Well, my first craft show of the year did not start off with a bang. Spring craft shows are traditionally a little on the slow side, but this was well beyond a little slow. I spent the last two weekends at the Maryland Spring Crafts Show, a show that I did last year and did fairly well. This year was definitely a different story. My sales were pro bally about half of what I sold last year. The economy, the weather is too nice, the weather is too bad, other events happening same weekend.................if there is one thing I have learned doing arts and crafts shows is that
exhibitors always have a million reasons why things aren't going well. I think this show was a reflection of our poor economy. All I can do is hope the rest of the year will be a little brighter.
As always at craft shows you get to meet a lot of people. Slow shows you usually have a chance to get better acquainted with other exhibitors. I had 2 very nice neighbors, to my left was Sassy Sweets http://stores.sassysweets.net/StoreFront.bok a gentleman from Virginia who sold handmade chocolate goodies. My son and I bolstered his weekend sales by buying and eating way too many chocolate covered pretzels. Very yummy!
On my other side was Mitzi Hall of Mosaic Mitzi, from the Pittsburgh PA area. As you can see from the pictures she does a vast array of mosaics ranging from very cute small items to stunning large pieces. Mitzi is fairly new to the craft show world, this being only her 4th show, but she is not new to mosaics. She has been making mosaics for over 10 years. she also does stained glass work which has been doing for 25 years. Mitzi told me she started making mosaics because she had so much left over glass pieces from her stained glass work, making mosaics seemed the perfect answer.
Saturday evening Mitzi told me she was a little disappointed in the show, but by the end of the day Sunday seemed to have done fairly well. At least she sold more than most people. If you would like to see more of Mitzi's work take a look at her shop 
http://www.mosaicmitzi.etsy.com/
exhibitors always have a million reasons why things aren't going well. I think this show was a reflection of our poor economy. All I can do is hope the rest of the year will be a little brighter.
As always at craft shows you get to meet a lot of people. Slow shows you usually have a chance to get better acquainted with other exhibitors. I had 2 very nice neighbors, to my left was Sassy Sweets http://stores.sassysweets.net/StoreFront.bok a gentleman from Virginia who sold handmade chocolate goodies. My son and I bolstered his weekend sales by buying and eating way too many chocolate covered pretzels. Very yummy!
On my other side was Mitzi Hall of Mosaic Mitzi, from the Pittsburgh PA area. As you can see from the pictures she does a vast array of mosaics ranging from very cute small items to stunning large pieces. Mitzi is fairly new to the craft show world, this being only her 4th show, but she is not new to mosaics. She has been making mosaics for over 10 years. she also does stained glass work which has been doing for 25 years. Mitzi told me she started making mosaics because she had so much left over glass pieces from her stained glass work, making mosaics seemed the perfect answer. Saturday evening Mitzi told me she was a little disappointed in the show, but by the end of the day Sunday seemed to have done fairly well. At least she sold more than most people. If you would like to see more of Mitzi's work take a look at her shop 
http://www.mosaicmitzi.etsy.com/
