Handmade Market in Raleigh NC

 The Handmade Market was a juried, one day art market in downtown Raleigh NC at Cobblestone Hall. There were 2-D & 3-D artists, lots of jewelry, soaps & other delightful things. It was a really neat space, with huge windows and doors flung wide open to let in light and fresh air.  There were a little over 50 vendors at the fair, and I was brand new to the area.  People began pouring in right at 11 am, and the crowds were steady until we closed at 5.

The Handmaidens did a great job organizing the event!  Steven was a great support for me that day, driving me at the crack of dawn to Raleigh, helping me unload, set up & keeping me updated on the score of the Clemson game.  Thank you boyfriend!

Organizing some last minute details before the crowds arrived.

 The majority of the work I brought was brand new & made specifically for the Handmade Market.  I also presented my mixed media drawings in frames this time around, hoping to entice some buyers (like last time, the collages were most popular.)  I had a nice big table that I adorned with a dusty aqua table cloth.  It worked perfectly to complement the color schemes in my work & I was pleased with how the setup looked.  The table was about 6 feet long, so I had some space to spread out and arrange everything.  There were a few familiar faces from the Indie Craft Parade in Greenville. I traded a collage for a nifty new handbag by Sally at SewFew.  Be jealous!

This was my favorite new piece that I made for the art fair, combining a reductive relief in green, gold ink, type, thread & cutout parrots in a vintage gold frame.  The frame had some red running through it, which complemented the green background & mirrored the red in the chest of the birds.  I made it the night Steven came home from Texas.  'It's not the same without you here' found a good home with an older couple, whose conversation prior to purchasing went something like this:

Woman: ooh, I like this one. Do you like it?
Man:  Yea, it's nice.
Woman:  I'll take it!
Man: Well I meant I liked it, I didn't mean you should buy it!
Woman: Oh, but we're getting it.
Man:  I've got to go outside, I'm about to have a coronary.

Now it's back to work in the studio & time to relax a little!  Today I introduced the self-portrait final project to my drawing class & tomorrow I begin my modern art lecture series with the art appreciation courses.  The semester will be ending soon, it's hard to believe. Time flies.