small Rebellions
Red River Flood New Middle Class, New Middle Class
Red River Flood Murray McLauchlan, The Best of Murray McLauchlan
Red River Valley Glenn Yarbrough, Folk Songs for Kids
Red River Blues Henry Thomas, Texas Worried Blues
My studio is in Fargo, ND. My home is right across the river in Moorhead, MN. We are dry so far. We spent the last week helping with sandbagging and moving things out of the basement. We moved everything “up” in my studio shop … and, along with the rest of the community, we wait for the water to drop. It is much easier to be out sandbagging.
I thought it would be a good idea to start a list of the things I’ve learned about doing indoor professional art/craft shows. I am a complete newbie. A novice. I have now done one as a member of a guild booth (BMAC Philadelphia 2008), and one on my own (ACC Baltimore wholesale-only 2009), and then one on my own, at a little local show in Fargo (That Spring Art Thing 2009). I started from completly scratch, having never done a show in my life. After getting over the pure undulated joy of making into the ACC show, I needed to figure things out quickly. Needless to say, there was (and continues to be) a lot to learn.
Have you done the professional art/craft shows? Please share. What have you learned? What bits of wisdom can you share?
1. Lighting. The best advice that was given to me by my ACC buddy was this: don’t ever, ever, ever, ever skimp on the booth lighting. Ruth (my buddy) told me that one should have a 50 watt bulb for every foot of the booth. So, for a 10 by 10 booth, she said to plan on 30 lights. Good to know. At the point that I learned that tidbit, I had only purchased a third of the lights I needed. So I headed to Menards (our local big box hardware place) and got more. My booth was lit and it looked great!
2. Booth Banner/Sign. I thought it would be a good idea to have a banner/sign with an full color image of my work, hanging prominently in the back of my booth. I wanted the sign to last a long time, have nice, bright colors, and be portable. So, I thought, vinyl would be good. Portable (roll it up and transport it in a shipping tube). Durable (won’t rip and tear). So I designed a nifty banner featuring one of my bags, I had it printed, but it was printed on was OUTDOOR vinyl. That meant, the banner was textured and bumpy. It looked heavy duty because that’s what outdoor vinyl is. Heavy duty. However, this would not do. So I did more research and went with a local company that printed banners on multiple kinds of vinyl products. The one I selected is made for indoor applications, with a smooth finish so the colors will pop. And they did. Lesson learned? unless you need your banner/sign to be used outside, order the indoor vinyl product. It produces a clearer, brighter image. Good to know. The other thing I learned is to have a pocket sewn at the top and bottom so you can insert a dowel to hang the banner. Don’t let them talk you into using grommets, like I did. Pockets/dowels look nicer and now I’m stuck with a nice looking banner that is mucked up with grommets. When I have more $, I will do the banner/sign thing for the third time and hopefully get it right.
3. Shipping. I paid way, WAY too much for shipping. $1200+ is too much for one show, don’t you think? I thought, Susanne, you do not need stress worrying about whether your booth and products will be there safely and on time. Use the show shipper to alleviate that stress. Ok, I thought, that makes sense. So, I went with the show shipper to get my things from Fargo to Baltimore. I put everthing onto a pallet. One pallet weighing 387 pounds. I got the bill at the show. It cost more than $600 to ship ONE WAY. Ok. I shouldn’t have been surprised because I should have known…but I was because I didn’t research it thoroughly. After all, why would a pallet, all nicely bundled into one package, placed onto a truck, cost that much? I must figure out a better way to handle this part. I live in Moorhead/Fargo and the art shows are far away…I have to ship because I have to fly to the vast majority of the shows I will be doing. I’m not at a point to be able to store my things in between shows…so what do you all do?
More to come. I’m learning so much… perhaps the most important thing I can share, however, is to keep your heart and your mind open. If you are new to the shows (or even if you’ve done this for thirty years), be open to the things we can learn from one another. I can’t say how much I love to experience this new life…
Other bloggers have been posting signs of spring. Flowers poking up through the earth, green grass, signs of life. This is what it still looks like here.
The American Craft Council show in Baltimore was amazing… so much talent under one roof! It was so much fun meeting the artists, meeting the buyers, and, of course, taking the orders. And now I’m hard at work making more handbags…
I DO FOR BRIDES magazine featured one of my bridal clutches! If you live in DC, Tennessee, or Georgia, you can actually see the magazine in person. Page 106. For the rest of you, there is an online version here.
I’ll be at the American Craft Council wholesale show in Baltimore Feb. 24-26, 2009 in booth 5204. My lovely ad is in the current issue of American Craft Magazine, featuring my fabulous leather clutch!
