Setting up a show

This weekend (just gone) we spent at the Living Crafts Show at Hatfield House. It was a good show with lots of good quality crafts on offer, unfortunately ruined by the atrocious weather (very windy and rainy) which put people off from coming so it was quite quiet.

We set up the show on Wednesday afternoon and the show was open from Thursday to Sunday. We usually set up for these big shows the day before and I thought I would take some pictures to demonstrate why!!

This is what our space in the marquee looks like when we arrive. This show has posh marquees which have carpeting down on the floor. Some of them are directly onto the grass. The space was a bit lumpy so first job is to position the tables as we want them and put blocks of wood under the legs until they are flat and don't wobble! Next job is to set up the structure of our stand.

We have a metal framework which we hang curtains from and attach our lights to. There is 3 grid walls which are clamped to the back of the tables (and have netting draped across the front to disguise them a bit) and several wooden boards which a couple of years ago I made some matching covers for so you can hardly spot them! This all makes the back drop from which to show off the pottery.
Once we have got this far then the hard work begins. First we have to move all the boxes of pottery from the Van to the stand (and Pottery is heavy!) Then we spend ages deliberating on the best layout of the pottery that shows everything off to its best advantage. This is what we came up with this time out!



To the left of this picture we have another table where the potter spends the day demonstrating and making things.
As promised the potter made a new Green Lady Plaque as discussed in the previous post Green Men and now we are home and all dried out I thought I would show you. It is not fired or glazed yet but you can get the idea!

With slightly longer hair as promised!