When my husband and I arrived Saturday morning to set up, we were pretty impressed with the setting. The park was overlooking Geneva Lake, which was gorgeous (picture sailboats and a ferry). I should've taken a picture, but with the threat of rain Saturday, I didn't want to risk bringing my camera (and Sunday, I just plain forgot it.) Set-up was a breeze (something I am always worried about when doing a new show), although I was not prepared when people started coming into my booth to shop at 9:30 (show started at 10:00). I should have planned for that given the casual park setting, but it still "erks" me a little when this happens. I was trying to get all my jewelry set up and then was torn with, "Do I stop, move everything out of the way and let these people look? or do I just ignore them and keep setting up as fast as possible?" I kind of did both. Oh well...I'll just have to give myself some extra time next year.
The show started off great. I think people who were there Saturday morning were on a mission and ready to buy. I think the threat of rain also increased the sense of urgency for shoppers to get there early and make their purchases. I couldn't believe my sales in the first 2 hours...and the sales came so easily. Nobody was really doing the, "I'll think about it and maybe come back" routine, which was really refreshing.
Before you knew it, the sky got dark and the rain started. But looking at the radar, it looked like most of it was actually going to miss us. Most of the heavy storms were to the east and north of us. It really only rained for about 20-30 minutes max, and it was not a heavy downpour. We really lucked out. The day ended up being really good weather wise...I would take days like that over the 90 degrees and humid days. There was a beautiful breeze (not too strong) off the lake, and we were really lucky to have our booth shaded by a large tree. The afternoon sales were a little slower, but still steady. My sales goal for the entire weekend was already met by the end of day Saturday.
Coming into this weekend, I was a little bummed that I would have to miss Elkhorn's flea market on Sunday due the the art show. I was in pretty desperate need of "new" supplies to get me inspired. When my husband and I were discussing it on Saturday, we realized that we actually had the perfect opportunity to do both. Elkhorn was on our way to Lake Geneva, and the flea market opened at 7:00 (Art in the Park opened at 10:00 again). Also, the fact that we were able to leave our booths up overnight made the set up Sunday much less time-consuming. We figured we had about an hour and a half to run through the flea market before having to leave for Lake Geneva. We were there when the gates opened, and tried to stay focused on finding jewelry (we got sidetracked a few times). We kinda split up and didn't waste time negotiating with the dealers who were overpriced. There were so many cool items for our house were were ignoring, which pained us, but we were so limited on time, we just had to keep moving. I have to say, in the short time we had, I think I bought almost as much as I did when were were there in May. I made some great deals. I got several very nice pieces, but then I also got a bunch of what I refer to as "dirty rhinestones." They just need a little extra attention and repair.
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| Elkhorn goodies |
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| Elkhorn goodies |
So after that brief detour, we headed back to Lake Geneva for Day 2 of Art in the Park, still excited about our purchases and whirlwind of a morning. Sales were very slow Sunday morning. Compared to the first two hours of Saturday, I had maybe 1/10th the sales. I kept a pretty good attitude though, because like I said, I had already exceeded my sales goal for the weekend, so Sunday was like a "bonus" day in my mind. Again, weather was really nice. Not too hot, not too cold, with a nice relaxing breeze coming off the lake. Sales did pick up in the afternoon, and I had a couple of large multiple-item sales that really helped. By the end of Sunday, I had enough sales to make this my second-best show ever. I couldn't have asked for much better than that.
This was a wonderful show for me (thank you Lake Geneva and GLAA). I was so happy with every aspect of it (from how the show was organized, to the type of customers who came, to the beautiful lakeside setting). It was really more of a fine art show, so the other vendors were of very high caliber (in fact, I was honored to be among them), and the customers who came really appreciated the work and were willing to pay for it. I had several people comment on how reasonable my prices were, and the fact that people so willingly opened up their wallets showed me they felt the same. I was used to working a lot harder for my sales and having many more smaller sales add up to the grand total. A lot of my more expensive items sold quickly. People wanted the pieces that were more of a statement and more artsy. I would LOVE to do this show again. It is juried, so there are no guarantees that I will get accepted next year. I am crossing my fingers that I do!
Sorry for the lack of pictures and stories. There weren't really any crazy/funny happenings to write about. Other than a couple of women who really should have been wearing bras (and weren't) and a parade of about 50-75 cool mo-peds that drove by, it was a pretty uneventful and lovely weekend. I am dragging a little today. With the pregnancy, I haven't been sleeping that well and can't refuel with caffeine, but I have to suck it up and keep going. I have Artstreet in Green Bay in 2 weeks (and Cedarburg's Harvest Fest 3 weeks after that) and am seriously lacking inventory. Back to work!
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