Flourish StayBars & Setting Up A New 'Jury Worthy' Art Booth Photo 2/15/17

Hi Friends~

In my never ending quest to improve my booth and increase my odds when entering shows, I have added some improvements to my set up.

I recently won entry into a nice juried show. So I decided to take "the money that would have been an entry fee" and use that amount to justify buying some Stay-bars from Flourish for my EZ up tent. 

  We did a practice set up in my driveway recently to see how they did. They were pretty easy to install and made the tent frame exponentially sturdier,  which is awesome. 

 

Added my own directions to help with installation

Once the bars were on, I added the walls and set to work with my 'new and improved' set up for jury photos.

When you are applying to big events you must submit pictures of your display.  You show what I like to call a 'fantasy booth'. In a perfect world with no wind or rain, the perfect amount of clientele, etc., this is what would your booth look like. 

In truth, I have a lot more inventory out and things look much fuller. 

For this set up I am using plastic garage shelving as a base. This is wrapped with a nice outdoor rubber backed fabric in in my signature color.

The two nice things about this heavy fabric is that it doesn't really wrinkle and that when not in use I just roll it up on a big cardboard tube.

I use heavy clamps to hold the fabric in place. It takes a little manipulation but you can see the results below.

After adding the wrap and the burlap covered 3' table tops, I am ready to begin hanging the walls and setting up the rest of the display. 

In this version I used my logo banner at the rear, flanked by 18x24in posters of my past work. Jewelry is hard to see at a distance, so patrons like to have an idea of your work before they enter the tent.  The logo banner is not used in a jury photo, as it is suppose to be anonymous, but I wanted to see how it looked. I find that taking pictures as I go is very helpful when setting up or making things. When you look back at a photo you can see flaws, errors or improvements that are not always noticeable when you are in the midst of the project.

Here is the final shot, logo poster removed, dressed with jewelry and a rug added for a cohesive look. After looking at this I decided that I will add two more grid panels to my display for the show I have coming up this weekend and probably pull the pedestals forward a bit more. That will allow me to put out a little more inventory. 

I'm sharing this older photo so you can see a bit of the evolution. It really is an ongoing process and I hear from other artists that it never really gets to a place where you stop tweaking it.

This photo is 2+ years old and shows my first attempt, at the pedestal configuration. I had a friend sew the covers. They worked ok, but I could never get the wrinkles out and it made me crazy. Believe it or not, just having wrinkles is enough to get eliminated from a jury pool, jewelry is that competitive.

So, next on my list is having new posters made to update some of my work. I'm sure I will find other things to change too, it really is an ever evolving process!
For now I'm off to prep for my first event of 2017. I have 5 shows in the next 11 weeks so I'd better get moving!  If you're in the area, come to New Smyrna Beach, FL and the Art Fiesta in old town off Canal Street this weekend.
Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate any comments and suggestions.
Warm Regards,
Tammie