Having a Successful Craft or Art Show from a Jewelery Makers Perspective.

I've been making and selling jewelry for 12 years now. (I can't believe it's been that long.) Through many years of shows I've tried all kinds of things in order to beef up sales. I thought that maybe some of you newbies might get something out of this and I would love it if some of the more seasoned veterans would chime in with anything they might be able to add. In short I hope you get something out of this, otherwise why type. LOL

1. Professional setup Progression - This does not mean that you need to spend a fortune. Sometimes you need to think outside of the box a little. My first setup was a 6' table with a black cloth and standard jewelry displays. What I found was T-bars are bad! People's eyes have a tendency to glaze over when presented with too much visual stimulation. Try instead to spread things out more. Less is better at a show. I bring everything along I just don't set it all out. I talk to customers and try to get a feel for what they are looking for and if I don't have it out I dig it out for them.
The next year I got rid of T-bars and anything else that grouped things together. I also got rid of the black cloth and changed to a dark green cloth. What I found was with all of the jewelry at shows my setup being different helped me stick out in their minds.
After a couple of years I found that I needed to get more jewelry into the same space so I used my real estate better and went up. I took 3 tackle boxes (which doubled as my jewelry carriers) and put a 12" wide board on top of them. This gave me another shelf on which I put my earring easels, my mirror and busts. Everything else was laid out on the bottom portion. (later I leaned boards against the shelf and pinned sets of jewelry all together getting me more space for pieces. I took foam core board, wrapped it in batting and then a nice butter suede in taupe. The butter suede can take jewelers pins going in and out without snagging. This is key to have a fabric that won't show every hole you ever put in it.)
The next year I needed yet more space. Okay now what do I do? I just couldn't see spending the money on a double spot, so I increased my number of shelves. I bought 2, 3 shelf mission style bookcases. My husband then modified them by making each shelf 4 inches smaller from top to bottom. (top shelf 4", 2nd shelf 8", bottom shelf 12") He then put screws in the bottom of the shelves to catch the boards as they leaned in. (We did the graduated shelves to keep from having shadows on the jewelry) I also upgraded the boards to 1" thick foam spray adhesive to Luan and then wrapped in cloth stapled to the back.
This year I'm moving my display up yet another level. I bought 2' x 4' tables that are adjustable height. I will be setting them up to counter height which will bring everything up to eye level. For this season I will continue to use the bookcase setup but next year I will be buying glass cases to put on top. I also changed my color scheme to a taupe under cloth and an aqua center cloth. My busts are black and my earring trees silver. Don't be afraid of color. You'd be amazed how many colors are neutral and will look good with lots of things.

2. Separate your jewelry into color groups. This really helps people find what they are looking for at a glance. Most women have an idea of something that they are kind of looking for but not really in a big hurry to find. By color coordinating things the colors grab their eye and they are more apt to find what they didn't know they were looking for. (Doing this gave me another 15% in sales)

3. Ask all people to sign your mailing list book. (get emails too if at all possible to keep them up to date with sales you are attending) Send out cards letting people know that you will be doing a show 2 weeks before the date. I offer a small discount of 15% if they bring the card but you could offer any incentive you'd like to draw them there. This helped me to find out that people truly were coming because of the mailing. I just started doing this a couple of years ago. My mailing list is now 350 strong and growing.

4. If at all possible light it up! The extra cost you spend on electricity will more than pay for itself, especially if you sell pricey jewelry. I found that my pieces over $75 sold much better with lighting and brought my average sale up from $30 to $65.

5. Take credit cards. Jewelry is an impulse buy. I can't tell you throughout the years how many high dollar sales I had walk away because I didn't take credit cards. I use Propay. It's $60 a year and allows me to use my cell phone to preauthorize credit cards while at the show.

6. Put things under glass. This one I haven't gotten to yet. I've read many things that say the perceived value of your items dramatically increases when you put things under glass. It's like the velvet rope of the buying world. Everyone wants a piece. I've seen it happen a lot at the shows I've done and the only reason why I didn't do it was because it was expensive.

7. If at all possible demonstrate your craft while at a show. The general population likes to see you making what you are selling as handmade. Now when I say watch you work I mean take projects that you can easily throw down if a customer needs help. If you're all engrossed in what you are making that will hinder your selling not help. People don't like to be ignored. This also allows for a conversation to start and push low key selling. I make a lot of pieces while at shows and if I didn't do this I would lose about 25% of my business. People like to have pieces made specifically for them.

8. Find ways to bring more color to your display. As discussed above many colors are neutral. On my dark green cloth I would put 2 cream napkins and 1 burnt orange Napkin to highlight different colors. I'd put pastels on the creams, Blues and silvers on the green and blacks and browns on the orange. Most of my shows are done in the winter months so this also looked very festive. We as designers know what colors work well together. The general population sticks with the obvious. Pair your items with color swatches that look great and that the customer wouldn't have thought of. This gives them more ideas of what to wear your items with and therefore increases the chances that they will buy.

I'm sure there's something else I've forgotten but this will at least get you started. You don't have to spend a fortune to have a nice display. Use different materials and you will stick out. When you're in a show with 200 vendors it's very important to make yourself memorable in a good way so that those who like to look at everything before buying will make their way back to you. Oh and location, location, location. You often don't get to control this one but if you get a good spot at a show it can make all the difference in the world. Hope this helps someone!
Winnie