Karthi was a bedlam of activity the whole of November. Why? Because Kala Chaarutha was gearing up for its first ever exhibition stall at a corporate event. The dining table was snowed under with paper clippings, metal findings and the occasional shiny rhinestone.
There were few horizontal surfaces in the house where paper, bead or crochet jewelry were not reposing in various stages of formation. One weekend saw DH wandering disconsolately around with his open laptop in hand until he ended up in front of me. Of course, I cleared up some space for him immediately - but there WAS only just enough space to put down the laptop, not even the space for a coffee cup beside it.
I also managed to rope in two people to help me. My cousin, to whom I had gifted a beginner's kit for quilling and had taken a class for came with her own wonderful creations to add to my repertoire. And my sis came in to act as cashier. We gathered at Karthi on the day before and were taking care of last minute things till the stroke of midnight! It was fun!
So there we were, on the morning of the 29th, setting out our wares in the grip of equal parts of trepidation and hope - .okay to be honest, 80 parts of trepidation to 20 parts of hope...
The good day had another surprise in store for us - we got "promoted" to a better location quite in the thick of the action and soon we were ensconced there...
Concentrating on the "product" left us little time for "decor" of the stall. I just had enough time in which to whip up a hand-written board for our little stall...
...which seeing our tagline - "All handmade, all with love" was probably more appropriate than a printed flex on a standee! Also, it served to "mask" our billing station, leaving only the goodies out in plain view - a totally unintended effect, I assure you!
There will be no more pictures of the day, because once the people started coming in, we were too busy to take pictures of the action! And THAT is a good thing. Some came to stare, some to chat, some to try on and discard - but lots of people bought our things - which was pretty awesome an experience.
At the end of the day, we all sent up prayers of thanks and walked off exhausted, but very happy with a cash box considerably heavier than when it came in the morning!
So far, so good!!! Besides my cousin and sister, I have DH to thank for a lot including making me believe that I could make enough pieces for display, for chivvying me all along and most of all, ignoring the dust bunnies all around Karthi because I had let the housekeeping slide in the last week! I'm still not sure whether my family got enough nutrition in that week, but since they all seem unharmed, I am relieved!
Which does not mean that everything was perfect. I learned several good lessons in the process ranging from the variety, number and pricing of products to good display techniques. And those lessons can only come from experience - for which I am extremely thankful.
The only casualties of the exhibition are my left forefinger that is STILL sore after continually stretching yarn over the metal hangers (but to good effect because my earring organizers were completely sold out!) and my right arm that ached after all the wire cutting. But hey, what's a little pain in the face of all this joy of accomplishment?
So now on to learning more and making more....!
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