This week’s Cleveland Handmade featured artist is Nicki Schleckman, who sells on Etsy under the name handmade. Her handmade playsets are very popular. Read more about her here.
This week’s Cleveland Handmade featured artist is Chris Zielski of Copper Leaf Studios. Chris was one of the first Etsy team members I met in person, and she makes lovely etched copper pieces, but on a much larger scale than I do. Her photos are lovely, but her art is even more spectacular in person.
This week’s Cleveland Handmade featured artist is Leah Anastasakis of Leah Ana Designs. You can read my interview with her here.
My class times have been set for October’s Jewelry Exploration at Bead Q.
I’ll be teaching etching on Saturday, October 25, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. in Chagrin Falls and on Sunday, October 26, 12:30–3:30 p.m. in North Olmsted.
Additionally, I will be teaching Beading 101: Necklaces and Bracelets on Saturday, October 25, 2–5 p.m. in North Olmsted. This is a beginner stringing class in which you will learn about different stringing materials and findings (clasps, crimps, jump rings) and then use that knowledge to make necklaces and/or bracelets from beads and materials you selected and purchased before the class (list provided at registration). Major emphasis will be placed on learning to crimp properly, which is the foundation of making pieces that last.
To register, stop in or call the shop where the class will be held: Chagrin Falls 440-708-1771; North Olmsted 440-734-2323.
Cleveland Handmade’s first featured artist is Sara Kate, who lives in Solon, Ohio. It is fitting that she is our first featured artist, because she kick-started this whole thing with one simple question in the Etsy forums: “Anyone in the Cleveland area?†Sara Kate makes awesome bags and envelope wallets; I myself am a proud owner of one of her Glam Squad bags.
As we near the end of the summer here in the northern hemisphere, frugal crafters want to know: “Are any of these end-of-summer-clearance tents/canopies in the outdoor aisle of the discount store good for shows?”
The short answer is “no.”
The longer answer is “no, but with a few exceptions.” Let me explain.
A 10 x 10 foot space is the standard in the outdoor show circuit; it is rare to find anything different in midrange or high-end shows. The majority of the discount tents you find in the outdoor aisle are not 10 x 10 — or if they are 10 x 10, the canopy measures that but the legs splay out wider (thus creating a situation where you take up more than your alotted space, a particulary bad foul when the organizers lay out spaces cheek-to-jowl, and a tripping hazard besides). Or the footprint is 10 x 10 but the actual canopy is smaller, giving you less room under cover than you’ve paid for. And in most cases you don’t know what the footprint will be until you take it home and set it up.
If you aspire to do high-end shows, keep in mind that most require standard white festival tents for a uniform look. Yeah, it’s somewhat fascist and maybe even a little elitist, but that’s the norm, and you have to follow the rules to play the game. However, think about color in another way: the color of your tent affects the way your wares appear to customers. Your dark blue tent might stand out among the crowd, but it throws your items into shadow, especially when you have a few customers in there, too. A white tent acts like a giant lightbox, highlighting your goods and showing their true colors.
In four years of doing outdoor shows, I have seen countless other vendors struggle to set up discount tents. At one show this summer, I watched two people across the way take more than an hour to piece together and set up their tent. My Caravan brand tent takes less than 10 minutes to set up with two people, and although I don’t prefer to go it solo, I can put it up by myself if I have to.
The sturdiness of the tent should be a consideration, too. The worst of the discount tents come with a dozen or more poles that fit together and are held together by friction. These are generally pretty wobbly and don’t offer a good way to secure the tent to stakes or weights — and you will need stakes and/or weights. A one-piece frame is very sturdy and a good support for a quality waterproof canopy, one that won’t easily rip.
Height is important, too. Most of the discount tents are relatively short and not adjustable at all. Tall people will not come in to shop if it looks like they might bump their head or feel claustrophobic.
I personally don’t use sidewalls anymore, but lots of people like them, and they usually aren’t an option with discount tents. Sidewalls offer protection from the elements and provide a backdrop for your display. (They also block the breeze and can act as huge sails in a good wind, but I have the option if I ever want them.)
The most subjective aspect of tent selection is the impression you give your customers. As a shopper, I’m more drawn to vendors who look like they’ve put some thought into their displays and presentation, and like it or not, the tent is part of that package. While the type of tent you select won’t prevent me from buying your wares, it will affect my overall impression of your business. Fair? Probably not. But that’s how it is.
So, to sum up, here’s my shopping checklist for a show tent:
Super-high-end tents can cost in the thousands of dollars, but there are a number of decent standard tents out there for right around $225. I bought my Caravan tent at Costco about four years ago for $200, and it came complete with four sidewalls and a rolling case. Current price is $224.95, delivery included (you have to be a Costco member, though). EZ-Up is another popular manufacturer, and if you Google “festival tent” you’ll get a bunch of other options. A plus to purchasing your own tent is that the resale value of show tents historically has stayed pretty close to original purchase price, so if you decide that doing shows is not for you, you can recoup much of your tent investment assuming you’ve taken good care of your tent. When the left side of my brain compares that with spending half that on something that will not be as nice and has little resale value once I decide to upgrade my tent or stop doing show altogether, a good tent comes out a winner every time.
Other options include borrowing, sharing, and renting. If you belong to a local Etsy street team or other artist group, you can put out a call to see if anyone has a tent you can borrow or rent, or see if anyone wants to go in on the purchase with you. If you opt for the latter, make sure you write up an agreement that spells out who is responsible for keeping the tent and how you will decide who gets to use it if you both want to use it on the same day. A clear agreement will help prevent disputes later. FYI, renting festival tents from commercial rental places is almost as expensive as buying one outright.
When is a discount tent a good idea? If:
Hard to believe it’s August already. The marching band is practicing at the high school, my niece and nephew start school in a couple weeks (one friend‘s kid has started school already), I’m making hot tea and wearing a fleece pullover today… Just not quite prepared for this time of year yet.
Sunday will be my last summer show of 2008, the North Olmsted Juried Arts & Crafts Show at Frostville Museum in the Metroparks in North Olmsted. The show itself is a small one and, sadly, not terribly well publicized, but the setting is just lovely — plenty of nature and nearby hiking — and there will be food and music. And, as a bonus, it’s not supposed to be blazingly hot that day, either.
This show will be the last chance for a bunch of items that have been following me around from show to show for a little too long now. These older necklaces and bracelets don’t quite fit in with the direction I’ve been going lately, so they will all be half price at the show this Sunday. After that, they’re going to be taken apart for parts to rework or sell off in the Etsy supply shop I’ve started but haven’t stocked yet.
Yesterday I dropped off a handful of charm necklaces and etched pendants at the BAYarts Gallery Shop in Bay Village.
New etched pendants available at BAYarts Gallery Shop
I also learned that the photo taken by the Avon Lake Press reporter did appear in yesterday’s paper. How fun is that?
That just about sums up the last week for me.
Tuesday I taught etching to an exuberant crowd of a dozen Bead Q employees, the largest class I’ve taught so far. I got some really nice feedback, and my students did some really cool work, too. I also learned that a dozen is far too many for this class, and from this point forward I’m limiting etching to six students at a time. I heard over the weekend that one of my August etching classes is fully booked, and the other is getting close. If you’re thinking about signing up, now is the time, unless you want to wait for September or October (no dates scheduled yet, but I assume we will).
I spent most of last week preparing for the Avon Lake Summer Market, which again this year lived up to its history as a really good show for me. Saturday was pretty much nonstop until early afternoon, then settled down to a thinner crowd but still a steady pace.
Avon Lake Summer Market, before the crowds hit
It was great to see so many of my regular customers and friends, and to meet some new people as well. I was next to Jen of Seat of My Pants, who makes adorable bags and braved out the day despite looking like she was going to burst any second. I had some really wonderful praise for the new work I’ve put so much of my heart and soul and energy into over the past few months, and I was asked to bring some work to BAYarts for inclusion in the gallery shop there, which I will be doing later this week.
We got some great preshow publicity this year, including a short piece in the Plain Dealer’s Friday Magazine, and I had my picture taken with a customer for the Avon Lake Press, which may be included in Wednesday’s paper.
I went most of the day thinking it was a good day but not a record breaker, yet when I got home and counted up I found that I had done even better than last year, my best show ever. It made the exhaustion worth it.
After eleven solid hours of sleep and a little nap here and there yesterday, I’m feeling almost back to normal, just in time to teach the Chunky Chime necklace at Grand River Beads on Thursday and get ready for the North Olmsted show on August 10.
Then today I got an e-mail from the gallery coordinator at the Avon Lake Public Library, who wants me to do a show there for the month of December. That was just the push I need to get it together with some of the bigger, showier pieces I’ve had swirling in my head for a while now.
The weekly entertainment update I get via e-mail from the New York Times featured Mamma Mia today. I am ambivalent about Abba — it’s pretty much just fifth-grade nostalgia background music for me — but now I have “Dancing Queen” stuck in my head. It’s not good.
I have been nose to the grindstone in an avalanche of freelance projects. A few were running late from the publishers, one was running early, and one was a peach of a rush project that I couldn’t turn down, so I started out the month with eight projects in various states of completion. I’m still trying to figure out if that was a good or a bad thing, but the paychecks will be nice once they start to come in. I slugged through it and managed to return everything on time, and even a couple of them a day or two early. It was a good feeling. I’m on the last one now, then I’ll have a bit of a breather before the next slate is due to arrive on my desk. The break will be welcome, since I have a couple of upcoming shows and classes to prepare for.
My biggest show of the year and my favorite to do is the Avon Lake Summer Market, which is coming up next Saturday, July 26. Erin and Kristen do a fabulous job of putting together a beautiful show with a wide variety of vendors. The setting couldn’t be more lovely, and they do a nice job of publicizing it. It’s a fundraiser for restoration of the Thomas Folger Home. I hope to see some of you there.
My August show will be the North Olmsted Juried Arts & Crafts Show on Sunday, August 10. This will be the second year for this show. They do a really terrible job of promoting it, but I stick with it because I think it has a lot of potential. I wrote a long feedback letter last year giving them some pointers for promotion, but so far they have not taken them to heart.
This year I started teaching some classes, too. I’m teaching bead classes at Grand River Beads. The May and June classes were bracelet variations on a kit design using large borosilicate beads. On July 31, I’ll be teaching a necklace version, then I’ll be retiring that class for a while. For August, I’m working on an original design using furnace glass and crystals. I’m also teaching etching classes at Bead Q in North Olmsted (8/17) and Chagrin Falls (8/4).
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