offcntr | Mayday (Reply)

I didn't really have any expectations. We'd never tried this sort of sale before (well, we'd tried, but had to cancel twice). The only sales we've done before as a co-op have either been 1) a seconds sale, held inside the studio in late winter, or 2) a rambling group showing during the Art Center's July fundraiser/Art Fair, where we jam together all our display units and divvy them up by the linear foot.

But pop-up sales have become a common thing during the plague times, limited-size affairs put on by the artists to try and take up some of the slack that the big, cancelled art fairs left in their wake. So Club Mud decided to hold May Day Clay Day.

Maude Kerns let us take over their parking lot, on a day they were closed. Seven of us put up individual booths, plus an info-access control booth at the entry, and a double-size group sales space back along the building. In all, fourteen of our thirty-plus members participated. Laura had an inspiration, and hit a party supply rental for white picket fencing in 8-foot lengths, to help space out our booths, and block access from the alley.

We publicized it on the cheap--Mail-chimped the email list we've accumulated over the years, hit Instagram from multiple accounts, got on event calendars in the Eugene Weekly and Craigslist. I sent out press releases to to print and radio, and the Register-Guard, our local daily, even gave us a short piece in their Wednesday Entertainment Section.

The weather initially looked threatening, but the showers stopped around 9 am, and by 10, when we opened, it even got a little sunny. And people came.

Busiest was the first hour; I think. Mindful of COVID restrictions, we kept track, trying to limit to 40 customers on site at any given time. I think we pretty much succeeded, but as they left, more came in. Masked and well spread out, but consistent. It thinned out by mid-afternoon, but people were still shopping and we were still selling.

I got the impression we all sold really well--my neighbor said she was over $500 for the day, and I know I broke $1000. It was also just nice to spend time with other potters. We haven't had a studio meeting in over a year, nor even ZOOM, and chain emails just aren't the same.

So on the whole, a successful experiment. We're talking about another one, maybe in July.