The first show I did was in June 2016 at the Corn Hill Art Festival in Rochester, NY and my tent was kind of plain. My husband, thought I needed to make my tent space stand out, to draw more people into my booth. I agreed.
To my advantage, I like to decorate. I have a decorative painting background and this expertise helped me pull my skills together for a profitable conclusion. Even though we were in agreement that change was necessary, he did not agree with my analysis of the situation, which was black burlap backdrop. As I proceeded ahead with my new project, he began to see my vision for the booth and loved what I was going to do.
At the time burlap was popular and kind of pricey. I determined I would need 10 feet; sufficient enough to cover the entire back wall of my booth space. Off we went to the fabric store on our exciting treasure hunt. My husband, who hates to shop, was the one to find this material...on the Clearance Rack, no less! This fabric measured just enough for my project!
The fabric had a laminate back which made it a good canvas for my paint. Now, things were really beginning to look up. The next step of the task was to paint on the fabric 15 birch trees. Wow! This was going to take some time. Yet another project demanding my attention with only eight weeks to finish...along with everything else I needed to accomplish before my next show.
From the first show you learn what people like, you listen to their comments and apply what you learn. My second show was at the Clothes Line Art Festival at the Memorial Art Gallery, with a better idea of what people like, I was wondering if at the end of the day, will this new backdrop prove itself worthwhile? Yes, it did! No doubt about it!
Although there were 48 other potters at this show, my sales went up. People were drawn into my tent space with my new backdrop. Some came to look and also to purchase. It was such fun!
My goal was to have a booth that would be fun to visit and return to. My customers would be able to remember me by my birch backdrop that I painted. Because of my nature theme, I found decorating my tent would be easy and fun. This project allowed me to bring all my skills of ceramics and decorating together.
How I did this:
1. By keeping my theme focus on my whole area. Which for me was an outdoor theme with birch trees.
2. I kept my colors of my business, black, white and beige. It is important to keep this across your whole business layout.
3. Putting the focal point at the back of the booth drew people in creating interest. It made a striking statement for my high end bird vases.
