Booth # 2043 Denver Convention Center

Here we are! Day one over and we're tired. A different kind of tired than an art fair. All in all a good day. We made contact with
hundreds of orthodontists and their staff. Wrote one order. Memories of the Las Vegas AAO had day two bearing better sales and day one folks just window shopping. Spoke with past customers who have loved their work and will be ordering more.
All good. Handed out easily 250 cards!
We like our spot. Location is everything at these pricey real estate shows. We have several tables and chairs across from our booth where impromptu meetings and business lunches occur lending clear sight into our colorful 100 square feet. All in all a day filled with thousands of very well manicured orthodontists. Only here and a gynocologist convention could bear better kept hands!!

Resting up for day two!
Snow still on mountains!
♥
Pat

http://www.artfulsmiles.com

In the Mile High City

We left our studio home last night at 7:30. A few delays in town set us back from leaving earlier, but this was fine. We had a nice dinner at home and hit the road. Drove to Columbia, MO last night. This evening we arrived in Denver as the sun was setting. In time to catch LOST!
It's chilly here and the news said it snowed this morning. Glad I brought my coat and socks! Also glad that we'll be inside for 4 days! Tomorrow we head to the convention center and set up our booth. With unions and drayage, setting up at these events is always a circus! For two people accoustomed to moving our stuff all over, little can be done without the unions stepping in to connect lights and lay carpet.........and get paid!!
Ugh...makes me glad we don't do this type of show all the time!
We're kind of colorful small potatoes at these shin-digs. Colgate, Crest, dental chairs and lights and all that sort of thing prevail in a big way with reps that fly in to work in their makeshift offices set up by crews ahead of them.
The funny thing is we're the ones who make what we're selling, and we drove it here, will set it up, and sell it. Next time someone says artists don't work hard, they better duck!!

The show opens Saturday morning and runs through Tuesday afternoon when we begin our drive home. We'll arrive home in time to kiss the kitties and repack the van for a one day show up in Lafayette IN. with the Hecker Design work.
On Sunday we hope to catch the time delay of the Indy 500 and celebrate with a little agave!!

Featured above is another vessel from my work that will show at By Hand Gallery.
This is the Petroglyph Bead Pot. An insane amount of intricate work that I became inthrawled doing. Every glass bead is hand stitched through the gourd with holes drilled first and a matching pearl inside to keep the stitch from pulling through. Weird how these activities relax me!!

Patricia


Petroglyph Bead Pot
85.00
By Hand Gallery

•• Sunday, and We're Home! ••

I had a great day today! I slept good, had a great breakfast with Jon and the tigers and eased into morning slowly. Not being in a show on a weekend is a treat! Kitties love us being home and vice-versa! They've been taking turns parking themselves on the luggage I need to unpack. I tend to be slow to do this. I also feel it gives them a sense of control if we let them sleep on the 'where are you going' bags. Perhaps I am projecting...or making excuses.

The day was interspersed by phone calls to my friend Bonnie. She is spirit itself with a hearty laugh I love hearing! She's given us valuable insight and critique to the slides we are about to submit to the folk art show Kentuck. I'll be applying with my TattooDreams work and it may be it's first time at a 'real show'......needless to say, I'm very excited! We'll shoot the booth shot during the week on a nice overcast day out in the driveway.

Today also brought about a solid meeting of the minds of the NAIA Fun Raising Committee. We had a conference call that seems to have ironed out some details and given us more focus. The creative brainstorming we accomplished felt great!

I made a batch of gluten free granola for Jon which left our home smelling of warm cinnamon! I used Pomegranate juice in the base which turned this batch an interesting shade of pink!
I also cleaned the guts out of 3 gourds I plan to have in my exhibit at the By Hand Gallery here in Bloomington. That exhibit opens while we're in Denver. Sorry we'll miss the opening, but it runs a little over a month. It will have my boxes, crosses, gourds, and furniture.

Work continues with developing the new ArtfulSmiles. When they come together, you'll see them here!! We will showcase them in Denver at the upcoming American Association of Orthodontists convention in May.

All in all ~ a great day!
Showcasing a TattooDreams Day of the Dead box I sold on etsy this morning.
Here's to a great week!

Patricia