Anacortes day 1: All by myself
Aug. 7th, 2015 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrAnacortes is another show we did for several years, very successfully, then for some reason couldn't get juried in again. For the last three years, though, we're back, and happy to be here, though they always put us down by the front gate.
This can be problematic for a potter, partly because people want to see everything before they buy, but mostly because they don't want to carry pots around with them for the whole fair. We give away a lot of business cards to folks who say they'll stop back on the way to the car, but also offer a parcel check: after their purchase is wrapped and bagged, we write their name and cell phone number on the bag (because otherwise I stress about the possibility that someone will forget to come back, and I'll have no way to get them the pottery they've already paid for) and they pick it up on their way out. It works pretty well; at one point today we had seven bags waiting for pick-up.
I thought we'd moved further uptown this year, because our booth was in the north 900 block instead of the south. Nope. They knocked out the entire south block of booths for a jazz stage, wine pavilion and the two enormous food trailers. I'm literally the first booth anyone sees as they enter the show.
Was supposed to be second: there was a glass artist next to me, but her promised corner booth wasn't very accessible, thanks to the aforementioned food behemoths. She negotiated a better space with management uptown, in the 800 block.
There's no one on my other side either. Because the festival doesn't want to antagonize downtown businesses, they leave blank spots in the layout in front of their doorways. There are two behind us, so we're all alone for 20 feet on either side.
Weather is lovely, sunny, mild and mid-70's. Sales are brisk, lots of $20-something items, but a few larger too, including two of my three oval platters. Because it's first Friday Art Walk, we're open 'til 8 pm, and I actually make a couple of sales after seven. When we finally get back to the motel and add up our tally, we've sold roughly half of our total weekend's take at Salem, a few weeks back.
With two days to go.
This can be problematic for a potter, partly because people want to see everything before they buy, but mostly because they don't want to carry pots around with them for the whole fair. We give away a lot of business cards to folks who say they'll stop back on the way to the car, but also offer a parcel check: after their purchase is wrapped and bagged, we write their name and cell phone number on the bag (because otherwise I stress about the possibility that someone will forget to come back, and I'll have no way to get them the pottery they've already paid for) and they pick it up on their way out. It works pretty well; at one point today we had seven bags waiting for pick-up.
I thought we'd moved further uptown this year, because our booth was in the north 900 block instead of the south. Nope. They knocked out the entire south block of booths for a jazz stage, wine pavilion and the two enormous food trailers. I'm literally the first booth anyone sees as they enter the show.
Was supposed to be second: there was a glass artist next to me, but her promised corner booth wasn't very accessible, thanks to the aforementioned food behemoths. She negotiated a better space with management uptown, in the 800 block.
There's no one on my other side either. Because the festival doesn't want to antagonize downtown businesses, they leave blank spots in the layout in front of their doorways. There are two behind us, so we're all alone for 20 feet on either side.
Weather is lovely, sunny, mild and mid-70's. Sales are brisk, lots of $20-something items, but a few larger too, including two of my three oval platters. Because it's first Friday Art Walk, we're open 'til 8 pm, and I actually make a couple of sales after seven. When we finally get back to the motel and add up our tally, we've sold roughly half of our total weekend's take at Salem, a few weeks back.
With two days to go.