My First Craft Fair

Whew, my first craft fair is over! The Big Thaw was this past Saturday in Portland, Maine, at the Mayo Street Art Center. The venue is a former church and provided an attractive and er, cozy setting. I had planned to show the larger photos on a few easels, but the spaces were a little smaller than I'd expected. (3' x 6')  We weren't allowed to use the walls so my ingenious husband came up with a wall substitute. We used blue board (left over from an insulation project last fall) and covered it with white paper. I have extra-long pushpins left over from graduate school, so I stuck them into the blue board and rested the photos on them.

We had to slide the board over so my neighbors could get in and out of their booth (I did say the space was cozy, didn't I?) It bothered me that the board wasn't centered but there's a limit to the symmetry real life allows you. On the whole, I think it didn't turn out badly for a first attempt. Financially, I pretty much broke even, which again, is not bad for a first try. If I hadn't had to spend the night in a hotel I'd have made a bit of a profit. Overall verdict: craft fairs are a hell of a lot of work for a fairly small return. On the other hand....

they are a lot of fun! This is one of my neighbors, Christina from Madderroot. She and Janyce have gorgeous hand-printed dishtowels and napkins. Um, yes, I did some shopping, why do you ask? I bought one of these:

And this is another neighbor:

Jen from Quench Metalworks. She definitely had the most awesome set up at the fair - I didn't get a very good shot of it, but she has moss in frames and in bowls and her jewelry is draped against it. Fab! My mother came to the fair and bought a necklace something like this one from Jen:

 Gorgeous things everywhere you looked.

 I didn't have time to take many pictures, but here are a few more shots of the fair in progress.

And here is Audrey of Little Eye, who organised the whole darn thing:

We drove back to Bar Harbor as soon as the fair ended, arrived home about 9pm on Saturday, and I slept most of Sunday!