Louise and I have been home from Indiana Artisan Marketplace since Monday, but today is the first real chance I’ve taken to write about our experiences, which were very good for the entire weekend. load in and load out were effortless and set-up even with the new booth configuration and more lighting went smoothly. We made new contacts during wholesale afternoon and a couple of more Saturday and Sunday, plus a re-commitment from a new gallery. Saturday’s sales were excellent, not only for smaller less expensive items, but for larger expensive pieces too. Sunday, sales were very slow but we still managed selling some nice pieces.
While in Indianapolis we stayed at the IndyHostle which was inexpensive and located in a working class neighborhood which we much enjoyed. The neighborhood reminded us our old neighborhood, Bucktown in Chicago when we first lived there shortly after gentrification started but was not out of control. Renovations were beginning in this area and the small cottages and homes were very quaint and inviting. I mentioned to Louise that if I were moving to Indianaplis, this would be a neighborhood I would like.
Lucky for us and as ususual we found several restaurants we liked. For supper we enjoyed Sobro, named after that part of town, South Broad Ripple. Breakfast was an even better find, Mama’s Kitchen located at Winthrop and 54th. Retro sixties decor, but excellent food and a very nice waitress who told us she was off to the Peace Corps in a couple of weeks. Some place called Uhzbekestan, or Turkestan?
The drive home was effortless, and the following morning we set the booth up again and decided on new configurations for the American Craft Council show. We assumed the booth set-up for Indianapolis would be final for this year, but saw a few shortcomings in the design and are now implimenting changes. Hopefully, this will be it for the remainder of the year.
