Good morning, friends. It’s a balmy 56 degrees here in New Jersey, and we’re looking forward to a day of thunder storms and circus-going (Neil‘s sister got tickets for the boys for their birthdays). The circus isn’t my first choice for entertainment, but it could be fun. You’ll probably be hearing all about it here tomorrow 😉
Last night’s fundraiser went well. I never really know how to gauge these things, since I do them so infrequently, but I pretty much think that any event where I sell more than five times what I paid for the table is worth the effort. If they invite me back, I’ll definitely do this one next year.
For the last several vendor opportunities I’ve had, I’ve taken my entire inventory with me, and arranged it by color scheme. I think it makes for a striking display, to see all of the colors grouped in that way. However, it doesn’t really reflect the way people shop: customers usually come by looking for a pair of earrings. They generally don’t wander over looking for something blue. So this time, I had one area that showed all of the items of a single color scheme together, so that people could see the possibilities for coordination, but the rest were all arranged by collection. I like how that worked out.
The other change I made was inspired by something Luann Udell blogged about a while back: choosing fewer choices. Instead of bringing and displaying everything I’ve ever made, I brought about half of that, and only items from my favorite collections. A few times I heard customers comment that there were so many choices, they didn’t know how to pick something – imagine how much more overwhelming it would have been for those people to see twice as many choices. I liked being able to see some of the tabletop this time around, too 😉
Creativity-wise, I’ve been pretty focused on jewelry-related things this week, which is why I find it funny that my flickr favorites are dominated by textiles. The colors are very springy – makes me want to put on a skirt and hope for sun today!
sweet layout you had there Lisa. Glad to hear the show went well for you 🙂
Thanks! Yes, it’s always nice when I end up making enough that all of the lugging feels worthwhile.
Your display is wonderful, Lisa! I love the necklace busts – where did you find them? Glad you had such success!
I think I prefer shopping by colour; the last bead show I was at in March had several tables set up like that. There was a particular display where I think I bought more because they were laid out by colour and I could find exactly what I wanted – I told them as much, too. =) Also, I think that too much choice is particularly overwhelming – especially if a lot of folks do that. The ‘sparer’ tables seem to get more traffic because it’s easier to see what they have.
Thanks! I got those busts at Fire Mountain Gems, I think…
I like shopping by color, too. I have my own personal palette, pretty much, and I always know that I’m going to be looking for something greenish. I’m still not sure what the best way to set up the table is, but I’m going to stick with this new way next time and see how it does.
You’re welcome!
FMG has some like those – I’ve been looking for some nice ones, and didn’t think I wanted to deal with fuzz all over the velvet ones. =) I tend to look on eBay for all that sort of thing, usually.
Yup, that’s exactly the same with me. I know that I’m always going to be drawn to certain colours (like pink!), depending on my mood, but it’s also easier to see what a vendor has if I’m looking for a particular colour. I like the idea of showing by collection too. I don’t know if a lot of folks do that, so it’s a good thing to experiment with.
What a great display! I would think people had a ball going through all the pieces.
Yes, some definitely did. It’s always fun to watch people look at things and get the different reactions.
Great display Lisa, I couldn’t agree more on display it is so important. I am in the process of buying a new material cloth as I hate my gold and black ones they are so old fashioned. I like the thought of hessian if I can find some. I have a 1.5 m width escalier rising up 4 steps….I’m going to have a go with this and see what it looks like at my next big event. Because I work with gemstones & polymer I like to arrange things according to colour and not material. This way an orange necklace in polymer acn be show cased next to carnelian and so on!
See what Lunes has been blogging about: Polymer or semi-precious gemstones? A real dilemma!
For this, I just used the tablecloth they provided. It was nothing special, but I’m not really attached to the one I have, either. I’d like to get something unusual and eye-catching for next time (either that, or black velvet to just fade into the background).
I think I could benefit from tiers, too. I just don’t do this often enough to really have it all figured out yet 😀