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?

    

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.

Puyallup fair

I am at the Puyallup fair from September 5th through the 21st. Yes, it is a long fair but every year is exciting. One great thing about doing this fair is that I don't have to haul my shelving or booth for the show. I just take my work and setup on day 1 and leave my over stock in the back room. The artists there are always on their feet sticking your shelves.

Sometimes I have gotten stuck in a corner there which hasn't been fun. But this time I got a good spot to display my "Dancing Divas". I got to display them on a white wall with a white grid and I think they really stand out. Also my pots are against a window, so people walking outside can also peek in. This is the first time I am displaying my divas at the fair along with my new slip decorated work.

Here are some pictures of the display there.