Diane's Fall Fesitval Review

That's right I am going to give you my honest, and maybe not so fair Fall Festival review.

We have just finished show number 7 of 13, and it was a terrible show. We were at Avondale Autumn Festival this past weekend and I have to say that it was not advertised enough and there were NO signs leading into the neighborhood where the festival was held. Some of the people, the few that came, had mentioned to me in talking that they really had a hard time finding the festival. What could have been a good festival had the promoters done their job, which is to MARKET THE SHOW, we might have had a good weekend and entertained the thought of returning next year. Ladies, you really need to do a better job. Diane's FF Review gives this show a 5 thumbs DOWN !!!

Last weekend we were in Lookout Mountain Tenn, at the Ketner's mill show. Not bad for a country festival, but not really good enough since we had to travel. Good crowds, well advertised. Great mountain views, CLEAN air, cool temperatures, and a great meal on Sunday at the festival of Beans, Greens and a piece of cornbread !!! Diane's FF Review gives this show 4 thumbs UP !!!!

The weekend of October 11 & 12, we were at the Brookhaven Arts Festival. We have done this show since it's inception, 5 years ago. It started out as a one day show, all art, all handmade, NO buy/sell, Thank you Gretchen ! Last year our sales were down from the year before, in fact it was our best show, sales wise for 2 years in a row, but last years sales started to decline, and this year even more. My thoughts are more advertising is needed, promotion of the artists, not just the festival as a whole. Gretchen Roberts, you do a great job and I will wait until after November to apply, as I know that the fees will go up an additional $25.00 to help cover the cost of more advertising. Diane's FF Review gives this show 4 thumbs UP !!

October 4&5, had us at the WORLD FAMOUS Norcross Art Festival. This is the BEST show in the metro area, hands down ! Frances Schube puts on a fabulous festival. She has the entire communities volunteers help with everything from checking in to unloading your vehicle, to passing out FREE bottle water, to manning a air-conditioned hospitality center with a REAL bathroom. Our sale have been THE BEST 2 years running at this show. This was our 5th year at Norcross, and we'll be these again on 09. Thank you Frances for all of your hard work and marketing of this show. Did you know that Frances had CNN at the festival interviewing artists and have 2 TV commercial 2 days before the show. Great Job Frances !!! Diane's FF Review gives this show 5 thumbs UP !!!!

Well I hope that my thoughts are helpful to my fellow artists and that you can use this to help in getting your 2009 show schedule planned.

Please follow my blog for more festival information !!

Pass the Gas

Well, what I mean is, that the pipelines need to get the gas running back up to Atlanta. We have several fall shows on our schedule and out customer need to have the gas to get to them. So, please hear us TEXAS !!! PASS THE GAS !!!

The bead show was pretty good even though a lot of our beaders could not get to the show, but they will come up and see us in November at the Galleria.

A friend of ours is opening her new shop and I would like to direct you to her web site and new store front.

The The Pink Ribbon Link is a source for breast cancer awareness items, products for walkers & runners to make fundraising easier and inspirational gifts for those who have unfortunately been touched by this disease or who just need to know you care.
This is the new address and phone number.

The Pink Ribbon Link, Inc.
Winter Village Shopping Center
5025 Winters Chapel Rd., Ste J
Winters Chapel and Peeler Roads
Atlanta, GA 30360
770-352-9330
http://www.thepinkribbonlink.com/

Please make it a point to check out Missy web site and stop by her store if you are local.

Well, I will be back on the torch, finishing orders and starting on my Christmas beads. Please watch my web site for my new beads designs and the Holiday beads.
http://www.dkdesigns.biz/

Happy Fall Ya'll !
Diane

The people have come out to the show and they are spending DOLLARS !!!

AMEN !! We did our first art show this weekend and the people came and they spent money !!! REAL MONEY !!!
I have a renewed sense of optimism that all will be well. This is going to be a GREAT show season. We were at the Roswell Arts Festival this past weekend, September 20th and 21st, in the square , Roswell, GA. Beautiful weather, we had guys to help unload our vehicles, and get our tents up, we had great sales ( possibly our best show ever), and the breakdown was wonderful as the Roswell Parks and rec. Dept. was there to help with that as well. I must publicly commend and thank Linda and Jessica Yanulavich for this being the best Roswell show.
Ladies thank you so much ! And thank you to everyone that came out and helped support us, we do love you guys !

I really feel very optimistic that we are coming out of a very dry spell for us artists. With the election around the corner, in fact 44 days away, we can see the light at the end of that tunnel. Even with gas prices going up in the past week and a lot of gas stations without gas. It is going to be OK. All will be well. Fear not my fellow artists, we will be able to make money again. This weekend proved that to me.

My next show is the Atlanta Bead Extravaganza next friday, saturday and sunday , September 26th, 27th and 28th, at the North Atlanta Trade Center, in Norcross GA. and I have no beads ready, no wait I have 1 bead set ready. So I will be putting in 4 - 12 hour days to get it done.

So if you are here in Atlanta, come out and see me at the show ! for more info go to my web site at http://www.dkdesigns.bi/

Later,
Diane

Blogging to Market your business

Well, I have not blogged since July and that is bad. I am hearing that Blogging is the new "Web Site", even better the way to advertise your business. I have always had good marketing skills. My favorite is the tried and true Business card. My goal is to hand out a minimum of 5 per week. In line at the grocery store, the bank, the post office, anywhere you have a chance to tell people who you are and what you do. I guess that this is pretty "Old school" compared to the new and advanced ways of today's standards. But it has always worked for me.
Another good marketing method is links to your web site from others. This is free and can get a lot of traffic to your site. Also good meta tags or key words. If you do a search on google for "Glass Bead making Classes in Georgia" , My site is the first one that comes up, the same for Bead Displays in Georgia.
And there is always the paid method of advertising. Yellow Book, Yellow pages, magazines, newspapers.
And now Blogging....so what does one have to do to advertise in Blogging ?
I believe that if you have a good product, and you have a captive audience, that is looking for your product, oua-la ! .......no I think they need to hear about you, know others that have purchased from you, and LOVE you product. So, I would think that asking everyone you know to write in their blogs about you and have links to your web site, would get you more hits, and of course the great possibility of more sales.

We are at the Roswell Arts Festival this weekend, in space # 31, on the street. Stop if you can and check out our new fall designs, before they all sell out, and my sisters new dicro pendant and earring sets, and my new pendants and lampwork flower rings.

I will blog more, I promise.
Diane

OMG, the DTSBS is in 5 days !!!

And, I still don't have enough beads made. Worked on 4 bead displays today, dipped mandrels, etched some beads, watchin a little tube and then it's off to bed, to get up early and make the beads...that will be my life this week, and my reward will be beers with Kay on thursday night.
Hope to see everyone at the show this weekend.
Down the Street Bead Show
Galleria Mall, July 19th & 20th
Saturday, 10am to 6pm
Sunday 10am to 5pm

Art Shows at Night ??

Art shows at Night ???....hmmm. now it would be cool, temperature wise, and maybe more people would come out. But.....what about lights ???
So, if you do a show at night, you will need electricity so that you can plug your lights into it......but what if you did a show and they did not have enough power for everyone to have lights ???....would you do the show ???

Teaching, Creating and Selling

It is really hard to get to everything we need to in 1 day. Yes, I am saying that 24 hours is not enough ! How can we get 40 hours into a day ? Is that asking to much ? Would we be even more tired ? I want to expand my bead business and market in every area I can, but can I really do this ? Is it possible to keep up with 7 different networking sites on a weekly basis ? List new beads on Etsy and eBay daily ? Participate in the forums on Etsy, LE and only God knows where else ?
I want to do it all, but can I ?