On the White Line

Just a few of the hand-labeled & hand-stamped postcards that will be hitting mailboxes this week.

Everything seems to be going digital… heck, I’ve got a website, online store, email newsletter, blog, Twitter account and Facebook page that keep my life “online.” They’re inexpensive, efficient and measurable (I can count pageviews, e-newsletter opens, replies and comments). In other words, it’s very convenient for me.

Call me old fashioned, but I still like the “old school” ways of connecting with people. As much as I love when someone buys a piece of my shard jewelry online or leaves a comment on Facebook, I love it even more when I meet them in person at a show. I get to know them, connect them with the pieces they chose and have a real conversation with them.

That’s part of the reason I still send out physical postcards twice a year. I believe those cards are able to do something bits of Internet data cannot. And based on what I’ve seen, people react differently to a “real” object.

My most recent postcard. I'll send you one if you sign up for my email list at www.LamplighterStudio.com

• Touch It – Yep, as much as people carry on about how beautiful my jewelry looks online, the reaction to the card is even more energetic. Just having something physical to look at gets them thinking more about having a real piece in their possession. In fact, I get so many requests for pieces featured on my postcards that I’ve had to initiate a policy that I won’t sell any piece on the card until AFTER my show opens – if someone wants first dibs on a piece, they need to come to the show.
• Post It – I visited a friend at her office, and there, pinned to her cubicle wall, were the postcards from my last two shows. She’s been looking at them every day since they arrived in her mailbox… imagine that. As I left her cube, I noticed two more of my postcards posted at other people’s desks… nobody had any of my e-newsletters or pages from my website pinned to their walls.
• Carry It -I’m always surprised when people arrive at a show and pull one of my postcards out of their purse. Sometimes they keep it with them because they want to share it with friends and other times want it on hand to ask about a specific piece. To think, every time they reach for their wallet or a tissue, they’ll have to pass my postcard.
• Click It - In the week the postcards are delivered, I see the same spike in website traffic that I see on the week when I send an e-newsletter. My incoming phone calls and emails increase too. It just goes to show that when people are willing to volunteer their contact info, they genuinely want to keep up on what I’m doing, and that feels good.
• Buzz It - With all the pinning up and carrying around of these cards, I think it’s safe to say talk about my work makes its way to the water cooler and the dinner table… and it’s got a visual aid to boot! I have to say, my customers are by far my greatest advertisements, so if by sending them a little card helps them do what they love doing – connecting with my jewelry, then I’m all for it.
• Update It – Since I mail the postcards First Class, “bad addresses” are returned to me, often with a forwarding address. This makes sure my mailing list is up to date.

Do these benefits outweigh the costs? It’s expensive, no doubt… nearly $1,000 for design, printing and postage for my 2,500+ person mailing list. That’s a BIG expense for someone with a very limited budget.

Then there’s the time. I’m still labeling and stamping each postcard by hand… a job that takes several hours. It’s wasn’t too bad when I had about 500 names, but now it’s getting to the point where I think I might need the help of a mailing house. I’ve been avoiding it… mainly because I like looking at every name that gets put on the cards and taking a trip down memory lane when I recognize someone… but I really need to spend that time producing jewelry.

Would you like me to send you a postcard? If you promise to look it over, post in your office and carry it with every day, I’ll send you one. You can sign up at www.LampligherStudio.com.

Last Thursday, Liam and I headed to Chicago for an orientation for the One of a Kind Show. Yes, this art show has an orientation! And thank goodness they do.

It’s a very expensive show… we’ve already spent $3,000 and haven’t sold a thing yet. That’s scary… most shows cost us under $400 for fees and travel.

Then there are those nagging doubts that keep us up at night… “what if people don’t show up?” “what will load-in be like in downtown Chicago?” “do we need to change our booth?” “will people buy our stuff?”

Fortunately, these show organizers run a tight ship… they attend to every detail. They were answering our questions BEFORE we asked them. THAT is reassuring.

After orientation, we now know what we need to focus on 1) produce lots of amazing jewelry and 2) make sure our booth is in tiptop shape. The One of a Kind people have taken responsibility for the rest. Whew!

So with the big unveiling of the new collection on November 19th, the One of a Kind Show on Dec 3-6th and smaller shows on the weekends, we’ve got a VERY busy month ahead. Liam has nearly half of the new collection done and the other half is at various stages of completion, so if he keeps pushing, it’ll all get done. Meanwhile, we’ve produced the new postcards and those should be mailed out over the weekend.

Forward Only

I must admit, neither of us could keep this pace for long, but knowing that we’ll have a complete change of scenery in January when we head west for the winter, keeps me motivated… even if I can’t say the travel will mean a change of pace. It sure is good to have all these little stars on the calendar to look forward to.

We’ve added one more date to the calendarl… December 15th. That’s the day we plan to stop for a moment and take inventory of our lives. That means evaluating everything we’ve done over the last four months and looking forward… especially at the next four months. It’s important to plan a time when you can stop for a minute, let go of the daily stresses and just think about your achievements and goals.

After a ho-hum show this weekend (the event was beautiful, but the people didn’t come out to see it), Liam decided to focus on some “research,” and that usually means lots of antique stores. Anyone who frequents antique and second-hand shops knows you can find some of the strangest things.

For some reason, I kept finding one odd thing after another this weekend. Here are a few of my favorites.

Click for more pics of the Watertown Human Society Pet Costume Contest

It happens every once in a while. I try my hand at an art/craft show I know nothing about, and it turns out to be a bust. I rolled the die twice this weekend with unfamiliar shows on both Saturday and Sunday.

After reviewing the paperwork, I gave Saturday the best chance of success. Imagine my disappointment when the day turned out break-even. I sold just enough jewelry to pay for the booth fee, gas and dinner… not a penny more. This street fair just wasn’t the right audience for my jewelry.

As it became clear I would not be selling much, I made the best of it and enjoyed the Human Society booth just behind us. They had dog training demos and a pet costume contest. Truth be told, I’m not a big fan of dressed-up dogs, but these pups were pretty cute. Later, I popped into the bookstore across the street (it was that slow) while Corey manned the booth.

One of our potential customers at Saturday's street fair.

I’ve yet to leave a show skunked (zero sales), but let’s face it, any show that leaves no money to pay for supplies and time, is disheartening. Especially since I wasn’t all that confident about what Sunday’s show might bring.

Hope for Day Two

After Saturday’s dismal sales, we packed up and stopped for a bite to eat before finishing the two-hour drive to the next show. It was already well passed sunset, but we decided to check out the park where we’d be setting up the next day.

My heart started beating a little faster when we pulled in the drive and saw the field dotted with white tents. Even in the dark it was clear that this was a large event… and the type that attracts my kind of customers. There was hope this weekend might turn around for us.

We decided to stay right at the park… there were several cars parking overnight and one RV, so we figured it was a safe bet. When we woke up at 6am, the place was already buzzing with vendors. I must admit, it was nice to wake up, set up the booth and then pop in the RV for a warm shower.

Things don’t usually work out that way, but at this show, we could park right behind our tent. That rarely happens, and it makes set-up and take-down sooooo much easier.

In the end, Sunday’s show was fantastic. We sold plenty, met loads of great people and with hours from 9a-3p, it was a relatively quick day. At the moment, my risk-taking has me at 50/50… with the good show scoring enough to more than make up for the bad one. Whew.

Visit

The highlight of the weekend. Our friends Judy and Chuck were meeting up with us on Sunday… and that lead to a visit with more old friends: Jan, Roger and Steph!

My chat yesterday with Val from Collector’s Quest is already posted. You can read of it here. Here’s a snippet:

The moment you start to talk with Liam, you realize that he has a great deal of enthusiasm; not just for his product but for life in general. His (very wise) father told him that whatever he chose to do in life would be fine with him as long as he promised to be passionate about his choice and enjoy it! And he has done his dad proud!

As a history and art major in college, he learned a lot about ceramic and china pieces. He told me that his products are not a “new-found’” art, but a very ancient form. He shared with me his knowledge of a practice in ancient Africa where graves were decorated with shards from the water vessels. Since these vessels would be associated with a certain family, you would be able to identify just who was buried at the site. Many cultures have put to good use pottery or china pieces that have been damaged or broken (recycling we call it today.) For example, the “Memory Jugs”, from Victorian times. These were containers covered with putty, then shards of broken table ware or vases were pressed into the substance and once completed would hold peacock feathers or cattails, often in the front hallway.

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Flashing signs plugging corn dogs, funnel cakes, cotton candy, walking tacos, roasted nuts and deep-fried food-on-a-stick reminded me that the edible fare at small town festivals is often an attraction on its own. Last week’s Cranberry Festival in Warrens, Wisconsin, had just about enough food carts to compete with a State Fair.

However, the cranberry theme set it apart, and I took it upon myself to taste test my way through the festival. Sadly, most of the foods worked too hard at masking the cranberry flavor than embrace it. The coffee cake wrapped the cranberries in so much sugary icing, I had to toss half of it in the garbage… it was inedible. The cranberry pie was a little better, but still too sweet. The cranberry fritters had visible bits of fruit, but no noticeable cranberry flavor. The same was true for the “famous” cranberry ice cream – great creamy taste, lots of pink color, but no fruit flavor.

There were plenty of other foods like cranberry salsa, which I think was more of a chutney that latched on the more popular salsa bandwagon. I missed my chance at a cranberry cooler, but made up for it with some chocolate covered cranberries and cranberry nut fudge.

The big winners of the festival…

I was pleasantly surprised by the deep-fried cranberries on a stick. The idea cranberries dipped in corn dog batter turned me off, but the combination proved taste bud-worthy… the breading-to-cranberry ratio was just right. I just had to work on my eating technique; too much enthusiasm and I risked stabbing the back of my throat.

The cranberry cream puff was crowned champion of the weekend. Cream puffs are a bit of an institution in Wisconsin, so the standards were extremely high. The desserts were served up by gray-haired ladies representing one of the community organizations, and they had their system and their recipe down. The sweet cream was laced with just enough tart cranberries to elevate it to cream puff royalty. Delicious!

This weekend, we’ve got two one-day shows. Chances are there won’t be much on the unique food front, which will be good for my waistline.