[Jewelry making - Article 01112] - Re: [Orchid] Total frustration, can't get into shows!!!

[Karen Seymour-Ells]

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Hi,

    I just sat in on a jury for a show in Milwaukee. It is what I
    consider a B show. Not the highest income show but good quality work,
    great management and for most of the artists I know fairly consistent
    income from year to year. As it is run by a guild they offer a bonus
    of letting members attend the slide review of entrants. 

    This year the number of applicants they received went up around 25%
    ! For 90 spots total there were 78 jewelers alone. I may not be a
    high end gold smith but I am fairly well educated in metals and there
    were easily more than a dozen goldsmiths that would have been very
    hard to choose between, an equal number of "whimsical" jewelry makers
    as well. This competition isn't even fierce compared to the big
    national shows. 

    There were a few things those near me reached a consensus on: a lot
    of artists who have done primarily production/wholesale in the past
    have slow sales and are now competing or reentering the retail market
    flooding the shows with new professional entries. Who your
    photographer is makes a huge difference, do they understand what you
    are competing against? The order your slides are in when projected is
    big too. Is one slide dischordant, does your eye flow smoothly over
    over the pieces as a set?  Make sure your booth shot is just your
    booth! You wouldn't believe the number of booth shoots that include
    the neighbors booth..a sign with your name on it (that is considered
    really really bad and friends have had shows take a marker to their
    booth shot to cover the name.)..half the backyard was visable in the
    shot in etc...You just need the inside of the booth. Then to top it
    off, when you see a slide jury you immediately recognize that the
    pieces juried don't really relate to what the total booth looks like.
    In a jury there is little room for subtlety, the jury only has a few
    seconds to make up their mind and they need something to pop out at
    them to grab their attention. I have to say too...all in all, the
    jewelers really had the best slides as a group too. 

    On a completely different note...The one of a kind show. I went last
    year, all the Canadian artists are gone that came the first year. A
    lot of local artists and from around the U.S. primarily, Amy Amdur is
    no longer a big part of the show. I spoke to several that came back
    for a second year and they all said that while they didn't make a
    killing the first year they think the right kind of people come to
    the show and they wanted to be in on the ground floor of what they
    think will be very good show. Rather mixed quality on the work, some
    really amazing stuff, but in each row at least one "what the heck is
    that doing here?" booth. The few artists that really stood out I
    couldn't talk to, they were too busy! 

Karen



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