First craft show

[Maur]

I am doing my first show in early May and can use any advice.
I need creative display suggestions.   Catalogue items don't thrill me- maybe if combined with other items? Any suggestions
for setting the table up. It is 10' by 10'.
How many earrings and necklaces should I produce for a six
hour show? What about pricing items?

[Metalman]

Do a search of our forum here for additional pricing discussions.
One rule of thumb is that cost of materials + your wage [probably $ per hr] + overhead[rent, electrical, etc. = cost[yours]]. Then 2 times or 3 times becomes your selling price, maybe your wholesale price and more $$ for retail.
SO - it is best if you seriously approach this to get a $$ figure to look at. All of the factors are important and real. You may not think the overhead counts much right now because your rent is covered or something but if your business is a go, you will have to factor it in then. You might even do the exercise of figuring out what it would cost if you had rent and bills to pay on your studio and then use that figure in your formula.
Once all of the numbers are on the paper then you have to honestly look at your work and decide if the market will pay you that amount for your work.  YOu may decide that your work is worth more then that figure - YOU GO!!!
Factors for valuation are the quality of your materials, the level of your finish - is it soldered?, polished?, fine metals?, gemstones?.
It is important that as crafts people and artists we value our work appropriately - if we give it away, then others in our community will suffer as well as us. :'>

[Metalman]

Regarding display.  You want something attractive but not distracting from your work.  Security may also be a concern with jewelry.  I frequently use a theme sort of thing.  My booth as my living room - carpets and chairs. Or antique fixtures with jewelry drapped over or '>.
If you use a theme you are already involved in then you already have the stuff - strip your house or home and make a space you like.  This is what we have done - this way we are comfortable  and happy in our surroundings at the show. This is worht it for multiple day shows - for 6 hrs, maybe not.  We have a large collection of fabric as well which we drap over the table and walls for effect. A unique look will bring some attention.

[Polly]

Driftwood-style (i.e., smooth and clean) tree branches can make nice displays for hanging bracelets, short necklaces, and maybe dangly earrings.

An easy and inexpensive display is a cloth-covered styrofoam board.
This can go inside a display case, or be set flat on the table, or slightly angled (by being propped up on "your" side of the counter, so it slants down toward the customer side).

Show tables are often about 30" x 5feet.  2 of these commonly go across the front of your 10' booth space.  Or, the tables might be 4 feet ... this allows you 2 feet to enter your booth from the front.  (Depends on how the show is set up)

So you could cut a 1-2" thick piece of styrofoam to a 30" x maybe 18" size, and then cover it with some nice basic cloth from the fabric store.  Black is classic, but shows up more lint.  Maybe denim-color (but lighter weight), or some nice spring colors that go well with the style of your jewelry. Avoid satin-like fabrics ... they tend to get unattractive "pulls" (like runs in nylons) as you put the pins in.  A subtle texture to the fabric pattern will help minimize the appearance of multiple pin holes over time.

Use U-shaped display pins, or simply basic straight-pins from the fabric store, to pin the cloth firmly in place, at the back of your board.

Use the same U-pins or straight pins to pin your jewelry to the display board.

If you start filling boards like these as you make jewelry for the show, you'll be able to make some nice-looking arrangements in advance, and it makes setting up on the day of the show go much more quickly.  Plus you can see before you get there, if you you have enough jewelry made to cover your counter.  

I haven't done crafts shows for a long time, and I wasn't the primary jewelry-maker back then ... so this is almost a total guess.  I hope someone else will add to my comments here!
Once you have your displays laid out, and you've decided you have adequate table-coverage, I would make at least another 25% more pieces, heavy on the designs you think will be most popular.  This will allow you to refill your display from backstock as items sell.

It also means that if you have a good show, your display will be kind of empty by the end of the show ... but since it is your first show and you don't know how well you'll do, you probably can't really afford to over-buy.

Oh, here is one more factor I remember from way-back-when.  
Someone's "Yes, it was a good show" was when she made 10x her booth rent.  So if it was a $200 show, then she'd want to sell $2,000 worth of goods.  And that's hard to do if you table is empty at the end, so she'd needed about $3,000 worth of goods made for a $200 shows, if she hoped to come close to 10x her booth rent.

I wish you luck on your first show!

--Polly

[Polly]

p.s.
The U-pins I was referring to are 63-531 in our online store.

--Polly