Booth lighting?

[Up in Smoke Pottery]

We are doing our 1st indoor holiday show in a month and need to come up with a way to illuminate our booth. The building lights will be dimmed dramatically, and the wish of the hosts is for holiday ambiance. They have recommended to use a canopy to reflect the light back down into the booth. We just purchased an inexpensive canopy on clearance for $60 specifically for these type of shows, it is much lighter and takes up less room then our old Craft Hut.

 

With that in mind, now not sure how much more to spend on lighting, would numerous strands of Christmas tree style lighting work, We have lots of extra working strands of icicle lights. Or should we spend the money to purchase several arm style lamps? The show supplies all the power and I believe we are allotted 5 outlets, so lights will all be AC. Battery power is not required, but might be useful in our outdoor booth at some point.

 

 

Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

Chad

[Guest JBaymore]

Personally I'd got to a place like Home Depot or Lowes and pick up a couple of sets of pretty basic halogen track lights. You want the light to go onto the work, not everywhere in general in the booth. The track lights will allow you to direct the light onto the work. A couple of C clamps should do to connect the light tracks to the canopy structure. (Watch for fire danger between lights and plastic canopy fabric!) You goal is to sell pots, I am assuming..... not "make the place look festive".

 

If you want" holiday ambience" for them.... get some pine boughs and a few red ribbons and scatter them in the LIT part of the booth.

 

Good LIGHT helps sell pots.

 

best,

 

...............john

[GEP]

If you're trying to save money, my favorite source for cheap booth lighting is IKEA. You can buy from them online now. I used the following clamp lamps for several years before I could afford some fancier track lighting:

 

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80050265/

 

You need four of these minimum to properly light your booth. Six is better. You can get some inexpensive extension cords from IKEA too, so you can get all of these plugged in to one or two outlets.

 

I've seen people try to use Christmas lights, it really doesn't work. The light is too diffused, and people tend to look at the lights instead of the pots. John is right, you need to aim light at the pots.

 

Good luck!

 

Mea

[buckeye]

Personally I like the idea of the icicle lights. You already have them, they are festive and I would think they would provide enough light considering lights will just be dimmed, not completley dark.

 

Maybe one good clamp light in case it is still a little dark and someone wants to hold a piece under a light.

[Chris Campbell]

I agree with John and Mea ... You are there to sell pots and good lighting sells pots. Christmas tree lights are not going to light your booth enough for people to see the colors and craftsmanship. You need to cover your booth fees and make a living. I don't quite see how meandering in a dimly lit hall is good for sales ... If that worked all the department stores would be mood lit instead of bright and welcoming.

[Seasoned Warrior]

I agree with John and Mea ... You are there to sell pots and good lighting sells pots. Christmas tree lights are not going to light your booth enough for people to see the colors and craftsmanship. You need to cover your booth fees and make a living. I don't quite see how meandering in a dimly lit hall is good for sales ... If that worked all the department stores would be mood lit instead of bright and welcoming.

 

 

I agree 100% Chris and John. Display lighting typically comes in flood and spot types (there are also other specialty lights). A flood covers a large area with even lighting, a spot on the other hand pinpoints a specific area. You might consider using floods to illuminate the display area and then pick a few pieces you'd like to showcase to set spots on. Halogens are excellent but check to make sure that they have the correct color temperature so that your colors are true, all colors are reflected light with certain parts of the the spectra absorbed. Halogen and now LED lights usually have the color temperature (in degrees Kelvin) marked on the boxes. Also make sure to position the lights so that they do not shine in the eyes of the viewer or set so that the viewer sees the light in its location which sometimes may be difficult in flat displays. Also watch out for "hot spots" which may cause unpleasant reflections and are due to the distance of the lit item from the lamp caused by focus due to the curve of the reflector.

 

Best regards,

Charles

 

 

[Up in Smoke Pottery]

Thank you for all the advice. We did some test runs last week, and have purchased some lighting, and going for more. We are using lights similar to the ikea ones, although they are just fancy brooder lights. We are using 50 W halogen bulbs, four floods and two spots. We set up on a moonless night and it was nice and bright and colors seemed true.

 

I definitely liked the track lighting, but we are updating our booth design and we are going to wait until that is done before going that route.

 

Thanks again,

Chad