Marvelous Mibs Marbles Collectors Zone

richsantaclaus · Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:58 pm Post subject: 2011 marble show aftermath

2011 Marble Show summary

I sit here one day after my 5th annual Orange County Marble Show happily very tired. What a diverse group of vendors! 40% of the show’s tables had contemporary artists works and mineral marbles for sale. 60% were tables filled with vintage marbles, marble jewelry, beads and other items for sale.

For me, it was totally worth the year’s amount of work putting it all together. There were some interesting happenings one can’t plan on. For example – a wedding that took place in the main big room the night before my show! The hotel’s management came to me at 6:30pm and told me the big room wouldn’t be ready to set-up because of “an event.” I was allowed to use both big rooms but one would be set-up Friday night and the other Saturday morning. I had to quickly shuffle the 44 vendor tables to allow for the extra room!

What a fantastic group of people I had the pleasure to work with. In the vintage field: Bud Cloven, Bennie Jones, Bill O’Connor, Jay Vargas, Jim Perez, Preston Norman, Tom Rudolph, Lee Linne, Joan Beam, Bob Jackson, Dave Evans, Kirby Manon, Steve Persch, Doug Hilenbrandt, Matthew Reilly allowed their vast knowledge of marbles to pour forth and teach me and others so many new things. Wolfgang Mueller was so gracious to teach me many very interesting things about mineral marbles.

The terrific work of the contemporary marble artists was on display. John Bridges, Seth Parks, Katherine Nakazono, Jack Hanshaw, Josh Sable, Bob Ishimoto, locl, Verald lamb, Shauna Lamb, Jeff Meader, Fred Rossi and collector Brian Bowden dazzled the audience with excellent work.

I can’t put the feeling of awe that I felt bouncing around the room. The passion of the vintage vendors, the brilliance of the contemporary marble makers all in the same room all at the same time – what an emotional experience it was for me.

The only down side was attendance. In spite of 50 antique store posting fliers, Craig list advertising in two counties, an antique magazine with 26,000 subscribers, 25 web sites, 15 marble clubs, 2 radio stations and word of mouth, attendance was far short of what was expected. Only 2/3 of last year’s foot traffic was present. I suspect it was the state of our economy causing this. On the other hand, many of the vendors reported to me that they made successful sales in spite of the lower attendance than what was expected and would be happy to participate in the 2012 show.

I have meeting with the hotel’s management to start the 6th annual Orange County marble Show so let the plans for the show begin!

Rich
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lstmmrbls · Site Admin Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 696

wish I could have made it.
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Peace,Galen

richsantaclaus · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 12:06 pm Post subject:

We certainly missed you! Several people were asking me about you too!
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