Artist's Review of the 25th Annual Firefly Art Fair - Wauwatosa, WI

25th Annual Firefly Art Fair

This past weekend, August 6 & 7th I exhibited at one of my all time favorite art shows, the 25th Annual Firefly Art Fair sponsored by the Wauwatosa Historical Society in Wauwatosa, WI.

This was the first art show I've done this season and was looking forward to seeing how the economy would have its effect on this particular show.  I've done this show for 14 years and it has always been a top selling show for me.

Below you will see photos, which I took on Saturday during the show.  They are a sad commentary on how art shows have declined over the past several years.  Saturday, at the Firefly, which was always crowded with art goers and "buyers", was down to almost no people attending, which made for hardly any "buyers".

This is a shot from my booth down the isle!!  This was about an hour after the show opened at 10 a.m.!!



Tables set up in the Victorian garden where people can sit and eat their food.  This area is normally crowded with "eating" customers.  Not this weekend!!

The Silient Auction area at one point on Saturday.  There were a lot of great art to bid on, donated from the artists.  Where are all the people!

Other years, people are normally lined up to get into this show.  This is a view of one of the entrances near my booth.  The entrance fee was raised to $4.00 this year from $3.00 in previous years.

This group was part of the entertainment at the show.  They were having a good time singing old time songs!

This is a fun couple we met at various art shows and they always have a great sense of humor!  Beautiful carvings on gourds is their medium!  This is what makes doing shows fun......when you reconnect with other artists which you have met over the years.

OK, here I am....still smiling, even though my sales were down from previous years over $1,300!  Iconsider myself very fortunate in not having to depend on art sales to live!  There were other artists at the show that didn't sell anything or next to nothing.  My sister and I always have a good time and "laughs" no matter what the show is like.  It is always fun to meet and talk to new people and visit with previous customers and artists.

My sister, Dianne!  Can't imagine doing a show without her!  She is so good at displaying my art.  In the past I usually always had at least 80 - to 100 creations to sell, but this year I only started with 22 figures and my fiber jewelry.  Since my husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer last May and passed away in October, 2010, I didn't have the time to spend all the hours I used to in creating.  I truly believe that everything works out the way it is supposed to and that there is a purpose to everything that happens in life. If there were a lot more buyers at the show this year, I could have run out of inventory!!  

The key is to keep on smiling and laugh a lot!!

The FIRELY is still my favorite show, so we shall see what next year brings!  My next show will be the Waukesha Art Fest on September 10, 2011, in historic downtown Waukesha.  If you live in the area.....stop by for a visit!

Art in the Park 2010 - Lake Geneva, WI....Artist's Review

This past weekend I was an exhibitor in ART IN THE PARK in Lake Geneva, WI.  This year's show was moved to a new location from previous years.  In the past year when I did the show, it was always held on the lake front by Library Park.  This year it was moved to Flat Iron Park across the street from the lake.  This new spot made for a lot nicer unloading and loading for the artists.  Each artist was assigned a metered space for the duration of the two day show.  This meant no more pushing your canopy and other setup materials up a hill and fighting the bumper to bumper traffic when trying to tear down and load up your vehicle!

This is a view of the lake, boat marina and building across from Flat Iron Park, site of the art fair.

The weather cooperated and we had two days of beautiful weather.  This show is sponsored by the Geneva Lakes Art Association (GLAA).  They do a great job of running this show!  Coffee, fruit and bakery was provided each morning for the artists, plus a "goody bag" filled with snacks.

Lake Geneva is a tourist town where people come to enjoy the lake and its activities, as well as eating in the various restaurants and visiting the shops.  There were loads of people going through the show, but considering the number of people, I don't think sales were all that great for a lot of the artists.  Mine were OK, but not what you'd expect for the number of people going through the show.

You didn't see many packages go walking by with the people, but one certainly saw a huge variety of dogs!!  In fact, one would almost feel as if they were at a dog show.  I never saw so many different dogs walking around with their owners....big ones, little ones of all shapes and breeds.  One lady came into my booth with a golden retriever and when her dog saw another dog going by, it took out after the dog and its leash got tangled up with another show goer!  Luckily no one got hurt.  I LOVE dogs, but I really don't think an art show is a place to walk your dogs.

A photo of some of the booths before the show was open.

We always seem to get the most delightful artists as our neighbors, and this show was no exception.  Below are photos of a very talented "woodwork" artist, Wendell Ziegler.  His wonderful mushroom sculptures caught both my sister's and my attention as soon as we saw them.  I even purchased several of them for my fairies to sit upon.

You can see more of her, on her mushroom, in my DZFANTASY shop.

Here is a photo of some of the artist's mushrooms which first caught our attention!  The smaller one are sculpted from an Australian pod called "banksia" ( I think I have it spelled right). They are so unique and magical.  The wooden ones were also beautiful.

Some more of Wendell's creations!

Meet Wendell the artist behind all these wonderful wood creations!

If you are interested in learning more about Woodwork by Wendell send him an email.

His Wood Gallery is open 7 days a week by appointment

WZIEGLER@TDS.ENT

Another artist's colorful booth.  Note the prospective customer has her dog along!

Artist putting the finishing touches on her booth before show opens.

My lovely sister, Dianne!

She is not only my buddy, best friend, but the best "layout" artist, and I couldn't do a show without her!  She has a great talent for displaying all my artwork to the best advantage!  We get compliments all the time on our booth display.

A section of my display.

This young lady had just purchased one of my Fantasy Fiber Necklaces.

It was fun to hear all the compliments and exclamations of surprise when people found out that I handknit each necklace and even the fiber focal beads in my fantasy earrings.  The designs and colors appealed to all ages.  A young girl of about 10 picked out a beautiful purple necklace with Swarovski crystals, and I wish I would have taken a photo of her wearing it with a big smile on her face.

To sum up the Art in the Park show of 2010....it is a well run show, the unloading and loading is great now that it has moved to its new location.  While the crowds at the show didn't produce as many sales as most artists would have liked, I plan on going back next year.  The art show seemed to be more of an added attraction for visitors to the Lake Geneva area, rather then people coming to a show to specifically look for art to purchase. Since there was no charge to go through the show, it provided a place for people to stroll around while enjoying the pleasant weather.

Several suggestions I would make to the sponsors of the show would be to give the artists at least a foot around each booth.  It is very hard to set up your canopy when you are flush up against the next person's booth.  Another suggestion would be to have a wider variety of food for purchase.  Not everyone likes hot dogs and brats.  Other than that,  it was an enjoyable weekend, meeting and talking with new customers, and selling my art.

REVEIW OF WAUKESHA ART FEST 2009

ALMONT GALLERY

CLICK on the above link to find out more about the Almont Gallery

This past Saturday, September 12th, I was an exhibitor in the 20th Annual WAUKESHA ART FEST, which was held in its new location in downtown Waukesha.  The show, since I 've been in it, was always held in Cutler Park by the library so when I heard that it was being moved to West Main Street in downtown Waukesha I was a bit disappointed.  I thought the park with the trees and bandstand, etc. was a nice place for an art show.

I must say both my sister and I were pleasantly surprised with the new location. 

We thought the new location provided a much more lively atmosphere, and it was laid out nicely on two closed off sections of W. Main Street, with artists' booths on both sides of the street. There wer several bands, and plenty of restaurants!

 All exhibiting artists could drive right up to their spot for unloading and loading.  How great is that!!  No hauling heavy gridwall, canopy and other materials! 

My spot was perfect, which happened to be right next to the ALMONT GALLERY, owned and operated by Lynn Gaffey. 

This gave me the opportunity to take a peek inside and take some photos of this very eclectic gallery.  There were stunning clothes, painted glass items, jewelry, paintings, photography, gorgeous ceramic creations and so much more!  The gallery has a very uplifting atmosphere and a lot of "eye candy", so if you are ever in the Waukesha area, be sure to stop in and visit the Almont Gallery.  There are many more unique shops, restaurants and galleries in downtown Waukesha.  Even though I only live 15 minutes away, I haven't really been in downtown Waukesha for a long time, and was surprised at how much everything had changed.

The people running the show were very helpful, and things went quite smoothly.  I heard from customers and artists alike, that they thought the new location was great.  In fact, many liked it better than the old spot in the park....including me!

While the attendance was good....from what I could see of the people walking around there weren't that many "purchases" going by.  I do believe the economy is still affecting sales.  My sales were a bit down from last year at this show, but were a lot better than several other bigger shows I've done this year.  I'll be looking forward to doing the show again next year!

Sections of my displays at the show

The weather was so beautiful we didn't have to bother with putting up the sides.  What a time saver that was!!

One of my bride fairies enjoying the breeze!

My last art show of the season will be the Winter Art Festival in Madison, WI on November 14th and 15th.

ARTIST REVIEW OF 34th ANNUAL LAKE COUNTRY ART SHOW..Delafield, WI

34th ANNUAL LAKE COUNTRY ART FESTIVAL

Yesterday, Saturday, July 11th, I exhibited in the 34th Annual Lake Country Art Festival which is sponsored by the Lake Country Women's Club of Delafield, WI.

Before the show opened

This was my 3rd show of the 2009 season and was looking forward to seeing how this show would go as far as sales, etc., since the first two shows I had done weren't the greatest for sales. In fact, they were way down from previous years.

I had exhibited at the show in years past when it was held on the grounds of St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, WI., but the show's location has since been changed to Naga-Waukee Park in Delafield.

When my sister arrived at my house at 5:30 a.m. in the morning, it was pouring rain, and we looked at each other and thought "oh, no"!! After days of beautiful weather, wouldn't you know it was raining! Luckily, the weather turned out to be fantastic. Not too hot, breezy, and sunny!!

The Lake Country Women's Club ladies run a very organized show. We found our spot with no trouble, and the big plus of this show was that you can drive right up to your booth and unload!! How great is that! Anyone that does shows, and has had to lug their tents, artwork, and other supplies any distance, knows how wonderful this is!

Section of my booth setup

My sister, Dianne,....best friend, my booth layout artist, and firm supporter!

Everything was going smoothly and we were looking forward to a great day! After we had the booth set up, we took a stroll around to see how the show had changed in the 3 years since we had been there. Much to our disappointment, the show had turned into a "craft show".

Now don't get me wrong, craft shows are great, but what had once been an "art" and "craft" show, with the two mediums separated at the old location, it was now about 80% crafts. It has been my experience in the 12+ years of doing shows, that higher end "art" can't compete with those selling crafts. This was proven, as the day wore on and my sales were the worst of any show I've done in say the last 8 years! At the end of the show, I ended up with about $88.00 after the booth fee of $90.00. Hard not to get depressed with those kind of figures. The economy is definitely affecting sales, big time!

The several artists I know from previous shows, with higher end jewelry, metal sculpture, etc. weren't doing good either. The booths that had the more crafty items had more people in them. Even, with that, one didn't see a lot of bought merchandise going by one's booth. Lower end jewelry and yard art, was what one saw the most.

I'm thinking maybe I should get in to selling "kettle korn" at shows instead of art, as that is where people were spending their money! That, and $6.00 bottles of beer, and $3.00 bottles of water.

This artist was the "featured artist" of the show!

This big guy was getting a lot of attention!

His owner said he was a big "baby"!

Some of my fairies catching the breeze!

Here I am all ready for business!! Where is everybody??

To sum it up, I definitely believe that the economy and the uncertainty of when it will get better is making it very hard for artists and crafters, to break even doing shows. My next show will be coming up on August, 1st & 2nd, at the FIREFLY ART SHOW in Wauwatosa, WI. Since this has always been one of my best and consistent shows as far as sales go, I can hardly wait to see what this year's show will be like. So stay tuned, I'll be back with more info on that show. ONE OF MY FAVORITES!

I'd love to hear how other artists and crafters are doing in other parts of the world, so be sure to leave a comment.

REVIEW OF MONUMENT SQUARE ART FAIR - RACINE, WISCONSIN

My jungle display!

Butterfly Display Panel

at
Monument Square Art Fair

in Racine, WI this weekend

This past weekend June 13th and 14th I was an exhibitor in the Monument Square Art Fair in Racine, Wisconsin.

Of course, after two "beautiful" days of sunshine, Saturday, the first day of the fair, started out with clouds and showers! Luckily, my booth space was under the fair's new huge tent so that helped. My space was on the outer edge of the tent, so that when the weather finally turned sunny and nice in the afternoon, we could sit outside and catch some sun. Yippee! Sunday's weather was gorgeous, so my sister and I sat in the sun and enjoyed the weather!

I've done this show for several years now, and I'd have to say that this year's show was very disappointing as far as sales went. Many artists, including myself, hadn't even made their booth fee of $130.00 by the end of the day on Saturday. Sales were definitely way down for the majority of artists!! You can see by several of the photos I took that there weren't a whole lot of people there. A bit more on Sunday with the nice weather, but overall not a very active showing of people. Those people that were there, weren't buying....mostly strolling around and looking. The shows food vendors, however, seemed to be doing a brisk business of selling kettle corn, ice cream and other food.

Inside of the new tent

While walking around talking to many of the artists, the general thoughts were that trying to make some money doing art shows is definitely a challenge in this SLOW economy. Some artists said they were doing a lot more shows to make up for the low to lower sales at the shows they normally did, while others, like myself, were doing less shows since sales have taken such drastic cuts.

My "fairy face" pins on display

The "mermaids" on display!

(I did sell the 3 green mermaids on the left side)

My next show will be on July 11th, the 34th Annual Lake Country Art Festival, Delafield, WI in Naga-Waukee Park. It will be very interesting to see how that show goes.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL YOU ARTISTS AND CRAFTERS OUT THERE WHO ARE DOING SHOWS! SOME CAN BE GOOD AND SOME CAN BE BAD!! ONE JUST HAS TO GO WITH THE FLOW!

I, for one, am not giving up!! It would be fun to hear from other artists and crafters to see how things are going in other areas, so be sure to leave your comments.