Arts & Craft Show Extravaganza

Introduction to Artisan Blacksmith David Robertson

December 19th, 2009, 1 Comment

David is a 44 year old blacksmith who grew up just outside Hamilton Ontario Canada.  He has always been an artist who developed his talent for blacksmithing in college, and sold his work at shows to pay for school.  He has had his own blacksmith business 20 plus years. David wrote the book How to [...]

How to Stage Your Art or Craft Show Booth

December 15th, 2009, 1 Comment

What does Real Estate have to do with selling arts and crafts?

The way I see it your art or craft show booth is kind of like trying to sell a house. If you try to sell an empty house people can’t see in their minds what the house will look like when it’s all finished, painted, furnished, and decorated. You will also have a hard time trying to sell a house that is full of clutter, people can only imagine that the rest of the house hasn’t been taken care of well. They will see that the house will be too much work and cost too much money.

Your art or craft show booth is like selling your house. The booth will help your customers imagine using the product they have purchased from you. You have to do the imagining for them. How?

Interview with James Dillehay

November 13th, 2009, No Comments

James: I grew up in Houston Texas, sometimes working in my father’s retail clothing business in my early teens. In my twenties, my dad expanded to 4 stores and incorporated. I was expected to take over the business and it seemed like the logical choice. Meanwhile, I had a side interest — studying human potential – as in personal growth through consciousness raising practices.

I had come across a Sufi master from Baghdad who traveled around the world teaching ancient techniques for increasing one’s perceptions and intelligence. In a workshop with this man, who seemed straight out of the Arabian Nights, he told me I should quit my job – that it was holding me back from the work I would be doing later on.

Needless to say, this created quite a lot of stress. On the one hand, my father’s business was a golden opportunity. And on the other hand, I could spend some unknown amount of time walking a path that stretched back into antiquity with no clear promise of anything my Western mind could grasp. But it was the call of adventure into the unknown that finally won out.