Sunday, March 18, 2012

Cayucos Sea Glass Festival 2012

Early Friday morning, 6:30 to be exact, Steve and I left Palm Springs and headed for Los Angeles where we would leave our standard poodle, Dylan, with Steve's parents for the weekend.  We then headed north to Cayucos for the second annual Cayucos Sea Glass Festival.  After eight hours of driving, we rolled into the small beach town around 3:30.  We checked into our hotel, then headed down to the Veterans' Hall at the end of the pier - where the festival would be held.

The organizers, Kiki, Leila, and Carol, (sorry I don't know the names of the others), were having a mixer for the vendors.  It was a fun event with food and music.  The mixer was a chance to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. We also had a chance to locate our spot and set up our display pieces.  Since the two tables were already covered with white table cloths, we decided not to use our black ones.  After setting up our display, we headed off to the hotel and went to bed early as the next day the clock would switch to Daylight Savings Time and we'd lose an hour.  The time change can really throw you off.  I would be tired for the next two days.  

Bright and early, and I mean early, 7:30, we headed back to the hall to set out our jewelry.  During the night, we'd decided that we needed to use our black table cloths because the white ones were short and we wanted to hide the boxes under the tables.  So off came the displays, on went the black cloths and then on with the displays again.  All around us, people were setting up their booths and chatting and drinking coffee. It was a fun atmosphere.  It takes us a long time to set up because all of our jewelry is in individual plastic bags to keep the silver from tarnishing.  Finally, after a couple of hours we had the tables set up.  


As you can see above, there are a lot of pieces to remove from bags.  At the end of the show, all these pieces go back in their bags.  Time consuming, to say the least.  

As we were setting up, we could see out the windows a line of customers forming.  Every time, I looked the line was longer.  Eventually, the line stretched out of sight and down the pier.  I didn't know whether to be excited or scared.  At ten, the doors opened and a crowd of people surged into the room.  

The crowds continued to come all day which was great.  We were so busy, we didn't have time for lunch or a break.  We didn't care, we were happy selling our jewelry and talking to people.  The event had been so well publicized that people came from as far away as Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Solvang, Los Angeles. The first day was a total success.  When the day came to an end at five o'clock, we were happy and exhausted and hungry.  We met our friends, Victoria and Ken, who also had a booth at the festival.  Victoria also has a shop on Etsy called Victoria Roberts Sea Glass Jewelry.   
We decided to go to the Sea Shanty restaurant for dinner which, unbeknownst to us, is owned by one of the organizers - Carol Kramer and Bill Shea.  Great food at the Sea Shanty and highly recommend it if you are in Cayucos.  http://www.seashantycayucos.com/  

The second day of the festival started off slow, then really picked up as the day went on.  We didn't sell as much as the first day, but it was still profitable and we were very happy with our sales.  When the doors closed on the festival on Sunday night at four, we were tired and my legs hurt from standing for two days, but we were still ready to go have some fun.  We hooked up with another vendor, Don the Beachcomber and Joan the surfer and went back to the Sea Shanty for another meal.  Don and Joan had a booth in the tent outside with a few other vendors like the sisters from Relish who traveled from Erie, PA to be in the show.  And Margaret of Adornment.  



Monday, we drove back to the desert - glad we'd been included in the Cayucos Sea Glass Festival.  We'd written some special orders that needed to be created and we were looking forward to getting back to the workroom.  

This is a picture of one of our new necklaces that we previewed at the show.  Rose gold chain with a side drilled sea foam green sea glass piece.  Dainty and delicate.  



You can find us at Etsy or at our new website SistersJewelryDesigns.com