Applying to art fairs

     Most people perusing the wares at an art fair probably don't realize how much time and money go into applying to shows.
     Long before the snow leaves the ground, artists and craftspeople are filling out applications for shows they hope will generate decent profits. The lead time for applying to the most competitive juried shows can be six months or more, and the fees aren't cheap.
     A juried show is one in which artists must submit slides, digital images or photos of their work to be reviewed by a panel of art experts (sometimes) who decide who will be invited to participate.
      Most shows range in size from 75 up to several hundred artists with fees for juried shows usually running more than $100. The most prestigious shows can cost over $500 with some charging $1,000 or more.
      Last year I was accepted into 10 shows for a total of $2,050 in fees. The most expensive was the Buffalo Grove Show near Chicago at $485. This year I'm staying closer to home to reduce expenses. Luckily, the shows are cheaper in northern Michigan than in the Chicago area where I did most of last year's shows. Fees for the seven shows I've applied to so far total $1,010.
     Most shows require both a jury fee and a booth fee. You pay the jury fee regardless of whether you are accepted. Last year I paid $130 in jury fees for the privilege of getting rejection slips from five shows. That's the gamble you take on the art show circuit. The shows that generate the highest sales usually are the ones that are toughest to get into. So you pay your fees and take your chances.
     The peak art fair season in Michigan is during the summer months, as one would expect. And the summers here are short. So artists often apply to more than one show per weekend hoping to get into the best show but reserving a fall back position in case they get rejected. That way they can ensure a full schedule of shows. But it also means more jury fees down the drain.
     The deadline has passed for a good share of the summer art fairs. Artists now are waiting for their letters of acceptance or rejection. I got my first letter last week, a letter of acceptance to the Summer Solstice Art Show in Charlevoix June 26 and 27. So I'm happy, for now.

Getting your products on Google Shopping

If you make anything by hand, it's always a struggle to figure out how to market your products and get them before the most buyers.

One of the ways buyers search for products is by using Google Shopping. But your products aren't going to show up there just because you have your own web site. Some of the handcrafter sites like 1000Markets and ArtFire do it for you when you list your work on their sites. Etsy, by far the largest site for selling handmade items, is slowly getting their merchants' work on Google Shopping. But it has been frustratingly slow for those of us whose work hasn't made it there yet.

You don't have to join one of these web sites,to get your products posted on Google Shopping, though. You can do it yourself if you have your own web page. And why not? By linking your products back to your own web site, you don't have to pay any listing or seller fees to someone else. You get to keep all your money!

Google has a tutorial on how to do it.

Here is some additional info:

You must create a Google Merchant's account first. It is free.

Each item must be on a separate web page with a description, price and how to pay.
You then list each product in a file to upload to google. The easiest way is to create the list in a spreadsheet and save it as a tab-delimited file. You MUST include certain headers in your file or it will not upload correctly.

WARNING: The example Google uses does not have enough headers to upload correctly, so use my headers instead.

The headers I use are brand, condition, description, expiration date, ID, image link, link, price, product type, title.

For brand, I put JewelryArte. Condition would be new or used. Description is just a description of your product. Expiration date is the date your file will expire off Google. It can't be longer than 30 days from the date you post your list. ID is your product ID. Image link is a link to the image that will show up in the search. Link is the link to the product's web page on your site. Product type in my case is jewelry. Title is what you call your product.

I have only listed three things so far because most of my products are grouped together. I need to put each one on a separate page. Here is how the three I have posted look when I type my name into the Google Shopping search box.

Soap Goddess

The hostess of the goddess party I attended last weekend gave everyone a cute gift when the festivities were over.

They were bars of handmade "goddess" soap. On each bar was a soap sculpture of a goddess.

The soap was made by Mad Mac's Soaps.

I'd like to post a link to their web site if they have one. Couldn't find one on Google. Will update this post if I find out more.

Goddess Party

Saturday night I attended a "Goddess Gathering" hosted by my sister-in-law, Sharon.She lives in a cute farmhouse in Rockford, Michigan, near Grand Rapids.
Normally I don't travel two and a half hours just to attend a party, but it gave me a chance to sell my jewelry to some of her friends and it sounded like fun. I had never been to a goddess party before. Actually, I think Sharon made this up. She had kind of a goddess wedding last summer complete with bridesmaid wearing fairy wings (she called them angel wings but they looked more like fairy wings to me).
Linda, one of my other sisters-in-law and Sharon's sister, rode along with me. Hubby Wayne also came as our daughter-in-law Kimberly was expecting to give birth Saturday. He was banned from the party, of course. It was just for ladies. Sharon kicked her family out of the house for the evening and Wayne got left at Kimberly and Aaron's house.
Sharon prepared a great dinner served with a nice selection of wine including chocolate wine, which I had never had before. It tasted like a chocolate liqueur called "Hot Sex" that I buy when I can find it. It's really great in the summer mixed with ice cream. Linda brought along a bottle of chocolate beer. I'm not a beer drinker but it wasn't too bad. Anything with chocolate is good.
Chocolate was everywhere at this party. Sharon had a table set up with chocolate cookies and chocolate bonbons and choclate mixed with nuts and other snacks that I couldn't resist. I made quite a few trips to that table.
After dinner, one of Sharon's friends put on a fashion show. When I was invited to the party, I thought this would be a show of fashions her friend had created but it was a show of designs by Carol Anderson. She has a company that puts on TupperWare type parties featuring her clothing line. There were some cute outfits but they were out of my price range, so I passed. In between the dinner, fashion show and later events, I sold some of my torch-fired bead earrings. I've got some of them posted on my web site.
Then it was on to the white elephant exchange. I guess I've been missing a lot of girlie things in my life as this was a first for me, too. Everyone brought something from their home that they didn't want and we exchanged items one at a time. If someone got something you wanted, you could steal it from them when your turn came. I ended up with an elephant tea pot that I knew Sharon wanted because she stole it twice from other ladies. I wanted the three-wick candle she got, so when they party was over, we swapped.
Sharon teaches art, so we had to have an art activity: painting on wine glasses. The painted glasses have to set for a day and then be popped in the oven for a while, so Linda and I will have to wait until we visit Sharon again or she brings them up this spring.
One of the women at the party had more tatoos than I've ever seen on anyone. She, of course, was the person who Sharon had invited to do the Tarot card readings. The first card she turned over for my reading showed that someone would be having a baby very soon. Now that was quite accurate, wasn't it? As it turns out, though, we're still waiting for that baby. He or she is not in any hurry and Kimberly is getting impatient.
Sharon also had planned for us to enjoy a dip in the hot tub on the deck off her master bedroom. All the other activities took up so much time that the dip in the hot tub will have to wait until her next party.
We had a lot of fun and I ate enough chocolate that I was not even inebriated as I drove back to Aaron's house that night.