Arts and Crafts Show Lighting

Lighting

Product lighting can highlight feature items and bring attention to your booth, especially for indoor shows. When everything around you is in shadow or dark a few lights can make your booth pop.

We frequently do an outdoor show under large yellow and green striped circus sized tents. The light coming thought the tent is green and yellow and it changes the colors of anything inside the tent. Blue looks like black, green looks like bleh and so on. It is important in these situations to use artificial lighting to bring out the true colors.

Not all shows offer electricity and some of those who do restrict the number of bulbs or the allowed wattage. Some Promoters who offer electricity charge a premium for the service. Other restrictions may apply, for example, no electric heaters.

There are a number of choices for light such as incandescent, halogen and florescent. The incandescent bulbs are available in many sizes and color spectrums. The best choice is sometimes determined by the ambient light in the venue. We usually bring a variety of incandescent bulbs and tasteful clip on reflectors. Theses reflectors work well for compact florescent bulbs as well.

The compact florescent bulbs are not available in as many color spectrum variations as the incandescent but they are sometimes a better choice than no light at all.

Halogen lights are used for spot lighting and tend to get really hot. We have seen some very nice arrangements of spot halogen lights used for high end jewelry. Sadly some of the incandescent bulbs may be phased out do to concerns about people being able to live their own lives. Bring extra bulbs as they can fail due to stress from travel. Wrap cold bulbs in egg crate mattress pad type foam and pack in a larger box for safe travel.

Have a combination of heavy and light gauge extension cords handy. Line splitters and smaller light weigh cords can be used for the final run to the lights. Keep the light on your featured items and out of your customer’s eyes. By the same token make sure your lights are not falling on your neighbor's booth. Lights are very helpful at outdoor shows when available.

The choice of canopy can affect the quantity and quality of light. Remember that if the light has to pass through a colored fabric then that color will likely changed or even filtered out in the booth. This is why we prefer a canopy with a clear window in the roof. Some artists might need electricity for the function or their wares and this can be a problem out doors. A small quiet generator can sometimes be used with the permission of the promoter. Other options are 12 volt deep cycle batteries and power inverters that change 12 volts to 110.

Other types range from vinyl gazebos, to camp dining fly affairs consisting of a light weight tarp with 4 upright aluminum poles and guy lines. Our first canopy was a dark green vinyl gazebo and it kept us dry. Our wares were displayed out front so they were in the open air. Since they were designed to be used outdoors they could get wet so that was not an issue.

This is a not so common but good solution if you need a lot of space and can not cover it all. We know a fellow who sells lawn furniture and decorations. A canopy to cover all his stuff would be too large to consider so he has a cover to keep himself and his paperwork dry and everything else is in the open.

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