An Artist's Dilemma

Good morrow, good gentles...hack...cough...wheeze...



Pardon me, I seem to have some Renny Gabble stuck in my throat.



Whew, what a weekend!



We woke quite early on Saturday, hoping to arrive at the Fair with time to spare for fluffing the booth. What we didn't count on was the Georgia DOT choosing the opening weekend of the event to close the highway and reroute all traffic through the exit we needed to get to the fair.



An aside - Dear Georgia DOT - what the HELL?????



Ahem.



While we were still early enough to get everything sorted out and slip into our garb..



Another Aside - did y'all know I'm a talented woman? Yep - I can get undressed and re-dressed in public without ever showing more skin than when I'm fully clothed. Mad skillz, yo.



Where was I? Oh, right...so we got dressed, shot a few clandestine photos of the booth setup (cameras and cell phones are forbidden to vendors and players during fair hours), and were ready to go.



Saturday was gorgeous, a perfect day for opening an eight week festival, despite the traffic issues that were the talk of the fair-goers.



Another aside - Really, Georgia DOT, who does that? On the day a long running event opens its gates to the usually enormous crowd and funnels tens of thousands of people through the site, often in one day, who decides it's a good idea to close a four lane highway and force the traffic into two lanes and an exit ramp??



Right, back to the show. So we had literally thousands of people passing by, pausing to look at the shiny, shiny glass.



Without fearing accusations of exaggeration, I believe I can say that K had a good day.

Sunday started out with little rain showers, just enough to moisten the ground and keep fair-goers away in droves. It was...quiet. We still had some good sales, but it wasn't even half what we did on Saturday. Still, I think it was a decent opening weekend, and we managed to come up with a rainy-day setup that would suit if the weather turned really foul. We were a little crowded when the rain was falling, but did alright once it cleared. We're hoping it's the only rainy day at the fair.

We didn't walk the fair much, just visited a few of the vendors nearby and one quick trip to the Pirate's Ship to purchase the cutest wee little knives because I forgot to bring anything with which I could butter bread or cut sausage. D'oh!

The most difficult part of the weekend came around closing time on Saturday. K had a tough choice to make. You see, she's been wearing this piece...

...for several months, ever since she created it. It's one of her favorites. The central image is her own art, the line drawing turned into colorful prints, a t-shirt, one of the images in one of her coloring books, and of course, dichroic glass pendants and earrings. She was quite proud of the CZ she embedded above the goddess.

To say she loves this piece is to understate.

So of course, one of the thousands of people passing through admired it on K's neck and wanted to know if it was for sale, and if so, how much?

Herein lies the artist's dilemma. If one love a piece of one's own art, but one is in the business of selling one's art, what is one to do? In K's case, she named a price that would probably ensure that no one would buy the piece. The woman said she'd think about it and walked away. K was fairly certain the patron wouldn't be back.

Except, she did come back. Now K had to decide - would she really part with her beloved pendant? Was the money worth knowing that her favorite piece was no longer hers? Honestly, I've never seen her think so long or so hard about parting with one of her pieces...but she finally took it off, kissed it goodbye (literally - she kissed it several times), and handed it over. She consoled herself with the thought that she was making a tremendous profit on the materials and she could always go home and make one, if not exactly like it, then at least similar.

Overall, it was a fine weekend, and I'm looking forward to next weekend. Between now and then I need to repair my costume (it suffered a modicum of wear and wants a few well placed stitches), re-lace the bodice/vest so it's smaller (I've shrunk a wee since I first bought it, and it is now too big), and possibly find the funds for some new shoes (the boots are grand, but they slouch and are an effort to get into/out of) and maybe a new shift to wear with my other costume, and maybe a new blouse to wear with my skirt. First, though, I'll have to win the lottery - the way they price their costume pieces, I'm thinking the clothiers suffer from the artist's dilemma, too.