My kit - storage, setup, display

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought I'd take a pic of my "mini" setup (when trying to stay small on a one person job). Figured I had time before the rain... it looked ok out.... took 15 mins to get everything outside (I'm not so good on down stairs that don't have a railing).



This is everything I need on a gig - shelves (resin) are in the jean bag on top of the blue bin (that has wheels and a pull handle as well as a handle on top and two on the sides), umbrella is in the long skinny bag, chair is for me, stool is for them. Chair, shelves and umbrella bag have shoulder straps - I can carry two of the three, and the other can strap to the blue bin with the stool.

At this point I went inside for the camera, and coming back out realized the rain was more likely than I thought.... so I setup - this next part took me 5 mins:



This is from the "front" as someone coming towards us would see - the pictures on the banner (that is on the "back" of the shelves - the fabric hides all of my stuff), the green linoleum that is the "line starting point" and my chair and their stool - my bin with stuff in it, and my umbrella. A better overview might be here:



This is from "my" side more - with the shelves (which I didn't put anything on because at this point the rain was actually starting to spit), and my blue bin opens up so I can get things out, or lay things on temporarily, the grey parts are little divided lidded sections that have things I need easily quickly but not regularly (gloves etc). There is a tray that fits in the top (and removes easily or can be left out) and I put everything else in clear bags and organized boxes underneath (depending on what I need for the gig).

I normally setup with my back to the sun if I can, then the umbrella shades me for most of the day, the umbrella is fastened inside the leg of the shelves, and the whole thing is fastened to my chair - the weight holding it all down and still is me. The fabric has strings at strategic points which are tied with bows around the shelves and is fitted to drop over the shelves when they are setup. The banner is page protectors that are fastened together and clipped to the shelves/fabric. I can add more clips - I didn't because I was hurrying... The whole thing took me 3 minutes to pack up and move inside (I'm great on stairs up especially when the rain is pushing me to *move*).

Not to sound like an advertisement for Canadian Tire, but all of my major pieces came from there (umbrella, chair, stool, bin, shelves). Bags and fabric things were made by mom. I like my blue bin because everything extra can toss in, during the event, and at the end it packs up quickly (have to take everything out to get the boxes and big things in first and neat, but then the bags and odd stuff can just dump in fast). The shelves give me a banner as well as a useful table and place to clamp/fasten stuff off to (garbage bag, water bottle, sponges all can clip to the side). Mirror on string gets them out of the stool to go looking. Hope this helps!

Please excuse the messy backyard!

Wow. I can't believe all that sets up to be... that! That's fantastic. I especially love how little time it takes you to set up/take down.

I LOVE seeing pictures of people's setups and kits. I have been doing mostly school events for a while and have my first birthday party this weekend (casual, is a neighbor) and volunteer stuff in between to get practice... But I'm moving over slowly into the realm of 'paid work' and love all the bits and pieces of ideas gleaned from seeing everyone's setups. Its seems there is no right or wrong way, just what you prefer, what works for you, and what you can afford.
I could look at people's setups all day long!

Thank you so much for sharing!!

Thanks for sharing, it looks awesome!

Having your weight hold it down means you can't move around much, tho, right?
I used to put a beach umbrella on the side of my chair like that, and every time I got up, the whole thing fell over.
Wouldn't want to hurt someone!

But it does look very tidy, and I LOVE that!

I can't move around anyways (the exception being when a child insists they don't know the number and I *must* see the picture they are pointing at from their side not from my mini page of copies of it) and when I do, I'm leaning heavily on the stand and umbrella (and my cane) to even be able to stand..... We've also had it where there is a large spike (like used to hold down the inflatables) driven into the ground right beside where that join is that the chair/shelves/umbrella are strapped to as well. I do rather have a tent over all, but sometimes it isn't possible

Variation on the theme....

What do the shelves look like without the fabric? (it was pointed out to me privately that the picture made it a little difficult to see)



This is the shelves before the fabric gets tossed over it and tied to it (and the banner clipped on). The top bar is a couple of tent poles that are bent at a 90degree angle and have a bamboo stick stuck in the middle. It was originally *meant* to have 4 shelves - I take a shelf off and stack the uprights two high and there's where the banner hangs.

Yes, it is only one foot by two feet - for the most part, that suits me. When it doesn't, there is another variation we use....



This is when we have two working - one who would prefer to stand (this is from the front of the standing side) and me who is sitting. Banner/fabric still gets thrown on the front, standing artist usually has their back to where someone standing at the banner is. Sitting shelves/table is 18" high (my preferred table height when sitting), standing is at 34" high.

Structure is stable because it is all clipped together with binder clips like this one:

from underneath (still on the ring I use to hold half a dozen of them in one place). It is stable enough I can sit on it, or lean heavily against. It can be moved (shoved) if we are on concrete or asphalt or another smoothish surface, but so can a table.... plus we add weight to the bottom....

From the "sitting" side it looks like this:


The lowest level has 6 square feet - good for heavy things and things that will not be needed much if at all, second level has another 6 square feet - great for my working space and I can hand anything up to the other they need (refill of water etc). Third shelf is the smallest at only 4 square working feet, but sponges/garbage etc can clip up there so be in reach for both.

I LOVE seeing other people's set ups and this one is very unique! Yay for finding such great solutions for your needs! THanks so much for taking time to share!

Noella, Thank you for posting this. I have been looking for a more narrow table for our tent and this will be perfect.

I've always liked the look of the brush holders everyone has (the ice cube trays especially), but I can't find the ice cube trays and I don't like the brush holders that have a top and bottom section (but no middle) as I always end up with skewed brushes (that get jammed).

I also like the look of PVC tube ones people created - and I went shopping for some one day a few weeks ago. They were quite long (longer than would fit in my car) and needed to be cut with a saw or some such tool... However I found something else I hoped would work for me..... Vinyl tubing.....



I got a loop of it, and was able to cut little bits (2.5" long) with just my kitchen scissors. I picked that length because my larger brush handles were able to sit down in it without jamming, but the narrower ones didn't fall over too much.



Then by sticking them upright in a section of my box was happy with how they held my brushes. It also works in my "normal" brush holder (which is just a pen holder from office supply). I'm using this box (which is empty) because it is the same as one I use (that is full of stuff I didn't want to clear out) that I can stand a dozen airbrushes, assorted paints, as well as my water etc (now that I have a brush holder I'm happy with I'm going to redo my work box and I'll take a picture of it then).

If I was doing it over (and before I cut more than I've cut), I'll run boiling water through it to straighten it.

Thanks for sharing this! I need to come up with a better setup too. It ends up being different everywhere I go, which can be difficult.

Noella, What I love is that you have formed a booth for yourself. All pieces have dual purpose, very clean lines and the shelving is affordable. Congratulations on being so inventive...I love out of the box thinkers!!!

I found another few pictures from an event (if you notice, I only seem to get pictures from "tattoo" events - that's because my fast/in demand tattoo person is my photographer - when I'm "just" doing FP, no pictures get taken).



This was at a big event (thousand or so children?) where we had 3 of us working with a very limited amount of designs (not for us, but because they couldn't pick from too many quickly - 20 was hard enough). This was a rare break of 3 minutes towards the end of the day when we could let photographer (ie owner of the empty chair pair) stand up and take photos. Volunteer (in blue) is taking a well deserved rest

You can see the shelves are converted into mini tables between airbrushers to hold our stuff and the side wall that keeps traffic flow as we want.



And here is 2 minutes later (this is slow - earlier there were dozens queued up at a time - at this point maybe a dozen or so at once so photographer could keep going with photos).



And from another angle previously hidden airbrusher (Mom). Brother never does get on camera - he's always behind it (but Dad is visible in these shots moving people around and helping them choose).