Ann Arbor Art Fair

Ann Arbor is always my biggest show of the year. It takes the most planning, the most work and the most help in the booth. It's stressful but worth it. It's my favorite show no matter how hard it is to do, but this year was tough.

Michigan has had beautiful weather this spring and summer and finally this year, not too hot. Until the Ann Arbor show came. The days right before the show were still relatively cool with low humidity but on Wednesday, the first day of the show, the heat and humidity hit. For an area not yet used to baking, this was tough. On Thursday it was 96 with high humidity which was almost worse than the temperature.

I would not have gone to the show as a customer in that heat so I offer huge thanks to those who braved the weather for this once a year event. It was miserable. Add to that a really lousy economy in the area and it doesn't add up to many artists being happy with their sales. We all knew going into the show that it probably wouldn't be a normal Ann Arbor and I don't think it was for many people. I have to commend my fellow exhibitors though for keeping a positive outlook during both the heat and the slow times.

This is my chance to brag. I won second place in the show! Not in the jewelry category but in the whole show, against all the other "real artists". Since my pet peeve is that judges rarely get close enough to the jewelry to even tell what it is, it was pretty special for me. Of course, I had to take a picture of the ribbon which very nicely went with the color scheme of my booth...

My show went fine when you take into consideration all the factors that went into it. I'm extremely glad that it's over, we all lived through it and I don't have another show until September 6 when I go to Penrod in Indianapolis. Yippee!!! Until then I'm going to spend some time napping...