Its that time of the year when alot of my thoughts turn toward show applications. Although most of my shows are bead and glass shows, I try to do about 4 shows a year with my jewelry.
I only do juried shows. And I try to make sure these shows are within about 2 hours of my home. I have been doing large bead shows and jewelry shows for over 12 years now and for most of my shows I have to travel. Once upon a time I would fly and ship my displays and inventory but as I perfected my displays and built up more and more inventory it became cost prohibitive to do this so, I now drive.
Most of my drives are one day (17 hours) or less, then there is Tucson, a whopping 30 hour drive. So, as you can imagine I really dread driving to shows these days. Of course it does have its advatages, like having a car with me at all times. The down side is the mileage that it puts on my car, over 20,000 miles a year, ouch! And the studio time it takes for the travelling, it adds up. So, the jewelry shows MUST be close to home.
Anyway, I am constantly evaluating the shows that I do. Just because a show has been a good show in the past does not necessarily mean it will remain that way. One case in point.... I do a show that is only about a 30 minute drive from home every spring. It is a nature based show and in years past was in a beautiful garden setting. This year the show is moving to a venue that is well, a convention hall. I know that people who attended this show loved the quaint garden setting, even with its cramped parking, lack of food and lack of electricity for vendors.
The promoters are playing up the move with phrases like: "Ample customer parking", "Space for Food vendors", "limited electricity available", "choose to be inside our outside with your own canopy." I have my reservations about this year but have decided to apply and see what happens. Now, if it my sales take a down turn then I probably wont be going back after this year.
The jewelry shows I regularly do all have a nature theme to them. Would you like to see a few of my images for the jewelry? I am busy taking shots this week and trying to decide on what images to send in for the application process. I will keep you all updated on the process as it progresses.
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