Buyers Market of American Crafts: Booth Setup

So where have I been? Since my last posting during the holidays I have been super busy. It all started in June 2012 when I decided that I wanted to do the Buyers Market of American Craft Show in Philadelphia. The show was last weekend (Feb 16th-18th) and it has been quite a journey preparing for it. Here is the final picture of my booth at the show,... I truly believe that Rome wasn't built in one day and neither was my booth.

It all started with this basic idea of booth design for a corner booth. Love Sketchup for that. After which came the Chicken and egg problem, along with a long list of questions.

How many pots should I take? What size boxes should I have for the pots? How should I pack the pots? Do I ship boxes separately or in a crate? If I use a crate, what size crate? Should I buy the crate first and plan my booth so it fits in the crate? or should I plan my booth and then buy the crate that would hold everything in it? What should I do for drapes? How should I hang my posters? How do I make pedestals, light weight and collapsible? What do I do about the floor? How many lights should I take? Will black back drop be too dark for my booth? These questions are only 15% of things that were going in my head for the last 8 months. A big thanks goes out to Pam Corwin from Business of Crafts, Mark Rosenbaum from Rosetree Glass and several other professional artists (now friends) I have met online to help me answer all my questions and worries. Below are some things that I did and I hope would help others in my situation as well.

This is the general way I packed my pots in these stackable plastic totes. You can get these totes at plant nurseries that import bulbs. Peanuts would be great protection but are a pain when it comes to unpacking and packing again after the show. Some more cardboard on the sides and sponge was added to these crates to make sure nothing moved.

Then came the challenge of packing all the pots, pedestals, display items, lights, step stool, promotional stuff into a shipping crate. But then what size crate? Thanks to Alison Baker Supple to giving me a great tip on this. Tape a squares on the garage floor to the inside dimensions of available shipping crate boxes. Fill up your imaginary crate which would give a good indication on what size will work. I settled on a 48" x 40" x 40" collapsible shipping crate which not only holds everything but also collapses and becomes a pedestal for my booth. It is under the black fabric in the corner. Below are pictures of the inside contents of my crate and the crate itself. PS: Don't bother with that ridiculous cone on the crate. There were no signs of it when it reached my booth. :)

I am glad after all that stress and planning, it all came together quite well. .Got great feedback from other exhibitors and buyer as well. What are your tips on Booth Setups?

    

Packing pottery for wholesale

Making pottery is an art and I beleive packing pottery is an art as well. Packing individual pots is not that hard. You can bubble wrap it and put it in a box full of peanuts. But for wholesdale orders, multiple pots need to be packed together. You want to pack efficiently so you can fit several pots in one box and at the same time make sure it is not so tightly packed that the pots hit against each other and break.

Also keep in mind that you can get bigger and bigger boxes to pack more and more pots. I don't recommend that, because if the box is large and awkward, the likeness of it being dropped is higher. I usually use two sizes 17"x13"x13" and occasionally a 18"x18"x16" box. Of course this depends on your size of pieces and the number of pieces you need to ship in every order.

First the tools of the trade.

A good heavy duty packaging tape

Fragile Labels or tape. I sell these rolls of tape at great wholesale prices here.

Stretch wrap. This is my life saver. I couldn't live without this stuff.

A good blade

Bubble wrap (Use recycled only if it is in good condition)

Scrap cardboard

Packing peanuts (I use recycled clean peanuts that I get from a local electronic store)

I wrap each piece (in this case my mugs) in bubble wrap. Then using stretch wrap I wrap pieces together with cardboard in between them. This way the pieces don't touch and have a cardboqrd buffer in between. The stretch wrap is wrapped tightly to make sure the pieces don't move.

With 2 inches of peanuts in the bottom layer of the box, the mugs are placed with enough room on the sides and between the two packs of mugs. Then pack peanuts around the corners and edges with another layer of peanuts and more mugs.

Finally it is topped with more peanuts, invoices, business card and info about my work.

 Try not to overfill the boxes and tape them securely with tape. I also label the boxes with my pottery labels.

 I am sure every potter/artist packs their work in their own way. I would love to hear of more ideas you have and what works for you. Do comment and share with your social networks.