Monday, June 30, 2008

SOWA Open Market


I did my first SOWA Open Market (formerly South End Open Market) of the season on June 22nd. I shared a tent with the generous Candace of The Intuitive Garden.

Candace's set up in progress:

I did this show in Boston's Arts district twice last year. Etsy offered new sellers two sponsored spots for the season to try it out. The first one I did was how I met Candace! There were to be four Etsy sellers and we were to pair up and share two tents. I went into everyone's Etsy shops and decided that Candace's items were the best match for me so I contacted her to see if she wanted to share and that was the start of our collaboration. It helps she had a tent :) It was so funny that day because the other two Etsy sellers were perfectly matched for each other too! Very goth and dark.

Anyway, I wasn't going to do SOWA again this year, though the setup is easy and the show is very well organized by friendly professionals and I like the mix of vendors. I did it those two times and I didn't make great sales. But Candace is very convincing and she talked me into doing it the full five (maybe 6?) times this year by reminding me that it's inexpensive enough and wouldn't I have fun hanging out with her on a Sunday afternoon? Of course she was right so I signed up and we are in it until October!

We sat next to Amy Burhoe:

And Elizabeth Brennick:

Wonderful neighbors, super nice people who happen to be amazing artists! They were also at the Boston Handmade Marketplace, about which I will blog next :)

(BTW, you can see in the first pic I'm wearing an Elizabeth Brennick apron, got it at stART on the street in Worcester last September, LOVE IT!)

The SOWA Open Market is supposed to be open from 10-4 but the weather has been very unpredictable. Around two o'clock, Chris, who runs the show, came over and told us a storm had blown over Fenway and delayed a game so if we wanted to pack up we were welcome to. The wind was picking up and the skies were threatening...

...so we took the opportunity to escape before it might rain on us and ruin an otherwise really fun day. Candace had just experienced some torrential rain in New York at the Renegade show and she wasn't looking forward to that again. We broke down in record time and escaped dry and tired. And dirty. Wow, there is a lot of dirt flying around in a windy parking lot!

We will be at SOWA Open Market:
July 13
Sept 7
October 5th and 12th

Come say "Hi!"

2 comments:

  1. Your booth looks awesome! Congrats on having a great show. :)

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  2. wow - what a great set up! Glad you escaped in time - everything looks awesome :-)

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