Category — All About Polymer Clay

When I started the jewelry business 7 yrs ago I was naive. Like childbirth, it’s probably a good thing you don’t know about the pain part, if you did its very possible you’d never succumb to the temptation. Not that I’ve had children or anything but I’ve heard plenty of stories. As I was saying, the Arts and Crafts Show business is for the naive, then once you’re hooked theres really no backing out. Had I know that I would go through about 5 display systems, two tents, rain and mud, dust coating every piece of jewelry I own, wind and dogs knocking down every display, waking up a 4am, going to bed at 7pm after a long day in the booth, eating sno-cones and cheesecake on a stick, roasting in 100 degree sun, wondering if my polymer creations were going to melt before my eyes, and last but not least, watching as people pick up the Fairie Bottles and spill Fairie Dust all over my table 20 times a day, I might not have entered into the crafts show business with such excitement.

Seven years later I’m still doing this and despite all of the drawbacks I have to admit it’s gotten under my skin and in my blood. I absolutely love this life. I think having a partner who supports me and does most of the heavy lifting (literally) makes it 200% better. Having someone believe in you and your art makes such a difference to an artist. I would never have come this far if it weren’t for the unconditional support of my partner Jonny. Being an artist herself, she fully believes in the process and the devotion each of us must have in order to thrive. What I don’t understand, is how she can provide me with such an undying support while she gets no time to practice her own artistic gifts. She is an incredible portrait artist and painter/sculptor of kinetic art. Yet, she has little time to create her own art. She has jumped into the jewelry business with great enthusiasm, creating her own niche of beautiful gemstone and swarovski bracelets, earrings and necklaces. Her contributions fill the booth and make the business complete.

If the tables were turned, I personally don’t know if I could sacrifice my own art to assist her. Perhaps I could, but I feel incredibly lucky and spoiled by her. She insists that she’s completely happy in her position as jewelry partner and I believe her, and am in awe at her devotion.

One of her tasks has been to revamp and beautify the booth display system. Under her skilled hands and vision during the past seven years the booth setup has undergone an incredible transformation. This, she says is what she loves doing and it truly shows. Jonny has a great eye for detail and beauty, she considers every little corner, background, and fabric choice. One would think that there were more display options available for the 10×10 jewelry booth, and the display setup was something I didn’t give much thought to when starting my business. I soon learned that the display and setup is the single most important aspect of my success at art shows. Your booth must be attractive and inviting enough so that people are tempted to enter. Think about how many booths you pass up when at an art show, I simply can’t afford an unattractive or uninviting booth.

Because I use a wheelchair, other considerations were important as well. I need lots of space in the booth in order to move around and I think that consideration in the design has a real benefit to customers as well. The booth is roomy allowing for more traffic than the average booth.

After several variations I think we’ve finally hit upon a beautiful and well-constructed display unit.

Take a look:

The picture at the top left is the necklace display rack, I’ll post another picture once we have the booth setup tomorrow and you’ll be able to see how nicely the necklaces drape over the knobs (one of those details Jonny thought of). To the right is a picture of the earring rack, I took the picture so that you can see the wood and the carving, another nice Jonny touch! The earring cards fit very well over the slats and tuck under so they don’t fly off when the wind blows. The bottom picture is the newest addition to the display, it’s for pendants. Jonny found a place here in Columbus that sells display’s for the retail trade, they have new and used slat walls!!! I’ve never considered a slat wall because of the weight, but this is a small enough unit that it’s perfect. They cut it to our specs and it was only $10!!! Well, of course Jonny had to make it match the rest of the booth and she put the nice fabric covered strips on it, I just LOVE IT!!! and can’t wait to see how my pendants look on it.