DIY Craft Show Displays

If you're like me, you take joy in making everything by hand, not just jewelry. Most of my craft show displays have been either made from scratch or customized. I do this both because it is often less expensive to build than it is to buy, and because it gives displays a unique look so they don't blend in at shows.

Here's a list of some of my favorite ways to build or customize craft show displays. Feel free to adapt them to suit your tastes, after all, your business should reflect you!

1. Painted Thrift Store Finds

I have found wooden bowls, wicker baskets, odd candle pedestals and wooden divided lunch trays at thrift stores. Usually, they don't look like much when I find them and have a good deal of wear or staining. I like to sand them lightly with a medium grit paper (around 400) and then paint them with a couple of coats of interior latex paint. It gives them a fresh face and if you paint them all in the same color, it can give you a cohesive display even if the pieces are different in shape.

The reason I use interior latex is because it dries harder than artists acrylic. If you paint objects with acrylic, it will be more likely that the paint will stick to plastic, glass, paper or other painted surfaces, and lift onto the objects being displayed. The safest way to protect against any paint lifting is to line the container or tray with fabric or a filler before adding your display items.


2. Paper Mache Bust / Necklace display

I started with a framework of mesh and wire, but you could just as easily use a balloon for the head and crumpled up newspaper taped together for the neck and shoulders. You don't need to put features onto the bust, just shape it into the general impression of a life sized head, neck and shoulders. Another option is to use plaster of paris to actually cast a bust of yourself or a friend, then once it is cured add a base with more plaster so that it will stand up.

Either method of building a bust can then be painted, decoupaged, or left as is, depending on the look you're going for.


3. Suitcase

I've said before that I love suitcase displays, especially if they are made so that they can just be opened and popped up on a table, for a super fast setup. One method to accomplish this is to remove the "guts" of the suitcase or briefcase, up to and including the liner if you're comfortable with it. You can then re-line the case with fabric or vinyl, or you could even paint the inside of it if the original liner came out cleanly. You could add cork board sheeting, chalk board paint, or a magnetic surface to the inside of the lid, where you can hang items for display, write messages, or display magnetic items. You can use self-adhesive hooks or magnetic hooks as well.

The bottom of the case can be filled with bins to hold items or it can serve as a large basket for loose items.


4. Frames

I have used frames a few different ways in my displays: I covered a frame with fine mesh to display earrings & necklaces, I've filled a frame with a sheet of cork-board to display thumbtacks or use tacks as hooks to display jewelry. There is also the link I posted previously for filling small frames with ring-holders. I like frames because they can be used either flat on a table or vertically, especially if the original back of the frame is still in-tact and can hold it upright or allow it to hang from a fixture. The frame itself can add some visual blank space between sections of your display, giving the eye a place to rest before moving on to the next display. They can also be painted to match the rest of your display and you can even paint over a cork board in a frame.


5. Tiered Displays

You could buy tiered dessert/serving trays at some major stores and vintage stores, but it's fun to make a unique version yourself. If you can find a few glasses (stemmed are great) or even medium-tall candle holders, as well as some assorted sizes of plates, they can be glued together in a stack to form a unique tiered display. I recommend using a glue like E9000 or Gorilla, something that adheres well to glass & smooth surfaces. White glue or hot glue does not normally form a good adhesion to non-porous surfaces.


There are many other ways to build & create your own displays, these just happen to be my favorites. More ideas can be found on the JellyPins Pinterest board, and I add to it often when I find fun ideas! Amber

How to Make Craft Shows a Little Easier

Anyone who has sold handmade goods at a craft show knows it is exhausting. Not only are we operating a pop-up store for hours on end, but we have to make that store appear and disappear, often all in a single day. It makes me tired just thinking about it!

Over the years, I've learned a few tactics to help make the craft show experience a little easier:


Ready To Go Displays -
Any aspect of your display that can be arranged or set up before hand will save you time and effort on the day of the show. Jewelry trays with the items laid out in advance, hanging racks with the jewelry hung on it and folding cases that stand vertically on the table are just a few examples of methods to have jewelry laid out and ready to go in a snap.



Business Operations in a Briefcase -
You can use a briefcase, small suitcase, lock box or even a plastic container to keep all of your transaction tools in one place and ready to go from show to show. I use a briefcase that holds my packaging & bags, change, pens, business cards, Square reader, calculator and ledger. When I arrive at a show and set up, I just put the case on the table, open it up and I'm ready to go. Because most of the items stay in there between shows, I always know where everything is and there is no last minute searching the night before or day of the show.



Folding Dolly / Carts -
These are really efficient because they fold up to be kept in your vehicle or under a table at a show, but they can hold a great deal with the addition of bungee cables. I've used these for years, and it has reduced the number of load-in trips to just one, and saved my back!


Pricing Reminder Card -
This is most effective if you have groups of items that are all the same price. I like to price these with signs, but it has lead to moments where I forget exactly what was on the sign so in mid-transaction, I have to run around the table and look at the sign. In order to make it easier, I take an index card and write down the price of any of these types of items and keep it in my briefcase. That way, I only need to glance at the card for a moment to make sure I'm charging the right prices.


Setting up Square -
The Square app has the ability to store your item information. During a transaction, whether cash or credit, you can tap the item you are selling rather than having to put items in individually or tally them up & write them in a ledger separately. Click here for Square's instructions on setting this up for the smart phone app.


With these tips you can set your display up ahead of time, have everything in one place & get it into your booth a little easier, so that you can spend all your energy on having a great show!

Amber

The Weekly Ten - Fab Craft Show Booths

For this week's post of ten things I adore, I want to share with you some lovely craft show displays found on Pinterest and Flickr. Thanks to the people who shared these to inspire us all!























Such a great group of displays, I for one can learn a thing or two from each of them!

You can find more of the same on the JellyPins Pinterest board! Till next time~
Amber

Using the Elements of Art to Create Balanced Show Displays

In art, there are basic elements to every work and the way that these elements are used can have great impact on the visual appeal of the piece. As follows, I will discuss the elements and their application to a craft show (or store) display. As always, some rules are made to be broken and these are no exception. If you feel your product or display would benefit from going outside the lines, by all means do so. The best way to find your ideal display is to experiment and find out what works and feels right for you!

(the elements of art can be found here on Wikipedia if you'd like to learn more about them)



Texture - The best way to use and highlight texture is to include a few different types to break it up. Typical craft show displays do so by their nature, as the tablecloth, display fixtures, and items often have different textures.

To bring out the texture of the items you're displaying, place them against contrasting textures. Some examples include fabric items against either a smooth surface or a fabric with a heavier texture, smooth & sleek jewelry against a richer textured surface, highly textured jewelry against a fine, smooth surface.

To reduce busy-ness, select a limited number of different textures, say 3 or 4, and use them consistently throughout your display. If your display already feels very smooth and lacking in texture, adding some in can add more depth and even encourage people to reach out and feel both the display and the items for sale.

Space - There are two kinds of space: positive and negative. Positive space in a display would be the items displayed as well as tags, signs, containers and fixtures. Negative space is the area between items on display, areas where the tablecloth or background is visible, and space between the position of containers and fixtures on the table surface or wall.

The ratio of positive to negative space can be a personal preference, for a display that has an overall feeling of fullness without busy-ness, I personally prefer a ratio of between 50:50 and 70:30 (positive:negative). This means that only half to two-thirds of the visual space is filled with content. This will allow visitors to your booth an area for their eyes to rest in between the lovely items displayed.

Shape - In a display, shape factors in on the overall theme of the space. Displays can have very broad, flat shape to thin & wiry shape, or round & dimensional to flat. But, to keep a display coherent and cut down on visual clutter, the shapes of the displays should relate to each other. Two wire displays look more consistent than a wire display with a pegboard display. Shallow round glass bowls mixed with tall metal buckets will add visual clutter.

Color - The number one place that visual clutter comes from (other than too many objects) is too many colors. Pick a palette of 2-3 colors that suits your work and your overall brand image, and stick with it. A great scheme is to use neutral colors as a basis that are very complimentary to one another, and then have one or two bold colors as accents. Accent colors are best used in small bursts, but make sure the color occurs often enough throughout the display that it doesn't look out of place.

In my own displays, I utilize black, white and grey as the basis of my display, then I accent it with a bright teal. This scheme matches my business cards and logos, and colorful jewelry pops when it is against clean, neutral colors.

A blind spot that can occur with color is the open areas of your display. If at all possible, design your booth to have a backdrop, be against a wall, or use displays that are not see-through. This way the table, people or scenery behind you will not interact with your display by adding colors that distract.

Tone/Value - This refers to the difference between areas that are light and areas that are dark, and how great the difference between them is. You can utilize the difference in value to highlight your products and make them visually jump off the displays. Placing dark or brightly colored items against a light or pale color, or placing light or metallic items against a darker color will help them to stand out.

You will also want to pay attention to value when it comes to each component of your display. The tablecloth, containers and fixtures should have a very consistent value so that they blend well together and to not try to pop against each other, drawing visual attention away from the items you are displaying.

Line - The lines that you create within your display by placement can lead your customer's eye on a journey. By using regular height of displays, or a deliberately uneven height, you can control the flow.

A great example of this is having your taller displays even across the top or tallest in the middle, and lower displays lowest in the center rising as they approach either edge of the space. This creates a visual "loop", where the eye will typically fall somewhere in the middle and then follow the line around and be drawn into the upper and lower parts of the display.

If there is too much of a gap in the height of display items, it can feel unnatural or even draw your customer's eye over to the display next to you. Having items elevated with height on one side and not on the other can make your display a roller-coaster for the eye, so that it slides downward, out of your booth and into the next. By creating symmetry or a loop, you get the eye to naturally flow back into the space from the edges, which can help to draw people in.



Using these concepts together to bring consistency and movement to your display can help encourage people to spend more time and really explore what you have to offer.

Once you have brought together an idea for a display that is consistent, minimal and cohesive, try adding in some variety in color or shape. For example, if you have display pieces which are all the same size, shape, color and texture, it could feel very zen, or you may find it boring. Try mixing up one of the characteristics, so that they are the same in three elements but different in one. You could try all glass bowls that are white and have different shapes, or fabric bins that are each a different color but all the same size & shape, color coordinated to the items that are in them.

If you like this post, let me know! I may do more in the future, applying the elements of art to photography, jewelry design, etc!

Amber

Art/Craft Shows: Making Your Own Displays

Making your own displays is one of the best ways to get the features you want and lower the cost of setting up your booth.

One of my favorite methods is to find an appropriate unpainted wood piece available at most craft stores, paint it to the color I need and add any easel stand pieces I need to.

Paint is very important when working on display pieces, as the wrong kind of paint can ruin both the project and the jewelry that later is on it. Stay away from using artist's acrylic - even when dried it tends to remain very flexible and can easily be marked or adhere to something laid on top of it, causing stacked displays to stick together or paint to come off on your jewelry - the worst nightmare of all!

One of the big things to remember with any paint is that even after 24 hours when you can touch it and it feels dry, it's still soft inside. There are paints (like artist's acrylic) which can actually take months to dry and shrink completely but seem dry within an hour or two of painting. Because of this, all paints can be scratched, lifted and hold an impression until they fully cure. This is why I always recommend putting painted objects in a protected place, shielded from dust, for at least a week. Two weeks is better, or as long as possible.

I also recommend using at least two coats of your chosen paint. Wood is porous and will absorb some of your first layer of paint, occasionally it will even absorb some of the second layer. It is a good idea to sand the bare wood, put down your first coat, and then sand again to remove any rough fibers that were raised by the absorption process. Then add your second coat and if it does not dry smooth sand lightly again and recoat. This won't be an issue with metal assuming you use a smooth piece of metal, but it's a good idea to clean and sand metal before painting to help it hang onto the paint.

For wood, interior/exterior latex - IE paint you'd use on your walls - is what I always use. It's awesome because it's as easy to use as acrylics and washes with water, and it dries pretty tough. This is the kind of paint you'd use to paint furniture, and so it does the best job of tolerating things being placed on top of it without marring the surface. You can get it in gloss, semigloss, eggshell, etc, and they have small sample jars that you can have mixed with any of the bajillion colors available for wall paints, so you can match it precisely to your overall color theme. There are also pint and quart cans of pre-mixed colors that are usually in the basic colors and sometimes a variety of sheen's. These usually run less than $10 per color, and a single can will go pretty far.
For metal, I prefer Rustoleum. It is strong enough to stand up to outdoor conditions, but it is an oil based paint and will require paint thinner to clean the brushes and you should paint outdoors or use ventilation.

Another note is depending on humidity, paint can take longer or shorter amounts of time to dry and fully cure. The paint you choose should tell you how the humidity will affect the paint.



Once you've painted your display piece and allowed it to dry thoroughly, you can proceed with making it function the way you want. Some options are adding an easel back (or placing it in a free-standing easel), drilling holes and inserting posts or wires to support or adjust the display, or gluing a few pieces together to change the overall shape or function of your piece.

I enjoy taking old photo frames, painting them and attaching fabric mesh or perforated plastic to the back and then adding an easel back to it to help it to stand. These are perfect for hanging earrings on or adding hooks and hanging necklaces.

One last piece of advice would be to paint all of your displays the same color in order to give your booth a very cohesive feeling that won't overwhelm the lovely colors of your jewelry.

Remember - a cute display will leave an impression as a cute display, but it's your jewelry that should leave the impression, the display should disappear!