At the beginning of May at the Made in the Cape market at Cavendish, I was fortunate enough to find myself with a neighbour I hadn’t met properly before. Her name is Hanici (pronounced like Sean Hannity but with a hard k instead of a t). She and her husband run a shop in Fishhoek and also like to travel to trade fairs and markets to promote their own products. Hanici originally trained in fine art and her husband, Barend, is a chemical engineer.
Cavendish Square was relatively quiet during the first two days of the market, which is never encouraging for a trader. I muttered something about feeling invisible, and Hanici jumped right into the challenge of how to fix my display. She told me about lines and frames and order, what attracts peoples’ eyes, what is distracting, and how to arrange bedspreads and cushions in such a way that a person would immediately want to riffle through them. We also had to “clean” the air by sweeping and brushing with imaginary brooms and dusters. I felt a bit silly doing this but I figured it couldn’t hurt. Hanici also offered to help Wanda on the other side of her (I forgot to take pics of Wanda’s stand but I wish I had, it was beautiful after H’s magic touch). We redid everything and cleaned the air like professionals. Within 10 minutes (not lying), Wanda had made three sales, and within an hour a customer bought the bedspread that you can see in the top pic draped over the middle of my table, and in the bottom pic folded up barely visible in the neat centred pile. Crazy, huh?!
So, for any market people out there who, like me, have no clue about the theory behind display, think on these things and have a google. And a clean sweep :)
Nice piece of work 
She’s a clever thing. Your display looks both tidier AND more lavish and piled-up and tempting.
you’d think I would have informed myself properly about this kind of thing at least six years ago…..:)
If your stuff has been selling well up to now, you probably never saw the need. I’d have bought from your stall before, but the ‘science’ has improved its appeal!
There’s always room for improvement….I have no objection to making more sales than I do at present ;)
Oh Jill I know what you mean about displaying things properly. I’m glad you had Hanici to help you and Wanda with your stands (we call them booths here in Kansas). :) I’m not very good about arranging things in my booth and always solicit my sisters advice. We call her the booth natzi. :)
By the way, I love all of your creations. Take care and good luck on your sales. Love and Hugs, Tamara
Thank you! Wanda was doing okay, she has quite a lot of flair herself, I was clearly the “dof” one.
Fascinating the difference in how the display looks. Perhaps seeing less of what is on offer draws people in to have a look.
Funnily enough, that seems to be true. It’s a knack I’ve never got, usually I try and find room for every single item and end up looking like a junk stall.
What a fabulous connection and (as always!) it was at a perfect moment 😊
Yes, I got lucky!!
I would call what she did a bit of Feng Shui and the whisking of air a bit of Reiki for spaces. Everything is energy and you can set intention to move it in a positive way. Screwy but it does work. We never talk about it, we just do it and watch the fun begin. ;) Glad it worked for you. I hate to see people sit all weekend and have nothing sold.
I don’t know the theory but I would walk past before and stop at your after!
Wonderful display, Jill. I’ll definitely follow Hanici’s advice about clearing the energy. Glad the Market Fairies were looking out for you and placed you next door to Hanici.
It’s funny how I can see that the After is much better, but if I’d just been given the Before I never would have got it to After by myself. Clearly I need to read up on this!
Me too!!! Learned a lot from this lady, which is good timing as the xmas market approval days are coming up fast….
Karen says she prefers the before to the after. hahahaha