Venue Review: Serendipity Haven Part 2!

Sunday

Sunday was, amazingly even slower than Saturday. I think I counted about 6 people not in garb. But I still had a lot of fun, and even some steady business!

First, Roos (we think- in accurate peasant style, he didn’t know how to spell his name), who shared with me the horror of BooBah and general good conversation:




And then Tehwaz (in true artistic fashion, I don’t know how to spell his name), gave me the chance to paint his lovely family.




No flattery there, his wife is really lovely:



And their son’s got lethal levels of cute going on:


I even moved some more of my jewelry! Little stuff that wasn’t on Etsy yet, this time.

When I wasn't working, I went roaming the nice compact fair grounds. Serendipity is big enough for a body to stretch their legs, but not yet so big that the main stage can't be heard all over the fair, a thing I greatly appreciated.

Less good: one of the soap booths, the one with really fantastic fatty soap that was just about to start melting in the autumn sun, the one with the mild unsweet herbal scents and light florals I love...was having a half-off sale.
*sob*
I broke down and went off my soap diet. What could I do? I'm only human! I got four bars of superlush fatty soap for about 9 dollars. I defy anyone to tell me they could have resisted that lure.
Big thick bars of the stuff, too. I am currently in love with the gardenia soap bought, and I would be linking to it, but there is no website listed on any of their soaps! Aiiigh! Let that be a lesson, sellers--always brand your stuff with web info!

Bottom Line:

I consider a fair as profitable if I make as much as I would have at my day job, or if I earn back the cost of the fair twice over. I made about 3 times expenses, and about as much as I would at the office, for about 14 hours of…well, hanging out and having fun. So for me, this fair was absolutely a financial success.

I’m not the only one who did well-- the food booth nearly sold out, and I heard a few others happy with their take. The fair was harder on people selling high-ticket items; the sword vendor behind us has surely had better times. But every year won’t bring a hurricane, and the general openness of hearts and wallets this year bodes very well for the future. If you’re a small vendor, or even a large one, I highly recommend trying
Serendipity at the spring fair, or next fall, purely on a financial basis.

Overall

I don’t do fairs on a financial basis, though, as my previous ramblings have no doubt made clear. I do fairs to avoid the artistic trap of going mad from fumes and isolation. I want interaction, even if it’s just talking about pricing and what someone’s mother would like colorwise.

Small, laid back and with the best weather a person could want, Serendipity was less a fair than a two-day party. I met great people, had hour long conversations, and learned a little bit about Ren vending. Artwise, I couldn’t have had a more appreciative audience-- everybody loved their pictures, and was extremely verbal about it. There’s no song as sweet as compliments;). And doing portraits meant I had a bit of a captive audience, since everyone I painted had to stick around long enough for me to get some details. I love compulsory socialization!

The fact that I was running the Nap Booth didn’t hurt either:




as I'd made an effort to have a comfy place for portrait subjects to sit, and many other folks decided to share our cushions-er, company.

There are so many neat people I didn't get to mention, or hang out with nearly enough-- my fellow vendors, the incredibly mellow fair organizer, the people hosting the horseback rides...so much stuff I want to do. Next time! Oh, there will be a next time! See you there?

Venue Review: Serendipity Fair (part 1)

Thursday, 5 pm:

Me: “Hey, Mom, you want to have a booth at Serendipity Haven this weekend?”

My mother and general partner in fairage: “Sure."

Thursday, 5:15 pm:

“Do we have a booth?”

***
So, sorry to disappear on you good folks, but I had an Emergency Renfair setup. This was my first time vending at a renaissance fair, too, so I my existing preparations consisted of
a. garb- it was my first time vending, but roughly my umpteenth year of being a rennie, so I had the outfit.
b. some product.

Everything else-- period booth dressing, signage, business cards, whatever-- I had to get ready between Wendesday and Friday. Or rather, on Friday, because I work Thursdays. Oh, and I don’t drive, so everything I needed that wasn’t in my house had to be grabbed by my dear indulgent mother. Planning!

So unprepared for anything more than making change, I decided to nonetheless go for it. And I‘m glad I did, because Serendipity was about the finest experience a first time vendor could have hoped for.

Saturday

Saturday morning was a mad panic of flat tires, car switching, and last minute setup.

Fortunately, Serendipity is a startup fair, so they’re rather more relaxed about things like booth accuracy and vendor authenticity than some fairs. A canopy from the Blue Beast store,a few chairs and cushions, a wee tiny table, some tapestries and scarves, and voila, our booth was ready to go:



I brought my jewelry:



And I set up a little sign to let people know I was painting portraits (pictures, caricatures, whatever you want to call them), and I called myself ready, because while there was plenty more to be done, it couldn’t be done by me in two days.

Having set up, I proceeded to…sit back and relax. I’d been anticipating a small fair; I’d been there on opening weekend, when Saturday had brought in about 100 customers. But that was before Hurricane Ike came and rearranged everyone’s plans for a few weekends. This Saturday saw the arrival of…well, I don’t know, but it wasn’t a hundred visitors.

It also brought in some really gorgeous weather. And hey, I had my art supplies, so I wasn’t losing work time. So I sat back and started making some art cards, and waited...

But I didn't wait to long before the bombastic fantastic Gustav showed up. After essentially performing in character for a while, he decided he'd like a picture of himself:



And after being so pleased with it that even I, in all my egorifficness, was almost embarrassed, he showed it to his lovely wife Giselle. Then she wanted a picture too, which was both complimentary and profitable, so even better!



(no pic of Giselle herself-foop!)

They praised me for a while, which is always cool, then headed off. I barely had time to decide I'd make some art cards when one of the Fair Children- in this case, children of fairgoers, not fae (that I know of) came by and wanted her own picture. If I told you how wonderfully serious she was about the whole thing, you would not believe me. Despite her age, she had the great good sense to claim olive green as her favorite color. Sadly, she took her picture with a squeal and ran off in triumph before I could get a photo. But that's pretty much my favorite compliment of the day--you can't beat delighted shrieking.

The rest of my day was taken up with meeting new people, and mutual gabfests on epic scale. I ogled some handmade soaps, but held myself to my agreement (no more soaps until I use the ones I have! Not even if they smell like gardenia and look like pure butter!), ate some beast-on-a-stick, and enjoyed the free music and the sweet music. I capped off the day by selling some of my jewelry- sorry, everyone who liked the Winter Ivy piece!- and finding that, when it came to paying for my booth, my money was no good. The day could have been better, if I had been granted super powers.

And then I packed up (again, with the dominant assistance of my dear mother) and headed home. Not pictured: Us leaving our canopy and furniture on the fairgrounds, blithely trusting in our fellow humans. Would this come back to haunt us on the morrow? Stay tuned!*

****
Also: My Oh no! Photos! sale is still going on! Convo me or leave a note to the seller to get 20 percent off one item, or BOGO half off!


*No, it wouldn't. But stay tuned anyway!

San Japan Venue Revue

Part One of a Probably Infinite Series

San Japan, in San Antonio, is a brand new anime and Japanese cultural convention--this was its first year. My partner in craft and I had a booth, since it's a quick commute to San Antonio from our place.*

San Japan may be San Antonio's first anime con, but I'm ten years into the practice. And with that experience, San Japan really blew me away! It IS a first year con, which means it's very small. But for a small convention, the business was amazing-- I don't disclose profits here, but Friday and Saturday would have been solid days for an established convention. The customers, many of them new to the scene, were friendly, inquisitive, and very eager to buy. What more can an artist want?

There were NONE of the organizational issues that usually plague beginning operations. The artist's alley (where individual artists, hobbyists or pro, sell, along with non-porfit clubs--think of it like a convention craft show) was very nicely laid out, with big wide aisles for wandering shoppers and lots of room behind tables for artist swag. There were even water ninjas, making sure the artists weren't going thirsty-- and towards the end of the night, a hot rice distributor stocking us all up on vital starches.

The Alley even a had a BETTER location than the dealer's room! Near the reading library, on level ground, in a comfy spot..it was obvious that for San Japan, the alley was big part of the proceedings, not just a grudging afterthought.

The Art Show was, if anything, given TOO much enthusiasm-- a really welcome change from the usual run of things. Settled between the dealer's room and the cosplay photo area, it got fantastic traffic. The layout was open and wheelchair friendly (are you listening, AKon?). Most shocking of all for an old conhorse like me, the auction was held ON TIME with great presenters.**

In short, the only thing keeping San Japan from rivaling Animefest as the artist's con is, well, a lack of artists. The art show was sparse, the alley was small and still not completely full. These things of course happen, but I'm going to be beating the drum for my fellow artists next year-- Come on, folks! Let's all sign on! We've finally got a show that treats us right, so take advantage of it!

There's still room for improvement, because there always is. There's a few issues of space division (i.e., the music/dance booth really really does NOT need to be so near the alley, where artists are trying to converse with customers--please, guys!) and handicap accessibility, especially, needs work. But most of these issues have to do with the city itself, and the con is already making efforts to address these things. In general, it was run with an astounding level of professionalism and friendliness.

If you do comic cons, anime cons, or general fan culture conventions, I absolutely endorse San Japan! If you don't know about selling at such places, but you'd like to find out, check out their blog and website.


See you there next year!


*Keep in mind, all travel time is Rural-Texas-Relevant. "Short" means an hour. "Quick" is under two hours.

**If you aren't part of the con scene, you don't know how awesome this is. Standard joke at an anime con:
"When is the art auction?"
"Oh, it's scheduled for 8 tonight."
"Ok, midnight it is!"
And this is ALWAYS true. For this alone, San Japan rocks my socks.