Dyeing with plants from the garden and making a gorgeous range of colours is one thing packaging and displaying well to sell is another and one of the challenges about having a stand at a craft fair is making good use of the vertical space. If you hang things from the tops of the stand they don't sell but if they are on something that stands up they do. My merinos and hand spun yarn are particularly hard to display and although I have tried all sorts of ways I finally asked
John Stoker the partner of the Mulberry Dyer to make me two stands one for my hand spun yarns (on the left) and then one large one for my merinos which at Woolfest and Wonderwool occupied one side of the stall. Then having got got used to hanging my merinos up I was frustrated as I could not take this large stand to many of the smaller events I do. For example next week I am off to teach at
Malvern Hills Summer School where I will have twelve students in a small classroom (Incidentally there are a few places left I believe on the Felted Collars-where we will be using 15micron merino.) . After a table for samples this leaves me one table for the "shop". So. a few months ago .........from the back of my studio I stumbled on a rotating stand made many years ago and found it useful for hanging merino only a little small. I tried it out when I taught the North Wales Embroidery Guild and the Fiesty Felters in Shrewsbury and found I seemed to be selling more merino despite a price increase. So I decided to ask
Michael Williams who made the stand to make another one only a bit bigger. Efficiently he still had the design for the first one although it must have been a few years ago and made me a new one and here it is it arrived yesterday .
I thought both your stand and the Mulberry Dyer's at Woolfest were superb, but hadn't really thought about the stands used for creating the display. They make a big difference.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I notice more when the stands are wrong, like when I go to the secondhand book fairs and a bookshelf wobbles as I take down a book, that tends to worry me (!)
Hi Dorothy
ReplyDeleteThank you so much - I am glad some of the effort paid off! I don't think you notice the display till you have to do it and then you walk around a craft noticing how the display is done rather than the products.
Both of your stands are great Helen - the goodies on them are veeery tempting :o)
ReplyDeleteI love the new pictures in your last post! Your waterscapes are awesome!
xx
Thanks -very kind :)
ReplyDeletei thought the displaying of mulbery were superb. these stands really make the difference.
ReplyDelete