The craft show was last Saturday. We didn’t do too bad, though not as good as we’d hoped. but all in all it was a fun day.
I did run into a few issues. I’ve done craft shows before but I wasn’t selling jewelry or anything attached to a card like I was this year. There it was, Friday night, we’ve set up the tables and other displays in the show hall but not our sale items – we planned to put those out Saturday morning – when I realized I hadn’t planned on how to display the earrings and wine glass charms. I had spent time attaching them to cards but hadn’t given a thought to what I was going to do with them after they were attached!
I start wandering around the house trying to think of what I had to hang them on, my mind a blank. It was getting late and I was tired and getting a little frustrated. I thought of putting several strands of wire in a picture frame but I would still have to prop or hold up the frame and that was the problem. I figured I could lay out a few on the tables here and there but that wouldn’t do for all of them.
Then I had an idea. Do you see it? Can you guess what it is? (I know, the picture is pretty blurry)
Does this help you see my wire cooling rack? And an ankle weight.
I found a wire display stand, like you would use to display a book or plate on a table top, but putting anything on it tall enough to display the earrings made it topple over. So an ankle weight around the legs and covered with a piece of cloth, then the rack wired to the front legs of the stand. A little garland around the top, and I had an earring display stand.
Then I had another idea.
There on the left back – it’s a spool tree, to hold spools of thread. I only used two sides but it did lift a few earrings up so they could be seen.
My sister and I are talking about trying another show, maybe in the spring. If/when we do, I’ll have taken the time to come up with a little better display idea. But they worked for this time.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein
smart lady to come up with a solution.
You had a very good display.
glad you had a good time.
I got quite a kick out of this post! Your setup looks great! Very clever to use the cooling rack! Over the past 22 years I've come up with various kinds of display ideas! Some I still use, and some I can't even recall unless they were in photos!
It is very important to have vertical displays. It's also tricky to have those displays stay upright in outdoor locations. That's why I prefer indoor shows! I even had a tent at one time! I think I could write a book!
And even going to the same places over and over, they can always change the setup of the room. But I still look forward to the events, and we have two big ones coming up! I very much enjoy talking to everyone, even though sales may be slow!
I only do indoor craft fairs, as it can rain in the UK , ( recent,y that's all it does is rain and its blowing a gale and pouring with raining now). I have used a wine glass and put the earrings around the rim, They need to be displayed so they look people in the eye as they look at the table, I have also tried a board which I covered with blue fabric and had some bubble wrap folder between the card and material, Put some pins so the earrings hang and use a picture stand to hole the board upright.
Unfortunately it seems that the money is short all over the world, some craft shows do well others people just walk around spending nothing, but at least they are looking. We also get what they call the four p's days, What's that you ask, they pickup, they play about with it, they put it down, then they p…. Off
Hope your next one will be better.
Margaret
Spool trees, cooling racks… I think I need to start thinking outside the box! I love your display!
What a clever idea!
When my mom sold some of my stuff at her church craft sale, she used a backboard like for science fairs; you can buy them at any office supply store. She used thumbtacks to attach the cards to the board. My dad sent me a photo, and it looked pretty good. It was easy to put things in neat rows and keep like items together, and if someone wanted to look at something more closely it was easy to take it off and put it back.
She also got a tabletop tree to display some of the ornaments.
My sister and I had actually given some thought to getting one of those backboards but forgot about it until way too late. I'm going to definitely look into it if/when we do another show!
That's brilliant! Did you have some kind of hooks on the back of the cards to hang them on the rack? I had so many display ideas. The one that I have tried so far was to staple some aida cloth to a picture frame; it was ideal for sticking earrings into. I would like to try other ideas and see what I like best.
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I used Christmas ornament hooks, the kind to put ornaments on the tree with. They bend easily and can be adjusted to be any length I need.