The BEND Collection is when everything started to click for Sage & June. I drew the Bend moon design first on winter solstice of 2022. I quickly designed Bend Sun after and the collection was born.
The following spring brought the first season of Sage & June business. In January 2023 I officially created my LLC so I could proceed to create and sell my Bend Sun and Moon tapestry collection. By April I was signed up for multiple events to be a vendor. Not that I knew it then, but I was grossly unprepared for small business vending.
Being a vendor at street markets is not for the weak. Now, I wouldn't consider myself weak but I wasn't prepared for that first season. Hocking your goods to strangers is hard work. I learned that sales was not my strong suit especially with men. The amount of times women were ready to buy but their male significant other would block my sale... anyways I digress. After an entire summer of weekends spent under the Sage & June sunshine tent I felt defeated. If I could go back and coach myself for that first season of selling I think things could have been different for this collection.
I haven't been a vendor at another market since 2023. Not because I refuse to, but because the following summers have had different business goals. The idea of being a vendor at local events is less appealing these days too. Periodically I receive an email about attending a local event but I quickly talk myself out of it. The fake smiles, conversations about $5 Walmart blankets, and sales that fall through at no fault of my own (talking to you, men) are just not my cup of tea.