Final Preparations for Art Beat

Please, just let this be over with!!!

Art Beat is coming up on Saturday, and the weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms. That would make two years in a row now. And last year was my first year in Art Beat. Are we starting to see a pattern? So, fingers are crossed and eyes squeezed shut, hoping that those storms blow through south of town!

After making a zillion tags, gluing my fingers together, organizing my supplies for the day and printing and cutting out various signs for my table, I think I finally have everything together that I need! Last night I experimented with my set up in my living room. I've mentioned before my extreme lack of ability to do anything with fabric... no sewing ability here! So I pulled my fabric out of storage and realized that it is WAY too narrow to get anywhere close to hanging to the floor. So... straight pins to the rescue!

I have a row of pins holding the two pieces of fabric together. Then I placed it on the table and used a runner to cover the seam. Professional? Not quite. But it will get me through a day (I hope!). Right now I'm just wishing I had thought to iron them BEFORE I had all the pins in place. I guess that will be a challenge for later tonight.

I brought in my props to figure out how the space would work for me. Here are some scenarios that I put together:

So, what do you think? I brought out a few pieces of jewelry to try, and came up with this:

I think it's coming together alright. One thing that's not working out is the cute little sign holders. Turns out, a slight sigh is enough to tip them over, so an outdoor festival is probably not the place for them. I don't have a back up idea yet, so I guess I'll just pack a roll of mailing tape and see what I can do! Anyone else know what might be a better way to display signs on a windy day?

I only have a couple of nicer looking busts. I bought some jewelry displays from a discount store that went out of business about a year ago. They are grey, and some of them are really showing wear. I'm looking forward to the day I can phase them out, but today is not the day! So they are in. (I have stumbled upon some ideas from fellow jewelers, so my next show might have something new.) So now I just have to iron fabric, get everything into totes, and do my anti-rain dance until Saturday morning gets here. Wish me luck!