From what I’ve learned every artist must design their art fair booth to accomodate their own specific needs. I use reed screens to hang my pieces and a table to demonstrate and set out the smaller frames but I want to spruce it up a bit so that it is prettier and easier to use. I knew that I wanted a natural style to go with my art but I had two important considerations…
1. a strict budget
2. lightweight walls
So, this is what I did (Using the pronoun “I” loosely here since Mark and Riona have helped a bunch):
1. Purchase a reed screen from Home Depot for $25 and cut it in half.
2. Purchase fabric from Online Fabric Store for super low prices particularly if you have a coupon code for flat rate shipping. I got 8 yards of 60″ natural burlap for 4 panels sized 60″ x 72″. It cost under $20 total….would have been over $32 at the craft store.
3. Purchase garlands at the craft store for half off.
4. Attach a bamboo pole (Mark brought some home from a job) to the top with ropes and jute string then fasten garland on to the top as well.
5. Hang the screen from somewhere in the house and beat the cats off of it every two minutes. 6. Attach the burlap with embroidery string at the top. I did both sides (I want the back to covered in burlap too) but only at the top.
7. Run jute string across and tie at intervals through the entire thing so that you have loops to hang the art from and to attach the burlap to the screen on both sides. Redo this at least twenty times until you have it just right.
8. Redo it again.
9. Hang another garland going down the side.
10. Beat the cats off of it.
I am hanging my frames with clothespins and organizing them sort of haphazardly. It always surprises me how much work and effort goes into a relaxed, sort of natural look…sometimes I think it is a harder style to achieve than all anal and ordered and symmetrical. It’s like natural makeup…an oxymoron.
I had the idea to just write each individual frame’s price on its clothespin…this just seems too easy and efficient…am I missing a flaw here? Hopefully not.
I didn’t really bother to straighten up the frames for this last photo…I was too worn out from keeping the cats from climbing the dang thing, picking up dropped clothespins and moving it so the child or the dogs could run through. It was chaos, this whole project was inspired chaos and guess what? I need to do it all again for the other wall. woo hoo.
Wildwood Hollow Studio 