Resin jewelry booth at ACRE Las Vegas

I'm blogging this to you today while I'm at the ACRE Las Vegas show.  The last 36 hours have had some good and not so good moments.  But I'm here now and things are going.

It started yesterday at 4 AM ET with an alarm clock telling me it was time to get the day started.  I REALLY needed about 6 more hours of sleep.  I had been burning the midnight oil getting the new resin and pewter jewelry line going, including being up late the night before.  A pot of coffee and kisses from my peeps to wish me well, and I left for the Orlando airport.  No, the sun was not up yet.

Other than the normal inconveniences of flying (body scans, removing half your clothing, having to give up that bottle of lotion I forgot was in my purse), that part went well.  Unfortunately, the lack of sleep and too much caffeine caught up with me.  By the time I landed in Vegas, nausea had taken up most of my thought processes and a migraine wasn't too far behind it.  Luckily, my friend Maggie was with me and helped tote the luggage from the airport to the hotel and then on to the convention center.

It was only 3 PM local time when we got started setting up the booth, but I was still on east coast time and seriously needed a nap. 

This is what the booth looked like when we started.  Another 10 foot by 5 foot space with a table and chair.

I had packed everything into three suitcases and one carry on bag.  I flew Southwest, so two bags are free.  My friend checked one of the others as hers.  After the "pain in the keister" factor of lugging around big, heavy bags, I would at least look into having my materials freighted out here ahead of time, especially if I'm doing the show by myself.  (You can have items sent here ahead of time and they are at your booth waiting for you.  No hernias - no headaches - but there's the cost of the freight - bags are free on Southwest)



I designed by new resin jewelry booth display back in February.  Here's my first opportunity to put it to work!

First thing I did was to put up the ivory colored sidewalls over the silvery ones.  (The cover of the table in the picture is the silver).  I also hung 4 pictures (one you can't see), and I hung the lights.

Next was the pink table cover and the green floor.

This was as far as I got on Friday afternoon.  I couldn't decide which was going to happen first:  my head exploding or regurgitating my breakfast.  I am absolutely embarrassed to say that I was in bed by 5 PM local time.  (probably against the law in a party town like Vegas).






The jewelry finally got put out on the table Saturday morning.  (Notice Maggie kneeling next to the table.)  For this show, I only brought scrabble tile and resin jewelry and my new line of resin and pewter jewelry.

I have 20 different themes of scrabble tile jewelry for display.

A closeup view of the new line of pewter and resin jewelry.  I'm happy with how this line has turned out.

My last thing to share with you is the cute little flower jewelry displays I got at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  I was in there to get table risers, and found this as a little bonus. 

I'll have more updates to share soon!

Checklist for wholesale jewelry show

I'm heading out to the ACRE Las Vegas wholesale show next week.  This is my checklist I'll be going over for the show.  (Actually, this is the same checklist from the ACRE Orlando show, with a few changes and improvements.  My "lessons learned" are in italics.)

Jewelry.  I'll be taking a large sampling of the scrabble tile jewelry and the new pewter and resin jewelry line.  After attending my first wholesale show in January of this year, I've got a better idea of how much of each style to bring to give shop and gallery owners and idea of what the work is like.

Large duplicate invoice pads.  I need to make sure I have plenty of room to get all the contact information and the specifics of the order.  Plus I need to be sure I keep a copy for myself.  I brought too many for the Orlando show.  I won't bring near as many to Las Vegas (which is especially important since I'm packing to go on a plane.)

Fact sheets about me, KMS Designs, and my jewelry.  Knowing that many of the attendees are coming to gather information and (hopefully) place orders, I need to give them pertinent facts that they can review later and place and order.  I also overdid this for the Orlando show.  I take about a third of what I did before and make more copies later in case I need to.

Mailing list signup.  I need a list and method to collect email addresses for vendors to receive contact from me about what's going on within my jewelry business.  I had forms for vendors to fill out, but actually found that getting their business card was sufficient.

Laptop computer.  This will allow me to coordinate the orders with my account on the ACRE wholesale crafts website.  It will also give me the chance to show gallery and boutique owners my Flickr jewelry page, which has pictures of me doing works in progress.  (There is wi-fi at the show.)  I'm glad I had my computer with me more than I thought I would have.  Definitely will be taking this item with me to Las Vegas.

Business cards.  I need people to have a way to contact me, whether by phone, email or my twitter and facebook pages.  Yep, those were good to have.

Signage about the jewelry prices and a bit of information about how they are made.  This might be overkill, but I like people to get information without having to feel "embarassed" to ask.  I'm taking it one step further this time and am going to have pictures of my jewelry hanging from the walls of the booth.  I need something that people can see from across the aisle to draw them in.

Jewelry display materials.  This includes my velvet displays, tablecloths, and risers.  I'm also taking some DIY wooden shelves to set up as well.  That means I'll need to bring a screwdriver set.

Track lighting, zip ties, and extension cord.  Since the show will be indoors, I need to bring extra lighting so people can fully appreciate the jewelry.  I'm bringing a portable light system this time along with the ties and extension cords.

Cart and associated bungee cords.  It's not going to be a short trip between my booth and my vehicle.  No cart and cords this time.  All but one of the suitcases has wheels.  I'm hoping I don't hate myself in the end for toting all these suitcases around. 

A few new items to go on this trip:  

Table risers.  This will add an extra 6 inches of height to the table.  It will be taller than a kitchen table, but not quite counter height.

Bird netting.  No, I'm not going bird hunting while I'm out there, but I need something to put across the booth to make it "secure".  In Orlando, I draped everything with a sheet, which shuffled everything around daily.  

Fishing line.  I need it to hang the pictures.

Art show table covers and fabric walls

My fireproof fabrics for my jewelry booth at ACRE Las Vegas arrived this week.  I'm still happy with my color choices.

This will be the table cover.  It can fit a six foot long table, but can adjust to a 4 foot table as well.  It was slightly less pink than I was expecting, but still a good fit.  I think it's going to go great with the green floor.







 

The ivory panel walls are nice too.  I ordered them with clips and a velcro strip at the top the panels.  That way, I can put clips (which also have a velcro side on them) over a bar and velcro the panels to it.






Down to the wire!!  I'll be traveling to Las Vegas two weeks from today!!