The craft guild fall sale - Photos to drool over

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I never heard of this is what I’d like to see our show turn into. It’ll take time the craft Guild didn’t do it overnight. For those that do not know the craft Guild was formed in the late 1940s offshoot of the Dallas Museum of Art. They are also a 501 c 3 feeling much the same place that we do with our without as much of the text stop. They are also now located here in Carrollton but they’re on the other side much harder to get to their classes are much more expensive. They do not have the same type of a setup we do if you want studio time you have to pay for it. And you have to have taken classes first. But you only pay a membership fee once a year. So I’m not sure what all their funding is from I’m guessing it’s partially from classes and I’m guessing they probably are tied into some grants. They fill a somewhat different purpose than we do. But they’re still available asset for the city androgen

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It’s a good show they’ve been doing awhile. I used to work in the office.

Some notes about the show and when looking at pictures:

  1. they have all the table covers that black cloth and limited on top of that. It gives a cohesive look.

  2. Also the show is juried. It’s pretty flexible but generally it’s mediums taught at the guild, and some pictures provided to jury of items and display, just to assure a certain base standard

  3. look closely, no artists at the tables. No space for them. The way this show works is the guild sets up the tables and cloths, artist gets X-feet of space to put their stuff out. And artist has to commit to volunteer hours including a setup or tear down (for space, not personal) and a time slot or two during show to help at the room table. BUT no space for artist and not allowed to be at table.

  4. The items all have special tags/codes and and customer shops from entire room, takes items to table near room door, the artists volunteer in their time slot and write up tickets and wrap up items. The customer does this in each room, then ALL items are paid for at the central office register with a single transaction.

  5. The craft guild keeps a percentage of sales, then a check is cut to the artist and mailed later. Original cost of show is cheaper to guild members. Part of cost of show is required volunteer time during show.

  6. I did the show a couple times. I get why, but it’s a massive PIA having to tag every single item with coded tags. You’re not at the table to sell/explain. Can’t mass price anything like this bowl of widgets $5 each because customer is picking up one thing and walking it to a table elsewhere in the room with a volunteer that’s writing tickets. EVERYTHING has to have a tag. And for those of us that don’t want those tags later, it means one round of retagging our items to do the show, and another round of retagging items AGAIN to sell where we normally do. PIA and then some :neutral_face: Oh, and almost lost handmade individual earring display one time because customer picked up entire thing with earrings and volunteer almost gave them all of it. Um. No. That’s a DISPLAY. A friend saw and intervened. And I had other stuff moved around and sat in someone else’s spot. Like $150 necklace I had to track down :neutral_face:

I like the guild, the show, good crowd, but the volunteer hours, not being able to directly interact with customers for my jewelry (Strongly prefer), and the weirdnesses of the stupid stuff I mentioned last, I kinda quit doing it. But I’ll give it to them, it’s a nice show to shop, and it’s pretty to look at

So FWIW
Just take into consideration, the appearance above looks nice because of cohesive table covers and close spacing because no artists near/behind tables

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I am thinking of participating in the Space Maker sale on Nov 30th. And today I was thinking about having a table covered in black. But not knowing which table I would get, i thought of bringing my own (saw yesterday my brother has a folding table I could use).

I wonder what it would take for us to provide this as a Space.

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Looks like it’s a $11 investment per table and commitment of someone to wash and return and a few bucks for a tub for storage.

https://www.amazon.com/Surmente-Rectangular-Polyester-Tablecloth-Restaurants/dp/B078Y4F3WG/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=3FFF68D5UVZBZ&keywords=black+table+cloths+rectangular&qid=1573482861&sprefix=black+table+cloths%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFMSjdBU0c0SVdBMyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRJZD1BMDY2NDIxOTFLOUtJSzVBSFhTT0MmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDM2MTEzMTJMODFIMFg1VTNKSFYmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

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I would not mind washing them after. I :heart: my washing machine & dryer, lol.

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You are more than welcome to bring your own table to the DMS Maker Fair. I’ve expanded the room to include the Pillar, and I’m not sure that DMS has enough tables.

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We use crushed panne fabric which we buy by the bolt from JoAnn for our show table covers. $7/yard when not on sale, just grab it with a 50% off coupon for $3.50/yard. Drapes well, washes well, and the edges don’t fray when cut.

For tables, we use the white plastic folding ones from Sam’s in both the the 24"*48" and 30"*72" sizes.

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@Hardsuit how do you shape it for the table?

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Just cut to length and drape. The smaller table size is covered all the way around to the floor, and the larger table has one side open, which for us is either where we sit, or we put a dollar store black plastic tablecloth underneath.

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