Catching up! My first Art Fair and inside Cloud Nine Studios!

              Hello Everyone! What a busy little bee I have been lately. I am grateful to have a second to breathe now and catch you all up on how my first art fair went! The Fair was from Friday-Sunday. Friday morning was set up from 9am-11am but when I got there they were still mopping the event space! We ended up only having about an hour and a half for set up which made me STRESS big time. When the event started it was like a ghost town. Friday I went home with $6 in sales. 

I felt very defeated.

Saturday came and I showed up with a positive attitude ready to hustle my stuff! I rearranged my booth a little to help the flow of traffic enter easier and I lowered my prices to see if it made some difference. Thankfully, the amount of people walking around was amazing! I was starting to see which things people were consistently drawn to in my booth and what was selling and not. I left Saturday with breaking even for the fair. I was happy with my decisions and feeling more confident about my work and space. 

Sunday rolled around and going into the day I was already even for the weekend. So anything that I sold was profit. This made it a little easier for me to let go of pieces for an even lower price. At first I was stubborn in my pricing but then I realized I can just make more of them and the more I sold the better I would feel about my first show. The traffic was a little slower again on Sunday but I end up about $100 plus for the weekend. 

(Mikaela and her homemade dog treats)

For my first fair I am extremely proud. My goal was to at least break even and get some great experience and advertising and I ended up in sales. I now know what people are interested in and what works for displaying my pieces and what doesn't work. Selling online is very different then selling in person. I had used a lot of strategies that I would for selling online at first at the fair and quickly realized the differences!

I was able to meet some great artists and people walking through. I handed out a TON of businesses cards and have some possible commissions that I am hoping will follow up! I am so grateful for all the help that my boyfriend George was able to do for me. I am so lucky to have someone who fully supports me and is always there if I need him. Also a HUGE thank you to my room mate Jessica for taking time out of her day off the help me set up! She really kept me in check when I wanted to break down before it even all started. 

My goal this week is to update my Etsy shop and list everything that I photographed before the show so if people decide to find me from my business card that everything is looking up to date and professional! I have a lot of work ahead of me but I feel only good vibes from the whole experience.....except for the parking ticket I got trying to unload my car! Oops. Oh well! 

Click here for my ETSY SHOP!

I should be back on schedule for the blogs now! Be sure to check out my Etsy for all the new items and updates! Also be sure to click the subscribe button on the top right of this page if you liked this blog and want more!

Until Tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Etsy Featured Item of the Day:

Recycled Sweater Coat- 2XL by - LauraAnnLyon

Song of the Day:

U2 - Beautiful Day

Color of the Day:

Little Angel

Create the kind of Art that makes you HAPPY!

       Everything I can remember back to my very first memories, have to do with creating and color. I was very blessed to have been raised by an extremely artistic and expressive mother. She always encouraged my younger brother and I to see things with imaginative minds. I know her influence on me growing up was a huge component of why I see art in everything I do today.

In my life I been dabbled with almost every kind of art I could find. From acting to metals, choir to watercolor, wood burning to glass etching, painting to charcoal, wood working to chalk murals,...I think you get the point. So when I finally switched to a major in painting at Wayne State University in Detroit I really thought I had it figured out. 

Then one day I realized I wasn't feeling fulfilled. I loved art and was excited to create something everyday but I had been putting so much pressure on myself to be the kind of artist I wasn't. I can produce stunning,  realistic,  large paintings on canvas to get into gallery shows, but that's not what makes me happy. Then I asked myself, "what does make me happy?"

One day I was spending some time painting random things around the house when I found a wine bottle, I thought WHAT A CUTE IDEA I WILL PAINT THIS WINE BOTTLE! My mind exploded with so many wonderful ideas for painting this simple piece of recycling I had just laying around. I made sports themed bottles, cute animal cartoon bottles, I even started posting them on Facebook and sure enough people had the same reaction as I did....HOW CUTE!

Once I started to realize I could make money selling my wine bottles I really got inspired. I started understanding that I loved working on non conventional surfaces. I painted benches, cigar boxes, rocks, and raw pieces of wood. It took me a while to give up the idea that I needed to be a gallery artist to be successful because that's what school had taught me. Opening up my ETSY SHOP was my next adventure. It is still a work in progress but I LOVE working on it every day. Listening to new YouTube videos on how to improve my photos or captions.

I want to hear your stories on how you found the Art you LOVE! Haven't found it yet?

WELL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR GET GOING AND FIND HAPPINESS!!!

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios