I'm back at work in the studio and realized that I never did my quick recap of the NYIGF like I had planned.  When I grow up and have an assistant in the studio and one in my office I'll be more on top of these little details.  In the meantime, I'm just happy to actually get this post written. As you know it was my first trip up the NYIGF.  I had a complicated decision making process to finally pull the trigger and do the show.  It's a big, expensive proposition but the rewards are just as good.  The last big show I did was years ago in Baltimore at the American Craft Council shows.  While those were good for me and had good exposure and sales, it never quite met my expectations.  Going up to the NYIGF felt like yet another step in finalizing our move to Austin.  It was really a debut of my work on a larger stage than it had been on before. While I have worked hard in the studio bringing this body of work together, my main sales outlets have been in and around Austin and Texas in general.  Texas is large but I needed to connect with a larger audience and NY definitely offers that.  I was in the Handmade Designer/Maker section and it was the perfect spot to be.  The Handmade community is a wonderful place to be and the buyers that came through were committed to carrying well designed and well crafted work.  Both Mom & Pop stores and larger stores are looking for new work by individual designers and it was nice to be part of that buzz. One of the best parts of the show is that I made some great new friends and found some time to catch up with some old friends as well.  Here's some work from some new friends.  There was so much more work that I loved from so many more designers but I'll save that for another post.  Here are some links to just a few that are worth taking a peek at. Kosoy+Bouchard dbO Home Dolan Geiman Molly M Designs Paper Wings Perch Design As I'm sure you could see from the photos I posted during the show that I had focused on a minimalist booth design to highlight the simple nature of my work.  All in all it was a great experience.    It was a successful show on many levels and I'm already hard at work filling orders for stores across the country.  I'll be updating the website to reflect the new locations as I ship the work. After reading as much as I could from other designers who had done the show I prepared as best as I could.  This included ; a well thought out booth, the right amount of samples (I brought too many but didn't display them all), a press/media kit, a line-sheet, a notebook so I could write reminders about who I spoke with and most importantly, a clipboard with order sheets on them.  The best case scenario is to write orders directly at the show and I'm happy to have done that.  Orders are also beginning to trickle in from buyers I've met at the show and I've tried to schedule my studio work out so that I'll have some time to fill in those orders.  With my other spring events including the Art of the Pot Studio Tour, I'm coming close to having to cut off new orders as I'm just reaching the capacity of what my studio can handle. So...I'm thrilled that I went and am already planning my next trip up for the August NYIGF.  Not that I need another excuse to head to NY but I'm glad that I have found one.