In the first week of August, I accepted an invitation to participate in an outdoor craft show. ( I promise to tell about the struggle to accept this invitation in another post).
I’ve never exhibited my artwork outdoors, let alone set up a booth myself for an outdoor craft show. I had to haul my own canopy, display walls, artwork, tables, chairs and nick knacks in my car and bring to the beautiful Town of Madison Green.
Friday- the day before the outdoor craft show, I went to bed at 3:00 am. I was expected at the exhibition at 7:00, and Madison is a good 30 minutes drive from my home. It took about an hour to load up the car. Needless to say, I was sleep deprived when I got to the grounds for the outdoor craft show. In addition to my sleep deprivation and newbie status, the weather forecast was “all-day rain”, can’t this girl just get a break?
Setting Up the Outdoor Craft Show
Just for a moment- imagine setting up for an outdoor craft show in the rain – because that’s what all of us artists did on Saturday. It was damp, cold and raw. My clothes were wet and my fingers and toes were freezing. I had underestimated setup time, it took far longer than I’d anticipated. My rookie inefficiencies didn’t faze me. After all, the pros weren’t having a great time in the bad weather either.
After several hours of unloading, hammering, arranging and rearranging, my display walls were up and my artwork hung nicely. It was about midday and it was still pouring. The organizers of the outdoor craft show decided that if the rain didn’t let up by 2:00 pm, we could close shop and come back the next day which had been forecast to be a wonderful day. I was not disappointed that I had to take down everything soon after several hours of setup. To this Rookie, it was just the dry-run I needed for ‘show-time’ the next day.
Day 2 of The Outdoor Craft Show
Sunday came around and I was bright-eyed, well rested, relaxed and ready to face Day Two of the outdoor craft show. What a beautiful day Sunday turned out to be – sunny, warm and very pleasant. We had tons and tons of people come through the town Green on Sunday. Lots of visitors to my booth. I met some very wonderful people, chatted with talented artists. The guests to my booth were so gracious – their praise and admiration of my work could keep me giddy for a month.
The two most common comments were related to my vivid colors (they just loved the bright colors) and the amount of extensive thread drawing I do. One person told me, “these works need to be displayed in an open space with lots of light – they are happy works, they can’t be put in a dark place.”(I’m paraphrasing, here).
Thanks to all of you who stopped by to chat about your lives, your love, and your interests. I really enjoyed meeting all of you. Also, thank you to all who signed up to join my mailing list. Welcome to all my new subscribers. As promised, one of the new subscribers to my list would win Tic Tac Toe #1. ……..I had my toddler draw the winner…….And the prize goes to…..(drum roll, please…..) Number 15 – Jennifer!!!!!!
Raffle Draw Results
Jennifer, contact me by email with your mailing address and I’ll ship your prize to you. I hope you find a beautiful spot in your home for it or wherever you choose to display it. Please send me some pictures of its new home to share with my readers.
I debuted lots of new pieces at this outdoor craft show which have not yet appeared in my online gallery. In the next couple weeks, I’ll be uploading them to the gallery. For now, enjoy my first outdoor craft show photos.
Thanks for reading. I’ll love to hear from you. Leave your comments below.
Best,
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Also published on Medium.
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