Providence Art Festival Round-Up

my booth in the forefront on westminster street for the providence art festival before the crowds arrive for the day

The festival I've been working up to for the past month arrived this past Saturday and I am feeling pretty good about how it went. It was a long day starting with the hour drive down to Providence early in the morning, but the weather could not have been better and we had a lot of fun being a part of such a well-organized event. I would love to be able to do more of them as I had a great time selling my wares in person although I have yet to find any other ones on this scale that are reasonably priced and am still nervous about plunking down the hundreds of dollars that many fairs require as a vendor fee. I did pretty well with this one, not as well as I would have liked, but enough to cover my vendor fee plus some so a definite success, even if one does have to start small!

Lots of pictures to share so buckle up and hang on:

patterns and pillows all set up

draft stoppers, bunting, and sachets—o my!

embroidery patterns to go

When we first got there, I freaked out a little because we had the one and only completely wet spot on the whole street and so we couldn't set anything down without it getting mud on it. It was a nice little spot on one of the corners but was situated in such a way so that we were at the end of a wind-tunnel and nothing we put out would sit still. o the joys of en plein air right?! haha, well all is well that ends well and my nerves definitely died down with some coffee and my husband helping to set everything up. Seriously, the man is quite the trooper.

the lavender sachets were a big hit!

I felt like such a newbie and since I only had a month to churn out all the product I would need, I wasn't able to put as much time and money into the display as I would have liked but definitely want to make some improvements in that area going forward. It was a bit tricky being able to get around to all the other booths but I got to see enough of them that my head is full of ideas on how to improve my display and "set the scene" in a more streamlined way for my products. You live, you learn I guess and I'm grateful for the opportunity to do so.

 

Big Nazo performance group do their thang at the festival (very cool and pretty funny too!)

And what better place to get some experience under my belt than Providence?!  I'd been to downtown Providence just once before and have really enjoyed myself on both occasions—it is such a cool little area that is very artist friendly with great architecture, local restaurants, shops, and people. The festival was very well run and chock full of a lot of friendly and creative folks.

vintage suitcases for display—brought from home where they serve as coffee and end tables

I'm going to be listing several of the leftover pillows in my etsy shop this week so if any of these strike your fancy, keep those eyes peeled! I'm particularly smitten with how the Liberty of London dresden and patchwork ones turned out and am planning a little blog post to introduce them formally.

In the meantime, I kind of just want to sit down and breathe after this whirwind! I meant to take yesterday off and did manage to stay away from the computer for the whole weekend (quite an accomplishment in and of itself I think) but ended up working my butt off on Sunday to help take care of so many of the things I'd been ignoring around the house. My etsy shop is clamouring for some attention as well and I'm looking forward to replenishing it and myself as soon as possible!

A One-Woman Factory

28...and counting...matryoshkas, each one sewn by hand

The thing about preparing for a big craft fair is that I'm busier than ever but there is a lot of repetition and all of it has to be saved up for the day of the fair so I feel a bit guilty as I've had nothing new and shiny to add to my etsy shop lately. Instead of making just a handful of each item and moving on to the next thing like I usually do, I'm making 20, 30, even 40 of each item for this festival and am beginning to feel like a one-woman factory of sorts! While the pace and repetition of the work is amplified, it is incredibly satisfying to see just how much one person can create with their own two hands in a relatively short amount of time and even though my fingers might ache, it is the kind of ache that reassures me I am doing something worthwhile (well that and the heavy drugs help dull the pain...i keed i keed!).

Much of the work is done on my machine but some, like these matryoshka sachets, is all done by hand. Perhaps I am a bit old-fashioned, but I think there is something so frank and honest about hand-stitched items that can't be replicated. I can't always justify spending the time doing it for larger items in my shop but, for these little guys, I can and I do because it's lends a simple but valuable charm that is such a rare and beautiful commodity in the world we live in. Is it strange to be really excited about finally interracting with customers face to face and seeing them hold these in their own hands?

matryoshkas sachets waiting to be pressed and filled with lavender

I feel pretty good about my progress so far, especially because I've also been balancing several shoe orders and a wholesale order...phew! I can't wait to share some of the items in the shop as well though after the fair—expect to see some new pillow designs and a new embroidery pattern (it's the "Off to College" theme!) that will be available shortly before or after, depending on how much of my hair I have already pulled out...there are drugs for that too right?