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I always try to record what my display looked like for a show — this one the One of a Kind Show Vancouver — so that I can stand back and really look at it and think what I would do different next time. Overall, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. This was my first booth. It was a lot of work but worth it. I didn’t do it alone by the way, my husband was very involved and I hired my neighbour’s 16 year old boy to help transport the stuff to the show and away.

What I wouldn’t do/use again:

• loose the cabinets because they are heavy and take a lot of room when transporting
• give myself room to sit at the front of the booth, I felt wedged in and so was standing a lot which was tiring
• don’t bring long panels, like the back wall — possibly cut this in half next time
• don’t use glass shelves: they looked good but when I set up the track lighting there were all these shadows below; plus they can break and add weight; next time use shallow metal shelves or other material

What I would do again:

• use vinyl lettering for my logo name
• paint the walls
• screenprint an image on the wall (this had to be done at the studio — I brought my own panels for the back wall, next time I’ll have to do this differently, ideally I’m not bringing long panels)
• definitely hire an assistant for 4-hour shifts for the long days; this was so worth it. I hired my friend Carrie who came in from 2 to 6 pm. She was a good representative for my work as she is familiar with it plus she is not afraid to talk to people, has a good sense of humour, is polite, smiles and is reliable and just plain great.

What hurt, really, really hurt:

I brought my own painted and screenprinted panels but when I got to the show my partner and I realized that the curtain piping wasn’t strong enough to safely hold the panels, so we asked Levy, the show suppliers, to change our frame to a hardwall frame. Result = $400 plus tax charge on the spot. So my booth went from $1200 to $1600. I was pretty bummed out and it took me a couple of days to get over it.

Finally, the pics:

Displaying my pocket mirrors in nice jewelry boxes was a great idea. I was trying to suggest that these mirrors are special (I had many one-of-a-kind ones) and they did sell well, people really appreciated them. Also another good idea was to display my most expensive pocket mirror collages within old frames to bring attention to these one-of-a-kind pieces. Bringing the height up also helped to easily look at the work. A 5 by 10 booth worked well for me since I had a lot of small pieces. This way they weren’t lost by being a the back of a 10 by 10 booth.

I also displayed some boxes closed as they showed my logo label on the lid.

My screenprinted journals above. I found people were interested in the images and the stories behind them so I started sharing more of that after the first two days. Sharing that information was crucial in selling the work.

Keeping the drawer open in this cabinet worked really well to show the full range of my pocket mirrors. Also, people were drawn to the open drawer — so it was effecting in getting them to look at my work.

Share your links to your booth pictures in the comments section. And tell what you think of my display. Suggestions welcome.