Pretty Pretty Bang Bang

I just finished a two day show at The Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, MO. It was a first time event so, needless to say, it was not financially successful. I did get to meet some Best of Missouri Hands artists and see some of the wonderful work they do. Things moved a little slow at this show, so Suzanne and I entertained ourselves with some observations. Here’s some of the weird things we saw:

• The Honeymooners - This couple could not keep their hands off each other. They slow danced, took pictures, cuddled and giggled all throughout the show. The man was one of the artists and Suz and I had the perfect view from my booth. We were disappointed when she didn’t show the second night. Guess she had other obligations.

• The Aura Chick - People passed by my booth, looking at my jewelry but sometimes not really stopping. I greeted everyone with a cheery “hello” and wished them a nice day. On Thursday, an older woman and her daughter strolled by and I greeted them. The mom stated that she really didn’t wear jewelry anymore since she’d read that metal was harmful to the body. “Oh,” I said, “I’d not heard that.” She replied that metals, especially silver, interfere with one’s aura. Good God. My aura must have left me by now if that’s the case.

• The Untrusting Shopper - Later in the afternoon a rather large woman came by my booth. She was having trouble walking and needed the assistance of her cane. No biggie except she kept propping herself up with my booth which was not excessively stable. She chose a pair of earrings and I told her I’d get them bagged while she paid (there was one checkout point for all artists). She told me she wanted to watch me bag them since she’d been ripped off by an artist before who switched the work. She didn’t discover it until she’d gotten home and the item was damaged. She was very insistent about the whole thing so I made a production about putting the earrings on the card and putting them in the bag. Weird.

• The Martini Gals - Two wonderful “mature” women visited my booth on Thursday afternoon. They oohed and ahhed over my work and made me feel good. One stated that she didn’t have any kind of artistic talent. I said I was sure she had some sort of talent to which she replied that she could make a great martini. Bingo! That’s a talent. We chatted about vodka vs gin and they went on their way. What a fun duo.

All in all, not a good show, but I think I’m glad I went. Ask me in a few days when I’ve caught up on my sleep!

Those of you who read this blog regularly are probably wondering if I’ve fallen into a snowdrift. Nope, I’m knee deep in holiday art shows. Today is the last day of Springfield’s WinterFest celebration held the first weekend of December at Hammon’s Hall For The Performing Arts. Last year, this was an amazing show for me. This year…well, it’s been a bit different.

First, on Wednesday night, we received freezing rain and sleet which turned into snow by Thursday morning. Schools and businesses were closed and rumors started flying that WinterFest would be cancelled. We were planning to set up Friday at 7 am, but were a bit slow going and didn’t get there until after 7:30. Several artists had cancelled due to the weather and very few showed up early for set-up. We got everything up quickly and got home around 11 am. There were still many vacant spots, including two next to me. The show started at 5 pm and Friday night was pretty slow. Still, I did almost as well as I had the previous year. I was starting to feel hopeful about Saturday since I figured people would be itching to get out of their houses. Well, Saturday was pretty slow too. Sales were ok (I really didn’t expect to do as well since it was my second year) but people still weren’t getting out. Hopefully, today will be great.

Tuesday I’m on the road to St. Louis where I’ll be doing a show on Wednesday and Thursday. Then it’s all over and I can finally concentrate on buying and wrapping Christmas gifts! Hope everyone is having a good weekend. If you’re in the Springfield area, stop by WinterFest today and say “hello.” I’m on the top floor.