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.