a strategy...

a strategy. yup a strategy. that's what a need. a theme. a sales pitch and color coordination.

i just signed myself up for a craft fair on christmas prelude weekend. it was an inexpensive craft fair venture...only 25 bucks. i figure i can't go wrong. but i want to make the most out of it...for reducing inventory's sake as well as making some much needed money for christmas! four kids' stockings to fill this year! eeee! too much fun!

christmas prelude is this festival held in the kennebunks. it basically turns our rocky-beached world into Whoville at the beginning of december and capitalizes on the consumerism of the holidays. it is one of the biggest tourist weekends of the year in a tourist dependent town.

i am hoping this fair gets a lot of traffic. or at least some traffic. and i am on a mission to make my little booth attractive enough to sell some of my accumulated work. i have had work in four galleries over the past couple of months...big shows. and unfortunately the art world is really slow right now. in this economy, art is way down the list of necessities. thus, i have a lot of work that has returned home from shows, or is still hanging without many people seeing it because no one is out browsing in galleries.

so, i am taking some of that work down to bring to the fair and using what i've got here...and i am going to price it ridiculously on the low side. i don't have any storage here because my new studio is in a long process of being built...it won't be ready until the late spring...so getting the work into good loving homes is a goal of mine.

i am trying to design a tidy and gorgeous little booth...i am envisioning it being natural, but dark like my work. black velvet and some other black material i have yet to find, with wood tones on all of the baskets, chairs and racks...some gold, antiquey gold thrown amuck here and there. here's what i'm thinking...

i will have some larger framed works on the walls, i may build black covered "walls" to go behind the table, or i may just lean the work against a black drapeon the wall...maybe ten or twelve pieces...depending on how i arrange them. i don't have too much $$$ or time to sonk into this so if it proves too difficult to build something, i may just lean the babies. all of that large framed work, which usually costs between 150 and 250 will be on sale for 90 to 190 ish. i will also have the framed prints available unframed in dark wood toned baskets to look through...sizes ranging from 5x7 to 8x10 on the table, costs ranging from 20-35...and 12 x12 to 11x14 in a basket on the floor, costs ranging from 40-60...

i will have a myriad of my smaller framed prints available...a whole slew to choose from hanging from ribbons from the gorgeous hardwood A-frame display rack jay made me for the fair i did with brooke a couple summers back. these are as low as i can go on them already price wise...pricing ranging from 25-30 bucks. cute little wee framed prints that hang from ribbons...maybe i'll do a buy two get one 1/2 off or something...

i will also have a long table with a black table cloth on it...on the table will be random little one of a kind framed pieces i have made, ranging in price from 30-60, a black velvet covered board displaying a dozen or so pieces of my print inspired pieces of jewelry with a back-up of each ranging in price from 25-45 bucks (i tend to sell a lot of these) and boxes of cards...i have yet to make cards, but i think they are a good idea for around holiday time...a box of ten cards for 19 bucks or something like that...or four cards for 10...

i feel like i need to have enough relatively inexpensive items for people to browse through and look at. i know it is a tight ecomony, so i want people to be able to afford my work...and have it displayed gorgeously enough so that it looks much more expensive than i have it priced at! i think i will bring gnarled twigs and stuff to decorate for the holidays in a very earthy way...a little gold sprinkled around never hurts either...

let me know your ideas, oh brilliant and creative friends. i need to fine tune this strategy and i love you all and your minds!

xo
p

ps...baby django is doing soooooo well. he is an angel. simply perfect. i haven't wanted to rip my face off of his to write...so i'm sorry about not keeping my blogs up to date...i'll take some new pics of his chubby loveliness later today and perhaps post them!

muah!