Images from Life Instyle Trade Fair - Setting Up My Booth

I alway find arriving to set up for a trade fair exciting yet daunting at the same time.  My work is small so I find it a challenge to fill the large space that I'll occupy for a number of day as well as to stand out in a very large and talented crowd.  As buyers fly in from all around Australia and a few from overseas and they have a lot to see in a very short time, it's important to be able to grab people's attention very quickly.

They are many large, elaborate set ups but traveling to Melbourne from Queensland I try to keep my freight costs low and flat pack as much as possible.  For this latest show I sent one box of ikea flat pack furniture down and the rest of the display and stock fit into two suitcases and one carry-on bag.

The back wall was the first thing I set up to get a feel for the space.  I think I should start buying shares in the Blu Tack brand as I went through about four packets to hang my display, it makes taking it down so much easier at the end of the show.

I mapped everything out with masking tape and pieces of paper...

Then hung frames onto the wall.  The frames were filled with pieces of sushi grass to add a bit of fun to the display.

My fabric and resin pendants were then hung with the designs featured in the frames.

I had more grass cut from acrylic for my hairclip display...

And for the earring from that collection.

The space I'd booked was 3x3 metres so I had tables at the front with my other collections.

While lighting at the show is good, especially on the back wall, even more, especially for jewellery is a bonus.  To avoid the need for power cords running through my stand, I used battery operated LED lights.

Pieces were then displayed on custom cut acrylic pieces with some more touches of grass to tie the whole display in together.

Soon I'll post some other photos from the show, there were so many amazing displays.

Homemade Wall Decal

I'm having a great time getting ready for Life Instyle in a couple of week's time.  I love what I do and I love the variety that my business offers, all the different hats that I get to wear, it keeps life interesting.

Over the last couple of days, I've been working on my booth design.  I will keep my signature black trees and red blossoms, but have some new additions as well.  This time I've invested in a larger space so to still keep to budget, I'm doing a few things myself.

The first one is to make the trees.  In the past I've had them custom made, but with the size I need, it's quite expensive.  So what you see below, is the one I made myself this morning.  I have to say, I'm really pleased with how it came out.

I've simply cut it out of black contact paper.  Remember the stuff you used to cover your school books with?  And granny used to line her shelves?  That stuff.  It was super easy to use, I just drew out a design, cut, joined branches to give it more width and smoothed it onto the wall.  It's removable and doesn't damage the walls (I believe, but don't quote me on that, unless you're my landlord reading this and in that case - it won't damage the walls).  And the best thing is, rather than that single tree costing me over $100, it cost me $4!

I'll leave this one in the little one's room and I'll get some different colours to add flowers, leaves and a grass trim.  It was so much fun to do, and so cheap that you could even change things around for the season....

If you're coming to Life Instyle, I'll be upstairs in the Gallery Level, booth G30 and you can see the final result in the flesh.