Earlier this month I exhibited at a well known trade show, Spring Fair International 2013 at Birmingham's NEC. It took a lot of hard work to get to this stage, upon arrival to set up I was absolutely shattered, and yet slung on my paint splattered lab coat, quite enjoying the irony that the Smartdeco stand (6Q42) was located in the Design Lab - a new product showcase right next to the 'Trend Bar' in Hall 6 - Contemporary Gifts and Home. We were the last to leave the NEC(k) (as the French exhibiting contingent refer to our 'Palais de exhibicion'. The reason being that I had decided I would paint a sunset beach scene on the actual stand, as the beach scene on the banner I'd ordered looked more like monsoon than summer season, it was so dark! Despite being given permission to work late we were still faffing over sand bags, yes sand bags, not handbags, bags filled with bags of sand, way after the curfew and had been given our final 'warning' by the Goodie Green Jacket on night shift. We left the  'few props short of a final scene'  stand on his command.   Given another ten minutes we'd have been 'voila!'

smartdeco stand at spring fair

From Sunday kick off they streamed in to 'The Neck'by the bus load and the I was exhilarated by the flood of gusto people had for the products I'd finally brought to market. It was fantastically full on, as busy as Brighton pier the amount of daytrippers we had, stopping to admire the view. The response to my work was fantastic and it was a pleasure to talk to lots of people after months sat at a computer screen! We received a great deal of interest in the Smartdeco range from visitors to the show and the Life’s a Beach Deckchair proved to be a real showstopper! We even brought some Brighton rock, buckets and spades an' all! Hot!

Jacqueline Hammond’s Smartdeco range will be exhibited at Spring Fair International 2013, Europe’s leading home and gifts trade fair at the Birmingham NEC, 3-7th February 2013 - stand number 6Q42 in the Contemporary Gift & Home section.

See www.smartdeco-style.com for more information. All the products exhibited are available on my website www.jacquelinehammond.co.uk. Trade enquiries via orders@jacquelinehammond.co.uk

View the new 'Smartdeco Collection - Spring 2013' Catalogue right here: