richmond handmade holiday 2011

Holiday art markets have been my entire life lately. Yesterday was my second art market of the month - Richmond Craft Mafia's Handmade Holiday - and it was just as awesome as Holiday Heap in Baltimore.

The event was held at Plant Zero in Richmond, and as soon as I walked into the space to set up, I discovered two of my favorite things - paper lanterns and twinkle lights strung up everywhere! Add to that some delicious, fresh-from-the-oven scones from the Plant Zero Cafe and I was a happy camper before the market even opened to customers.



There was a good crowd throughout the day and my Virginia ornaments and Virginia map illustrations were popular with the crowd in the state capital, though geography continued to vex the general public. The map illustrations were completely confusing to the Maryland crowd last week, and the Virginia crowd did only marginally better. I've always known that Americans suck at geography (I read somewhere that a large percentage of Americans think that Canada is one of the 50 states and that New Mexico is a foreign country), but I was shocked at how many people could not identify the shape of the very state that they live in! And while I don't expect many people outside of DC to be able to identify the DC map, I was surprised at the guesses: "Is this South Carolina?" "Is this Pennsylvania?" Pennsylvania is a rectangle, people!

A highlight of the day was when my favorite Richmond bloggers stopped by my booth - John and Sherry (and Clara, too) of Young House Love. So fun to get to meet these guys in person! I also got to meet the owners of Luminhaus (the amazing house we vacationed at this summer to celebrate Larry's 40th birthday). I had left one of my Eat More Cheese prints at Luminhaus, and Jennifer Watson came up to my booth and said "You stayed in our house!" and mentioned that she recognized the print.

A big thanks to everyone who stopped by my booth - it was great to meet so many Richmonders!

I've really been liking my new display and table set-up - it has been tough to maximize my display space using the tiny 6' table we are allotted for indoor markets, and I think going vertical was best way to showcase as many of my prints as possible. It does make it a little more difficult to interact with customers as only my head is showing above the display, and I do have to stand on my feet all day, but I will sacrifice my comfort for my art!

And here's a behind the scenes view and a dirty little secret - my entire display is supported by paint cans and duct tape. Yes, this display was engineered by a former architect and a civil engineer. Also, note how the paint cans are wearing, yes, dog bandanas. Fancy.

The other good thing about having a tall display...it hid the fact that my zipper was down during the entire show.  Well, you know, except for the part where I walked around the entire market a few times WITH MY FLY OPEN checking out the other vendor's booths. NICE ONE, Rachel!

Also, WHY DOESN'T LARRY EVER NOTICE THESE THINGS AND WARN ME BEFORE I WALK AROUND IN PUBLIC?


All in all, it was a great day and I'm already looking forward to next year's holiday markets. But right now I need to catch up on Christmas... (Though I'd really rather spend the next two weeks baking, reading, and consuming copious amounts of alcohol!)