Susan Elkin and I participated at the lovely artisan fair Handmade With Love Fair last Saturday. We sold my vibrant, colorful paintings and Susan’s mysterious photographs.  We have some photos from the fair that I thought you would like to see.  I am very pleased with the improvements in our display – I think this time we did create a fairly enticing presentation of our work.  Please check out my giveaway of FREE business cards!!

Merchandise at Handmade With Love Fair © Susan Elkin

Karen Shaw Suriner of Stargazer Studios was a total miracle for us with all the help she gave Susan and me.  I hope you will check out her wonderful Etsy shop, Stargazer Studios. We went into the wrong end of a very large building and carried too much of our things the length of the building.  Karen helped us get the rest of the merchandise and tables from the car.  Then Karen gave us feedback on our setup. Besides the checking in with everyone during the fair (Karen was one of the organizers), she also helped us get the tables, mats and cards back into the car.  Given our exhaustion, I have no idea what we would have done without Karen that day – THANK YOU, Karen!!!   You might also want to check out Karen’s Facebook page.

Karen Shaw Suriner, Stargazer Studios © Susan Elkin

Here is a photograph of Susan at the fair (you can see her photos are better but she is the photographer!).  Susan has an Etsy shop where you can see some of her engaging photographs. I couldn’t do these artisan fairs without Susan – she has a lot of strength for handling the tables and such. We may have to reevaluate our ability to do this kind of show – this took a lot out of both of us.  We may need to limit ourselves to shows that are very, very local (this was 25 miles away) – that would also give us the advantage of probably knowing some of the people going to the fair – we knew no one who was attending the fair – although we knew most of the vendors. Susan also has a Facebook page.

Susan, Susan Elkin Photography © Diane Clancy

We worked hard to make our presentation better than it was last time.  Each time we work to make us look more professional and engaging.  I thought you would enjoy this photo that shows the whole presentation.  We wanted to draw customers and collectors in with Valentine’s Day vibes. For us this has been our best presentation yet.  We look around and learn each time. That card rack is part of our display.  Those cards were our best seller at this fair – unlike any other fair we have been to.

Handmade With Love Fair © Susan Elkin

I spent hours working with the pricing materials to make them festive for Valentine’s Day – it took some work to figure out how to best do that.  Now I will be able to do that better in the future.  We were able to borrow a white table cloth and then had some pink and reds plus lace to entice it all up!! I so admire all the artisans who have created elaborate displays!!

Facebook Artist Page: DianeClancyArt
Etsy: dianeclancy
Twitter: dianeclancy
Zazzle: dianeclancyart*
Blog : dianeclancy.com/blog
Website: dianeclancy.com

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting, Karen Shaw Suriner, Stargazer Studios, Susan Elkin, Susan Elkin Photography, Handmade with Love Fair, artisan fair, fair presentations