Gallery Work

Yesterday was my first shift as a Gallery Sitter. Liz was there to walk me through everything I needed to do. Though, I think she assumed that my mom had already told me everything since she seemed to kind skip some stuff. But, then again, I guess I wouldn't know that she skipped some stuff without my mom having told me, so there you have it.

I thought she'd be there for the whole shift. But, after she told me the basics, she jetted. That's fine. We didn't finish "training" until 3:15 or so, and my shift was from 1 to 5.

It was rather quiet. The most people I saw were people that came in for a meeting with one of the organizations that is also located in this building. I guess they thought I was some sort of receptionist which kinda irked the shite out of me. One girl I even looked her straight in the eye and said, "I'm not a receptionist." Heh. Nice.
I was getting really pissed off with every person that came through the door and said, "I'm here for the meeting." Okay, well, if you really want me to help you, you're going to have to give me more information than that. There are about 5 organizations that share this building with us.

But then I was reading through our Procedures manual and it said that the Arts Council of Fairfax is the organization that is "renting" us the space for the Gallery. Specifically this one woman... Ann.... something. I forget her last name. And there was a whole page that described how to handle her purchases and how it's so different and special compared to normal transactions because she's been so good to us.
So that made me calm down a bit, since all these people that were coming in for the "meeting" were coming to meet with the Arts Council. I figured it was kind of a favor to them to help their people since they were doing a favor for us and giving us this space. But come on... couldn't you post a sign or something!?!??! At least tell these people beforehand: "The meeting is in X building in X room and here's how to get to that room from X door."

That's just me being a bitch, though, I guess. That's fine. Buy my stuff while I'm being a bitch! Hee hee!

So anyway, the evening was quiet. I did make one sale. A woman bought one of Liz's stuffed bunnies as well as one of my mother's mosaic lazy susans. And you're damn straight I talked her up. "This is one of my mother's pieces!" The woman gushed over how beautiful, yet functional it was and naturally I agreed. She asked how often she made them and told her "All the time! In fact, I just talked to her on the phone and she's making more right now!" Which was true. The lady said she'd go check on her daughters color scheme in her kitchen and probably come back to buy another for her.
I hear that all the time... at shows, when I have a booth right next to my mom. People say that "I have to go check the color scheme." And I wonder, are they telling the truth or are they just being nice and trying to make my mom feel good by making her think they're coming back to buy more when they really aren't? Either way, there's gotta be some way to... I don't know... help.
Maybe mom should invest in a polaroid camera (They still make those, right?), and she could take a picture of the pieces that the people think might match the color scheme, but aren't sure. And they could take it home to check. And for those people who are just BSing when they say that, maybe that nice gesture will make them really do what they say they'll do and it'll result in more sales.
Or, if they don't make polaroids anymore, maybe she could get the persons email address and send them a picture of the pieces they were interested in? I don't know.

Anyway, I'm glad I could make that sale for mom. And yes, I called her afterwards to tell her!
And then I called her again when the cash box didn't match up with what it should be. Don't look at me, my only sale was paid with credit card, I didn't touch the cash box! The cash is supposed to equal $55.75. But it was 15 cents more. I think what happened is that the person from the day before made a cash sale and made a mistake when counting out change... they left out one nickel and one dime for the customers change or something. Because when I came in, the morning person had only written "$55. " for the cash box total. I think she noticed the discrepancy and then intended to go back and count, but never did. Then, as Liz was training me, she noticed that and said, "Oh, well, that's supposed to be $55.75!" and wrote in the 75. So, my mom suggested I take a nickel and dime and put it in the daily sales envelope with a note. Brian thinks I should've just pocketed the 15 cents and called it a day! Heh. No.
Well, at least it was OVER and not under.
So, it wasn't so bad. I did get one stretch bracelet made while I was there. I tried some byzantine with the square wire rings I got... didn't work quite like it does with regular rings. Gonna have to play with it.
Anyway, enough rambling. Go buy something from my etsy store! ;)