Outdoor Art Fairs

This year I was fortunate to have been accepted by juries from three different organizations which all ran well organized Art Fairs. My area experienced the fourth rainiest summer, so half of my events were significantly impacted; the excessive heat only caused me to withdraw from an indoor event in mid July, as my events were at the end of the season.

My favorite Art Fair was run by a local Art League--all volunteer--and has become a tradition for over 50 years. The patrons were well educated, interested, had above average incomes, and understood the need to purchase from the artists to allow the continued creation of art. I would love to return next year and I am already thinking of what I will create for my jury photos because invitations to participate are by jury decision every year.

When I choose locations for next year's Art Fair applications, I will consider the financial health of the facility where the event is held, the statistics on local resident's income, home value and unemployment, ease of loading/unloading by being able to drive up to my space or needing to dolly everything in/out, the number of accepted artists, and the values of the women who would be attending. I have met women who leave their wallets at home or those who confuse their husband's by not purchasing a desired item. Sacrificing for others by not treating themselves is more common than I thought. In this economy, most will not purchase Christmas presents in the summer. It is also hard to highlight items a person might like if they are not present. Not wanting to touch items (try on for size) or allow me to assist them is a sure sign I won't likely make a sale.

Most of my sales were of conservative designs in conservative, neutral colors. They were planned purchases of jewelry to wear with something or something they had been looking for. When I analyzed customer's home address versus location of the show, I found they frequently did not live nearby. The reputation/advertising of the show is important.

A thumbs up to using Square, a tiny device that attaches to a smart phone (I used my husband's android phone) to process credit cards with a swipe and deposit the funds in your bank account (on Tuesday from a weekend show). www.squareup.com for details. If you want contact information from customers, you need to record it manually; the system does not record any personal customer data. The only cost is 2.75% of the amount; no annual, monthly or per transaction fee if you swipe their card. Even the device is free.

I have other comments I could make about the lessons I learned but decided it was bad enough I experienced them. Live and learn. I will say that doing outdoor Art Fairs is a hard way to earn money.

Applications for Art Fairs are due right after January 1, 2012. I will share my jury photos in a future blog post and start to list the events I will be participating in spring.

I am currently planning items for the holidays, and feel like celebrating so they will be GLAM items with hopefully lower price points. I have decided to use metals, at least as accents. However, my Muse tends to guide me to more elaborate projects.

Photos of My Art Fair Booth

On Sunday I took photos of my booth at Art Fair on the Square. My booth faced east, it was a beautiful sunny day with a breeze. Since the show opened at 11 am, I decided to take photos around 10 a.m. This gave me an area of bright light in front and some shadows. My bridal white case was relocated so that it did not appear to be a case of glare. Additions this year are the three photos of my work hanging across the back wall and using plate hangers to stand up the trays on the table. My new mirror on the grid wall produced reflections of my jewelry in two shots, the man across the streets stool, and the photographer! Other obstacles were familiar to me from last year's photos. I found taking pictures after the show left the booth too dark, and this show ended at 6 pm which made for a very long day since I was out of bed at 4 am and we had a 1.5 hour drive to/from home.

Featured in Pretty in Pink

PROMOTION

I joined a group on Facebook to help me promote my bead work. I quickly found that I have a lot to learn about groups that really are into promotion.

My first lesson was that it takes time, regularly scheduled time. The group I joined has at least three events a week. Some are just for daylight hours on one day. I need to allow at least two hours early in the morning for that one. These require creating themed treasuries from members shops. It sounds like great fun, but during Art Fair time, I just couldn't fit it in. I am going to make an extra effort to participate the next two weeks, since making treasuries is FUN!

Some activities are on going for a week, but your work may not fit what is being featured. Others, you can just post a new listing and find new people. Never any lack of new posts to read. Problem I have is finding my friends posts that are a few hours old...

I was contacted that one of my items was chosen for a themed week long voting event on a members blog. My job is to promote it and hope people will vote for my creation. So here I am, blogging to ask you to check out this blog. It is pure promotion as far as I can see, but that's not a bad thing. There are a variety of items, the pictures are large enough to see, there isn't much that's flashing at you, and you just might find someone who does something you want. Also, you can purchase an ad on the site for just $5 a month, which seems very reasonable since these events are every week. I paid a lot more money per view at my very rainy Art Fair in my muddy on a decline booth.

The member has also placed my items in a few treasuries, so she might be someone you would like to get to know if you have a shop. As treasuries go, hers are well above average in creativity and beauty. Remember this group's purpose is promotion, so they want to be on the FRONT PAGE. This group is not just for beadweavers either.

Thanks for clicking on the badge at the top of this post. And since I'm asking for favors, please "LIKE" my facebook page, "KRDesigns11". I only need a few more to get a separate url for it. Thanks! You can find out who is promoting me on this page because I've posted my treasuries here.

KRDesigns11 has a Facebook Page

I set up a Facebook page for my beadweaving jewelry business. The photo above is of the bracelet I used as my avatar on the page. I have been posting new and renewed listings on Etsy (only one per day) and will post that I have a new blog post, too. I have allowed people to write on my page, so you can comment without the review system that I have here on blogspot.


So I'm asking you to visit my page and "LIKE" it if you do. I need to have 25 people "LIKE" my page before it gets its own URL. I'd post a link here, but since it doesn't have its own URL, it won't work. Maybe searching for "KRDesigns11" would be easiest; the category is "Artist". www.facebook.com/pages/KRDesigns11/180040212060403

Unfinished Objects

My bead embroidery project of making pins and earrings is going slowly. I found I needed to order supplies a few times -- and the process is full of starts and stops which I don't find satisfying. The price point for the pins will be higher than I hoped because most of the cabs cost me more than I usually spend on crystals for my bracelets. I only thought it should take less time than making a bracelet would make it cost less. I need to get organized so that the process is more efficient.

I did make two pins before I started researching using my personal library of books to learn how the pros bead with cabochons. I will include photos here, but know that the beading techniques are mine, and not those used in the books. I attached one row to the backing material and then beaded into those beads rather than the backing material. The pins are small with only a few rows of beadwork, so they appear to be adequately supported.



I determined I would do earrings going "by the book". First I didn't have the right size/color beads. Received the beads, finished the beadwork, looked for the ultra suede, realized I didn't have an appropriate color (no dark blue or black)so I waited for another order. (Order arrived out of stock of one color ultra suede and with the wrong color beads for the edging on the lapis earrings, so there is an order from another vendor in process. There will be two pairs of lapis earrings, which I'd need to order gold tone pin backs if they were to be pins.

While waiting for supplies, I beaded a herringbone rope (20 hours without the clasp) for a polymer clay bead as the pendant. I was pleased with the rope and felt a sense of accomplishment. After designing the bail/connection, redoing it twice and still not finding the right colors, I realized the rope is pastel summer shades while the pendant bead is fall shades. So I'm thinking I need a fall colored rope but don't feel like another 20 hours to create it right now. I put pictures of this on Facebook.

Wednesday night I put together a flat spiral bracelet with luster peridot green Czech glass beads and felt like I accomplished something. I used light lime metallic size 13 charlottes as some of the connector beads which gave a nice sparkle to the glass. It was just something I put together from what I had on hand. So easy!



I went back to the cabochon project Thursday, but discovered the method didn't work for the cab with a high dome, so will use the stack method if I have the right beads! I did complete a pair of earrings with blue lace agate cabs as I have lots of white beads and had light blue ultra suede on hand anticipating doing bead embroidery someday.



Friday I finished an oval pair of lapis earrings using hematite colored beads since I haven't received the color I wanted. I used pliers to pull the needle through on the edging, so I will try to figure out something different when I work on the round lapis earrings. This was not fun!



I will be taking a break from bead embroidery to relax with beading I enjoy and to prepare for an Art Spree in two weeks.

I do not wonder why I have unfinished objects.