Thankful...

May I expound for just a moment on just how much sheer joy I feel when a potential customer walks into my booth, instantly drawn to a piece, and falls head-over-heels in love??

I can spot the smitten from a distance, making a bee-line for my table like a heat-seeking missile achieving it's target.  On their face is a look of equal parts determination, concentration, and amore.  Upon reaching the object of their heart's desire a beautific smile spreads across their face and it's all over with but for wrapping it up.

For me, humble handcrafted jewelry artisan, that feeling of joy is one of the best things on the planet.  That feeling has become the very reason that compels me to transport numerous tables, plastic bins, and a very large and unwieldy canopy to to various locations most weekends to sell my wares.  That feeling is why I will spend good money for the opportunity to spend hours in the rain and cold during the winter months.  And just as many hours sweating under the scorching summer sun.  That feeling is why I will answer innumerable questions as to the location of the restrooms (most frequent inquiry), the ATM's, the information booth, the bar (more important to me that the restrooms!), and the kettle korn vendor.  For the pursuit of sheer joy my hands often look like the victims of an attack by a small ferocious wild-cat, covered in scratches and pinch marks from the legs of the unwieldy canopy.

And it is for that sheer joy that I am most grateful.  That I can touch someone's life with something created by my own two hands and heart is a great honor.  Thank you.

Proof That God is Punishing Me for My Sins...

While in my booth at the Mountain Mandarin Festival in Auburn the weekend before Thanksgiving I received proof that God is vengeful, wrathful and just plain mean.  I know I was being punished for all of my mortal sins...my booth was placed in close proximity to the most dreaded sound that heralds the approaching holidays.  I was within 50 feet of the Salvation Army bell ringer...aaarrghhh!!!  For eight hours on Saturday and seven hours on Sunday I was plagued by the incessant, mono-toned, ringing of the lone brass bell.  The guy never took so much as a five minute break to smoke, eat, or even make a trip to the men's room.  It was constant and loud enough to be heard over the voices of the crowd and the slightly off-tune efforts of the local high school band wheezily playing 20 year old pop-tunes.  The reverberating clang bored into my brain via my poor ear canals and left a permanent bruise upon my grey matter.  I heard it in my car as I drove home.  I heard it ringing in my head as I was attempting to fall asleep at night.  I heard it while I was waiting for my Sunday morning toast to pop up.  I felt like the unfortunate muscle pictured above...with a splitting headache and in need of a champagne "patch"!! Don't get me wrong...I fully support the Salvation Army and all that they do to help those in need.  I just with maybe they'd re-think the whole bell ringing thing...maybe a nice catchy show-tune instead??

Back to life, back to reality...

Yes, Yes...I've been absent from the blogging world for far too long.  And no, I didn't run off to Mexico never to return though the thought did cross my mind a time or twenty seven!  I did have a fabulous time while in Mexico, so good that all of my lofty plans to blog while there faded away like a tequila-induced hazy sunset.  Our little town of Bucerias Mexico is one of my most favorite places on the planet but I did indeed return to the realities of home and work.  In fact I came back more focused than ever on my business and with a clearer vision of what I want Em's Gems to look like in the future.  I'm busily working on adding a few additional features to my already wonderful new website, adding additional inventory to the site, and creating an abundance of new jewelry designs.

Sssoooo...the weekend of Nov. 14th and 15th I was showing off my wares at the Sacramento Garden & Art Center's Fall Arts & Crafts Show.  I was located in a nice building towards the rear of McKinley Park with lots of great artists of many medias.  It turned out to be a good show for me and I even had a record low for people asking for the location of the restrooms...only two for the entire weekend!!  Without being too catty, let me share with you instead some examples of bad vendor behavior.  (O.k., maybe a little catty!)  My dear friend Julie was helping me out in my booth Saturday afternoon and when we had a lull she took a stroll around the booths to check out the other artist's work.  Upon encountering some particularly beautiful ceramic sculpture Julie commented to the artist "You do very nice work!"  (Ms. Julie was quite sincere with her words, by-the-way) The artist, Ms. Very-Self-Important, replied "You have good taste."  Ya know, a simple smile and a "thank-you" would have done just fine.  Perhaps if said artist had been just a tad bit more grateful in her attitude she wouldn't have gone home Sunday night ranting and raving to anyone who would listen about her apparent lack of sales!  And speaking of leaving...another Very-Self-Important artist left halfway through the showing, packing up her wares after closing Saturday evening.  Rumor has it that she left mad, throwing her things in boxes and flounced out.  Now, explain to me how does one expect to make any money while at home sulking, no doubt bad-mouthing the show to her friends??  How can you even hope to recoup your expenses if you don't at least show up?  I will never understand leaving a show early never plan to do so except for reason of bodily harm, personal tragedy, or random natural disaster.  Stepping off of soap box now...

 

So many things to do, so little time...

I had great plans for this next post.  My camera was in good working order in time for Folsom's Gourd and Art Festival last weekend and I got some nice photos of my booth in all of  it's fall splendor and leafy finery.  Not to mention a very decent photo of an exceedingly stately rooster who was hanging out with us all weekend!  I even had a few noteworthy observations and comments to share but alas...I'm leaving for Mexico tomorrow and I've run out of time.  Acckk!!  I do this to myself every single time I go somewhere and one of these days I'm going to actually stop doing everything at the very last second before I leave.  I stress myself needlessly and then, as a result, I forget things and then I'm just plain annoyed.  I will be sure to post about the going's on in the Puerto Vallarta area, maybe even a photo or two!  Adios y hasta luego!

Observations from Murphys Home & Garden Show

Well, I was going to dazzle you with photos from my latest show since my booth was resplendent in fall foliage and burgundy rolls of tulle but my camera had a malfunction.  It's probably just the battery but disappointing not to have it none-the-less.  Suffice it to say my booth was the very essence of fall, lots of leaves, mini-pumpkins, Indian corn...even a leaf-shaped bowl of fall-foiled Hershey's kisses.  I have another show this coming weekend, the Folsom Gourd and Arts Festival, and I will have my camera batteries fully recharged by then!

This was not a weekend for a lot of questions surprisingly enough.  This being a first-time event I was sure I'd be asked about a lot of things...but no, my instincts failed me.  Now my friend, Linda Small CMT of Small Pleasures Thereputic Massage, she had some questions asked of her.  There she was, massage table made up and waiting for a client, massage chair at the ready and someone walks up, looks at her and asks "Are you doing massage here today?"  Followed by "What's a chair massage?"  Poor thing, must not have ever left home before!

I was asked by a lady, after glancing at my booth banner that says "hand-crafted jewelry", if my stretchy glass bracelets came from China.  (Perhaps she thought "hand-crafted" was referring to someone else's hands??)  I assured her no, they most certainly did not.  She stretched a few out to their limit as if testing my answer, put them down and walked away.

I did observe a number of interesting sights.  Here's the highlights:

1.  One very tall woman with very purple hair.  Honestly, it was the color of grape koolaid!

2.  One pair of short, very thin blue bicycle shorts...so thin one couldn't help but notice the 

      flower-patterned undies underneath.   

3.  A very loud, rather obnoxious older gentleman who was shouting disparaging remarks at the      very top of his lungs  about the owner of the vineyard, current politics, and everything else          you could think of.  At first I thought maybe he'd had a bit too much of the tasting room but        then as I watched him make is way among the crowd, no one seemed to be too bothered by          him.  I decided he must just be the local color.  Very loud, local color and all the locals are

     just used to him.

4.  Bat houses.  (Why not...we make houses for birds??)

5.  One very dark restroom, as in pitch black.  The lights for these restrooms are on timers so 

     you never know when you might be sitting there and the timer goes off, leaving you in total 

     darkness.  I finally got the hang of checking the timer before I went into the stall and it only 

     took me one time of sitting there giggling in the dark.  O.k, it took TWO times!!

Extremely exciting news...

Last month I submitted my very first project submission for "Stringing" magazine.  Last night I got an email from them...I was accepted!!!  I was so excited I could hardly sleep.  The issue comes out in a couple of months and I will probably go out and buy every copy I can, well at least a couple of them.  I will definitely post the project page here or a photo or something!!

And even in someone else's booth...

This is one of those rare weekends when I don't have a show to do somewhere and we don't have plans to go hang out on our boat.  So when a good friend of mine asked if would help her out at a trade show I said sure.  Interestingly enough the trade show happened to be the CDA, California Dental Association's Fall Scientific Session and it was being held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.  In my former life, before the full-time artisan jewelry creating gig, I was a registered dental assistant.  In fact I still am, renewing my license every two years, just not actively working as one.  It seems I can't ever really leave dentistry and it was a great career for over 20 years.

It was a lot of fun to be in that atmosphere again and  to talk to lots of dental folks.  My friend's business is to take her fabulous all natural, self formulated, FDA approved lip balm and create a private label for a dentist's office so they can give it to their patients as a marketing tool for their practice.  I gotta say, even in this realm of highly educated individuals, there was some pretty interesting questions and/or behavior.

The show floor of this meeting is somewhat considered a "prize-fest" by the staff of those attending.  And with good reason, most companies have tons of promotional give-aways and tons of candy is given out.  (Pretty funny at a dental trade show, yes??)  So while a lip-balm would be considered a "give-away" at another booth it is in actuality a "professional sample" coming from my friend's booth.  The preference is one sample per office staff of an office or one of each flavor (there are 4) if a doc happens by.  Weeeellll...it was all we could to do try to prevent blind grabbing of multiple tubes of lip-balms by the frenzied masses as we were patiently trying to extoll the virtues of said lip-balm and give our sales spiels.  All they were interested in was seeing how many tubes they could get their grubby little hands on and what did the different colored labels mean??  Granted, it was not like that the entire day and there were plenty of folks who were truly interested in my friend's product.  I'm sure the lip-balm will be coming soon to a dental office near you...this lip-balm is out to revolutionize the lip-care world.  But I digress.  One dental student, upon hearing that there was a chocolate flavor, came over and excitedly asked for a sample.  We gave him one.  He opened it.  He twisted the tube until the entire length of the lip-balm was exposed.  He removed said lip balm from the tube and proceeded to take a bite.  As he walked away he could be heard saying "Yup, this is chocolate!"  Strange, and he's a future DENTIST!  During the course of the day the vendor across from us could be seen adjusting their goody bags as they ran out of stuff.  They were down to a few mini-rubic's cubes and some chocolate bars.  When those ran out the vendors gave up, packed up their stuff but proceeded to leave three lonely tangerines on their table.  Within 5 minutes of the vendor staff's departure someone walked up to the deserted table, looked around so see if anyone was looking and deposited all three tangerines into his large, over-stuffed bag and walked away hurriedly.  Nothing is safe!

The day ended with an amazing dinner at the famous Scoma's, there in Pier47.  A perfect ending to a day of incredible people watching.  I hope we do it again next year!

The Meaning of My Blog Title

I do a lot of arts and crafts shows a month, at least 3 to 4.  And at these shows I seem to get asked a lot of questions, some pertinent, many not so much.  I surmise that at some point someone scribbled "Information Booth" across the top of my canopy and I simply cannot see it.  Or the phrase "Answer Lady" has been stamped on my forehead for all to read but me.  At any rate I seem to get an inordinate amount of questions.

While at one of my favorite summer shows this past July, the Graeagle Arts and Crafts Faire, I decided to make note of the questions I had been asked over the course of two days.  (That is Graeagle, CA as in "Gray-Eagle"...not "Graygle")  This is what I was asked...

1.  "Where's the bathrooms?"   (27 times in two days)

2. "Do you have toe rings with frogs?"  (While looking at my display of simple wire toe rings)

3. "Do you have flag pins?" (AFTER asking if I carried pins of any kind, which I do not)

4. "Do you have any clasps for sale?" (There is only finished jewelry in my booth)

5. "Do you know where the trash cans are?" (With the nearest available can in plain view)

6. "Do you know where the info booth is?" (Funny, I thought I WAS the info booth)

7. "Where's the bar?" (If anyone was in need of a drink it was me!)

8. "Where's the beer?" (Obviously with the proceeding answer seeker)

9. "Do you know what time you close?" (Yes, I do...do you?)

10. "Is this for real?" (Are you holding it in your hand?  Yes, it is "for real"!)

And this is just for one show!!  I find this phenomenon so amusing that I keep a pen and paper handy so I can record the questions as they fly.  It's become one of my favorite show pastimes, when I'm not busy doing actual business.

I cannot complete this post without mentioning my all-time favorite question, as supplied by my friend Debi of Scentsational Pies. (Fabulous potpourri pies!)  This was not asked of her but of another vendor friend of hers.  Here it is...

"ARE YOU GOING TO BE AT YOUR NEXT SHOW??"  The answer was "No!".

Wow, my very first post...

Hi!

I'm a long time lurker and avid fan of other people's blog...love them!  But never thought about having one of my own until recently.  You see, I joined a women's business networking group about 9 months ago and all the marketing people are saying "Social networking is the hot marketing tool of the future...and the future is now!"  So I figured, what the heck, I'll give it a try.  Maybe I do have an interesting perspective to share, maybe I do have something unique to talk about.  So I thought about my point of view from inside the canopy, my perspective of the arts and crafts show world.  There's some very interesting stuff out there...and I'm here to talk about it!!