One thing I’ve learned about selling at the weekly Spenard Farmers Market is that no two weekends have ever been the same! I know partly it has to do with the weather and the overall vendor energy of the Market but those other intangible things are a complete mystery. To help with a solid production schedule, I’d like to think by now I’d have a better idea of what was selling and what was not, but each weekend is completely different. The good news is my work is selling –whew! But I am completely mystified as to what triggers a certain sculpture's “buy me” radar! I had an outdoor sculpture that has been at my booth for three weeks and last Saturday FOUR completely different people wanted to buy that same sculpture! I’m not kidding –I almost left the piece at the house but decided to bring it because I kept thinking “you can’t sell what you don’t have out…” The customer who bought the sculpture happily pulled up in her cute VW and loaded it in the front seat. 5 minutes later a customer who had been by the Market that morning said I’d like to buy that flower sculpture now… Two other people came by later in the afternoon and asked 
“where did that beaded sculpture go, I wanted that for my garden?!” There has to be a word for this art phenomenon, if not we need to make one up! Then when we discover what triggers this, as artists’ we can collectively bottle it and sprinkle it on every piece we have for sale at every Market, Gallery, Fair or Show!The Garden Raven Flags have also been a hit –I’ve had several people want to buy them on the internet but I’m not able to sell any of my work that way. I can hardly sew enough of the flags for my Market booth. HOWEVER(!) the Garden Raven Flag kits ARE AVAILABLE at The Quilted Raven! The kit includes 5 panels of individually silk screened Ravens (designed by me!) on beautiful, 100% cotton Batik. Call 907-278-3521 or visit The Quilted Raven's web site -they ship anywhere. My finished flags are using the kits and 1, 3 yard packet of Extra Wide Double Fold Bias Tape -easy-beezy, so if you want some garden flags give The Quilted Raven a call and sew up a very cool set. Maybe when I can get my retail act together I can look into being more sales efficient…not sure when that will ever happen though. Making the flags is just one part of the process and designing the inserts, printing them, packaging and pricing them is also necessary. To help boost sales I’ve also needed to pay better attention to keeping everything for sale at the Market booth looking fresh. A bright, happy, put-together booth has definitely brought me more customers. Wind and rain takes it’s toll on all of my tags and price stickers so I swap them each Saturday morning and fluff and primp all of the hanging baskets on the plant stands that are for sale. I keep my signage new and not tattered looking as well. There are plenty of my business cards and newspaper articles about my work on hand for my customers too. All of my pieces have a clear to read price sticker that can be easily removed if it’s a gift. I’ve learned that most customers don’t want to ask how much something is. My thinking is, if it’s not priced then it must not be for sale.
We were able to get a little Girdwood time in this weekend after the Market. Daddy-O needed to do some roof repair and general maintenance on the house, which also meant some much needed fresh air hiking on the mountain for all of us! The amazing Nimbus thinks Girdwood is pretty cool and Tauzer got to forage in the ferns on our property. She loves to find a dug out area and cool out -she freaked me out though because when I walked up near where she was laying I though it was a small Black Bear!
...meeting Michelle Wilber and Jay Stange of the Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage who turned me on to where I can find some cool bicycle parts for my upcoming 1% sculpture "Bicycle Bloom" -thanks Jay!
With the help from Daddy-O my Sheep Topiaries have been built,
wrapped, planted, watered and now are being babysat in a cool area of our backyard. The extra set of hands was much needed not only to help hold the sphagnum (I think this is kind of a gross word) moss as it was wrapped with floral wire around the sheep forms, but to swat all the HUGE mosquito’s that were swarming us! I have about two weeks of growing time before the Alaska Botanical Garden’s Gala, Art Show and Garden Fair! The “Lambelia” family will be one of my entries. The form I used was the same one I used to create the "Steel Wool" garden
sculpture sheep. For the topiaries, I welded more 1/8” round stock to the body as “ribs” and added and wrapped poultry wire for the form to better hold the sphagnum moss. The big tip came from Patty at Sutton’s greenhouse and that was to wrap my
poultry wire in plastic wrap! She told me her son came up with this idea as a better way to hold in the moisture of the plants and moss-
what a great idea! Thank goodness I’m holding in some moisture –I couldn’t imagine how dry these topiaries would be without the plastic helping hold some of the moisture. As it is, I’m misting and watering at least 3 times a day. For the plantings, I’m using my favorite Regatta Sapphire Lobelia and Bambini Mix, Splendid Blue & Yellow, Sorbet Lavender Ice Violas. So far none of the plants have shown any shock but Derek and I laughed while having our coffee because yesterday morning there was a clump of potting soil on the ground right behind the Mama Sheep that looked like she left us a little “present” overnight!
Speaking of needing an extra set of gloved hands, this morning Daddy-O helped me make three trips to Alaska Metal Recycling. After a few months and the side yard starts to look a little hill-billy, I can usually have about 2,000 pounds of scrap metal that are cuts left over from plasma cutting and welding –today there was a lot of the galvi duct work that I had up-cycled for the “Steel Wool” sheep sculptures. For you local artists, Alaska Metal Recycling is also where I purchase all my copper wire by the pound and copper pipe I use for the garden chimes –they are located off King Street here in Anchorage.
