Ready...Set...Fest!

So for the last few weeks I've been super busy getting ready for the festival up in Newburyport. Yes, it's this weekend! Of course me being the planner that I am allowed for plenty of prep time. I ordered 114 prints that I would then matte to sell at the festival. I order all the matting supplies. Sorry kids, not cutting my own mattes, I would go crazy...more crazy. I also ordered merchandise bags that I would stamp with a logo (interesting story about this to come).
Fortunately for me, I'm still unemployed and only at The Improper two days a week so I have plenty of time to (as we say in VT) git er dun! I researched online exactly how to do the matting and it seemed pretty simple. I made a quick run to Art Supply Wholesale...ahhh memories of Interior Design projects and spending obscene amounts of time and money in that store, but I love it. So with supplies in hand I was off!
Thank goodness for Sex And The City DVDs! They helped to keep me sane while matting prints for 6 hours straight. Unfortunately I didn't purchase enough double-sided tape so I was at a standstill. It was probably for the best, I was pretty fried. In the meantime I went and had more of my negatives scanned so I could order some more prints, yes as if 114 wasn't enough, let's add 30 more to the list!
By the time the additional 30 arrived I had already matted, signed, stickered, and bagged up the rest, ahh progress. I was definitely on a roll and flew through the final stages. I still had the idea of stamping the merchandise bags so it was onto project #2. I opened the box containing the bags to find them, mushed, wrinkled, and not the right size. Apparently I figured 8x10 prints and 8.5x11 bag will work fine...not so much! Should have gotten the 9x12s. So the bags were a total bust and if anyone has a use for 1000 brown merchandise bags please let me know. Or I may be forced to make a large scale paper mache sculpture or use them to wrap all presents I give...for the rest of my life.
My biggest worry so far has been how to display the prints. I have 144 matted in sleeves, 1 framed 16x20 and another framed piece that has 3 prints. Not much online either, perhaps I should start a photography display 'how to' site? I did find some awesome baskets at the Christmas Tree Shop that are perfect for displaying the loose matted prints. Fortunately, Katie is doing the festival with me and she had some great ideas, plus her parents own a gallery up in Stowe, VT so they're familiar with this sort of thing. After a day of texts and picture messaging we had a basic idea, yes! I have a feeling we're going to end up with so much stuff up there and we're not going to use half of it, oh well! I'm not going to describe the display because honestly I have no idea what it's going to end up looking like. I know we have some tables, some lattice work, foliage, and of course Katie and I kickin' it tailgating style! You'll just have to come to the festival and see. Or check out my blog next week, I'll post pictures.
I'm really hoping it goes well. Katie's mom sent her a note and she forwarded it to me today. I thought it was really great:
"Bet you’ve been a busy bee getting your things ready for this weekend. I’m sure you and Meg will have a great time and really learn a lot. Try to pick the brains of the other vendors. Some will be regulars at these fairs and can tell you which are the best organized and attended if you want to do it again. Take some pictures of your set up and send them to me next week. I wish I could just pop in on you. Can’t tell you how happy I am that you are doing this as it’s the start of your artistic future. You will feel slightly insecure and vulnerable if a few people (the jerks) look at your things and say nothing and just walk away and then you’ll be infused with confidence and pride as the next person says ,“Wow these are great photos…Did you do these?” The experience is definitely character building and it helps you build a thick skin…….something you really need as an artist!"

So now I will head off to bed and wonder about what I'm forgetting or what I didn't do or what I should have done. I'm really excited to be doing this. If you had told me a year ago that I'd be where I am with my business, I would have said you're crazy! I guess I was given some good motivation even though I didn't realize it at the time. I'm definitely excited to see where I'll be with it a year from now. Just gotta keep plugging away!

More to come soon!
I'm going to eventually write about each of the sections of images on my website. Would that be interesting (Sal? Since I think you're the only one that reads this).