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too much/too little
Aug. 16th, 2004 10:58 amThe Family Fun Festival this last Saturday was a big disappointment.
For starters, the new henna powder that I ordered to have shipped overnight delivery to arrive on Thursday had not shown up by Friday afternoon,* so I had to use the powder I got last month that I have been unhappy with. I was especially annoyed by this because I really wanted to test out this new source before using it at the NorCalRenFaire.
Satuday morning, I got their early enough to have several choices for where to set-up, but I think I made a poor choice as there which spot would be best, and ended up regretting it. Especially when we noticed that there were not one, but two other henna artist there. To add to that, the weather was chilly and overcast the whole day. Not good weather for henna, or craft fairs in general.
By the time![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
emberleo showed-up in the afternoon, I still had not had a single customer. In the end, we had a total of 2. Yes, only two customers. The first only had $3, so I drew her initials in a Tengwar font. The second was the daughter of one of the food vendors, so could not have us work on her until the very end of the show after we had both packed-up. Since emberleo had made the effort to be there, I had her draw the $30 fairy while I packed-up the car.
So, despite my best planning and attempt at actually being prepared, combined, we made only $33 for a booth that cost me $40, netting us -$7 for the day (that is not calculating in any additional expenses, like the henna). I am actually going to complain to the organizers of this craft fair asking them to only have one henna artist. If I had know there was even one other artist there I would not have made the effort to do this fair at all.
About the only thing that salvaged the day was getting to hang out withemberleo and occationally abditus (who showed up for a while after I told him there were yummy crepes to be had at the farmers market there).
After my experience at Lark Cam, BayCon and the Marin County Fair, I am feeling that the henna artist field has been saturated in this area, and really cannot support any more artists. So, I do not recommend anyone become a henna artist and expect to make any money for their art.
*It turns out they put the wrong address down, and it got shipped back to them, so they are shipping it back to me and refunding me the cost of shipping.
For starters, the new henna powder that I ordered to have shipped overnight delivery to arrive on Thursday had not shown up by Friday afternoon,* so I had to use the powder I got last month that I have been unhappy with. I was especially annoyed by this because I really wanted to test out this new source before using it at the NorCalRenFaire.
Satuday morning, I got their early enough to have several choices for where to set-up, but I think I made a poor choice as there which spot would be best, and ended up regretting it. Especially when we noticed that there were not one, but two other henna artist there. To add to that, the weather was chilly and overcast the whole day. Not good weather for henna, or craft fairs in general.
By the time
emberleo showed-up in the afternoon, I still had not had a single customer. In the end, we had a total of 2. Yes, only two customers. The first only had $3, so I drew her initials in a Tengwar font. The second was the daughter of one of the food vendors, so could not have us work on her until the very end of the show after we had both packed-up. Since emberleo had made the effort to be there, I had her draw the $30 fairy while I packed-up the car. So, despite my best planning and attempt at actually being prepared, combined, we made only $33 for a booth that cost me $40, netting us -$7 for the day (that is not calculating in any additional expenses, like the henna). I am actually going to complain to the organizers of this craft fair asking them to only have one henna artist. If I had know there was even one other artist there I would not have made the effort to do this fair at all.
About the only thing that salvaged the day was getting to hang out with
emberleo and occationally abditus (who showed up for a while after I told him there were yummy crepes to be had at the farmers market there).After my experience at Lark Cam, BayCon and the Marin County Fair, I am feeling that the henna artist field has been saturated in this area, and really cannot support any more artists. So, I do not recommend anyone become a henna artist and expect to make any money for their art.
*It turns out they put the wrong address down, and it got shipped back to them, so they are shipping it back to me and refunding me the cost of shipping.
