craft fair-ology: up, up, and away!

If you're just joining me, this is "Craft Fair-ology," my regular feature on helpful tips and hints for selling handmade goods at craft fairs.

But wait, you don't have to be a craft vendor to learn something useful! I will be mentioning how to apply these tips and techinques for display and storage to other aspects of your life as well... truly win-win! 

Building up, up, up!

Often you only get 10 ft x 10 ft, 8 ft x 8 ft, or maybe just one table to display all of your hard work. So how do you deal with such intense space constraints? You have only one direction to go - up! 

Think about your favorite little artsy boutique or market. I'll bet you that everything isn't just on one level. There are often tables, things on the floor, dresses hanging just where you can't help but stare at them. The walls themselves are often covered with goodies, right at eye level so they're hard to resist. I have found that one of the keys to creating an interesting display is to use my vertical space as well as my horizontal space.

Building yourself a set of mobile craft fair walls or finding another type of backdrop is a good place to start. I try not to take up too much prime table space with signs and decorations, so I usually use those on the walls or on the front of the tables, as you can see in the picture above. Then, by varying the levels of your display pieces with shelves, boxes, and crates, you can help move your customer's eye through your booth, instead of giving them one flat level of displays to look at.

Go forth and build up! For more craft fair advice, read my other Craft Fair-ology posts.