Gig Harbor Booth Setup

A few weeks back I had posted about my booth setup at the Edmonds Arts Festival. I got some excellent feedback from everyone on my blog and facebook page.

The main thing I changed this time was to paint the wall grid black, since the black and white checkered pattern was too distracting. I spray painted it with a black primer and I liked the matt dark gray look, so left it at that. It does look a lot better and several people commented on my booth display. It was a very hot weekend, so it did get a lot warm in my storage area behind the grid wall with all the black. But the look was worth it.

One other thing I took into consideration was to reduce the amount of things I display at a time. I beleive this made a difference too as people felt more at ease to pick things up without the fear of knocking things down.

Thank you everyone for your input. If you have any more suggestions feel free to comment. I really appreciate it!

My next goal is to make collapsable pedestals out of luann plywood and indoor/outdoor carpet.

Edmonds Arts Festival Booth setup

Last weekend I was at the Edmonds Arts Festival and it was a good show. Had great conversations with new customers and also met other artists at the show. The work at this show was just beautiful.

We did have a challenging first day with the rain, but some how did survive it. I did make some changes in my booth setup and I would appreciate comments and suggestions.

Earlier I had a pale yellow background behind my grid wall, but now I changed that to black. I feel the black did make my pieces pop, but I am not sure if the white grid pattern over the black makes it look too busy? Sometimes I feel it makes it look dramatic, so people get encouraged to give the back wall a second look and walk in the booth.

BEFORE

AFTER

This part of the shelving is the same as before. The only change I made here was to add the black material on some of the shelves. I have decided to put it on all shelves next time. Gives the work a good pop and clean look.


This part I am still struggling with. Pedestals! These were cheap cardboard pedestals made from cardboard painted white with white sqaure framing which locked it square. With weights inside them they were stable, but with the rains, cardboard just doesn't cut it. Because of limited space in my car to take stuff to shows I need a more collapsable idea for pedestals. These cardboard pedestals flatten easily for transport but are not strong enough when wet and will just get ruined. Sonotube pedestals take too much room. And with several pieces kept on the pedestals I think it looses focus. So any ideas here are appreciated too.

Busy getting ready for Summer Shows

I have been crazy busy getting work ready for Wholesale orders and for upcoming Summer shows (Edmonds Arts Festival, Gig Harbor Summer Art Festival). My studio has been going through cycles of making, decorating, bisque firing, glazing and then glaze firing. The pricing and packing is still left to do and should be done this weekend.
During this busy process, I have been enjoying every kiln load and wanted to share pictures of what is happening in my studio.

Bisque pieces ready to be wax resisted and glazed

Pieces glazed after dipping and spraying to get different shades
Some pieces right out from the kiln

Go Green Platter!

I had mentioned in one of my previous blogs about the Peter Pugger pugmill. I have been using the pugmill a lot to recycle all my clay scraps, bone dry pieces, slop from my bucket of clay, flopped experiments and so on.

After a few weeks of using the pugmill, I realized that I didn't make a trip to my clay supply store, Clay Art Center in a while and I had no clay to throw in the trash either. I am recycling all of it reducing my impact on the environment.

As a tribute to my pugmill, I made the Go Green! platter. Also pictured is another platter I made with completely recycled clay. These platters have feet with holes so they can be hung on the wall as well. I will be showing these along with other new work in my upcoming shows this summer. i.e., the Edmonds Arts Festival (June 19-21), Gig Harbor Summer Festival (July 18th-19th) and a few others.