10/7/12

being at the 1st Annual Boston Seafood Festival

Yesterday I had the honor to be part of the first annual Boston Seafood Festival as an artist vendor. It was my first time being part of a crafts fair, and it was so exhilarating, scary, and fun!! 

It was at the end of August that I got a message from my friend, Ivy about becoming a vendor at the seafood festival. I was intrigued. I've never done such a (cool) thing before. I've been to crafts fairs but never did I really think I would be the one behind the craft table with my stuff. But I decided to take the plunge anyway. However, I did seriously ponder over the option of pulling out of it, not gonna lie. I'm so glad I followed through with it though!!

The day of the festival, I woke up at 6:30am, which surprised me because I don't think I fell asleep way past 2am... 'twas the butterflies that kept me alert, I guess.. I got into bed much earlier, but then remembered, "PRICING." So I got back up, filled out an inventory sheet with all the prices and items, packed a small carry-on suitcase and then went back to bed. That inventory sheet proved to be very helpful, too. So I'm thankful for that.

At around 8am my trusty friends Eugenia and David came to pick me up. Not only did they bring me to the festival with all my stuff, but they also spent the entire day with me in the sun and boisterous wind and helped me not lose my mind and sold some of my creations together! They are sooooooooooooooooo wonderful and I don't know what I would have done without them. I would have been so lost!

We arrived at the Bank of America Pavillion around 8:30am and started to set up. The festival didn't open until 11am, so we had some time. Time went by so fast, though, I feel like I took a couple of breaths and then people started to trickle in. 

post-setup (minus coffee cup) :)
Earring display
more display and treasure chest (that was NOT for sale ;))
A bunch of people including friends came and went, and time went by fast and slow (it was particularly slow when the coffee wore out). Some people swiftly walked by without giving a single look, some came by made a few comments and left, and others stayed and engaged in conversation.

The most memorable person during the day (I wish I got her name) was a young lady maybe twelve or thirteen years old (I'm really bad at telling age). She came to my booth, gave a thorough 10 minute look at my jewelry and left, then brought her grandmother and looked hard at what I've got again. They left, and then came back, bought a pair of earrings for the young lady's mother, then left. And THEN, she came back again WITH her mother to show her what I had, and after they left together she came back by herself again just to look. It was such an experience! I am flattered by the fact that what I created could catch someone's attention for that long that many times. 

The best selling item was the button rings:
It was a HOOT!!
Which was great information.
I need to make a bunch more!! and this time, in more colors and various sizes. Some of them turned out to be just too small.

The very first customer bought a pair of button rings, but there wasn't a pair of rings her size in the color she wanted (she likes anything pink). There was only one ring that fit that criteria, so I offered to make another one on the spot for her. She came back a half hour later and picked up the finished rings with a smile. 


One of the special things about yesterday's selling experience was that I pledged to donate 25% of the proceeds to Rosie's Place, the first women's homeless shelter for women in the US. I have a deep connection with this organization, because I worked as an intern at the Women's Craft Cooperative (WCC) of Rosie's Place a couple years ago.  WCC helps women help themselves by turning new and vintage buttons into decorative accessories. That's where I learned to play with buttons and make things out of them. Actually, the button ring was the very first product I've ever made!! 

It was awesome that my very first (signature) product, the button ring, was the most popular item at my booth.

I raised $40 to give to Rosie's Place, and I am so pleased that I can contribute to this great organization in any way at all. 

Overall, great experience was had, and I look forward to another opportunity to be creative, productive, and put myself out there and try to do good all at once.

We'll see what my next move will be!!

c'est moi!

There are so many people I would like to thank for helping me make this possible. Just to name a few, I want to thank Ivy, Eugenia, DavidNorah, and massmouth, inc. for helping me in such concrete ways throughout the process and the day-of.