What's keeping me up at night???

Sometimes my double life as a "regular" civil servant and my "real" life as a potter feels like an overload of cognitive dissonance.  I have just been reading some pottery blogs by Tony Clennell and the fine author of Fine Mess Pottery and feel a sense of connection with everything they say. the frustrations and the joys about details of making and selling that are likely trivial to non Makers. My current obsession is display in my booth.

Like for instance the word "Boothal"  only means anything to those of us who create, re create, reinvent, obsess and worry about displaying our products in both retail and craft fair venues, and photos for Etsy. this picture is taken from a Farmers Market a few years ago, selling tail gate style.  I know the booth is the matting or the canvas on which we display our pots, but this is a competitive business so I need to make it inviting and draw people in, without having the wind or leany customers knock it over.

I have continued to suffer from a crafter's form of PTSD after a few Folk Festivals where the winds gusted enough to take out my display stand and several innocent bystanders. 

I really liked this display by Coldstream Pottery at the Penticton Farmers Market last Saturday. It was attractive, made optimum use of space and seemed to be wind proof.

this is an example of what I don't want, overcrowded, unfocussed. So....that was a few years ago, but I am trying to make progress. I have recently found some folding shelves from a store I shall not mention (starts with W) that are decent looking and fold. I need to build the other ones and move the ladder up onto a table as I still struggle to get my display vertical enough. It is still too jumbly for my eye

I had some shelves built for me by a local group but they are solid wood and not within my possibilities of transporting. So, I continue to try and make it work for each different show, with each different booth size and lighting and neighbours.