Whilst I don’t claim to be any sort of expert when it comes to nature, I have lived quite a while and do like to spend time outside, so I have accumulated some knowledge of the natural world. But on a recent walk, I spotted a flower that wasn’t at all familiar.

It had the look of an orchid, so I took a few photographs of it just to allow me to grab the nature book back at the car and find out what it was. I only had my compact camera with me as it was very cold, blowing a gale and I couldn’t be bothered man-handling the SLR that day. Due to the wind and it’s location under trees and adjacent to a wall, it was hard getting the shutter speed up fast enough to freeze it from moving in the breeze, so this is the best shot I got.

The leaves adjacent are not part of the plant, I think they’re garlic plants that were just in bud at the time. There was a patch of flower stalks like this just sticking out of the ground – about half a dozen, all seemingly with flowers appearing just on the one face. They’re a pinky-neutral colour and the best approximation I can make from my books is that it’s a Bird’s Nest Orchid.

Bird’s Nest Orchids are reported as being associated with close proximity to Beech or Yew trees, but from the leaves in the photos you can see the predominant trees in the area are oaks.

My books and the searching I’ve done seem to have turned up photos that are similar, but the Bird’s Nest Orchids seem to be all of a single colour (as they lack chlorophyll) without any sort of patterning and somewhat glutinous looking. These seem to have some variation in the colour, with pink tones, so I wonder if they’re actually something different?

The photographs were taken along the western shore of Windermere, just adjacent to the path along the lake between Red Nab and Wray Castle. It’s a busy and popular spot for walkers, cyclists and horse riders and the flowers were only inches from walkers, I was stood on the path when I took the photos.

As the craft fair season approached, I wanted some new ways of displaying my jewellery pieces – and no doubt typical of most of us crafters, I didn’t have what you might call a budget. I was going to have to make do with items I had to hand and a bit of effort.

Luckily I’m a hoarder, so I always have lots of card and papers to hand that I collect over time – you know the sort – too good to throw away and might come in useful some day, so you save it, just in case. I also regularly visit a paper mill shop and cannot resist new materials either. This is why my office is so untidy and appears to be way too small.

I worked out this shape as a quick and easy display bust for necklaces – I initially made it in card by gradually modifying the shape to overcome the various problems – my template is based on an initial scan of my prototype. At the time, one side worked rather better than the other, so I wanted to scan it and mirror the good side and print out my own template – once I’d done that and later made further modifications, I thought I may as well put it into a document and make it available to others. I’ve seen so many requests for help with this aspect of fair display, that I hope that it will be useful to others too.

You can get 2 busts from an A4 sheet of card (US users may need a slight shape modification to get 2 from letter sized paper) and they’re light and easy to store – they stack cupped inside each other. In fact, if you fix the sides using punched holes and paper fasteners, you could dis-assemble them after use and store them flat for an even greater space saving. They’re free, lightweight and easy to store – what more do you need!?

PDF template to download:

The template, with some introduction and instructions is available to download as a .pdf document – it is around 440KB in size and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the file. You are free to make as many busts as you like for personal use, but not for sale and the document must not be offered for download anywhere else, or modified in any way. If you want to share it with others, please refer them back here.

Last modified: 10th January 2009 to include a smaller version to take a single pair of earrings.

http://www.boo-jewellery.co.uk/etsy/NecklaceStandTemplateJan09.pdf

Further to feedback I had on the earlier craft fair blog, I’ve thought of more things I should have added. One thing I see asked about a lot in forums, is what to take with you.

I’ve lived for quite a long time now and done quite a lot of different things and I’ve always adopted a policy of being potentially over prepared. It doesn’t seemingly matter how well prepared you think you are, invariably there is something that never occurred to you. Over time, you’ll fine tune what you need for yourself.

These are my personal thoughts:

For craft fairs, as with many things I do, I keep a case made up that I take to every event – it might not be practical if you’re just starting, to do this, but over time as you duplicate items, you can put aside materials dedicated to your craft fair activities.

I now use one of those large aluminium flight cases, that are sometimes used as camera bags or if you’re a hitman, maybe your precision rifle. I keep mine partitioned and fitted out with all the things I might need on a typical day – after an event, I fill everything up again, ready to go next time. In fact, I’ve done such a good job with it, I use it at home when packaging up my items to post out, as I have everything to hand.

In mine I have sections pre-filled with my stocks of gift bags, boxes, stickers, ribbons, sticky tapes (clear tape, duct tape, double sided and masking tape), scissors, business cards, leaflets, carrier bags, stall notices and price tickets.

I have boxes containing an assortment of pins (jewellery display pins, map pins, safety pins etc.) and assorted fastenings – there may be occasions where you need to fix something or a notice keeps blowing over, so it stands to reason you’re going to need various fixing methods. I always keep a quantity of BluTak too – that’s perhaps what I use most, I stick all my prices on with a tiny blob and display busts can be fixed if they’re prone to falling over, getting brushed past or blown. I also keep a stapler and staples and spare bulbs for my lights.

I have a box of small weights (curtain weights covered in dark paper) for display pieces and to put inside some of the gift boxes I use for display – I learnt that lesson the hard way at an outdoor market – I hadn’t factored in wind – gusty wind is even worse. I use a free standing mirror for customers to try jewellery on, but in case I forget it, I have a simple, very slim flat one (I paid 25p for it in a bargain bin) that folds that’s the size of a CD case and sits flat in the back of my case too. I did forget my mirror once and was glad I kept the spare packed.

I always keep some sachets of hand wipes, tissues, handcream, tictacs, headache pills, nail file (you invariably snag one setting up), a small deo spray and a perfume cream pot, small tie handled rubbish bags and various pens, pencils and a notebook and calculator. I keep spares of my display packaging to replace damaged or scruffy items and some extras of my origami gift boxes, pre-prepared to use, but not made up – they take up much less space and only take a minute to make from there. I have a copy of my insurance documents and all event details and even a card that shows who to make cheques payable to – it’s easier for people to see it written than to spell it out to them.

Prepare in advance to save from fiddling:

Because I have a tendency to get befuddled and easily flustered when trying to wrap jewellery pieces and take money, especially if it is hot, busy and a breeze keeps whipping my materials off and I’m working in a confined space, I prepare as much in advance as I can. I’ve found it a really worthwhile exercise.

I hand my jewellery over, once gift wrapped, in small plastic carrier bags, the size made for CDs and the like. So before the event, I put one of my flyers and a business card inside each one and pile them ready inside the lid of my case. I also pre-shape my pieces of ribbon and place them under my address sticker – and then put the backing paper back on it, ready to peel off and stick on the envelopes. I also cut my tissue into the common sizes I use for wrapping and place these in pockets in the lid of my case.

I also keep a flat piece of bedding roll foam the size of my case interior to hand, which normally stops the materials in my case from rattling and moving around when on the move and serves as a flat surface to work on once the lid is up.

Other tips to make life easier:

Make sure that you have plenty of change and keep it in a portable format, on your person. I’ve been at two craft fairs where a seller had their cash stolen from off their table. I also separate mine into two locations too. The larger notes I usually keep well hidden, then keep a ‘working float’ with smaller denomination notes, just enough to give change for any sale. That way, when you give change, the buyer, or witnesses nearby, don’t see your whole stash and where you’re keeping it. Once you have a quiet moment, or on a bathroom visit, sort it out discreetly.

Price everything – preferably in advance – tedious, but worth doing:

I always price everything individually – it’s a tedious task to do (if you do it as you make things, it’s much easier), but well worth it in the mess you end up with as you break down your stall. I usually have two prices on each piece; a small silver dumbbell sticker with the item number and price and then I use a little display ticket on the display. If people have to ask, they’ll soon get bored and move on. And there is occasionally mischief to be had if things get moved from their original location with the display ticket. I try and store my pieces between events with the display ticket too – makes setting up much quicker – I stick them ready, with a little BluTak.

Take some refreshments:

Make sure that you take a cold drink with you and preferably something to eat that won’t make your fingers greasy, drip on your stock (i.e. no sliced tomatoes in your butty) and will not deteriorate too badly if squashed in your bag, part eaten and returned to later. I’ve found that peanut butter sandwiches remain palatable (assuming that you can stand them at any time) regardless of the abuse they suffer and it’s good clean energy food you can swipe occasional bites from if busy. Things like meusli bars that won’t melt are easy to snack on when you feel in need of energy.