Get my Mermaid clothing into some stores.

Still pretty weird how I put it on the list, as a sort of long term goal… and next thing I knew I had 3 shops with my clothing. It’s opened me up to doing more wholesaling for sure. wooo!

The lady w/ the shop in Oregon who ordered some fancy stuff from me emailed the other day. She has a friend who is an art rep in the Ashland area… she’s very interested in repping my clothing to stores up there and will be contacting me. Ha!

Holy crap. Finding an art rep is like a dream for an artist… and I would have though my things difficult to rep, I don’t know. Plus, Ashland is the perfect area for my goods. High end hippies. Yessss. This could be big. Multiple stores maybe. heehee.

Woo! I got another order yesterday for a store in McKinleyville called Conscious Home. Turns out the lady took my silk painting class a few years back, she’s super nice. Ordered some wrap skirts and maybe will add tops in the future. Hooray!

Another store in Arcata called The Emerald is selling all locally handmade stuff. This is a consignment deal, so no $ upfront… but I want to support her efforts. The location is right in the neighborhood I lived in when I first moved to this area. A bit out of the way, but she seems to be getting some press and hey there are big mermaids painted on the walls! We’ll see how it goes. What have I got to lose right?

Ask and you shall receive. ha. I did an Art & Wine festival up in Gold Beach, Oregon this past weekend… and one of the other vendors who owns a shop in town, approached me about carrying my clothing in her store. (I have been approached before, but nobody has ever followed through.)

It was sort of trippy… since I had been talking to my booth neighbor about my various wholesaling hangups. I was saying that I thought I just needed to meet someone who I jived with personally, to make it work. I just am not comfy with approaching shops in a formal way.

Then here comes Mary from the South Beach Gallery, she was so cool and we hit it off. She bought an outfit for herself, then sent all her friends to me throughout the weekend to say nice things and buy stuff. And at the end of the show, she came by and actually placed and order, paid half upfront even! Not only that, but she ordered all my fanciest stuff.

Really awesome. It was a great weekend, even with all the van troubles… maybe my karma is finally catching up.

I know I need to get my clothing into stores to be able to make it… especially during festival off-season. I know this. But, I have some issues.

The main thing is I hate having to call people up and present myself. Awww it makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it. Terrifying. It’s not even really that I fear they’ll turn me down or be mean… I can’t get past the first phone call. It’s like giving a speech that you’re deeply invested in. shiver.

I think another part of it is the learning curve. I like to know exactly what I’m doing, not so comfortable winging it. So, maybe I’m nervous about looking unprofessional or dumb. I don’t know.

Another problem is the bullshit involved. A few years back, I enlisted my dear outgoing friend to represent me and approach some shops. People were interested and a few did order. One store was supposed to pay upon receipt, but when we delivered said they had to have terms. Another place to whom I did give net 30 terms, paid like 3 weeks late. Yet another place (coincidentally turned out to be Barney’s ex wife) picked apart my production terms, wouldn’t order this unless I could provide that, etc. Argh.

I much prefer to set up my little booth and you come in and buy stuff or not.