Jump to content

shelves at craft shows


jennifer

Recommended Posts

since I don't really have too much money to play with for my first show, which is unjuried and local, I was thinking of wrapping cardboard boxes in solid color wrapping paper (neatly of course) to use of shelves so that everything was not sitting there just flat.

what have you used in place of shelves? is this a bad idea?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have some "real" shelves for my jelly jars which aren't displayed on my tables, then on my tables I do almost the same as Michelle; it looks very good. I sometimes loosely cover some of the boxes in contrasting fabric and just loosely bunch it around the bottom for a casual look.

HTH,

Jane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You do need various heights and an attractive display. Use what ever you can to get that. I had my husband make out of old fence boards and chicken wire some verticle shelves [5'x3'x16" deep]. A bit of an investment [in time] up front but they are wonderful. Can show 66 fragrances in my containers on just one shelf unit. I also bought some apple crates for $5 each to stack. Think about what you want to have as a display and build it a piece at a time. My goal has been to spend carefully on what I can build on to get the eventual look I'm after. This is my second year showing and I finally have the 'bones' of my display.

You might check around to see what others might be throwing away that you can use. Lots of neat stuff gets dropped off at Thrift type stores that you can buy for next to nothing. I also always keep my eyes open when driving by garage sales.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks! this is great information for those of us who want to do shows, would love to do shows even, but are not sure about making a booth. For me that is the hardest obstacle--the only displays i have made are holiday candy for the grocery store I work at and trust me there is no creativity needed there.

Maybe some more of you out there can chime in on this too!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to Joanne Fabrics and bought styrofoam sheets in different sizes and covered it in black felt and stacked them (for the back of the display I used the styrofoam blocks as support). It is lightweight, sets up easily and stays nice & crisp looking, 3rd year using it. At Christmas I drape red velour over it. Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For doing shows I highly recommed Bruce Bakers cd's on craft shows. One is booth design and the other is selling. Lots of real good info in those and I listen to the one on selling before every show. The one on booth design and merchandising I listened to before I started envisioning my booth. He talks about what you can use, color, how to display merchandise. For the $30 I spent I think it saved me money in having to redo things.

Plus, every show, watch how people enter and the traffic patterns. I noticed I could not get people to the back of the booth no matter what was back there so the last show I rearranged things. Much better flow. This last show I also finally started hearing 'what a pretty/nice/cute display. It's getting there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ha! I love it! I can just see you wrestling the spray and wash stick box outta the stocker's hands!

A long time ago before I had the shelves I do now, I totally did a white trash thing. :laugh2: I went back to my old collage days with shelving made from boards and cinder blocks/bricks. I touched it up a bit, though...painted the boards and wrapped the cinder blocks and bricks in material. Another cheap/cute idea is getting a small folding ladder (table top) and painting it and using wide boards/planks for shelving.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since I only do one show a year and havent' talked my husband into making anything, yet (I have some plans...lol), I just used my boxes that my 8 oz squat masons come in. They work great to stagger step and then covered them with a table cloth as mentioned on an earlier post. It actually worked really well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You better hope USPS doesn't read this post!! Tsk Tsk Tsk :rolleyes2

Some cheap items i've used.... The wire racks in the closet dept at wallyworld or kmart. I put them under the table cloth, and set a small display on it. Also, I have stolen my cake plate pedestal thingy for a small display. One show I did, I stole my sister in law's too. A large cloth napkin covered those in contrasting colors to the tablecloth I was using.

Just a few small height risers to help the customers find different products. As the scents sold, I would "showcase" other scents.

Good luck with your show!! :yay:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...