Last weekend I was in the Contemporary Crafts Market in Santa Monica, and it was a trial by fire. It was my first “pack-and-go” show - everything had to fit in one carload & be fast to load-in, set-up and tear-down. The show was only 3 days, and in spite of requesting an inside location, I had been assigned a booth in a tented area on a grassy lawn of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. I did, however, get a corner location, for which I paid an extra fee.
In two hugely important ways I was starting over again: display cases and credit card processing. I needed cases which were much easier to transport and set-up than my Sawdust Art Festival configuration, and I had to figure out how to deal with credit card processing in a wireless situation, since I wouldn’t have access to my own phone line, as we do in our Sawdust booths. I owe an ENORMOUS favor to my talented friend Peter for building new cases for me. As far as the credit card situation went, I eventually decided to use a web-based system that my current merchant account offers. It requires only wifi (which the auditorium claimed to have) and a portable device capable of internet access (our household has an assortment of these). The other options were cell phone-based and were significantly more expensive, both in terms of equipment outlay and monthly fees. In hindsight, I’m not sure this was the right decision, as I am learning that wifi access does not have the coverage and support that cell phone access does. It worked reasonably well on Friday & Saturday, but on Sunday there were problems, and no wifi support staff available either at the auditorium or by phone.
Set-up was on Thursday. I thought it would take a couple of hours - it took 4-1/2. The ground was so uneven that the package of shims I had to level the cases was useless. I needed blocks of wood, not itty bitty shims. The other challenge was the draping for the base of my cabinets. The instructions said that any drapes had to be fire retardant, and I quickly learned that fire retardant material is not that easy to get, and can be expensive. However, the instructions also said that we could purchase a packet of stuff on site - just bring your own spray bottle, add water to the packet of stuff, and you’re good to go. Which we did, but the spray bottle wouldn’t spray, it just dripped pathetically. After taking it apart and putting it back together again several times and much swearing it finally starting working, but not before Pete was covered in fire retardant goo himself.
We got everything else in order, though, and drove home to collapse into bed. I was exhausted from working non-stop for the prior 3 weeks in preparation for the show, and Pete was exhausted because he had only just returned from a trip to England (it was his mother’s 90th birthday!).
We returned early Friday morning, as I wanted plenty of time to fix the tilting cases and arrange the jewelry display before the 10 am opening. I soon discovered that my electrics, which were working fine the day before, kept going out. The staff electrician was my hero that morning - he kept working on the problem until it was fixed. My location was at the edge of the tent, and it turned out that the heavy coastal fog during the night had caused water to drip from the edge of the tent roof onto my track lights, and they were shorting out.
But by a few minutes before 10, the cases were level, the jewelry was nicely displayed, and the lights were on - it was showtime!
Pete was there with me throughout, and he was a huge help. It is really hard to manage a booth all by yourself (and many artists do). Not only are there practical problems like getting bathrooms breaks and food (sadly, shoplifting does happen, so it’s a risk every time a booth is unattended), but it is a law of the retail universe that one customer attracts other customers, so as soon as you are dealing with one person, others will stop to look, and it’s important to have someone to talk to them.
My Sawdust Art Festival world connected with this one - I saw a few familiar faces, both among the visitors and fellow exhibitors. I had several repeat customers, which is always a great feeling. And, in fact, I had a new customer on Friday who came back to be a repeat customer on Sunday! Among the artists, Cindy Stalnaker (fused glass) and Olivia Batchelder (hand-painted silk) were both exhibiting there, so it was fun to be able to take the occasional quick break and go visit with them.
The show closed at 6 pm on Sunday, and it was amazing to see how quickly it all came down. It took us 1-1/2 hours to pack up and load the car - I’m sure that with practice, we’ll get faster and more efficient at all of this. All in all, I have to say it was a good experience.
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