Fall, Start of Festival Season!

Don't you just love when Fall comes around!!!  Cooler weather, excitement in the air, Mother Nature showing off her colors...

It's also when towns, villages and cities get busy with the start of the holiday season with festivals, bringing out the food, music and arts.

My first festival of the season is tomorrow and Sunday at the Central Carolina Pagan Pride Days Festival.  Would love to see you if you are in the local area!  Come out and support your local artists!

For the past couple of weeks, I have been rushing around preparing for it.  Even though I have done many shows in the past 3 years, there is so much in preparing for a one - no two shows are ever the same.  Depending on space allocation, venue location, venue type, etc., display setup is always a challenge.  I do stage my displays before each show.  Decisions on what items to bring, number of tables, table coverings, signage, how to display...

If you do shows, what are your challenges and how do you overcome them?

One challenge I have is making sure EVERYTHING fits in my car.  I take out the 2 back seats and store them away until the end of the show season.  That gives me optimum space and ease of packing.

When I first started shows, my car seemed not be large enough but with each show, packing has become more efficient, having learned what works and what doesn't.  

So now I am READY for my first show of this season!

Upcoming shows:

Festifall, Chapel Hill, Sunday October 7, 2012

Cooke Street Carnival, Raleigh, Saturday October 13, 2012

Boylan Heights ArtWalk (pending acceptance)

NCSU Crafts Center Art Fair (pending acceptance)

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Etsy One-of-a-Kind Show - Chicago

Well, I bit the bullet and submitted my entry for the OOAK show in Chicago, Dec 3-6, 2009. Etsy is offering discounted booth space for up to 25 new artists - those who have never done a OOAK show and also have 3 or less years experience in the business - see Etsy's call for artists and forum discussion. Since I have daughters living in Chicago, I can save on expenses by staying with them (assuming I get lucky and Etsy thinks my jewelry is good enough). One of the criteria is to submit a digital image of your booth setup. Since I have never done a large show before I didn't have one on hand. Spent all of this morning setup an 8ft table space.

I live in a townhome and really don't have a lot of bare space but I rigged up a table in my computer room but I had a problem with trying to eliminate

background junk. But while I was talking with a friend as my sounding board, we came up with a very good idea - tack up a plain bedsheet to the wall and drape it over the computer desk area. At the same time, a lightbulb went off in my head - why not place a piece foam board in front of the computer area and drape the sheet over all? That worked out really well - I didn't have to punch holes in the wall, too.

And this is the picture I submitted (after I cropped the top and re-touched the sheeting area to remove wrinkles and seams).

And my new banner was made by PromoPixie on Etsy. What do you think?

FYI - this photo is the before "re-touch" one.