The show was pretty well planned and run, with lots of help moving in and moving out, which was really nice!\u00a0 They provided security at night, and the location had plenty of parking and easy access.<\/p>\n

We had an outside booth, which had its good and bad points.\u00a0 The inside booths were cool – the building had AC – and outside on Saturday it hit 102!\u00a0 However the inside was a central room with a large side room, and then hallways off the central room.\u00a0 So a bit tricky to navigate, and if you were on the halls people often stood at the end and looked in without going down the hall.\u00a0 Whereas outside they had to pass our booth coming in and going out.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the promoters did not allow ANY extra space between outside booths, so each tent was crammed into the one beside it.\u00a0 This was a bit awkward setting up, and became a real problem when we had rain Saturday night.\u00a0 The tent next to mine collected water on top, and on Sunday when we opened a wind came up and whooshed the water in a cascade onto my display. Sigh.\u00a0 Wet earring cards just don’t look very good!<\/p>\n

Everyone was very friendly, and I received a great response to my work.\u00a0 I had numerous people tell me they thought mine was the best, most interesting and original jewelry there, which was nice.\u00a0 If they had followed the positive comments with purchases it would have been even nicer!<\/p>\n

In addition to the arts and crafts show they had a small juried event, where each artist\/craftsperson could enter one piece for judging.\u00a0 My entry received third place in jewelry, which I thought was pretty good, considering they had over 15 jewelers at this fairly small show!<\/p>\n

\n\t $\"Turquoise$ <\/a>\n\t

Turquoise and Sterling Silver Pendant and Necklace<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This is the necklace that won 3rd place.\u00a0 It is a lovely Turquoise cabochon that I purchased from Beth Rosengard last year, set in Sterling Silver.\u00a0 The necklace is composed of Turquoise, Agate and Jasper beads to tie in with the colors in the cab.<\/p>\n

Other jewelry artists included one lady working only with pearls, one doing lovely filigree, a rather traditional jeweler, and a range of more bead oriented pieces.<\/p>\n

The combination of the heat and the economy had the attendance several thousand people below what the promoters had indicated, which of course hurt sales.<\/p>\n

Our booth got the most attention because we had our newest family member with us – a tiny kitten someone had dumped at the house.\u00a0 He had his own cage, two fans, a water spritzing bottle, lots of toys and food.\u00a0 Everyone had to come and see the tiny kitten in his harness and leash, so he was a good attention getter!<\/p>\n

\n\t $\"Tenzing$ <\/a>\n\t

Tenzing with his harness, leash, and fan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tenzing is sleeping while we worked at the show.\u00a0 With his thick black fur he got hot quickly, so we kept wetting him down. Since he is a kitten who loves baths, he enjoyed the water very much!<\/p>\n

\n\t $\"Booth$ <\/a>\n\t

Booth at the SC Flower Festival craft show<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You can find more of my work at www.bethwicker.com<\/a>, or on my Etsy shop, www.bethwicker.etsy.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"