Ben's art show

Every year the Bizarre Bazaar is held the weekend after Thanksgiving.  It's the only show I do every year...I'm not very committed to selling my work at shows but this one is fun and full of energy and just has a great vibe to it. The gallery lighting in the venue is a little bit weird so the pictures aren't great, but here is a shot of my table as the event was starting:

I used to try to figure out different ways to display things and finally realized that this seems to work - I try to keep it fairly clean and simple and there is enough variation on the height of the displays to highlight some pieces nicely. 

But enough about that...it's old news.  I've been doing the show for about 12 years. 

This year Ben had a table next to mine.  He put together mason jar solar lights to sell and we asked my sister Hally for some help with how to display them.  The lights are beautiful, but it can be hard to tell that in well-lit areas.  The first several hours of the show take place in the evening so we knew it would eventually get darker and the lights wouldn't need too much help. But at the beginning of the show it's hard to see that they are lights at all.  Hally suggested we build a little dark box to have a couple sitting in there and print out some pictures of the lights at dusk. She was right - those things definitely made a difference.

So the show started and Ben was doing big business.  To the point that he really needed help managing the demand...he is quite a salesman and has no trouble engaging customers.  I could probably take some tips from him, but I won't.  I just get way too embarrassed.

I spent most of the first few hours behind Ben, wrapping up his lights to give to his customers (everyone was walking around with bags that were lit up - it was kind of comical) and ignoring my table. He brought a good stash of the lights, keeping extras in plastic tubs under his table.  He sold out within the first three hours of the show.  It was incredible to watch it all unfold and how excited he was to sell all of his stock. And then he had plenty of time to walk around and see what the other vendors had to offer before the first day of the show ended.

The second day of the show went great for me as well (although I definitely did not sell out) and when it was all said and done we were both very happy with the experience.  I'm also really glad that I don't have to do it again for another year....I don't know how people do show after show after show all year long.