We'd been frantically getting ready for the past month. My mom came to visit and helped me with lots of set-up plans. She created a very fancy tablecloth and some beautiful bags to wrap the jewelry in, as well as helping me plan important things, like what I should wear! We were confident my booth would be very posh. I packed everything up the night before so I wouldn't be stressed in the morning, and John added the drill and my drill bits so I would be able to finish the final pieces before or during the show. I was trying to fall asleep that night when I realized that we had a BIG problem: we'd planned everything out, even put classy beads on the tablecloth, and we'd be sitting at our very high class booth in CAMPING CHAIRS. Not only that, but I'd be wearing a lovely black outfit with brown shoes. Oh Dear.
The next morning, I mentioned how silly this was going to be to John, and both of us had a big laugh picturing it. Thank God we could laugh! I decided that in order to incorporate the camping chairs, I was going to have to dress it down a bit. We both dressed in jeans instead of dress-pants, and I tried to find something brown to wear instead of black, so I could wear brown shoes (the only black pair I can wear is the pair I've mown the lawn in- they're covered in dirt, grass, and the soles are barely attached). In the end, the black shoes seemed the better choice than any brown outfit I could find, so I brushed off some dirt, and planned to superglue the soles back on once we got there.
We arrived at a little past 9am, and everyone else was mostly set up. John went for a second load from the car while I set up the table, and he came back with our good friend Marc, who had said he'd visit, but I wasn't expecting him to show up quite so early! Of course I wasn't going to turn down help with set-up, but I guess I hadn't thought our friends had thought this show was as big a deal as John and I had.
(Here's a view of the room we were in-- me with my drill and Marc setting out pieces)
Set-up went well, with no major hiccups aside from a certain fish pendant that was a little more attached to some other pendants that we would have liked. This was due to my poor judgement-- we had the pendants hanging on a dowel at home, but in my genius-ness, I decided that the dowel was too hard to transport, so I replaced it with a string. I even boasted that John would feel pretty silly for thinking this wouldn't work when everything was still in order when we arrived. So, we spent the better part of an hour trying to untie the very large knot that the fish surrounded, all three of us taking turns. In the end, the scissors got it untied. Stupid fish.
(guess what Marc's working on? Stupid Fish!)
We were still ready on time for the show, perhaps not perfect, but everything was out. And in among the fancy stuffy jewelry folk (who "went to this bead show and it was okay-- I left with over a thousand dollars worth of beads!"), we were the perfect picture of hick-meets-high-class; me with my super-glued shoes and John in his camping chair. We actually fit in better than you'd think. Two booths down there were a pair of stuffy ladies who also were sitting in camping chairs behind their velvet table covered in costly gems. And none of them had beads on their table cloths. People started to wander through, and Marc, exhausted from an early morning work shift, chose to go home despite my offer of the Very Comfortable Resting Spot under the table. John sat back and relaxed, and I moved items around a little to make the table a little more appealing during the breaks between visitors.
I thought we were awesome. I thought we would be assaulted by vulture-like visitors, all fighting to buy our beautiful wares. I was a bit off. A few people commented that this piece was cute, or that piece was pretty, but the only people that came to buy from us were two of our good friends. One bought a clay sculpture and a necklace, the other bought 2 necklaces. Actually, being that she had been the one who gave me the idea of doing fish, I threw in the hateful little creature we'd battled with earlier instead of simply "keeping the change."
We both walked through the booths to see what else was there, and I stopped to talk to a few people. During the customary small talk, one vendor learned that I made jewelry, and asked if I had any butterflies. I had one, but was suddenly inspired and grabbed my wire when I got back to the booth. By the end of the day, I had created a very cool ring (if I do say so myself) that could only have been cooler if I'd had my orange beads along. As it was I had to settle for purple. I walked back over to the girl to show her my new creation, and she bought it on the spot. I hadn't necessarily meant to make her buy it-- I didn't even get to give her a bag for it! But she was so excited about it that I let her take it off my hands. "How amazing that she could just get an idea and go make it!" her buddy said, "and look, it's even your favorite color!"
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All in all, it was a good day. We got just enough revenue to have Chipotle burritos for dinner. And John and I are both busting with ideas for the next one. Can't wait to go play with my clay!
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