Each year we participate in six or seven shows, (we could do
a show every weekend but that’s too much and would take away the fun). Some are
indoors but the four shows we do in Wyoming are all outdoors, so hoping for clear
weather, we paid the show fee and set up our tent, tables, and rock art at The
Alpine Mountain Days in Alpine, Wyoming.
This is the fourth year we have sold our work at this show
and of course we always want to do well. It’s a real test of the quality of our
work, the ultimate test really as we are asking people to inspect, critique,
and spend their hard-earned money.
It’s not like anyone needs our cabochons, jewelry, or knives
to live on as they are not really one of the necessities of life, (all though
some would argue this point). There is a second reason for doing shows and that
is to meet other people who also love rock hounding.
The show is a good one for us but some days drag and at this
show it’s Friday. The crowd was just a trickle as most people are working and
this year Friday was a slow as we have ever seen. We did however meet a couple
from Afton who showed up all decked out with beautiful rock art.!
Herbert told of his love of working fire agates and brought
some of his stones. Now we do have some fire agate rough ourselves but we have
spent very little time working it as it is extremely time consuming. This may
sound funny to some but retirement is not a slow day to day existence and we
simply don’t have enough time to do everything we love.
His work is some of the finest we have ever seen. He also
told us of his technique of first tumbling the agates before selecting the best
ones to work on. Carefully removing a very small piece of stone he grinds away
each layer, knowing full well that the fire agate layer is extremely thin and
that with one careless move he can destroy any beauty in the stone.
Saturday also started slow but then the deluge hit, and our
booth was crowded with tourists and locals, many repeat customers. You never
know what people will like, but they certainly loved our work and we had an
extremely good day. We also meet quite a few people that live in our same rv
resort, several of whom are rock hounds!
Sunday was another slow day with not many people, but we did
still manage to have an ok day. Reaching our goal for the show, it closed at
three in the afternoon and we closed tore down and packed our displays. We don’t
have a lot to tear down, compared to many of the other venders, and so we were
on our way home in less than an hour.
We don’t have another show till the Solar Eclipse, August 21st,
so it’s time to get caught up on some rv repairs, (replacing the carpet and
kitchen floor), fly fishing, and wildlife watching. We also time to work more
stone, replace the pieces we sold. and especially work on more opal. Clear
skies
The entry rocks. Glad you had good sales.
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