Apple 'n Pork Festival

This weekend we'll set up at the annual festival in Clinton, IL. This originally started over 40 years ago as a local festival featuring what else...locally grown apples and pork, and the many food specialties made from them. Local organizations have booths providing their specialty food and make darn good profits from this heavily attended event. This takes place on the grounds of the C.H. Moore Homestead, a beautifully restored mansion on the north edge of Clinton, which has many ties to Abraham Lincoln. The small fine art fair is located on the east side of the mansion, which is where we're situated. Steve will have his leather booth too! Other artists will bring pottery, porcelain pottery, watercolor, oil paintings, wood turning, photography, and fabric art. We all hope you will attend!

Due to the numerous other events all along Center St, and at the Antique and Craft malls on the West side of town, this is a HUGE event. Early arrival will make for a more pleasant day, due to finding a good parking place. I would recommend driving in on old Rt. 51 from the north, to the nursing home parking grounds just north of the mansion. If that is full, return to "new" 51 and drive south to the intersection of Rt 54, where the high school will have shuttle buses driving out to the mansion all day.

This is our last outdoor weekend event for this year. Finally! October has the farmers market/artists alley each Saturday morning, then we are finished with the weekly shows.

Thanks for visiting my booth over this past year.

The top photo will be shown on the Bead Parlor website, www.thebeadparlor.com, as the class photo for the Bronze Clay class on October 8th, 1:30 to 4pm at the Bead Parlor, 318 N. Main St, Bloomington, IL. Contact me or Di at the Bead Parlor (you can purchase the class online). Limited seats.

Arts in Central Park

This weekend we'll be taking part in the annual Arts in Central Park, downtown Decatur, IL. Our booth is #46 which appears to be along the sidewalk in the south east corner of the park, junction of Park and Franklin Streets.

http://www.decaturarts.org/event/301/arts-in-central-park-1/

This is our second year here. We were happy with the friendly and helpful coordinators and the great treatment of the artists. It was also very nice to receive an award here last year, 3rd in Jewelry! So we are looking forward to it, very cool weather and hopefully dry. There's a great Preview Party Friday evening, with great food, music, and hopefully sales!

I've had a few comments from people that wonder about my wanting to retire from the jewelry shows. I do still love making bronze and silver components, etc. It's just that I am supremely tired of the art show life. I've never enjoyed the actual part of getting ready for, traveling to, setting up the booth for, standing and selling (hopefully) during, tearing down the booth, and finally traveling home from an art fair. Even more, I hate searching for profitable shows, having jury photos taken or taking them myself, entering the shows either online or by mail, learning how to impress the juries for the art show to increase my chances of acceptance, paying out some very large jury fees, and, if accepted, very large booth fees. Then, do I actually make any kind of profit? Not much.

So, I am really ready for something different. Maybe an online shop at Etsy; consignment or wholesale; or just not do it at all. Time will tell................

Maybe, if anyone reads this, they will have some suggestions???