Sheila M. Evans

What else could I possibly need to do, I believe I asked at the end of my last post about my art fair setup. Ha. Well, there were just a few things.

As expected, I did have to do some fiddling with the walls. Since I use wooden pieces at the tops of the panels, I realized I would need to make more in order to fill a double booth. Happily, I devised a method of using the old pieces from my original setup which would save money, shop time, staining and lumber. Happily, that is, until I actually looked at the original top rails and realized they were narrower than the new ones and therefore unusable.

Sigh. Off to the hardware store for 2x4s and stain.

[singlepic id=269 w=320 h=240 float=left]I spent a day building the new top rails then set up my new 10′ x 15′ tent, which makes the perfect staining booth, in the yard. Since I now had to stain the new top rails, I took the opportunity to see if any old parts needed touchup. The naugahyde “baseboards” did, so I started filling in the worn spots with stain. This of course looked terrible, so I then peeled off every last bit of the old stain and re-stained them all. All of this took three more days.

With the addition of the new top rails, I now had more than would fit into the complex canvas-and-fleece carrying case I had made, so I needed to make yet another of those. The case, a sheet of canvas lined with polar fleece with pockets at the ends and velcro everywhere, rolls up like a canvas paintbrush carrier  and protects the stained wooden boards. I spent another two days making it. I will NOT EVER make another one and I really mean it this time.

And, of course, I had to order more Pro Panels to fill larger booth spaces. I had enough to fill a 10′ x 15′ space, barely, but not a 10′ x 20′ one. Which brings me to another little hitch I encountered. A few of the shows I do offer a 10′ x 15′ space as their version of a double booth. Which is great, so I bought the 5′ x 10′ extension tent and figured for those shows that offer a 10′ x 20′ space I could just center the now 10′ x 15′ tent in the space, or pop out an awning on one side to use the whole 10 x 20 area. Not so much.

Turns out if you buy 20 feet worth of space, shows want you to have 20 feet worth of tent, at least the shows I am doing. So yes, I have to buy ANOTHER 10′ x 10′ tent. GAAAAHHH! On the bright side, when I called and explained my dilemma to the Light Dome people, they offered to put together just the pieces I need to save me a little money. Now can I be done buying stuff?

Come to think of it I will probably need more lights…

Oh, and if you were wondering what the photo at the top of this post is all about, I did come up with a use for the boards from my original display. My husband recycled them into some very nice benches for our new greenhouse! He even ripped I don’t know how many of the boards to make the slatted tops. It still took him far less time than it took me to make that stupid bag. Here’s a photo of the finished benches, complete with child storage underneath.

Want more? Read Evolution of an Art Fair Booth Part 1 and Part 3.

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