Bottle Painting: Top 5 Tips for a Successful Event
I’m exhausted.
But, it’s a happy kind of exhaustion. I’m just so thrilled with how this season has gone! 🤗
I’ve built some great relationships with a few brands that I hope to keep working with in the future. Annnnndddd, I even got to further expand my little hustle into bottle painting this year.
You remember last year, I stuck my toe into bottle painting during the holiday season. I signed up for the Fundamentals of Bottle Painting, landed one job, and, as I recall, “painted” ornaments for Tory Burch. It went well enough, although most of the customers wanted writing at the time.
These two littles were done at home for a co-worker and my school daughter rather than at the event.
But, this year was such a different story!
In fact, my most recent event was bottle painting for Dior…and I learned a few tricks since my first bottle painting event to keep the requests coming. 😉 If you are new to bottle painting events or are still working out your strategy, take a look at these tips below.
Top 5 Tips For A Successful Bottle Painting Event
Take and make samples!
Look busy.
Take note of what catches customer attention most easily.
Use a phone, when necessary.
One caveat…
Take and make samples.
One of the best things I did this year was take my own samples to events…Many times, I ask for a tester bottle to warm up for an event. But, not every venue has a tester to show a sample of work. I brought my own this year, and boy was that a game changer!
In all transparency, making samples at home with ample time makes for a much more ambitious bottle than what can usually be done on-site. But, it also grabs the attention of folks that would otherwise walk by your table, thinking you’re just waiting for someone to ask where the bathroom is.
Besides getting attention, samples can give some parameters (of a sort) for what customers can ask for. Rather than pulling something out of the air that you may be intimidated to try on a bottle for the first time, they ask for something they like that you already have and are confident painting quickly.
I started painting the bottle in the above photo on the right when I arrived to an event and noticed I had no customers come to the table as I set up, nor for the first fifteen minutes.
The bottle was a gift to me from the person who hired me. And, at the time, my samples were still in the car and I had to wait until a break to go grab them. In the meantime, I decided I was going to paint this bottle as if I was at home…meaning, I knew it would take longer than usual if anyone requested it. But, I also knew it would be a great bottle and there was a good chance there would be requests for this one. There were no visitors to the table at the time anyway…I figured, why not go for it!
I got halfway through that bottle before the first request came in for a similar design. Since then, I had also had the opportunity to get my samples from my car. From the first request of the day, I had requests up until quitting time from customers and staff alike!
Definitely take and make samples!
Look Busy.
Piggybacking the first point, there were times I even took my own items to paint (or engrave, depending on the job), to get my hands warmed up for the day…and to look busy.
Looking busy sends the message that, if others desire your work, you must be a pro at this and they should get something customized for themselves too. They don’t have to know the item is a tester/sample. By the time they get their bottle back, they’ll be so enamored with their bottle painting, it won’t even matter!
Key point: Nobody is going to want what nobody seems to want. Look busy!
Take note of what catches customer attention most easily.
Knowing the bottle paintings that are typical favorites and setting them out, front-and-center, for all to see is a sure-fire way to encourage a visitor and a sale!
For instance, cherry blossoms are super-cute! I’ve found that there is always a young girl who wants that design and will drag her parent to the table to get it. 😂
My table will always have cherry blossoms. 🥰
Use a phone, when necessary.
I found painting on glass pretty intimidating when I first started learning bottle painting. It’s pretty slick stuff! Add to that that I am still learning one floral from the next and it could have really stopped me from trying at all.
Enter the smartphone.
You can google anything you need to look up to be able to paint at an event as long as you have a connection. And customers don’t care one way or the other if you paint from a photo. In fact, if you have time and they have a photo of a beloved pet, painting from a photo works every time!
One Caveat…
Okay, this is not really a tip…But ‘Top 4 Tips’ sounds lame. 🤷🏽♀️
This is more of a warning. If you do a sample or painting that is on the ambitious side, most of your requests are going to get ambitious too. Be prepared to spend a little more than the average time on items and let customers know your true expectations on time for completing their bottles.
If you’re new to bottle painting events, or perfecting your bottle painting game, give these tips a try and let me know how it goes! 🤗
