It was time to go back to the sunroom and decide what kind of theme or style I wanted to have for the booth. Since most of what I make tends to be more on the romantic side, I was shooting for something pretty. That meant combing stores and the internet for display and riser ideas. Initially we’d thought of building our own riser boxes. But with the Lilac Festival less than a month away, we decided it would be better to buy the displays rather than make them.
I really happened to luck out at a couple of stores. One of them was a department store, K’s Merchandise, that was going out of business. The store had a large jewelry department and they were selling their displays at a fraction of the cost. The black and cream necklace displays, and the black rotating jewelry display were purchased there.
If you click on the picture above, you can see a larger image. The cream risers are made from linen boxes with wire frames, and the brown risers are rattan boxes. Both of those were purchased at Wal-Mart for very reasonable prices. The linen risers had pockets and handles sewn on; I just picked out the stitching to remove them.
The two body-shaped displays in the corner of the booth were an amazing find! They’re ceramic vases I’d discovered at Hobby Lobby. I’d kept my eyes on them for weeks, because they were expensive – $40 each. But the wait was worth it, and one time they were on sale for half price. Initially they had a plaid painted pattern on them; I just repainted them with black matte spray paint.
I filled them halfway with sand to give them some sturdiness in addition to their own weight. I just love these two displays and use them in my booth to this day. They’re extremely versatile and you’ll see them used for props in some of my gallery pages.
So it was time to move everything outside under the canopy. I was applying for a number of shows in 2007 and needed some good pictures to make into slides for the jury process. I was leaning more and more toward a romantic style, and sheer draping was a part of it. What you see in these pictures is actually a bed canopy! Note the tent weights hanging from the four corners.
We tried a variety of arrangements with the tables and risers and displays. There were just too many choices, and the Lilac Festival was a week away. We finally made some decisions I really liked, and still like them today even though I don’t use them. I do use that tray in the center, though.
This was another of those amazing finds. This photo is from a recent booth setup. The tray is wood, and I bought it at Wal-Mart for about $15. In the tray are six glass votive candle holders. In each one are 9 round holes, which gives me 54 cups for holding loose beads. I use a Dymo label maker to put price stickers above each bead cup. It’s one of the displays that I really like.
We barely got the displays organized in a way we liked before it was time to leave for the Lilac Festival!
