I started selling small half body puppets at festivals around where I live. I have tried covered Pringles cans, and a few other stands to display the puppets but nothing is working well. How have you guys displayed puppets to sell? I was thinking of making some type of pvc stand? Also do you have all the puppets out where everyone can touch them or just some of them? Any advice from you guys is appreciated. We have done pretty well at the two festivals we've done, but i think a nice display would help. Even though i took 25 puppets with me Saturday they don't look like that much laying flat on a table..not very attention grabbing. The wind was really rough so i couldn't keep them on the stands I had brought.

Wow! your puppets are great! a question if you do not mind .. price to sell them? I'm going to start shortly to visit markets and I would spend my short stay or when to sell.

on the other hand, you think you could do something with metal hangers? I can think of that is something available and cheap, and could perhaps turn with pliers.
by the way, I your table looks lovely and I really colorful!

Hey, thanks for your comments. I have done two small festivals both times I priced the puppets at $25 , sold a few and then came down to $20 later in the day. At both festivals I sold around a dozen puppets. We live ina really small area, I mean like one grocery store and a Wal-mart small area, so I think we did pretty well. I think I could have gotten the 25 for the puppets, but I got nervous. Everyone wants to walk the whole festival before buying so my sales have come later in the day. I am planning to sell simpler puppets (with less hair, frills in general) for $20,I heard alot of parents tell their kids they only had 20 dollars to spend. I also want to do a basket of finger puppets, and toe puppets to give them more to look at, at my booth. It's really fun to see the kids pick their puppet and be so glad to take it home. So far all the puppets are original, no two are alike, which I think is neat for the buyers.

I'm not sure about metal hangers, but I was considering trying to clothespin the puppets to tomato cages and set those on the table.By the way I have been to your site several times the last few months, I love your puppets. Check out the zombie puppets we made in my album, they are for kids mostly so just fun not scarey.

I often use new plastic plungers from Walmart, around $2 each, pop a tennis ball on top and you're good to go...

And I again want to stress the "new" part to the plungers.... 

How about buying or making coat racks.  The ones that are a board with pegs sticking out.  Lay them flat on your table. Cut up some Styrofoam noodles and stick them onto the pegs.  You can make rows at different heights.  They will be very stable.

A wire 'fence' might help - something you can have behind you to hang things on (see pic below). An idea I had the other day based on something I saw at a shopping centre is to have a giant finger puppet rack. A number of large wooden poles attached to a base that sits on the floor, total height would have been about chest height. If you had the poles detach from the base it wouldn't be hard to transport.


Set up, pre-Jordan's improvement by staceyrebecca, on Flickr

Na, idea would be great to add something  behind you at the at the table. Then on the table I kind of like your idea of a tomato cage with cloth pins. Much like the wire rack behind you. Maybe put two tomato cages on each end of the table so they act kind of like "towers" to frame the booth. then on the table you could try the ideas given above where you have a piece of wood for weight and upright poles made out of wood dowels or closet rods cut up.  If you use a 2 X 4 as the base you can drill a hole about half way through that is just a bit bigger then the rods you are using and then glue the rods into the holes. Added strength can be added by drilling a hole in the bottom of the 2 X 4 up into the rod and then screwing a screw in.  The Pringle cans may work ok for you but you might need weight in them sand can work but if you want something cleaner pour some plaster into them and let it set up. Only fill about half full though.  A more portable stand for the table could be made out of PVC.  Make a square base with perhpas one cross pipe in the square. Then use T's in those to make some upright PVC poles. You would end up with three rows.  I think it is important to have this table top style rack so it is easy for people to take the puppets off and play with them.  Yes it may give them  some wear but folks are more likely to buy if they can get their hands on them I think.

Your idea to add in some lower price point is a good one.  Not only does it make your booth look fuller which is a good thing but you'll get more sales to say families who have two or more kids who feel they just can't afford to buy a higher priced puppet for all the kids.

You're telling me? 've been on my blog? it's great when someone says you've been visited several times and also liked your work. But in my life I have not sewn puppets even half of that you have on that table so you wear a lot of advantage. Thanks for your words.

I have these all over my room.



Get a piece of PVC pipe.  A piece of 1 1/2" x 10' is about $5.  Cut them to whatever length you wish (20" gives you 6 pieces.  15" gives you 8 pieces).  Get a board.  A cheap 2x4 will do.  Drill holes the size of the PVC and insert the pieces.  Yo can add glue for stability or not to keep the easy to transport.  You can also add feel for stability really easily like: