Preparing for the Show

As I wrote yesterday, I'll be at the Down the Street Bead Show this weekend, with Dogmaw of Dogmaw Glass and Frostfire of Art of the Firebird. We're looking forward to a great show!

The last few weeks I have been busy creating more beads and bead sets, and I have some that I am very excited about. One of the things that a friend does in the last few days of creative time before a show is to spread out all her inventory by organizational idea, and see where the "holes" are. If you display by color, make sure you aren't overdoing the blue to the exclusion of the yellow; if you display by shape, make sure the lentils or the rounds aren't edging out the other styles.

However, by the day before the show, it's too late to be making more beads and have them annealed and cleaned in time for the opening. So I'm preparing all the last-minute items, in between doing my Full Time Job. Some of the things that need to be done before a show are:

*Making sure all my beads are properly inventoried, priced, and tagged.
*Packing my show suitcase--beads, business cards, receipt books, change envelope, tools, displays, pens, tape, extension cords, extra light bulbs, and what-have-you.
*Washing the tablecloth and reapplying fire retardant.

Frostfire's husband has built us some better lights this year, and we have bought a banner! As she has obligations at her full time job until after the show has already begun, I will meet her later this afternoon and pick up the lights, the table topper, the banner, the credit-card machine, the bed risers for raising the table, the display pieces that she keeps, and her beads. I will get everything set up in time for the show's opening, and she will join us when she can.

There are going to be some wonderful vendors at this show, so I am looking forward to a fun-filled weekend! And the next weekend, I will be in the Rail Arts District of Scottdale (between Decatur and Clarkston), at Amalgam Arts, for their Sunday Trunk Show. See you there!