Brand New Booth For Buyer’s Market

I’m pleased to share photos of my new wholesale booth, which was unveiled at Buyer’s Market of American Craft (BMAC) in Philadelphia this January.  This is a total overhaul from my previous booth, including a refreshed logo, with new earthier colors, new tables and new earring trees.  I may be totally biased, but I thought the booth looked awesome.  The great feedback from buyers and other artists reinforced that notion.  Here’s a glimpse into the setup process, which took more than 10 hours to complete.

Many thanks to my partners in crime.  Evelyn Pelati Dombkowski worked side by side with me during the entire setup.  She seems to think it was worth it to learn about doing wholesale shows, but I’m quite sure I get the better end of that deal.  Kim Paige got roped into helping me in the final hours before the show opened.  She just stopped by to say hello, and she had no idea what she was walking into!  Vickie Hallmark, my “show buddy” was instrumental in making the foam core walls happen.  She inspired me to adopt the clean and open style that really helped the jewelry take center stage.  Sarah Sampson could have been resting, but instead she stuck with us and helped us get the walls installed.  During the show, my neighbors on aisle 700 were so friendly, kind and supportive.  We cheered for each other when we wrote orders, and entertained each other when the aisles were empty.  The people made the show a great experience.

When you arrive at the show, you find an empty space with gray drapes and a concrete floor.  In the shot above, we had started putting down the foam floor tiles.

Those clean white walls are actually 4′ x 8′ sheets of foam core.  Here, Vickie and I are wrangling one of them into place.  They were attached to the pipe structure with cable ties then the seams sealed with white artist tape.  Once we worked through the first couple of panels, we got into a rhythm, with each of us taking on a different step in the process.  Vickie, by the way, is masterful with a roll of tape!

Below, you can see things finally starting to come together.  This was about 5 hours before the Jewelry Preview opened to the buyers and I was starting to worry.  We had the walls  and lights up, and the Abstracta tables were almost put together, but we still had signage and displays to go.

And here is the finished booth.  It looks huge in this photo!  I love the clean lines and I adore the new earring trees.  I did not like how the jewelry displayed on the walls.  There are things I could do to make the wall displays work better.  One of the biggest issues is that it’s difficult to get the pieces lit up well when they hang flat against the walls.  I really like the Abstracta tables, so I’m  adding a couple more of these for the next show.  I’m also making improvements to the display fixtures that are on the tables.  You’ll have to check back after ACC in February to see the next iteration.

Many of you have asked how the show was, and I have to tell you that I don’t have an answer just yet.  I’ve got lots of follow up to do, and I won’t know until later in the year if this show was a winner for me or not.  For now, I’m a busy bee, gearing up for the American Craft Council (ACC) wholesale show in Baltimore, February 19-20.  Looking at my booth shot from BMAC gives me a boost of confidence that I’ll be ready for ACC in two weeks.  Yikes!  Two weeks!!!