*UPDATE* Show’s cancelled due to weather. On the upside, it means I can stay late tonight and torch; I’ve got a couple of marbles I want to work on, woohoo!
For those of you who don’t know, Mike Rowe (of “Dirty Jobs“ fame) does the voice over narrative for another Discovery Channel show, “Deadliest Catch”.
I can almost hear him doing the lead in for a chapter in my own life.
Mike: “Next up on Deadliest Craft Show…With the remnants of Tropical Storm Danny moving up the coast line, will high winds and rain cut short a valuable sales opportunity?”
(camera cuts to me in a poncho setting up my canopy tent in the rain) “If you ain’t in it, you ain’t livin! Yeeha!”
In all seriousness, there is a storm coming this weekend. I’m pretty far inland, so we’re likely to get some rain and some wind to boot, but it won’t be nearly as bad as along the coast and southern areas of Massachusetts.
But what will that mean for me really? I don’t do outdoor shows that often; it’s not always easy packing in and out of random locations, but it’s under a roof, so you manage. In this case though, I’ll be out in an EZ-UP canopy tent, meant mostly to keep the sun off your backyard picnic. I’ll be taking a few extra precautions.
Obviously I’ll have weights on the tent. This is a given regardless of the weather, particularly since most of the time, it seems staking down isn’t an option. Even if it were, promoters tend to give you a 10×10 space. Not a 10 x 10 space plus some for angled tie downs. More than likely you’ll be up close and personal with your neighbor.
I’ve gotten walls to put on the tent. I’m a little worried about the effect of increasing the area affected by wind, but given the alternative of standing unprotected in driving rain, I’ll take the risk.
If I’m not mistaken, these canopy tents aren’t designed for extended periods of rain. A brief shower or so is likely fine, but after that I’m pretty sure the nylon starts to let water in. I’ve takent he precaution of getting an extra tarp to put over the canopy and I have tie down straps for this.
My travel boxes all have solid bottoms, I’ve got packed ponchos just in case, and I’ll be lining my car with a tarp before doing my initial loading.
And, of course, I’ll be checking my phone periodically for weather updates. If we start getting high wind watches issued, I’ll likely get out of there. It’s a fairly wooded town I’ll be in, and my show fee is fairly low. Of the 8-10 boxes that travel with me, only 3 of them are actually glass product. The rest is all display and business support paraphanalia. Setting up takes me about an hour. Take down can be done in 20 minutes, faster if I’m particularly motivated. Frankly if I starts looking bad I’ll start moving all non-essential stuff back into it’s box (and in this case the car) to minimize what needs to move quickly.
The good news..I hauled out all of my pieces tonight to see what I have and to price some of it, and I’m pretty well stocked. I was worried I was kind of low inventory wise, but there’s a whole bunch of stuff. There’s a fair amount from last year, but I’ve been making stuff all along, so I’ve got a good balance of old and new in my cases.
If you’re feeling daring this weekend, I’ll be at the National Gallery Sutton participating in their weekly Country Craft Fair. Dig out the galoshes and come say hello.