Clothesline Art Show
Description
Today was the “Clothesline Art Show” at Coast Collective at Havenswood at Esquimalt Lagoon. What a great day; lots of sunshine, vendors and music.
My husband and I left our house at 7:45 am and arrived at Coast Collective around 8:15am. Our first task upon arrival was to get my site assignment and location. The area was already bustling with vendors unloading and new vendors arriving. Terri (the woman in charge) met us in the driveway to assign our site number. I was given site #11 which was situated in a beautiful grassy area which bordered on forest. There was ample room between sites and I had vendors on either side of me. I found out later that the site on one side was the designated beer and wine garden.
Unloading the truck at this venue was such a different experience than what I have experienced in the past 3 three years. For the past 3 years I have been selling my pieces at a local market but unloading times are not to commence any sooner than 8:00 am and little noise must be made as possible, as this market is located in a quiet little suburb. Residents want to enjoy their sleep in time and peace and quiet on a Saturday morning.. Whereas, Coast Collective is nestled in a forest like setting; there are no houses surrounding the set up area, therefore no need to be quiet and hushed to respect the sleeping residents.
The grass was still full of dew and it soaked my sandled feet as I walked back and forth carrying my supplies; canopy, tables and creations. What a pleasant feeling it was – the air was fresh; the sky was a bit cloudy with the sun peeking through intermittently. It was a relaxed atmosphere; vendors moving from here and there; the air was full of serenity and quiet excitement.
When I first landed at my site I did not know where to set up. Do I set up on either side of the site marker and if so, which side? My husband went to ask another vendor. She said she put her tent over the site marker. Well this vendor and I were shocked with the answer – we did not have to scrunch up against each other; we could spread out and even go passed our site marker! Of course, I asked her if she normally attended other craft markets and she said yes and related the same story that market vendors have about other market vendors – Craft market vendors get insulted and angered if your tent or canopy foot imposes even 1 cm onto their allotted space! But this was an art show, and we were encouraged to branch out and be creative in our displays. What a concept!
The start time was 10:00 am. My husband helped with most of the set up and then left, to let me deal with my little details and eccentricities. It usually takes me a couple of hours to pretty up my table and area, but I was finished by 9:30 this morning. Record time for me. I had plenty of time to bask in the sun and watch the latecomers set up their tents and arrange their venue.
Visitors started to appear around 10:00 and it was a constant stream of people for a couple of hours. There was a quiet time for about an hour and
then the visitors appeared again.
Most of the day was sunny and calm but the wind decided to appear around 2:30. Wind is always a challenge for me, because the gourds are quite light and need to be loaded down with stones so that they stay on the display table. So with a bit of effort I got everything stable and I did not have to stress about running after the business cards and signage.
The music tent was a couple of canopies down from me, so I was blessed with the sounds of quiet music all day long. Many curious visitors stopped by my booth and I was able to share and swap stories about gourds and how I create my pieces. I sold 6 pieces today– a large community lidded piece (first picture in this blog), a smaller lidded community piece (second picture); a lidded bowl with gekkos and carved coiling, lidded vessel with glue resist technique and a lid with carved coiling ( a piece I had created for an art show); a small vase/ candle holder and 2 pins – goddess and ladybug themes.