I'm back from my first big shows of the season and boy, what a mixed bag it was! The Dogwood Fine Arts Festival in Knoxville had 2 out of 3 days of scary bad weather. And I mean SCARY! My heavy duty Trimline tent was swaying in the wind, even with all the weight I had packed onto it. I saw two potters lose shelves of work from gusts of wind. It was cold and rainy Friday, cold, windy, and rainy Saturday, and beautiful on Sunday. But guess what? I had not too bad sales. I had a visit from a terrific lady who bought my work last year and bought some more this year. I also had a visit from a lovely Southern lady who lives in the area who chatted with me last year. It's so nice to be remembered! The volunteers were nice and the baguettes at the French Market across the street were divine. It was a pretty decent show all in all.
On the riverfront in Savannah, we enjoyed 3 days of beautiful, warm weather. But miserable sales. A few folks I spoke with had some decent sales, but nothing to write home about. Most of us came a long way, racked up huge expenses, and had dismal sales. All of the fun activities that the riverfront folks had planned did not bring out the throngs of people that we had hoped for. Perhaps the holiday weekend affected this, I don't know. Just not a lot of foot traffic and most of the people were not in the market for anything, especially not art. You know, bad sales are one thing, but when hours pass by without anyone even stepping into your tent, that really blows! Thank God for two things: the great music the DJ was playing all weekend long and that I brought my colored pencils and sketch pad. The hours were long, but there was good music which keep my spirits and energy up.
I had a beautiful view of the Savannah River. Here're some shots of my booth and the riverfront. That's a big ole container ship on the river. Those things are huge! How do they stay afloat?
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