Five HaldeCraft craft show booth displays

Five HaldeCraft craft show booth displays

As I'm gearing up for my first show of the season next week, and as I've been working on a new idea for yarn displays, I've been thinking a lot about how my craft show booth displays have changed over the last seven years. Seven! HaldeCraft is seven years old this month, y'all!

This was one of my first craft shows as HaldeCraft. I didn't really have much yet in the area of displays, so everything was pretty much flat on the table. I also hadn't measured my tablecloths; while my original plan was to fold the crocheted blanket over the middle of the table, I wound up having to use it to one side to cover the rest of the table. Whoops. Rookie mistake! And since I didn't really have anything for height, yet, I wound up stacking things closely together, and stacking some things on top of other things. Which yes, that did make it difficult for people to see things! I am surprised I even sold a single thing that show -- I really look back on that booth and just want to pinch my little baby cheeks. But what I lacked in booth design, I made up for in enthusiasm, and I had a great time that show.

 

This was a two-day craft show I did, and while I'd done two-day shows before, this was the first one I had to pack up and take everything with me at the end of the first day, and bring it back and set it up again the next morning. Which meant that my booth looked different both days... not by much, just by little touches here and there. The second day I put ceramics that had been in the front, in the back, and visa-versa - it made it look like I'd brought in all new things, so that people I'd seen the first day stopped by again. At this point, while I still didn't have any risers or anything to give height to the ceramics, I did finally have some bins for yarn - this meant I had a little height on my booth, something at eye level to catch the attention of people walking past. It was also one of the earliest outdoor shows I did, and I didn't have a tent yet - fortunately the show was at a shopping plaza so people who did have tents were in the courtyard and those of us who didn't were spaced around the courtyard under the overhang. And the weather was beautiful all weekend long!

 

This next one was at a weekend long yarn and fiber show, so I added more bins to be able to bring more yarn. I'd also acquired some risers for ceramics by that point, and while they weren't wide enough for yarn bowls, they were great for mugs. So that added some height and visual interest to my booth. I'd also, by this point, sewn a banner with my shop name on it. Yes, I know, you could buy banners, but they're almost always white and plastic, and I felt like the softness of the brown and the fabric was more in line with my brand. (Plus, yes, OK, I wanted something nobody else had). I sewed the banner myself, not really aware beforehand of how tough felt is to work with. I pinned the crud outta those letters while I was sewing them, so they didn't move! I also started using small wooden signs with chalkboard paint on them to highlight the prices of small things I didn't want to take the time to put individual pricetags on, like soap and lotion.

 

Then we have another booth, I think this might have been later the same year but it might have been the year after that. Pretty much the same layout, but with the yarn bins on opposite corners instead of next to each other, making the C-shaped booth area look a little more symmetrical. Then I had a large riser at each end of the side tables, close to where people were walking past.

 

Lastly we have my booth from the Florida Fiber-In last year, in a new hotel (with much better lighting than the previous years, so I didn't have to use the spotlights I brought). I had both risers on the side that you unfortunately can't see in the photo - they were both full of mugs. This coming year - a few weeks from now - I've forged some hangers that will be on the top four of those bins, and from which yarn will dangle. I feel like that's a little more eye-catching than just stacked (the bottom four bins will have things stacked like they are there).

And those are five of my - many - craft show booths! I feel I do a little bit better, a little bit different, every time. Part of me would love to have all-matching table covers, but I do love these big cotton throws and when I do find someone locally who sells them they don't usually have two of the same ones. I've though about buying some funky cloth and sewing my own, but that idea always gets pushed to a back burner.

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