Booth Evolution-Part One

I've been thinking of writing this series of blog posts for quite a while now, and have finally gotten around to collecting most of the photos of my booth as it changed over the last four years. The first art show I did was in March of 2006, and fortunately I didn't have to submit a photo of my booth set-up because I didn't have one when I applied! Once I was accepted, I quickly had to design and build my display. I say "build" because I certainly did not have money to buy tables or other display items, but my years as a carpenter left me with lots of leftover lumber and plywood, and I certainly had the skills to build the tables. Plus I rather enjoyed the puzzle presented by designing and building the display!



For my first display I built two tables with trapezoidal tabletops and one square table to be used as a work table and storage. I had meant to have three trapezoidal tables, to create a U-shaped "room," but ran out of time. All three tables break down into simple parts: the leg sections are 2x3 lumber braced with 1/4 inch plywood and the removeable tops are plywood bases on a 2x3 frame and faced with 1/4" aspen to cover the pine lumber. The tables and the A-frames are covered with slate tile and tumbled beach rocks are scattered around.



As it turns out, it looks nice, but is a disaster from a marketing (and theft prevention) standpoint. You can't really see the braid and weave patterns of the bracelets, plus it is impossible to tell when one has gone "missing." I didn't have time to figure out how to display the viking knit necklaces, so they are just hung on cup hooks -- very ugly presentation! The earring cards are OK for indoor shows, but the first outdoor show I attended demonstrated why this doesn't work; they blow over and off the table! All-in-all, a pretty good first attempt, but clearly in need of a redesign! My next post will explore version Two of the booth display.