A Tupperware Party of an Art & Craft Show

Back when Allison was a baby, and I had to take out an ad in the local newpaper to find a playgroup, one of the Moms who answered the ad sold Tupperware. She convinced me to host a Tupperware Party. Considering I met her through a classified ad, I objected that I really didn't know anyone to invite. This was back in the days when I didn't know how to say "no", so the party proceeded despite my protestation. No one came. Not a single solitary person.

I've just got to say this, and I really don't care who I piss off. The Art & Craft Show at the Old English Inn this weekend was the most colossal waste of my time since that Tupperware Party. I had gone to this show for the past two years as a spectator, and it looked like a good show with nice pottery, jewelry and fiber arts. When the show organizer who also owns the building called me two weeks before the show and asked if I could do the show for no booth fee, only 15% of sales, I agreed.

The Old English Inn is really an interesting building. It's the oldest, largest log structure in the South, was part of the Underground Railroad and is rumored to be haunted. However, no matter how interesting the building is nor how talented the artists are, the public won't come to a show that is not advertised.

There were two other functions in Spruce Pine this weekend: the Heritage Festival and the Spruce Pine Potters Market. What traffic we did have was obviously piggy-backed from those events. Folks certainly couldn't have found their way to us by following the directional signs that looked like a third grader printed them on poster board.

I've never had a sale go so badly. I had 4 sales, and the check I wrote for my 15% was less than $10. On the positive side, the weather was divine, so I sat on the front porch with some of my fellow artists, and we solved world hunger.