Thursday, February 23, 2012

The road east.

I left Friday evening for the 1500 mile journey east to Baltimore for the ACC show.  The packing, loading, and journey were uneventful and stress-free except for a 5 hour window in Virginia.  There was a nasty snow storm that had me white knuckled.  There were a couple of near disasters but I made it through.  I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to drive in heavy snow in the last 12 years.  I had to dust off the cobwebs and remember my early days of driving in Minnesota.  Anyways, no big deal.  I made it safe and sound.



I made some poor man pedestals, the base is a cardboard box and the top is made from scrap plywood laying around.  They cost about $2.50 each.  And they're gray, not mint, bad lighting.

I took my trailer up to Baltimore but I wasn't too keen on having to pay the labor union to unload it.  The weather was gorgeous so I unloaded it all in the hotel parking lot and reloaded it into my truck.  1 hour of work saved me $280.

Getting set-up, I have a larger space this year, 8x15.  I much prefer the larger space as it gives me room for some pedestals to help show off the larger pieces.  This booth is somewhat modular and I have extra panels to do anything from 10x10 to 10x15.  The display area is only 7 feet deep so I have space in the back for extra pots, packing and other show crap.  Because this spot was only 8 feet deep I brought a panel to the front on the right hand side so I have a little area on the side for storage/packing.

With the shelves installed.

All set up for the wholesale portion.  I don't offer everything I make for wholesale, so this setup shows all the shapes and patterns available.  I will change it up for the retail days, I'll get a photo of that up hopefully this weekend.

The wholesale days were good this year, I almost doubled the volume of orders over last year.  A few new shops/galleries from the west coast to the east coast. 

If you're in the region come see the show.  I have a couple of free passes left so if you'd like to come shoot me an email.
Friday 10-8
Saturday 10-6
Sunday 10-5

Well, I'm off to get some rest.  Tomorrow is the first day of retail and it's a long 10 hour day.

Cheers!

5 comments:

Kyle Carpenter said...

Very impressive, Mr. Phillips.

ang design said...

wow thats some flat out wk enjoy the wkd BP look forward to hearing from you when you get back and all the best with your orders

Ron said...

Hope you have some killer weekend retail sales. Money in the bank.

Joe and Christy said...

congrats on doubling your sales from last year!

Although, I have to ask... did you really take a picture of just how bad the road was while you were driving? I'm not sure to be impressed by your dedication to blogging, or to scold you...

Joe

brandon phillips said...

haha. busted. i was only going like 30mph...