I just noticed I didn't mention the Fairy Fest!

WELLLLL.....

The event itself was held in a national park setting; the time of setting that one might go for a day or overnight camp. There were plenty of people in attendance, but without feeling crowded. Meaning there was lots of space for people to gather for shows, but even in a crowd, it did not feel crowded. The vendor space was generous, meaning vendors were stratigically set apart, rather than be clumped up on top of each other. There was only ONE food vendor set up. For me, sales were dismal.

Did I like it? YOU BETCHA!!! Looking forward to next year!

Allow me now to expand on the points I made

The Event- Holy crap! I was expected to be there at 9am and stay until it closed sometime after 9pm. At which time I was expected to break down and pack up. That makes for a *LONG* day. I was relieved to find the campground settings. Even more pleasant surprise was that the festival was in a Ramada, surrounded and interspersed with mesquite trees. The ground was mostly a dry grass, so dust was kept to a minimum. The grounds were tooked between hills, in a bit of a glen, so that no outside traffic or buildings could be seen. The one hassle was the wind! There were some strong winds blowing early on. They knocked over a few of my bonsai. Some of my money trees actually had all their leaves plucked off by the wind! All in all, it was a very relaxing setting, wind and all.

The People

Did I mention this was a Fairy Fest? Most people came dressed for the occassion. A lot of time was spent on some costumes, some more elaborate than others. All seemed to be enjoying the festival and really getting into character. Mishy dressed as a fairy. She looked fun with her fairy wings and boots. Howard was just his normal self, but I lent him a pair of my horns to wear. Tori refused to dress up. Carey borrowed my old robe and went as Merlin. I dressed as a Pirate, but as a pirate who was trying to pass himself off as a merchant. Turns out that the event handlers had some sort of quest going on for the kids, where they had to find certain things and get ribbons to complete 'the mermaid quest'. I only know about this because one of the things they had to find was 'the pirate who likes monkeys'. Being I was dressed like a pirate, I was approached SEVERAL times. I was photographed multiple times as well.

Vendor Space

Our vendor space was two 10 by 10's and we had lots of room for spreading out. I already mentioned that all the vendors were spaced out, so no space encroached on another. This allowed customers to flow in and out of vendor stall spaces with plenty of space in between, very much like a village would be spaced out. Mishy had my two tables set up on opposite ends of our stall space. On one table, I set up my fantasy pieces and jewelry. The other had bonsai related items. Tori bought a roll of sod, and after she trimmed off what she needed for her table, she gave me a nice, long section for my bonsai trees. The sod came really in handy to keep my things from being blown away by the wind. My bonsai trees looked especially good on the sod. They were photographed multiple times by multiple people early on. There were literally 10-15 people lined up to photograph them at one point, sort of like the paparazzi. A few people in Fairy custome even lined up with the bonsai background to have their pictures taken. It was a bit surreal. I'm sure I would have had more sales, but it took me a while to list prices on everything, and by the time I got around to do it, the wind had knocked some down and the initial sensation they cause had subsided.

Food vendor

There was this huge, open area that was occupied by one single food vendor. It looked as if they planned to have multiple food vendors but had some technical difficulties. As a result, the only food vendor was selling overpriced, small, awful cheese steak sandwiches that (I'm told) tasted like a bad case of athlete's foot. Right about 2pm, we were getting awfully hungry and we got the idea to go to Walmart and buy a bunch of snacks to vend. About 3 pm or so, we set up chips, snacks and soda. The funny thing is that in the end, we only recouped the money that all those snacks and soda cost us. But the good thing was that we got to snack all day for FREE. The general consensus was that we should have set up our snack area *MUCH* earlier in the day. The funny thing is that security came by and bought a bunch of snacks from us.

Sales

DISMAL! What more can I say? I had a couple of sales and I gave away a few items. My lack of sales weren't due to my lack of trying, however. I gave it my all. I was very cordial, very friendly. I engaged people as much as possible. I posed for pictures. I promoted my bonsai trees and my sculptures. It just boiled down to the cold hard facts of the reality that we currently find ourselves in. People were very interested in my wares. They were fascinated by my sculptures and they gazed in *AWE* at the bonsai creations that I had. But they did not have the money to spend on my goods! The really funny and strange thing is that I am not dissuaded by my lack of sales. Far from it. If anything, I am encouraged, now more than ever! I am more convinced that the things that I am making are strange, beautiful, and command attention. My creations are sparking the imagination and drawing in the crowds.

So there it is. The event that has been my muse has now moved into the past, and I'm already looking forward to next year. I'm already looking at what went right, went wrong, and how I can improve what I'm so that I can get those sales. In this light, I am convinced more than ever that I was dead on, 100% on track.

If my ficus cuttings hadn't died, I would have had one STELLAR year, as far as sales go. My failures in sales, going back to October, can all be attributed to this one event- the loss of my cuttings. That meant the fall harvest and planting of bonsais never took place, which meant that the customer was left with a bunch of pots, but unable to see what their true purpose was.

People were also excited by my fantasy pieces. The horns didn't go off all that well, as they were considerably larger than they should have been, I think. However, the Tree of Gondor and my sculptures were well received. The only problem was that there was not enough pieces to catch attention. The few pieces I had were somewhat hidden behind Mishy's table. I simply did not start on my fantasy pieces early enough to have enough product for sale. Since the Fairy Fest, I've been working on more bonsai pots. However, I'm doing a bit more elaborate work on these. I'm going to allow myself to have fun and be more creative with my bonsai pots. I'm working on a bonsai pot that is somewhat based on my goldfish bonsai pots. Instead of fins it has short batwings, a tail, ridiculously long legs, and short stubby arms. I used 'bubble feet' to create the eyes, which sort of look like eyes on stalks. I also included some scales down the back, very much like what I did with the chicken dragon fairy. It's a lot of fun to make and it's looking rather outlandish. I don't know what colors I'm going to use to glaze it, but it has to be something CRAZY. The more I think about it, the more I'm realizing that it's screaming to be raku'd. Maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll just cut loose and do a bunch of these little guys- a bunch of short, fat, ridiculous pieces. The more ridiculous, the better.

Who knows, maybe for my next piece I'll try to do something like a fat samurai.