My Jewellery Booth

The first craft fair I participated in was organized by my neighbourhood Lions Club.  It was a Christmas craft fair at the community centre.  The table cost $35.00, and the sale hours were from 9:00 to 5:00.  I spent three weeks before the sale furiously making inventory, not sure how much I might sell, or even how much inventory I would need to cover my table.  A 6-ft. by 3 ft. table and two chairs would be provided.  My booth design left a lot to be desired.  For a table cover, I had a piece of black felt that I'd liberated from one of my bulletin boards at school.  I didn't know until it was too late that black felt is a magnet for lint, hairs and fibres.  I fashioned a necklace display from a huge piece of plywood that I covered with a layer of cotton batting and some black and green crushed velvet.  The plywood was propped up on the table with another piece of wood behind, like a picture frame.  I pinned necklaces to this display.  I also had a matching black and green velvet bracelet t-bar sort of thing, and a silver hand towel holder, from which I hung more necklaces. Finally, I had a copper rotating earring rack with holes for the earrings to be put into. The rest of my jewellery was strewn over the table. Even with a friend helping, it took us a good hour to take all the jewellery pieces out of the little plastic zip bags in which I was storing them, drape them onto the racks, and pin the necklaces on the necklace display. Repeat at pack-up time. 

I made about $100 that day, and came home with a lot of inventory.  Although that fair wasn't a raging success for me, I learned a lot from the experience, and from the other vendors at the craft fair that day.
Since then, I've done a lot of research on effective craft booth design.  I've learned to use different heights to create visual interest and to maximize display area.  I've learned to go with a colour theme in my display in order to create a feeling of harmony and minimize visual distraction.  I've learned tricks for storing and preparing my jewellery to make the set-up and take-down processes as fast and efficient as possible. One of these tricks is to pre-load your displays where possible.  For example, pre-load your earrings on the racks before leaving for the show.  Recently, my dad and I made two wooden earring racks that look a little like abacuses.  There are four copper wires that run from one post to the other, and curl into spirals at each end.  On these wires, I hang my earrings, all on homemade earring cards printed with my information, and the type of stone in each pair of earrings.  I keep these racks loaded all the time, and just cover them with plastic and store them in a closet.  I keep necklaces and bracelets in black display trays, which I keep stacked in a case, ready to just pull out and lay on the table.  I have several black velvet neck displays, for items like signature necklace and earring sets.  I have two sale baskets, in which I put bargains like simple glass bead earrings, and last season's bracelets, marked down.  A clear rack holding my beading birthday party flyers is the final touch.  The tablecloths are black and hang right to the floor.  Everything is black and copper, and I love the look.  This set-up is a lot easier and quicker to set up and pack away.

My booth design isn't yet perfect; I'm on the lookout for another earring display, and I need more long necklace displays. I recently bought 3 more black velvet neck displays.  I want to buy a banner for the front of the table.   I saw some aluminum fold-up tables at Wal-Mart $39.99 that I want to buy, and I could use another black tablecloth.  Here's a link to a website where you can make your own earring displays.  I plan to make a couple of these myself.  

http://bethmillner.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/handmade-earring-display-racks-easy-to-make/

For many more ideas for craft show booths, check out this link.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=jewellery+booths&m=text

Gotta get to bed--tomorrow night is Curriculum Night at school, so I'll be working late, and I'll have to be charming, which I really can't do on less than 7 hours of sleep.  Good night, all!