Booth evolution - or - Don't Panic!

3 years ago I made the leap to drop jewelry entirely and focus on just glass.  My first season I tried to work with displays that had been the basis for my jewelry booth... I painted the wood white so the colors of the glass would show up and came up with a start that left patrons snowblind, although I didn't think of it that way until I looked back at the pictures.

Last season I invested in chrome shelving to give me more depth (the white shelves were 8 inches deep) and to break up the white.  By the end of the season I had found light green fabric and . created curtains to allow me to raise the walls without taking in the background view of whomever was next to me.  I was getting complements about the cool, spa-like feel of the booth but I wasn't done.  The wire shelves were a pain to setup, worse to tear down, and difficult because even with plastic tops things liked to fall off and through.

For this season I invested again (and gave the chrome shelves a good home) and bought wood folding bookshelves.   They take up less room in my car, go up and down far easier and look much nicer. The setup took longer than expected but that probably had something to do with the fact that I hadn't put up the tent in 8 months.  The only thing I didn't manage to bring was parts for my chair because I couldn't find them, but overall the results were great!

  My next steps (hopefully complete before my next show in 3 weeks) are
 1) a smaller folding bookshelf to use as a "desk"
 2) higher chairs (hidden behind the tall shelf on the right)
 3) final work on the curtains to make them fit properly
 4) hiding the weights at the front of the tent.  The curtains hide the back weights

 If I get all of the done for the next show I may be able to focus on just glass!  For the first time I feel like the end of my booth evolution might be in site!

And it turns out that Wendy and the experts were right (see previous post if you don't know what I'm talking about).  Getting rid of the flea market feel worked!  We sold 50% more last weekend than the same show last year with pretty similar weather and crowds.  

Now it's time to head off to my favorite glass store and get back into the studio!