Hi everyone!
As i mentionned in past posts, the craft fair time of the year is almost here and each year I tweak my booth layout and try some new techniques to improuve my presentation. I thought after the success of My top 15 tips for a successful craft show blog post, I'd share with you my tips and techniques! I know many of you have attended craft show but never did one yourself. You can always imagine there's a lot of work involved, but I don't know about you, but I find the behind-the-scene stories sometimes as interesting as the result, I simply love to hear about an artists research! :) I then see their creation in a different light and appreciate much more their craft by doing so. So here we go...!
When I'm working on a displays for a craft show, I'm always asking myself, WWID (what would IKEA do)? Their designers always come up with some awesome ideas that inspires me. I'm sure we can agree that what we all love from IKEA's is it's multifunctional uses of one simple item. It is a quality that I'm always looking for in my displays. But other criteria are very important, like I'm all for hidden storage, and make sure the displays are light weighted since the weight adds up quickly. One of my biggest challenge is have a display that can be easily taken apart for easily and quickly for fast packing for after the show. I also do my best to prioritize displays and materials made from sustainable sources or recycled materials.
I'm always wondering if there is something I already have that I can re-use or tweek for the next year show. For example, last year at La Grande Bijouterie I used a square shelve that was decorating my atelier and that made a great tiny shelve for my new bags. Can you recognize it in the picture below?
As i mentionned in past posts, the craft fair time of the year is almost here and each year I tweak my booth layout and try some new techniques to improuve my presentation. I thought after the success of My top 15 tips for a successful craft show blog post, I'd share with you my tips and techniques! I know many of you have attended craft show but never did one yourself. You can always imagine there's a lot of work involved, but I don't know about you, but I find the behind-the-scene stories sometimes as interesting as the result, I simply love to hear about an artists research! :) I then see their creation in a different light and appreciate much more their craft by doing so. So here we go...!
When I'm working on a displays for a craft show, I'm always asking myself, WWID (what would IKEA do)? Their designers always come up with some awesome ideas that inspires me. I'm sure we can agree that what we all love from IKEA's is it's multifunctional uses of one simple item. It is a quality that I'm always looking for in my displays. But other criteria are very important, like I'm all for hidden storage, and make sure the displays are light weighted since the weight adds up quickly. One of my biggest challenge is have a display that can be easily taken apart for easily and quickly for fast packing for after the show. I also do my best to prioritize displays and materials made from sustainable sources or recycled materials.
I'm always wondering if there is something I already have that I can re-use or tweek for the next year show. For example, last year at La Grande Bijouterie I used a square shelve that was decorating my atelier and that made a great tiny shelve for my new bags. Can you recognize it in the picture below?
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| Kirameku's booth at La Grande Bijouterie in Sherbrooke in 2014 |
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It's not always easy to mix and match displays. As you can see on the left on the picture below, I didn't used enough height in my table layout and my beautiful handmade necklace stand ends up being covered visually by my metal rack display for my earrings. So, this is a point I'll be fixing in 2015.
On my booth table, you could find cute rococo frames that I saved from being thrown away and with a bit of felt and, transformed them into elegant necklace displays. The 2 tiers display for my exclusive pre-wrapped gift for my craft show is a stylish fruit basket that hadn't been used in our kitchen for years. I long to find some vintage pieces as my displays, and while I always keep my eyes open, I hadn't find the right piece just yet. Some of my levellers are actually sturdy boxes in which I carry some overstock or extra packaging supplies.
On my table you can also find all the price tags, bags labels, earrings cards and gift tags, necklace packaging and shop coupons handmade by me. I designed, printed, cut and folded them by hand one by one. Right now I'm working with my father on some new presentation displays for necklaces and earrings sets as I will at least double my selection.
And as you can imagine, all this goes in plus of crafting all the pieces that will fill those lovely displays, as well as submitting my work to craft shows with the right demographic.
So whenever you pass next to my booth and wonder why I am beaming happy, well it is all because my year of hard works puts a smile on your face and sparkles in your eyes! :)
So, to sum it up, whenever you are crafting a display for a show, you should look for :
*Hidden storage
*Light-Wighted materials
*Easily taken apart
*Multi-funcontial
On this everyone, I hope you will see the artist's booth in a different light! I'll leave on this as I have still have plenty to do! I wish you all a marvellous weekend and I will be back with some more news soon. And don't forget to come meet me at Henryville's craft show September 12 and 13!
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