Jackson Hole Art Fest

Another weekend, another art show for us. We're getting back into the rhythm of doing shows after a few month lay off.

Doesn't this sound like fun? Drive one to forty hours to get to the show, depending on where it is. Work two to four hours setting up for the show, then staff the booth for eight or more hours a day during the show. Spend about two hours packing up and taking the booth down before driving another one to forty hours home or to the next show. Pay the sales tax, order materials to make new stock and fill customer orders, raid the inventory to restock , or work ten to fourteen hours a day in the studio to make replacement stock in time for departure to next show. Remember to feed the cats, water and weed the veggie garden, harvest the ripe veggies (Rita is blanching spinach as Fred types this post), mow the lawn- no it can wait- pay bills which can't wait, try to squeeze in a daily bike ride and maybe work on bringing a new design idea to life to try out at the next show. Repeat every week for the next four weeks. Well, it sure looks like work on our new house and studio will have to wait until we get a couple of weeks off between shows at the end of August.

Thankfully, this weekend's show was only an hour away in Teton Village, Wyoming. This was a "try out" show for us because it is a small show (under 50 artists) and it comes between two other shows we do in nearby Jackson each summer, so we worried about saturating the market, but with the price of gas so dear this year, we thought it would be a good year to try out the show. We hoped we would tap into a different clientel, more vacationers, than the Jackson residents we normally see at the Jackson Shows.

Well, it turned out we mostly met more nice Jackson residents instead of vacationers. So we ended up expanding or Jackson customer base more, although we met many nice out of town folks as well.

Serendipitously, one vacationer was a person who had purchased a hat from us a couple of years ago in Portland, OR. On a trip to Paris, she lost it and had been mourning its loss ever since. On Saturday she had just come down from an adventure in the mountains and stopped by the art show on a whim and found us there. She now has a new hat which she will never lose! What a joy it is to us to make someone so happy with one of our creations.

A great resource

This photo shows a small portion of our leather color palette. We get leathers from around the globe, with the majority of our leathers coming from suppliers located in New York City. Living in the wilds of the Tetons, New York isn't exactly convenient, so we rely on phone contacts. For several years we have been working with a nice man at one of New York's largest leather brokerage houses, but we've always had communication difficulties with him due to his thick Spanish accent.

One of the problems with phone conversations is you don't know what other things are going on around the person on the other end of the line. For the past year, dealing with this individual has been increasingly difficult and frustrating, beyond the language problem. Where he used to be very helpful, lately he has been curt and the level of information about what he has available has declined. He'd frequently say, "I'm too busy, call me back." For the last few months, when it came time to call him to order or to request information, we'd feel like drawing straws to see who would get the onerous task of dealing with him this time.

After we failed to get timely information on availability of leather for a special order garment for a customer Fred said, "enough!" and wrote a letter to the owner of the business explaining our difficulties

Yesterday the owner called Fred and apologized for the drop off in service and instructed us to send our orders and information requests directly to him so he'd be able to make sure our account was handled properly. He explained that the man we had been dealing with was really over-worked and had too much on his plate all the time, but he was working on trying to correct the problem.

All of a sudden, leathers that we had been told they didn't have in stock are on a UPS truck heading for our studio. The squeaky wheel...

It is nice to know that our business is valued by the owner and that he is willing to personally take care of what is surely a small account to him compared to the large fashion houses he also supplies. It is no wonder that he offers the largest selection of quality leathers of any of our suppliers. That his business is growing in spite of the huge transportation cost increases and the declining value of the dollar (versus the Euro) which are creating pricing problems for him, and for anyone importing outstanding Spanish and Italian leathers, is a tribute to his business savvy. Being a small business, we like to see good people succeed in business when they try hard. We thank him for his courtesy and for making our business more valuable to our customers because we continue to have good access to the world's finest leathers.

Art Fair in Jackson

7/20/08

The past week was every bit as hectic and chaotic as we feared it would be, but we survived it. We even managed to create another new jacket which is drew rave reviews from customers at our first show.

Mother Nature has been kind to Jackson Hole this weekend, offering up mild temperatures, sunny skies and gentle breezes, all of which make doing an outdoor art show a pleasure. Dealing with downpours, violent winds, or sweltering temperatures- all common occurrences in the life of an artist exhibiting in summer outdoor shows- would drive saner people into another line of work.

In spite of the spectacular weather, attendance at the Jackson Art Association’s July art show remained “light,” in the estimation of those of us familiar with dynamics of art shows. However, there is a wonderful core of art supporters in Jackson who come every year and who do support the artists, making the show a successful one for most exhibitors. Apparently high gas prices were not sufficient discouragement to keep artists from traveling from as far away as Georgia, Florida and Delaware to attend the show.

We have a new look to our booth this year. We hope it shows off our clothing better while allowing us to work more pleasurably with our clients as we measure them and discuss customizing options of their orders.

During a break from working in our booth, Fred was lucky enough to drop by the entertainment tent and catch a few numbers performed by the Jackson 6, a local Dixieland jazz ensemble. They are a tight bunch who played with verve and the joyful spirit Dixieland needs to sound its best. Fred looks forward to catching a whole performance by them in the future.

For dinner after the show yesterday we drop by Teton Thai, a highly recommended small eatery favored by locals for great food at reasonable prices. The place has about a dozen outdoor tables on a deck at the end of a dead-end pedestrian shopping walkway. The émigré Thai staff works wonders in its crowded kitchen while the wait staff of appropriately scruffy mountain jocks serves tired climbers back in town from a day in the mountains, young workers relaxing after a long day in the shops or construction sites in Jackson and a few tourist families with kids in tow. Yogi, the world’s most relaxed golden retriever, lays in the shade of an unused table keeping a sleepy eye on the staff and his other eye out for dog loving kids. The only sour note was the choice of music playing while a deejay was setting up for his stint. The twenty some-things probably liked it. We highly recommend the Laab Salad and the Pad Thai.

Almost Show Time

7/11/08

A week from today our “business year” for 2008 officially starts when we appear at our first art show of the year. This one is a local one, just an hour away in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The week until the show will be HECTIC!

Even though it has been more than seven months since our last show, we are still short of inventory for many items we want to bring so there is the big push to make more stock, PLUS, we have to find all the paraphernalia needed to set up an attractive and storm proof booth. Rocky Mountain thunderstorms can demolish lesser booths and wipe out months of production and thousands of dollars of work in a few minutes. We’re also hoping to find time to make some needed improvements to our booth and the way we display things in it.

Being artists, we’re still having fun creating new designs, so choosing whether to put more time into them or into older more proven sellers is a bit of guess work and usually ends up being just more long hours as we try to do both.

Here’s a very cue new idea we just finished yesterday. The very attractive printed leather on the front is something we picked up in New York a few years ago and we just never found the right use for it- until yesterday! Its funny how things that look so obvious once discovered can remain hidden for so long.

Now that our son Evan is back from his Alaska adventure trip, he’s working on our new website and we want to work closely with him to get it done by show time next week too.

Welcome

7/10/08

We realize most people will have little in what is written here, but for those who are curious of what life is like for working fiber artists we plan to provide some insight into our creative process, the “production” of our garments, and life on the road marketing our creations at fine art shows. Our life and our little business are far from ordinary, but some how it works and suits us.

God knows how you have stumbled upon this blog, but welcome!