Sandy of Dig Under Rocks attended the Silver Lake Art Craft and Vintage show in Los Angeles, CA. The show runs every Saturday at Micheltorena Elementary School.
I had the opportunity to be a vendor at the Silver Lake Art, Craft & Vintage Show the last two Saturdays in May. This was my first show in a very long time and my first show with my Dig Under Rocks jewelry line. I was not prepared with supplies and I had not visited the show yet. I was planning to shop the show and then apply but I when I researched for info on their site, I found out there was a potential waiting list to vend so I applied. To my surprise, I was accepted to vend right away and had three days to prepare. I pulled together what I would need for the show and headed out early Saturday morning. As with most LA days.. I had beautiful weather for both shows.
Silver Lake is an LA neighborhood located east of Hollywood. There’s a great mix of creative people, shops, restaurants, and beautiful homes. The show definitely fit the vibe and taste of the neighborhood. There’s also great hills in this section of LA and the elementary school, where the show is held, is set just above Sunset Blvd., on Sunset & Micheltorena with a banner for the show on the corner.
I arrived just after 9am to set up my shop. There were vendors lining the perimeter of the open school yard and some filling in the center. This was Memorial Weekend so vendors and traffic were probably going to be light. My space was in the middle row, center. Traffic would walk the perimeter and may or may not come into the middle row or cut to the middle row miss the booths in the back. The following weekend I arrived a little earlier and a had space on the perimeter right next to the entrance, which was better.
There was a nice mix of vendors: paintings, ceramics, homemade soaps, jewelry, vintage clothing, redesigned vintage clothing, accessories, thrift shop items, old books & records, handmade home goods.. I would have liked to see more homemade sellers and a little less vintage. The show is fairly new and definitely new for this location so hopefully it will attract more local Etsians and traffic. My neighbors both weekends were very talented and had great booths… and everyone was so friendly and helpful.
The traffic was light both weekends and picked up between 12-2, which is when I made my sales. There were all types of shoppers with a good amount of young people in their 20s & 30s.. mostly shopping for vintage clothing. It was a fun surprise when Alice Cooper browsed my shop the second Saturday I was there.. I think he ended up making some vintage clothing purchases.
For your vending conveniences, there are bathrooms located in the school and are a quick and easy access from the selling area. My boyfriend was with me so we didn’t bring lunch.. he ran out to a near by taco stand. When you arrive to unload they let you pull your car in and to breakdown you can bring your car back in after 4pm. There’s also a small parking lot for vendors so you don’t have to worry about meter parking on the street. Also, there’s a coffee and snack stand in the middle set up by the organizers for vendors and shoppers.
Overall, I liked the show because I like the neighborhood, crowd and mix of vendors. I’d shop there even if I wasn’t looking to vend. However, I would like to see it grow as it becomes more permanent in the location and more handmade sellers. Traffic was only moderately busy at lunch time. For me, I may not have made as many sales as I’d like, I still found it important to display my jewelry, hand out cards and get a reaction from shoppers. I felt the shoppers like my pieces so I’d like to go back and see how the show picks up as we get more into summer. It was easy enough to travel to, set up and it’s relatively inexpensive for a 10×10 space so I’d definitely recommend it to local artists.
Ever notice how at fancy restaurants there are no dollar signs or decimals on the prices? Just a plain number 7 (or 12 or 25) at the end of the line?
If you live anywhere near O’Fallon, IL make sure you 
, but you’ll probably find a better deal at your local dollar store. Clear sides are preferable to opaque ones as they let people see into your booth better.
Of course, some pieces were to heavy or too long for the cards to hold. I used the matching coasters and scalloped paper cut-outs to display those pieces directly on the table.
