Update 2008 / 2009 Loxahatchee, Florida
I arrived in Loxahatchee (West Palm Beach) FL around early December got with friends and family for Christmas. My Daughter notified me that she and her husband were coming to Florida around Christmas time and hoped we could get together. She also informed me that she was pregnant with twins. They never made it down to S.E. Florida due to complications in the pregnancy, which I plan to elaborate on in a future blog entry.
I was able to gain entry into two craft shows scheduled for January and February to sell my jewelry and gain experience into the art / craft fair business. There definitely has been a learning curve.
The first show in mid January was at Hollywood Beach. There seemed to be lots of people roaming the boardwalk but few were spending money, especially at my booth.
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That weekend I netted about $300.00. That did not include the time spent there and driving to and from the event. I enjoyed myself as I interacted with the people and developed a sort of explanation of how my work evolved from rock right out of the ground to finished piece of natural art. My friend Joellen helped me set up my tent and display. Only a true friend, a guilty relative or a blackmail victim would get up at 5:00 am, drive 30 miles to assist someone in putting up a flimsy tent in 20 mph winds in the dark (pre DST). Fortunately my spot was somewhat shielded by a large building and the wind factor was greatly reduced. Jo stayed with me most of the day and came back Sunday afternoon to help and to assist in take down. Sure was nice having Jo there.
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Gross sales were close to $600.00 I think I made about 2/3 of that on Sunday. According to experienced artists who have done many shows, Saturday is usually the best day and they also indicated that gross sales should be about ten times the entry fee during good economic times. My entry fee was $220.00. Still I was not too discouraged with the result considering the bad economy and all of the French Canadians. Plus jewelry is a luxury item even though my items were not high priced. My inventory consisted of about 60 pendants, 20 bracelets, 10 rings, and a few crosses. Joellen brought about ten pair of earrings that she had made. I think she sold two pair. The interesting part to me was that 9o% of sales was bracelets and rings. I did not sell one pendant. Pendants are what I enjoy making because I enjoy cutting the stones. The wire part is OK, but cutting a stone is like a mini treasure hunt, in that, you never know what you are going to find inside of a rock and bringing out the best in a stone takes skill. So between the two shows I made more bracelets and rings and tried to get into more shows.
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The next show in mid February was in Weston Florida, a fairly affluent community due west of Ft Lauderdale International Airport. Jo again showed up at 5 am to help. I love that woman. I changed the display a little but it was basically the same as the Hollywood show. The results of the show were almost the same, the difference being I sold more on Saturday than I did in Hollywood, which had me thinking that this would be a better show. Sunday, however, sold less than Hollywood, each day was about $300.00 gross.
By this time I had heard from the show promoters that I had applied to, the problem was that entry deadlines were long past for many of the shows, so, of the 6 shows that I requested I was put on standby for 4 and was accepted for 2 one near Sarasota at the end of April (that the deadline had not passed) and one put on by the city of Hollywood called “Mardigras Fest and Fat Tuesdays”, a show that my new friend, Donna Wilson, warned me not to enter. But I had already paid my entry fee prior to her warning. I’m not going into detail about this 4 day event except to say, I GROSSED $230.00 and left Sunday night. I would have saved money if I had just forfeited the $400.00 entry fee. Donna is a long time veteran of art festivals and has taken me under her wing so to speak (she’s 4 ft and around 15 inches tall). She is guiding me to the best shows and has been suggesting different changes in my display.
The next show coming up was Sebring, it is just north of Lake Okeechobee on State Rd 27 I was “wait listed” for this show and there were no openings.
The next was Delray Beach, My friend Donna suggested I just show up and hope for a cancelation or hope they could find me a spot. So contacted the promoter and told him my plan and he said that it would be ok if I did that but he could not ensure that I would get a spot. Now, of all the different types of items sold at craft fairs and art shows artist who sell jewelry are in the greatest number. Therefore, when some asks you what your product is and you tell them they roll their eyes and say “not another one”.
I got to Delray just before 5 and the show director told me it would be at least 8 am before she would know anything. So I went to Duncan Donuts and got a dozen donuts and a “Box of Jo”, brought it back, wrote “HEALTH FOOD” on the donut box lid and passed out donuts and coffee to the crafters and made sure the director got some. (a bribe, I told her). When I ran out of donuts and coffee I still had a couple of hours to kill so I began helping the artist set up their tents. At a little after 8 the director came to me and said they had a spot. (the bribe had worked).
I will finish this tale in my next post in December. (a little joke)
I will get to it within a couple of weeks, promise.
Ken
