My Craft Show Experience, Sept.2008

Here I am at the show. It was a great success in many ways for me even though the weather was less than perfect. On Saturday it was decent with lots of clouds but no real rain. Sunday it pretty well rained all day except for the last two hours. That 'put a damper' on sales for the Sunday. Saturday however was great and I made enough sales to be happy. It was so lovely to see so many people try things on and have them look good in them. So satisfying to know that the designs work! I now have some excellent new contacts with stores in areas I am not represented yet. Positive reactions overall for the uniqueness and artistry of my work...

To the left is a detail of my display that was constructed out of two CD shelves. I kid you not, I found four of these shelves on the curb a couple of months ago and had a feeling I could make something useful from them. They are simply from IKEA but the finish is very clean and neutral so they were a good backdrop. I staggered them one on top of the other and screwed them together. This allowed for a good height on both levels.

This was a lucky find. I was browsing through a housewares shop and saw this pillar candle holder on sale for $10. It is completely hinged and can stretch out to a straight formation (see in background of above photo) or can be pushed together to fit any space. The top area fits my cuffs perfectly and provides that ever important height needed for display. I bought two but perhaps I should pick up some more. My overall plan for my booth came out as I had visualized. The banner I had made at Kinko's was perfect; a subtly prominent branding of my logo. There was an airiness with the flowing gauzy curtains that billowed in the wind. I had made a vintage fabric flag garland that I was unsure how I would use. In the end it made sense to hang it from the outside on the edge of my tent so that people could find me easily amongst the sea of white tents!
The idea of placing a photo montage on the edge of my tent to draw people in worked as planned. They would almost walk by but then their eye would linger on the framed photos and they would often backtrack and come in. Ahhh... the fine art of merchandising!