Make.Sale Thoughts!

This past Friday and Saturday I participated in the Make.Sale put on by the local art space Make.Shift. This was my first experience with doing a fair of any sort and it was a new experience! This is a local and pretty small fair, I kind of knew what to expect having gone to the venue in the past, however I had never been to the make.sale before. It was the type of fair where it is a good idea to have some low priced items as most who wandered through were there for the monthly art walk.

Before the fair I was really worried about how much inventory I had. I kept fluctuating on if I had enough, and decided to bring less of the more expensive items. The best seller was The Dog Pack deck of cards, priced at $16.

Setting up a display was fun! I was not allotted a ton of space but I tried to use both floor and table space. I think having a slightly bigger table in the future would be beneficial, I did not have much room for flat items on the table. The other thing I would do is have more labels, such as “Take a business card!”, etc.

Overall I made back my fair fee, but in the future I would definitely want to market the Custom Portraits as they are what gets the most interest. Due to the closeness to Christmas I actually played this aspect down because I am already full up on commissions.

Visiting an Art Fair

I visited the Bellevue Arts Festival for the first time this past weekend. This is a large, long-running show that has a variety of different mediums represented. Technically it is three fairs rolled into one, 6th Street Fair, BAM ARTSfair and the Bellevue Festival of the Arts.

Overall I was very impressed with the artwork, especially the work in the covered parking structure. I enjoyed seeing the mediums that I am not as familiar with, but I always gravitate towards paintings! The work was pricey, however most artists offered reproductions that were more affordable. I am not sure how well the larger pieces sell, but I did see a few blank spots on walls from where larger pieces sold.

This show was defiantly about the art, and not so much the festival “scene”. Less live music and food than a festival setting in my opinion. Most artists seemed cheery and happy to be there, it was hot and people were keeping cool with fans. The thing that I felt was the biggest turn off from a customer perspective were any signs or displays that were not professionally made. Handmade “no photos” signs directly ON the artwork were not appealing to me.

Overall it was great to walk and scope out prices, booths, artwork, flow and location. I personally did not buy anything, but would had if I had more of a budget.