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Sep. 1st, 2009 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
agentotterI know. I never call, I never write. I'm a horrible person.
In my defense, I've been busy. I've been busy with working at a job and managing a sudden influx of freelance graphic work, and I've also been busy wrangling animals of varying levels of dangerousness. (These levels start at the "none more dangerous" end of the range, which would be our foster-dog Raven who is dangerous to no one and nothing, and continue up through my Juno, who is only dangerous if cuteness actually kills. Finally we move to the other end of the spectrum and my client's horse Rhapsody, who may one day actually literally kick my brains in. She's a work in progress.) I've also been busy putting a lot of things on my credit card.
You see, gentle readers, I've finally decided to put my theoretical money where my proverbial mouth is and instead of continuing to waffle about whether I could make any money with art, I've decided to find out. I have my first "show" next weekend. It's actually a sort of pet fair, and I'll be attempting to sell matted prints of my photographs and fine art originals, and maybe drum up some pet portrait commissions. It could go very well or very poorly, but I'm voting for the first one, since the amount I've spent on mattes and things is a little dizzying.
Meanwhile, I ordered a pop-up canopy to put up over my table because, this being Humboldt County, I'm pretty sure it'll rain on me just because it can. So I ordered a canopy and waited and waited and then got an email from the store saying that they'd received the canopy I returned.
o.O
It's too late now to order another via interwebz, so now I have to find one locally (which may be a tall order) and probably pay twice as much. I don't really have a point, I just wanted you to feel as sorry for me as I feel for myself. This is my sorry-for-myself face: >.< It looks just like that when I do in person.
It's all for the best, I suppose. I had ordered a red tent originally and later read a good tip online that arts and crafts people shouldn't go for colored canopies, because the light coming through will throw colored light all over the artwork, and it would've made everything look red. Plus I should get something with sidewalls, so the inevitable rain won't ruin all my shit.
ANYWAY, I didn't come here to whine. Well, mostly I didn't come here to whine. I came to pick your brains. (BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINS!) Assuming my local Costco has any in stock, I'll be getting this canopy, and I'll have the sidewalls up on it on three sides. I'll also have an 8-foot table inside, and my merchandise will be mainly matted prints of various sizes... mostly 5x7 and 8x10, with a few 16x20 pieces. I want to hang pieces all around the walls, and then on the table in the middle (or in the back, depending on how it fits best) I'll put some sort of boxes with duplicate prints for people to rifle through. I wondered if any of you brilliant people might have any also-brilliant ideas on how I might hang my artwork around the sidewalls and what sort of makeshift containers might work for storing work on the tables where people can flip through them.
Have any of you ever done an arts/crafts type of show as a vendor before? And if so, will you give me tips? And if so, will they be awesome? Is there a secret handshake? Can you advise whether I should have my nervous breakdown before or after the event? (It seems like it'd be nice to get it out of the way beforehand, but then rewarding yourself for all your effort with a nice post-show breakdown seems like a good idea, too.)
In other news, in case any of you are curious, I'm working on setting up a new blog under my real name (er, sort of real name? I haven't gotten it legally changed yet) for my art, essays, and whatever else I come up with. I will be keeping my agentotter accounts and posting fandom-type stuff to them, and I will point you all to the new blog and stuff when they're ready, so I suppose the secret of my true identity will be an open sort of secret (yeah, we've seen how well that goes down. Just wait until I criticize somebody for something, then it'll ALL BE OVER), but I guess I'll manage. I must say, I'm finding that the more I try to simplify my life, the more complex it becomes. It's a conundrum.
In my defense, I've been busy. I've been busy with working at a job and managing a sudden influx of freelance graphic work, and I've also been busy wrangling animals of varying levels of dangerousness. (These levels start at the "none more dangerous" end of the range, which would be our foster-dog Raven who is dangerous to no one and nothing, and continue up through my Juno, who is only dangerous if cuteness actually kills. Finally we move to the other end of the spectrum and my client's horse Rhapsody, who may one day actually literally kick my brains in. She's a work in progress.) I've also been busy putting a lot of things on my credit card.
You see, gentle readers, I've finally decided to put my theoretical money where my proverbial mouth is and instead of continuing to waffle about whether I could make any money with art, I've decided to find out. I have my first "show" next weekend. It's actually a sort of pet fair, and I'll be attempting to sell matted prints of my photographs and fine art originals, and maybe drum up some pet portrait commissions. It could go very well or very poorly, but I'm voting for the first one, since the amount I've spent on mattes and things is a little dizzying.
Meanwhile, I ordered a pop-up canopy to put up over my table because, this being Humboldt County, I'm pretty sure it'll rain on me just because it can. So I ordered a canopy and waited and waited and then got an email from the store saying that they'd received the canopy I returned.
o.O
It's too late now to order another via interwebz, so now I have to find one locally (which may be a tall order) and probably pay twice as much. I don't really have a point, I just wanted you to feel as sorry for me as I feel for myself. This is my sorry-for-myself face: >.< It looks just like that when I do in person.
It's all for the best, I suppose. I had ordered a red tent originally and later read a good tip online that arts and crafts people shouldn't go for colored canopies, because the light coming through will throw colored light all over the artwork, and it would've made everything look red. Plus I should get something with sidewalls, so the inevitable rain won't ruin all my shit.
ANYWAY, I didn't come here to whine. Well, mostly I didn't come here to whine. I came to pick your brains. (BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINS!) Assuming my local Costco has any in stock, I'll be getting this canopy, and I'll have the sidewalls up on it on three sides. I'll also have an 8-foot table inside, and my merchandise will be mainly matted prints of various sizes... mostly 5x7 and 8x10, with a few 16x20 pieces. I want to hang pieces all around the walls, and then on the table in the middle (or in the back, depending on how it fits best) I'll put some sort of boxes with duplicate prints for people to rifle through. I wondered if any of you brilliant people might have any also-brilliant ideas on how I might hang my artwork around the sidewalls and what sort of makeshift containers might work for storing work on the tables where people can flip through them.
Have any of you ever done an arts/crafts type of show as a vendor before? And if so, will you give me tips? And if so, will they be awesome? Is there a secret handshake? Can you advise whether I should have my nervous breakdown before or after the event? (It seems like it'd be nice to get it out of the way beforehand, but then rewarding yourself for all your effort with a nice post-show breakdown seems like a good idea, too.)
In other news, in case any of you are curious, I'm working on setting up a new blog under my real name (er, sort of real name? I haven't gotten it legally changed yet) for my art, essays, and whatever else I come up with. I will be keeping my agentotter accounts and posting fandom-type stuff to them, and I will point you all to the new blog and stuff when they're ready, so I suppose the secret of my true identity will be an open sort of secret (yeah, we've seen how well that goes down. Just wait until I criticize somebody for something, then it'll ALL BE OVER), but I guess I'll manage. I must say, I'm finding that the more I try to simplify my life, the more complex it becomes. It's a conundrum.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-02 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-02 06:30 am (UTC)I'm definitely the 'get the breakdown done beforehand!' kind of girl. Unfortunately this seems to lead into 'sorry, too busy having a breakdown to actually do the thing I'm having a breakdown about' far too often, so I don't know if I'd actually recommend it.