Monday, February 16, 2009

So Much To Say and So Little Time

No coffee yet (unngh), the sound of Todd's whitenoise fan and the soft tapping of my Mac Keyboard for music. It's the last day of the Buyer's Market of American Craft (BMAC) and I am waaaay behind in posting. Not surprisingly, I am behind because I have been out networking and socializing every night and the stop and start activity on the show floor are not conducive to thoughtful posting. And if a show ever deserved thoughtful posting, it's this one.

So I put up a micro-post quickly this morning to introduce the topics to come in the next three posts, and then I rush off to the annual artists' wrap-up meeting with Wendy Rosen and her staff (the Rosen Group puts on the BMAC). I don't usually go to the wrap-up meetings, but this year I am very curious to hear how they are going to spin the launch of the Fair Trade market spearheaded by Wendy's daughter that is going to be held down the hall from the summer BMAC. (Hot Show Topic #1) While I support the empowerment of women in disadvantaged countries, I can't see any way that having a market with lower-cost foreign-made goods placed cheek to jowl with a market specifically aimed at promoting the work of American and Canadian craft artists cannot be both a conflict of interest and detrimental to the American and Canadian artists who have struggled to build a clientele from the summer show. Piggy-backing is only really good for the pig on the back...

Good thing today is typically a slow show day as later on after the wrap-up meeting I need to continue a conversation I am having with another artist who liked my work so much that for the past two years he has had me design glass pieces for him to incorporate into his work. This year--due mostly to the downturn in the economy--he purchased a kiln and is making his own glass pieces for his metal sculpture (perfectly fine) that bear an uncanny resemblance to the pieces I created for him--and thus my entire production line--(not at all fine, and Hot Show Topic #2).

Hot Show Topic #3--and the least surprising, most expected, fortunately planned for topic--is the effect of the economy on my the sales figures for the show. I have been crunching numbers since yesterday afternoon and will have that post ready to go up when the doors close and the last order is in at the end of the day.

A final note: I think I broke Todd again--this time with my snoring. I found him sleeping in a nest of all his bedclothes and pillows on the bathroom floor this morning with the door closed and his little white noise fan in with him. I asked him why he didn't wake me up if I was snoring so loudly, and he said he tried several times and failed. Oh dear. I think I'll leave him sleeping this morning for a few extra hours. Breakdown tonight is going to be brutal enough.

7 comments:

Bill said...

It's not so much the snoring, as it is the vibration of the windows...

Stacyr520 said...

oh my. not fine.

Reese said...

Looking forward to hearing your next posts, as is Nancy. From similar experiential non-sleep, she has the greatest sympathy for broke-Todd, and adds that one can sleep much sounder with ear plugs. I wouldn't know how comfortable they are; it's not my problem, you see.

Dee said...

LOLOLOL poor todd. and y'all must have really had a bear of a breakdown as there's no post from the airport yesterday? no post yet this am tho' i suspect y'all slept in today...

Anonymous said...

Brenda,

Maybe you and I need to share a room and put Todd with my helper. The last evening I mimicked you snores, or so I'm told.

I've crunched my numbers and did about the same as last year, which was way down from '06 and '07. Good thing was 10 orders from new accounts and 10 from reorders. Looks like I'll be on the phone the next couple of days talking to my no-shows.

The summer show is still on the table and my David and I are talking about it. Since I love Philadelphia it's not such a stretch to consider. . . so maybe.

Tell Todd David loves his anatomically correct dancers and we'll be hanging them today in the bedroom.

As always a pleasure being near you and breaking a little bread.

Sara

Anonymous said...

I love Todd. The rest of you enough too, but especially Todd.

Nancy Goodenough

Anonymous said...

I had the opposite experience of Todd during my first Rosen show in Boston. Opposite, but the same result.

Three of us shared a room, a cot between the two beds. I snore. My friend next to me gently touches her husband when he starts to snore, so she did that with me. Well, I'd make that little initial snort and she'd either touch me, or I'd train myself to immediately wake up. I literally didn't get any sleep in the 4 or 5 days we were there, except ... the last night I dragged my bedclothes to the little hallway in front of the door, the only clear spot in the room. Of course, there was a fire alarm pulled in the middle of the night. And I'm a zombie's zombie when no sleep. Maybe good that there really was bowling in the glass aisles that show.

Nancy Goodenough