| ============= Displaying Rugs ============= > We are hoping to attend our first outdoor craft fair this summer, selling rag rugs, saddle pads and blankets. Rather than reinventing the proverbial wheel, I wondered if anyone might have suggestions as to how to best hang or display rugs in the 10x10 booth sitiuation. There must be someone who has trial-and-errored this to either death or to perfection! Any ideas will be seriously considered and greatly appreciated. < Sally and Susan in Montana -------------------------------- My display consists of "tube ladders" hanging from the tent frame. The tubes are the cardboard rolls that wall to wall carpet comes on, re-cycled from a dumpster behind the store. Cut to length, and with lengths of sturdy rope, tie into a ladder. At the top of the ladder, tie a piece of rope with hooks on it. Just make sure that your tent is strudy enough to support it, it gets quite heavy. Extra inventory goes into wooden bins. Alice -------------------------------- I use a big sturdy wooden laundry rack to hang a selection of rugs on and then place the rest on a table so that the customer can look through them. I try to choose the ones to hang to reprsent the basic clolors, styles, etc. We got our rack from the Harmony catalogue and it's sturdier than the usual ones seen in hardware stores. Margaret in the San Juan Islands -------------------------------- Rug Clamp - Two pieces of finished wood apx. 2" x 36", (or appropriate length for rug), with a screw hole in each end. You place the border of a rug on the first piece, lay the second piece on top, and tighten it together with the screws. There are brackets on the back to hang it with. Cathy Moomaw --------------------- Someone asked about hanging heavy weavings and rugs. I have a friend who does very large, heavy tapestry like wall hangings. She stitches a strip of velcro on the back upper edge of the weaving, slightly shorter than the width of the hanging. She then staples the other strip of the velcro to a flat wooden strip about 2-3 inches wide, matching the length to the velcro, or slightly longer, but still shorter than the width of the piece. The hooks for attaching the piece to the wall are fastened to the wooden strip. The strip is mounted on the wall first, and only then is the weaving attached to the strip. Works great on small pieces too. Be sure the velcro isn’t too far from the top edge or the top may curl slightly. Jean --------------- Another little hint about using velcro this way--you can first machine stitch the velcro to a strip of fabric and then stitch that to the top back of your tapestry by hand...much easier on the fingers than trying to hand sew the velcro directly to the tapestry... Cheers, Thea --------------- I use carpet tack strips. Attach them to the wall and then any tapestry or rug can go on and they are easlity interchangeable. I get them at wall to wall carpet stores, or home depot has them for cheap. Lisa ---------------- Booth walls etc. Here are a few things I remembered to write down from the Beyond Borders conference in Nelson, BC that I attended at the end of March. These applied to big craft shows indoors but the info is still good. Back wall should be 8 ft high so as any booths behind you don't show. Good lighting is essential and should not shine in customers' eyes. It should highlight the work. One jeweller had her entire 8 by 8 booth including inventory, shelves, director's chair etc. packed in a 2ft by 3ft by 8ft box on casters for easy moving. Have a floor that defines your space - a rug is good. Don't put a table across the front of the booth as this keeps people out. Hardwall sides and back with a great sign are the best. Now, I was thinking that foamcore board panels could be cut to a manageable size and then joined on site and painted a smashing colour that compliments your weaving. These would make a good "hardwall" if you could figure out how to build a knock-down frame out of plastic plumbing pipe (it's also light) which could be left white or painted a colour of your choosing. Some people have used fabric to define their space. I guess if it were a dramatic colour like black or purple it could work well. You would still need a knockdown frame to support the fabric and if you are outdoors you could have problems. That's all I can remember. Merrilyn in Princeton ------------ |
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| I use a big sturdy wooden laundry rack to hang a selection of rugs on... |
| Rug Clamp - Two pieces of finished wood apx. 2" x 36" |
| Here are a few things I remembered to write down from the Beyond Borders conference |