The Cat Show--Musical Meows

This weekend was the big Idaho Cat Fanciers Show and I had a great time! After the HELLISH week I just had, this show was a breath of fresh air! There was a constant chorus of "meows" in the building that was like music to my ears! It was good to be able to talk to so many other cat and animal lovers and to share pet stories with each other. There were cats of all kinds including Persians, Siamese, Amerian Shorthairs, tabby cats, and some rare breeds like the Ocicat which is part bobcat and part domestic cat. There were four other vendors besides me and I was the only artist. Sales were slow at first, but really started picking up after the lunch hour. I made about $150.00 in sales and got about 10 orders for pet portraits! I tend to not get TOO excited about the portrait orders until I actually get the photos to work from. The problem I usually run into is people don't get around to giving me the photo(s) to work from and then the portrait order dies. So I decided to give customers an incentive to try and avoid this problem. I have a special deal going right now. If a potential customer gives me the actual photo to work from by the end of June 2008, I will give them a free print of one of my animal or landscape art prints. I took lots of names and phone numbers down so I could contact people about the portraits they said they wanted. Hopefully, in the next week or two, I may be starting another portrait order.

A lady from Bend, Oregon, who was there showing her cat, came to my booth and asked if she could sell some of my Stone Critter rock animals in a store she was planning to open this fall! So that may be a new opportunity opening up for me. I also got some valuable information on other cat & dog shows (in Idaho and in Utah) that might be a good fit for me and aren't too expensive to enter. It is a goal of mine to start marketing and selling my art out of state but with this real estate/mortgage recession going on, now is not a good time to incur extra expenses. I need to keep my overhead as low as possible and "think cheap"! Possibly next year would be a good time to start this.

I took some photos of the cat show and of me and my booth. I will post some of them on the blogsite probably next week.