Friday, May 15, 2009

My First Outdoor Booth - Artwalk 2009


So I had my first outdoor art show a couple of weekends ago at the Artwalk at the Promenade Bolingbrook and these are the photos of my first set-up.  For my first time out, I think I did pretty well.  I would like to have had some more levels to the display and want to 'loosen' it up a bit, but I did get lots of compliments and that was nice.  The above photos shows the overall set-up with my pendants all displayed on the two tables on the left.  I put the  tables up on bed risers so that the pendants are higher and easier to see.  On the right I set up a little checkout area on a card table so that people making purchases could select a necklace to go with their pendant, check out and I could wrap their packages.

I used a mixture of jewelry trays and wood and ceramic trays with risotto and black beans to display the pendants.  I think a lot of the pendants show up better in the rice and beans and people always comment about what a neat way that is to display them.

They say that when you do something for the first time you learn exponentially and I couldn't agree more.  Just last weekend I had my second show and already instituted a few improvements.  Setting up the booth itself was a snap because I knew exactly what I needed to do to attach the side walls.  Another handy tip I learned by watching more seasoned show attendees was to roll up my sidewalls before detaching them.  Then you don't have to fight them and the wind to fold them up and store them.

I'll post the photos from last weekend soon so you can see the changes I've already made.  But in the meantime, if you have any suggestions or tips, I'd love to hear them!  

3 comments:

  1. your booth looks so great. I can't wait to see what you've done. I'm thinking that I may start doing shows myself next year or maybe the year after that. I'm still wrestling with time management and toddler management and it's not an easy juggle.

    It's nice to see how others set up for fairs and how they get new ideas of improvements as they go along.

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  2. Wow! That looks great - glad it worked out. I only sell from my home, Etsy and twice a year open house. I haven't quite got the nerve to do a proper art show yet!

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