a Vancouver curse
I drove up to Vancouver for the Garden Show on Tuesday.
first problem: the border.
to smooth my way I had all my Canadian paper work prepared and was hoping to breeze through. I also called US customs to make sure I knew what to do beforehand.
on the advice of the person I spoke with in Blaine, who said that any crossing would be able to help me, I drove to the Lynden crossing and stopped to speak with US customs. they were polite but clueless. insinuated that they couldn't help unless all my photos had serial numbers. what?! they asked my to drive around to the commercial crossing at Blaine as they would be better able to help.
Office Leung in Blaine was indeed helpful. I had to fill out a form 4455, listing everything I was bringing up. I also found out that if I came back with materials worth less than $2,000, I wouldn't be charged a duty on my own things. given the expenses for this show, I need to sell about $800 to break even and bring me to that level, but I hope I do better than break even.
anyway, the next hurdle was my entry into Canada. given how un-lovely my passport photo is, I think the officer took one look and sent me to get a manifest. sigh...
when I bring stuff into the country to sell, I could have been able to cross with just an invoice form, but sometimes they make you get a manifest, which indicates that my stock has been bonded. fortunately a bonding agent knew I was coming so that only took about an hour. if only it hadn't been raining when I had to walk back and forth between customs and the agent office...
needless to say after all the delays there was no way I was going to make it to Van Dusen before it got dark, so I went straight on to the place where I was staying, the home of my friends Klaus and Mikie.
I got up early and began load-in for the show at 7:00. finished setup early (we had to be ready before noon for the judging) and went to the UBCBG for a shoot, in the rain...
I went back to the Van Dusen for the dinner party for us exhibitors. it turns out that the judges found nothing of merit in the area in which my work is displayed, so no prizes were given to us artists. kind of a slap in the face.
and then I sat in the cold until 9:30 in case anyone at the preview party wanted to buy some work. but there were no buyers last night. very slow. the sculptor next to me said he normally does a lot of business during the preview party, but this year, nada.
sales today were also slow, but not non-existent. I'll post a list of works that were sold once the show is over. now I have to figure out how to enter charges for amounts in Canadian dollars... :)
first problem: the border.
to smooth my way I had all my Canadian paper work prepared and was hoping to breeze through. I also called US customs to make sure I knew what to do beforehand.
on the advice of the person I spoke with in Blaine, who said that any crossing would be able to help me, I drove to the Lynden crossing and stopped to speak with US customs. they were polite but clueless. insinuated that they couldn't help unless all my photos had serial numbers. what?! they asked my to drive around to the commercial crossing at Blaine as they would be better able to help.
Office Leung in Blaine was indeed helpful. I had to fill out a form 4455, listing everything I was bringing up. I also found out that if I came back with materials worth less than $2,000, I wouldn't be charged a duty on my own things. given the expenses for this show, I need to sell about $800 to break even and bring me to that level, but I hope I do better than break even.
anyway, the next hurdle was my entry into Canada. given how un-lovely my passport photo is, I think the officer took one look and sent me to get a manifest. sigh...
when I bring stuff into the country to sell, I could have been able to cross with just an invoice form, but sometimes they make you get a manifest, which indicates that my stock has been bonded. fortunately a bonding agent knew I was coming so that only took about an hour. if only it hadn't been raining when I had to walk back and forth between customs and the agent office...
needless to say after all the delays there was no way I was going to make it to Van Dusen before it got dark, so I went straight on to the place where I was staying, the home of my friends Klaus and Mikie.
I got up early and began load-in for the show at 7:00. finished setup early (we had to be ready before noon for the judging) and went to the UBCBG for a shoot, in the rain...
I went back to the Van Dusen for the dinner party for us exhibitors. it turns out that the judges found nothing of merit in the area in which my work is displayed, so no prizes were given to us artists. kind of a slap in the face.
and then I sat in the cold until 9:30 in case anyone at the preview party wanted to buy some work. but there were no buyers last night. very slow. the sculptor next to me said he normally does a lot of business during the preview party, but this year, nada.
sales today were also slow, but not non-existent. I'll post a list of works that were sold once the show is over. now I have to figure out how to enter charges for amounts in Canadian dollars... :)
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