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?

    

Making pedestals for art shows

If you are an artist and have been doing art shows, I am sure the thought of displays is always in your head.
I have been working on my booth displays and always changing something. Sometimes with the introduction of new items, things need to be rearranged and I need to change the way I set up my shelves.
Pedestals is something I always struggled with for my sculptures and for my few featured items. There are several designs out there. There are expensive options which do look really nice. Some can be bulky, some can be flimsy, some don't last long at all and some take forever to assemble.
One method that worked well for indoor shows was painted cardboard. It looked clean and sturdy but it really wasn't very stable. I took them to one outdoor show where it rained like crazy and that was the end of them. You can see them in the picture below.

I then came across potter Kathleen LeSueur and she does amazing work. She mentioned about her pedestals made from 1/8" luan and outdoor carpeting which she had been using since 1994. So using her design and adding a few more additions, I made my pedestals and love the way they came out. They were not very expensive to make either. Hope the following steps help. Thanks Kathy for pointing me to the right direction.

First cut four pieces from 1/8" luan for the four sides of the pedestals (eg. four pieces of 8"x 25"). I got this cut at the big box store itself, as I don't have a table saw and their cuts were very accuarte. I think I paid $2.00 for cutting up sides for all the 3 pedestals I made. Worth it!

Then you cut the outdoor carpeting to dimentions slightly larger than what you would need for the pedestal (For the 8"x25" sides, cut the carpeting to 36"x 28")

Glue the luan with carpet glue to the back side of the carpeting leaving a 1/4" gap between each side. Once the glue is set, cut off the remaining from the top and bottom, but leave 3-4" exra on the side.

Between the middle two panels I added a strap of carpeting with staples to serve as a handle for carrying them.

To set it up, just set it upright and use velcro strips which grip on very well to the carpet. I then added two 2" square styrofoam pieces to help square the top and bottom.

Another piece of laun covered in outdoor carpeting and you are done. I have used these for 3 shows so far and they are really holding up very well. I am sure they will last a long time. You can see them in action at my next show. Gig Harbor Summer Art Festival

If you have any more ideas, feel free to comment.

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.