Shining the Light on your Products - Tent Lighting

I certainly didn't think that lighting would be a big deal. I thought a lamp is a lamp is a lamp. Just grab a lamp not in use and we would have plenty of light in the tent. This is sadly not the case.

When it comes to lighting your craft tent it is just as important as buying the proper tent. The lighting illuminates your products and provides a welcoming glow to your tent. It welcomes the customers in to stop and look at your products. After all no one wants to enter a dark cave. Lesson learned the hard way.

If you want to get an idea of what type of lighting you should use, I suggest going to a craft show / farmers market near you and check out the vendors tents. You may also take note of how they display there products for ideas on how to display yours.

These are the lamps we noticed a lot of vendors using in our area. They are aluminum work clamp on lamps. The 10" lamp can handle up to a 300 watt bulb. It also throws 30% more light out in to a bigger area then the 8.5" work lamp. I haven't noticed the aluminum getting hot enough to burn any thing but as always use with caution. Most of the vendors we have seen use them by hanging them from the tent top, sides or center and focus them outward on to the products. 

10" Work Lamp

The 8.5" work clamp lamp can hold up to a 150 watt bulb.

8.5" Work Lamp

We are trying to keep the cost down so we used old clip on lamps that we had left over from my mothers shop. We have a few of the 8.5" aluminum clamp lamps and a couple of small desk clip-on lamps. The 8.5' lamps will be used to highlight our products on the tables and hanging from the walls. The desk top lamps will be used to highlight our company name tent banner on the back wall. They can't handle more then 70 watts but that should be enough to spot light the banner. All we needed to do is buy bulbs for them. The brighter the better. We bought two 150 clear watt and one clear 200 watt bulb for the 10" and 8.5" lamps and two 70 watt for the desk lamps. Lots of Light...

When it comes to bulbs, there are so many choices out there. There is soft light, warm light, clear, vivid light. Then there is halogen, florescent or led lights. Not to mention, there is single spot lamps versus track lighting. Some bulbs simulate a higher wattage verses the illumination. There is a lot to choose from. Now that the bulb/lighting regulations have changed I would ask the store what would be best for your situation.

We will eventually upgrade to the simulated 1200 watt to be used in the aluminum work lamps with the lower (70watt) actual watt usage. These bulbs can be pricy but they last a little longer. When we have enough money we will buy a few more aluminum 10" clamp lamps from Lowes or Walmart. They run around $10-$15 each.

***Special notation*** If you are doing craft shows in the cold and raining months you can replace one of the light bulbs with a heat bulb. This will help keep you and your tent warm.

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Making My Company Banner

Alphabet Soup!

 I started working the Portland Saturday Market recently. My mother and I have been trying to make due or do things with the least amount of expense. We are working on getting our displays and tent displays together. We decided to make our own banner by embroidering each letter and sewing it to canvas. We thought this would be the cheapest way for us to get a company name banner. We have the thread and we have the canvas all we need to do is the work.

Each Letter Stitched Out.

I sat down one night and started playing with Fonts and seeing which ones I would want to use for my banner. I started making my letters one by one. Each letter would have to be stitched out on the embroidery machine one at a time. Each letter took anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to embroidery. It took me 4 days to complete the embroidery . Because I stitched them out with washable stabilizer I needed to soak the letters for 24 hours, changing the water every few hours during the day and then continued soaking the remainder of the night. After soaking I cut the fabric from around each letter.

Plain Black Background Fabric

Once I completed the letters I moved on to getting the background fabric finished. I hemmed the sides and made drawstring facings in the top and bottom to run rope through the banner so I could hang it up in the tent. 

After I finished the background piece of the banner I laid out the letters for spacing and placing. Once that is complete I attached the letters to the background fabric. We used glue to attached the letters. Gluing the letters on was easier then sewing them on.

Letters are glued on and drying

This is the completed banner displaying the company name.

Hanging in the tent

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Our First Craft Tent Setup

 

This was a test run of the craft show setup. We setup the tent in the front yard.

If you have never done a craft show whether inside or outside I would suggest doing a test setup the week before. This will help you decide what you may need and the best way to display your products. This will help on the day of the show by saving time on setting up your area. It also keeps the pressure down so you are not wondering around trying to figure things out at the last minute before the doors open for business.

  

  We are trying to make due on a very limited budget. We are using what we have around the house or making items as cheap as possible.

We bought our 8 x 8 tent. Unfortunately, we bought the wrong type of tent. We bought a tent used more for family recreation. We should have bought one for the serious craft vendor.

We made our weights from milk jugs.

We used clip on lamps that were laying around the house.

The navy blue back curtain that we are using was once used as dressing room wall at my moms store. We still had a few panels left. All we had to due is hem them for the tent. The navy blue back wall gives the tent some depth which we needed to make the tent look larger.

We setup our temporary cardboard displays for the tables to create a second viewing level.

The table cloths are large pieces of black fabric that we hemmed. 

We used our new cart for the second table. We arranged the lights to focus on the tables.

After we got the tent setup with the tables we wanted to figure out how we wanted to display our products. 

With this setup we hung the pillows from the top of the tent and displayed a few on the cart table on the right. The front table is displaying the iPad, messenger bag and pet supplies.

This tent setup has come a long way from the first time we sold at PSM. The first setup was the tent and one table with pillows sitting all over it at the same viewing level. We didn't have lights, so we were sitting in a darken cave on a rainy day. No one took notice of us. 

We are still making improvements to our tent and displays to make it more inviting to entice the public to stop and look at our products. 

One thing to remember when doing a show, you need to find things that break down (lay flat) and are easy to transport. 

The other thing to keep in mind is to make your tent a welcoming place. You want the customer to feel welcome to come and look at your wares.

 

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Craft Shows are easy!

Craft shows are easy! All you need to do is setup a tent, a table and the customers will buy everything you have in 2 days. That is what everyone thinks!! LOL!!!  The truth is craft shows are not as ease as you think. There is a lot of work that goes into those 2 days for the possibility of selling one item for the entire weekend. Craft shows are a hard business. If you are not setup to invite the customer in to stop and look, guess what!!! They won't look. Craft shows are not easy!!! 

Company Pillow to display on front table

I've been wanting to get involved with Portland Saturday Market for over a decade. Three years ago I tried to get in but was declined. They have a jury to approve or decline your artwork. I finally got jury approval last year and started selling this year. I must say that since I started PSM I have learned a lot. This made me think that maybe others would like to hear about what we go through. Craft shows and the market is currently taking up a lot of brain power and my time. I thought I would add a blog series about doing craft shows. At least for awhile. This will go along with my embroideries. I can't help it! It is what is going on in my life right now. Embroideries and craft shows!!!

Company Banner for Tent

Mischyf Couture

 

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From Sketch to Embroidery - Bicycle

 

Portland Oregon is listed as one of the top 10 states with the highest amount of bicyclist in a city. That is quite an honor since there are so many thousands of cities. I already knew there were a lot of cyclist in the Portland but I never realized we were in the top 10 cities. WoW!!!

 

  Inspired by the news and looking for embroideries that would appeal to both genders I thought I would design my own bike embroidery. I found neon pink and neon green thread and tested it out with those colors. I just love the neon pink bicycle.

This is the first bike we embroidered on a Kindle Fire case in neon green. This case seems to get a lot of attention out at the artist market. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/102458455/kindle-fire-kindle-keyboard-sleeve-case

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