My mom signed up to open a Day Of The Dead shop. Her and my brother had been collaborating on some clay skulls he was making and she was painting. At the same time, and unknowingly, I had been making these lavender sachets out of super awesome fabric I had picked up at a quilt shop.
We talked about including my sachets in the shop and I was excited to participate.
I'm not quite sure what the goal was in the beginning, or what she was expecting, but at the beginning of October, she realized the shop being open was in direct overlap of her trip to Europe. Around that time she was also having a hard time getting ahold of my brother and getting any solid commitment from him as to what he was putting in the shop other than skulls. Fairly quickly this became my 'thing'. I was the only one with time enough to make things to put into the shop. My mom bought me many supplies to get started and I began to, rather frantically, make Dia De Los Muertos themed items. I made pillows and earrings, necklaces and sachets. T-shirts and banners. I made a LOT of product.
The day came to start readying the little shop space to make it our own. Luckily the resident prior had some good taste and left the walls with a teal top and chalkboard bottom. That made it easy for me since it fit right in with our theme. With the help of my husband and a great artist friend we began to transform the empty space into our own. This was absolutely my favorite part. My friend Alyssa ( http://instagram.com/chillehott ) did beautiful chalk art around the walls and painted the Windows.
I painted burnt orange designs on the teal top.
(Most of the pictures are dark since I could only go in the evenings, sorry)
We hung the paper banners sound the Windows and it added a nice shop front touch.
I used my cricut a lot for this project. It was very handy!
The main walls we had to leave white. We put up large pieces of sheet metal and metal lath to hang magnets, key chains, earrings and necklaces on.
We blocked a doorway with string and made it a place to display t-shirts. (All the artwork on those shirts is Alyssa's)
It's amazing that I was able to create enough product in less then a month to fill a small shop. My brother did provide his clay skulls and a few necklace.
One of his friends also provided some of her art. They were little wood minting or display boards with animal skulls painted on them. I did not get any photos of them.
The final artwork. She did such a wonderful job! I loved writing descriptions and prices on the walls! That would really be an awesome display strategy for a small shop.
Lavender sachet display.
Wallets next to the sachets.
Pillows and a display.
Purses and the main display.
I can't find my pictures of the front window art. But I will continue looking and post when I find it. The shop was a lot of fun to put on. Although, the location was not the greatest. There was not a lot of foot traffic. I could see scores of movie goers walking down 1st to their cars but I was 3 shops in the street and they hardly looked my way. I wouldn't say it was a success, but I had a lot of fun producing it. In the end, I had a ton of product left over and I quickly signed up for a few holiday craft fairs. I had always wanted to do a craft fair, but never had the stock to sign up for one. Noes my chance!
