Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Amazing show!

My first Renegade was quite an amazing and exhausting experience. I don't really keep much finished stock on hand, since I do this full time I pretty much make it as I need it. But of course for this I needed lots of finished pieces, so I worked very long hours in the weeks leading up to have some inventory to take with. Then I had to get the displays made and figure out all the many details. Thankfully my sister came down from Mt. Shasta on Thursday and helped out, and worked the show with me all weekend. There's no way I could have done it with out her!


Here's what the booth ended up looking like. For the displays I bought 20 gauge aluminum sheet cut to size and a $40 bending brake from Harbor Freight. My boyfriend Kelly's sister Laura (who is also my housemate and bookkeeper) did the bending for me, I added the paper for contrast and hooks made from aluminum wire on the back to hold the jewelry (bending of 130 hooks courtesy of my sister Colette).


Here I am, hoping that I'm getting all the credit card info that I'm supposed to be getting!


A shot of the crowd. There was a huge stream of people the entire weekend. This was taken during a quiet moment.


Here's my friend and fellow metal clay artist Christine from Chocolate and Steel, who came up from LA to do the show. She does tons of these shows, and is currently 6 months pregnant. She's amazing!


Most importantly, here's our coffee making set up at the motel. Good coffee is not optional, it is a necessity!

It ended up being a very successful weekend, both in terms of sales and in meeting lots of people and seeing old friends. I learned a lot and took notes about what to do differently next time, but it all went very smoothly for my first show. Now I'm working on custom orders, a big wholesale order, and catching up on my sleep!

6 comments:

Sunbasilgarden said...

Thanks so much for sharing about your big show. I grew up doing shows with my mom- she's a juried paper cutter..some were 10 days straight. Love your display and orange and green colors. Enjoy some rest!

Alison Kelley said...

Your booth looks great and what a great idea in how you made your own displays! Congrats on the show going well!

Sherry said...

Nice to see you both. I'm glad it was a great success!

I'm with you on the coffee, I'd mainline it if I could.

xoSherry

I've NEVER done a show.

Unknown said...

Hi Sue,

Helen Worcester here. Your booth looks great! And so does your blog! I look forward to browsing it. I am not surprised that you had a good show, but very happy for you.

Chin Lee 3 said...

Cream no coffee, please.

Unknown said...

Wow! Your booth looks great! There's one thing that I learned in this post. I never thought that aluminum sheets are best for displaying jewelry items. My sister, who is a jewelry designer, uses other materials to hold displays. But I noticed that she doesn't run out of aluminium pipes and perforated aluminium supplies for her jewelry and crafting business. In fact, most of her products include aluminum jewelry, copper and brass jewels of different kinds.

Thanks for sharing, Sue, I'm glad that the show brought you sales and fantastic experiences.