I'm only two weeks away from my first art festival of the year (Downtown Silver Spring Fine Art Festival, May 5-6), so I've been busy preparing some fun new gear for my booth.
I got some awesome new weights for my canopy! I need to thank Mark Cortright, from Liscom Hill Pottery in California, for suggesting this idea on the Ceramic Arts Daily Forum ... to make canopy weights out of steel bar stock. I googled the term "machine shop" and my town, and after a few phone calls I found a machine shop to make them for me. Steel bar stock is sold by the inch, and the machinist can tell you how much it weighs per inch, therefore you can design the weights to exactly meet your needs. I made mine 37 pounds each, for me that is heavy enough to hold the canopy down in just about every weather situation, and light enough to transport them by myself. They are 2.5 inch round bars, 28 inches long. Note the can of Rustoleum, these need to be painted to thwart rust. btw, I used 2.5 inch round bars because the machine shop had lots of it in stock, therefore I saved about $100 compared to having them order new bars for me. Overall, these weights cost me $220. They are so much more space-efficient than the dumbbells I was using before. And I have to say, they just look cool!
I also made some reusable price tags. This is not my original idea, I saw another potter using these, and I don't remember who it was. I rolled out long coils of clay, then cut them into 1.5 inch nuggets, with one end cut at an angle. I glazed them with my glossy liner glaze, and now I can write on them with a dry-erase pen. Unlike the paper tent cards I used before, I don't need to tape these down when outdoors. And now I can easily change prices in the middle of a show.
I also made some reusable price tags. This is not my original idea, I saw another potter using these, and I don't remember who it was. I rolled out long coils of clay, then cut them into 1.5 inch nuggets, with one end cut at an angle. I glazed them with my glossy liner glaze, and now I can write on them with a dry-erase pen. Unlike the paper tent cards I used before, I don't need to tape these down when outdoors. And now I can easily change prices in the middle of a show.
And that's not all, I'm also working on new booth curtains, made from a fabric that won't wrinkle even if I'm trying. Plus a booth sign with a QR code (I'm so modern). And I'm setting up a MailChimp account for my email announcements, so watch for some way more attractive emails from me! (click here to sign up for the emails)
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