A Booth in Progress...

It seems like My booth is perpetually changing. I am still working on the display piece in the center of the table. I junked the paint trays and s hooks because the pendants were difficult to pick up. I figured out that I could use heavy duty foam core boards with thin strip "shelves" to hold the pendants. I glued dollar store chip clips to the back to attach the boards to the curtain rod suspended between the two metal folding shelves. The angle of the boards pretty much keeps the pendants from falling.

I really liked the chandelier I used the other night at the evening festival. It just added something to the booth, but I don't often need light at these things and so I can't see dragging it along all the time. But, I happened to run across a cool faux chandelier at Hobby Lobby. I combined it with some black and white paper lanterns that I already had in my stock. I thought it added a little whimsy to my booth.

The Display's the Thing!

I've been thinking that I needed a new way to display pendants at the shows we do. Previously, I laid the pendants out on Charger plates and along the table. The problem there is that people have to come up to the table and look down to see the pieces.

Not having a huge budget to work with, I have to think creatively. I found a cool little fold up, metal shelf at Hobby Lobby during 50% off week. I bought it and brought it home thinking I could figure out a way to stand pendants up on the 3 shelves.

Then, the thought occurred to me that If I could find another, there might be a way to suspend something between the two. On Friday, I hit 2 other Hobby Lobby's before scoring a second shelf. Then it was off to Lowes, where I wandered, aimlessly up and down the aisles looking for bits and pieces to turn my idea into reality.

I finally decided on 3 of those metal things that hook over the sides of a paint tray, a couple of metal rods, some "S" hooks and a can of black spray paint.

Once home, I started putting things together. I sprayed the silver paint trays black and hung them over metal rods suspended between the 2 shelves. I had to hole punch all my product cards, which took a while, but once that was done, I used the "S" hooks to hook pendants onto the paint trays. I cut some black foam core to make "easels" for the shelves and was able to stand pendants along those easels on each shelf. This worked okay, but I still need to figure out a better way to stand pendants on the shelves.

I did a test run in the middle of my living room, and we really tested it out at the SLAM show on Saturday. I discovered that day that my metal rods were too weak to hold everything without bowing in the middle. So, I'm contemplating a replacement for those. I think maybe a retractable curtain rod will work better. It would certainly fit in my car better, but I think it would be stronger too.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions for improvement, I would love to hear them!

This butterfly pendant found a good home at the show. It went home with a sweet little girl from Florida who was visiting Greenville.