If you're like me, you take joy in making everything by hand, not just jewelry. Most of my craft show displays have been either made from scratch or customized. I do this both because it is often less expensive to build than it is to buy, and because it gives displays a unique look so they don't blend in at shows.
Here's a list of some of my favorite ways to build or customize craft show displays. Feel free to adapt them to suit your tastes, after all, your business should reflect you!
1. Painted Thrift Store Finds
I have found wooden bowls, wicker baskets, odd candle pedestals and wooden divided lunch trays at thrift stores. Usually, they don't look like much when I find them and have a good deal of wear or staining. I like to sand them lightly with a medium grit paper (around 400) and then paint them with a couple of coats of interior latex paint. It gives them a fresh face and if you paint them all in the same color, it can give you a cohesive display even if the pieces are different in shape.
The reason I use interior latex is because it dries harder than artists acrylic. If you paint objects with acrylic, it will be more likely that the paint will stick to plastic, glass, paper or other painted surfaces, and lift onto the objects being displayed. The safest way to protect against any paint lifting is to line the container or tray with fabric or a filler before adding your display items.
2. Paper Mache Bust / Necklace display
I started with a framework of mesh and wire, but you could just as easily use a balloon for the head and crumpled up newspaper taped together for the neck and shoulders. You don't need to put features onto the bust, just shape it into the general impression of a life sized head, neck and shoulders. Another option is to use plaster of paris to actually cast a bust of yourself or a friend, then once it is cured add a base with more plaster so that it will stand up.
Either method of building a bust can then be painted, decoupaged, or left as is, depending on the look you're going for.
3. Suitcase
I've said before that I love suitcase displays, especially if they are made so that they can just be opened and popped up on a table, for a super fast setup. One method to accomplish this is to remove the "guts" of the suitcase or briefcase, up to and including the liner if you're comfortable with it. You can then re-line the case with fabric or vinyl, or you could even paint the inside of it if the original liner came out cleanly. You could add cork board sheeting, chalk board paint, or a magnetic surface to the inside of the lid, where you can hang items for display, write messages, or display magnetic items. You can use self-adhesive hooks or magnetic hooks as well.
The bottom of the case can be filled with bins to hold items or it can serve as a large basket for loose items.
4. Frames
I have used frames a few different ways in my displays: I covered a frame with fine mesh to display earrings & necklaces, I've filled a frame with a sheet of cork-board to display thumbtacks or use tacks as hooks to display jewelry. There is also the link I posted previously for filling small frames with ring-holders. I like frames because they can be used either flat on a table or vertically, especially if the original back of the frame is still in-tact and can hold it upright or allow it to hang from a fixture. The frame itself can add some visual blank space between sections of your display, giving the eye a place to rest before moving on to the next display. They can also be painted to match the rest of your display and you can even paint over a cork board in a frame.
5. Tiered Displays
You could buy tiered dessert/serving trays at some major stores and vintage stores, but it's fun to make a unique version yourself. If you can find a few glasses (stemmed are great) or even medium-tall candle holders, as well as some assorted sizes of plates, they can be glued together in a stack to form a unique tiered display. I recommend using a glue like E9000 or Gorilla, something that adheres well to glass & smooth surfaces. White glue or hot glue does not normally form a good adhesion to non-porous surfaces.
There are many other ways to build & create your own displays, these just happen to be my favorites. More ideas can be found on the JellyPins Pinterest board, and I add to it often when I find fun ideas!
Amber
Showing posts with label necklace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label necklace. Show all posts
Monday, September 9, 2013
Monday, October 24, 2011
Art/Craft Shows: Making Your Own Displays
Making your own displays is one of the best ways to get the features you want and lower the cost of setting up your booth.
One of my favorite methods is to find an appropriate unpainted wood piece available at most craft stores, paint it to the color I need and add any easel stand pieces I need to.
Paint is very important when working on display pieces, as the wrong kind of paint can ruin both the project and the jewelry that later is on it. Stay away from using artist's acrylic - even when dried it tends to remain very flexible and can easily be marked or adhere to something laid on top of it, causing stacked displays to stick together or paint to come off on your jewelry - the worst nightmare of all!
One of the big things to remember with any paint is that even after 24 hours when you can touch it and it feels dry, it's still soft inside. There are paints (like artist's acrylic) which can actually take months to dry and shrink completely but seem dry within an hour or two of painting. Because of this, all paints can be scratched, lifted and hold an impression until they fully cure. This is why I always recommend putting painted objects in a protected place, shielded from dust, for at least a week. Two weeks is better, or as long as possible.
I also recommend using at least two coats of your chosen paint. Wood is porous and will absorb some of your first layer of paint, occasionally it will even absorb some of the second layer. It is a good idea to sand the bare wood, put down your first coat, and then sand again to remove any rough fibers that were raised by the absorption process. Then add your second coat and if it does not dry smooth sand lightly again and recoat. This won't be an issue with metal assuming you use a smooth piece of metal, but it's a good idea to clean and sand metal before painting to help it hang onto the paint.
For wood, interior/exterior latex - IE paint you'd use on your walls - is what I always use. It's awesome because it's as easy to use as acrylics and washes with water, and it dries pretty tough. This is the kind of paint you'd use to paint furniture, and so it does the best job of tolerating things being placed on top of it without marring the surface. You can get it in gloss, semigloss, eggshell, etc, and they have small sample jars that you can have mixed with any of the bajillion colors available for wall paints, so you can match it precisely to your overall color theme. There are also pint and quart cans of pre-mixed colors that are usually in the basic colors and sometimes a variety of sheen's. These usually run less than $10 per color, and a single can will go pretty far.
For metal, I prefer Rustoleum. It is strong enough to stand up to outdoor conditions, but it is an oil based paint and will require paint thinner to clean the brushes and you should paint outdoors or use ventilation.
Another note is depending on humidity, paint can take longer or shorter amounts of time to dry and fully cure. The paint you choose should tell you how the humidity will affect the paint.
Once you've painted your display piece and allowed it to dry thoroughly, you can proceed with making it function the way you want. Some options are adding an easel back (or placing it in a free-standing easel), drilling holes and inserting posts or wires to support or adjust the display, or gluing a few pieces together to change the overall shape or function of your piece.
I enjoy taking old photo frames, painting them and attaching fabric mesh or perforated plastic to the back and then adding an easel back to it to help it to stand. These are perfect for hanging earrings on or adding hooks and hanging necklaces.
One last piece of advice would be to paint all of your displays the same color in order to give your booth a very cohesive feeling that won't overwhelm the lovely colors of your jewelry.
Remember - a cute display will leave an impression as a cute display, but it's your jewelry that should leave the impression, the display should disappear!
One of my favorite methods is to find an appropriate unpainted wood piece available at most craft stores, paint it to the color I need and add any easel stand pieces I need to.
Paint is very important when working on display pieces, as the wrong kind of paint can ruin both the project and the jewelry that later is on it. Stay away from using artist's acrylic - even when dried it tends to remain very flexible and can easily be marked or adhere to something laid on top of it, causing stacked displays to stick together or paint to come off on your jewelry - the worst nightmare of all!
One of the big things to remember with any paint is that even after 24 hours when you can touch it and it feels dry, it's still soft inside. There are paints (like artist's acrylic) which can actually take months to dry and shrink completely but seem dry within an hour or two of painting. Because of this, all paints can be scratched, lifted and hold an impression until they fully cure. This is why I always recommend putting painted objects in a protected place, shielded from dust, for at least a week. Two weeks is better, or as long as possible.
I also recommend using at least two coats of your chosen paint. Wood is porous and will absorb some of your first layer of paint, occasionally it will even absorb some of the second layer. It is a good idea to sand the bare wood, put down your first coat, and then sand again to remove any rough fibers that were raised by the absorption process. Then add your second coat and if it does not dry smooth sand lightly again and recoat. This won't be an issue with metal assuming you use a smooth piece of metal, but it's a good idea to clean and sand metal before painting to help it hang onto the paint.
For wood, interior/exterior latex - IE paint you'd use on your walls - is what I always use. It's awesome because it's as easy to use as acrylics and washes with water, and it dries pretty tough. This is the kind of paint you'd use to paint furniture, and so it does the best job of tolerating things being placed on top of it without marring the surface. You can get it in gloss, semigloss, eggshell, etc, and they have small sample jars that you can have mixed with any of the bajillion colors available for wall paints, so you can match it precisely to your overall color theme. There are also pint and quart cans of pre-mixed colors that are usually in the basic colors and sometimes a variety of sheen's. These usually run less than $10 per color, and a single can will go pretty far.
For metal, I prefer Rustoleum. It is strong enough to stand up to outdoor conditions, but it is an oil based paint and will require paint thinner to clean the brushes and you should paint outdoors or use ventilation.
Another note is depending on humidity, paint can take longer or shorter amounts of time to dry and fully cure. The paint you choose should tell you how the humidity will affect the paint.
Once you've painted your display piece and allowed it to dry thoroughly, you can proceed with making it function the way you want. Some options are adding an easel back (or placing it in a free-standing easel), drilling holes and inserting posts or wires to support or adjust the display, or gluing a few pieces together to change the overall shape or function of your piece.
I enjoy taking old photo frames, painting them and attaching fabric mesh or perforated plastic to the back and then adding an easel back to it to help it to stand. These are perfect for hanging earrings on or adding hooks and hanging necklaces.
One last piece of advice would be to paint all of your displays the same color in order to give your booth a very cohesive feeling that won't overwhelm the lovely colors of your jewelry.
Remember - a cute display will leave an impression as a cute display, but it's your jewelry that should leave the impression, the display should disappear!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Art / Craft Shows: Displays
In the world of craft shows, there are some big do's and dont's when it comes to displays for jewelry. I try to carefully consider every aspect of my displays when I'm working on putting them together, and my main points of concern are as follows:
-color palette
It is important that the display not overwhelm the jewelry itself, and I've had a few displays that got far more compliments than the jewelry on it. I've even had people ask to purchase my homemade displays, or ask me to make one for them. (which in and of itself wasn't a bad thing, it was a lot of fun designing one for someone else!) Nonetheless, the most important part of your display is that the jewelry looks stunning and the display itself is not attention getting.
-height
Laying jewelry (and many other products) flat on a table has to big negative effects - it makes it far to easy to walk right on past your table without noticing a thing, and it can give the appearance of a yard sale table. Neither of these are good, so using vertical displays and risers as well as taller tables can help push your display into eye contact range.
-weight
My back doesn't appreciate heavy displays, so I have to make sure that everything I use is as light as possible. Fortunately the jewelry I sell isn't heavy at all, but some of the ceramic trays I use are!
-uniqueness
When I'm at a craft show shopping, I am looking for quirky, unique, handmade things that each have their own special story and are hopefully one of a kind. When I see a display that utilizes jeweler's trays heavily or otherwise looks kind of like something you'd see in a mall, I almost invariably ignore that stand. It's not to be mean, it's because I know from experience booths like that rarely have anything I'd be interested in. In fact, I'm usually more interested in the table with a few things carefully laid out even if it breaks all the other rules. The idea is somewhere in the middle - a display that looks professional but doesn't look like it could have come from any store in your city.
-expense
We're all trying to earn money from shows rather than break the bank setting up for it. I usually have a pretty firm budget about what I'll pay for the items I need. I know that as I earn money I can buy an expensive piece here or there that will improve my display - and simple, inexpensive things can make gorgeous displays with a little effort and know how.
-durability
Once upon a time I thought it would be fun to use origami to display jewelry... it looked pretty cool when initially set up, but as people handled it, some pieces came unfolded and others weren't solid or heavy enough to continue standing up properly. I learned that displays need to be durable in the way that they will withstand people walking by and touching them without falling over, collapsing, or coming undone halfway through the day. This usually isn't a problem with purchased displays, more so with the ones I make. When I make them, the fewer moving parts there are, the better!
-how well it shows the jewelry off
Of course this is the most important part. Sure you can find a cheap piece of something to sit your earrings on but will it play them up to their best? Probably not. Some earrings look best on cards, others look best freely hanging. Bangles can look great in just about any setting, but chain bracelets can look limp and less inviting if not displayed right. It is important to have a variety of types of displays and I like to have more than I need. Since my jewelry is handmade and each piece is unique, the same setup won't work each time as my stock constantly changes.
With all of this in mind, here are some of my favorite ways to display jewelry.
- Most earrings go on cards and are then hung from some type of rack. Currently, I am using a metal grid display with Christmas ornament hooks to hang them and in the past I used converted lamps. The lamps were great, but I learned to keep them as plain as possible to keep the focus on the jewelry. The deconstructed lamp shades can also be sat on a lazy susan so that they can be turned. (I had the finial's on somewhat loosely so that the lampshades turned freely) Other earrings are laid down or hung without cards from bars or little wire displays
- The craft stores is a great place to get displays - check the unfinished wood items for a treasure trove of ideas. It is there that I got two different sizes of wooden trays intended to have mosaic added to them. They kind of look like mini serving trays, and I will be sanding and painting them, and adding a fixture to the back so that they can hold a necklace and stand up like easels. There are also items that can be painted and used as risers like trays and crates, and a multitude of other fun things. (I've decided to make using these options a post of their own... I could post several paragraphs just on painting!)
- I do use a few busts for necklaces, simply because there are necklaces I make that cannot have justice done to them by laying down or hanging flat. They have to be displayed on a neck in order to convey that they are indeed necklaces and not just sculptures. Most of my necklaces are on chains or cords, and can be hung in picture frames or on the aforementioned mini trays, or laid out flat.
- For the jewelry I'm laying out flat, I like to take some sort of dish and fill it with something that is visually attractive but also not too busy. I'd use sand, except that it would get all over my jewelry and be a mess to use. Sand just happens to be the ideal in non busy because the particles are so small. I know many people use beans or rice, but for me it's too "off" white and busy of a backdrop for my jewelry. I'm going to try out some little glass pebbles (about rice size) and see how that works. Other options are putting a piece of fabric in the bowl on top of a filler of your choice, not using any filler at all, or using dried moss as a filler. It retains its gorgeous green color and provides a lovely backdrop especially for metal or light colored jewelry.
- For rings and bracelets, I have yet to figure out what I prefer as a display. The bracelets will probably end up laid out flat in one of my trays or draped over something. Rings do seem to work best in trays or individual boxes, but I will have to come up with a solution for them as I have quite a few to display.
These are the fairly inexpensive displays I've come up with for my table, feel free to share in the comments any ideas you've had!!
-color palette
It is important that the display not overwhelm the jewelry itself, and I've had a few displays that got far more compliments than the jewelry on it. I've even had people ask to purchase my homemade displays, or ask me to make one for them. (which in and of itself wasn't a bad thing, it was a lot of fun designing one for someone else!) Nonetheless, the most important part of your display is that the jewelry looks stunning and the display itself is not attention getting.
-height
Laying jewelry (and many other products) flat on a table has to big negative effects - it makes it far to easy to walk right on past your table without noticing a thing, and it can give the appearance of a yard sale table. Neither of these are good, so using vertical displays and risers as well as taller tables can help push your display into eye contact range.
-weight
My back doesn't appreciate heavy displays, so I have to make sure that everything I use is as light as possible. Fortunately the jewelry I sell isn't heavy at all, but some of the ceramic trays I use are!
-uniqueness
When I'm at a craft show shopping, I am looking for quirky, unique, handmade things that each have their own special story and are hopefully one of a kind. When I see a display that utilizes jeweler's trays heavily or otherwise looks kind of like something you'd see in a mall, I almost invariably ignore that stand. It's not to be mean, it's because I know from experience booths like that rarely have anything I'd be interested in. In fact, I'm usually more interested in the table with a few things carefully laid out even if it breaks all the other rules. The idea is somewhere in the middle - a display that looks professional but doesn't look like it could have come from any store in your city.
-expense
We're all trying to earn money from shows rather than break the bank setting up for it. I usually have a pretty firm budget about what I'll pay for the items I need. I know that as I earn money I can buy an expensive piece here or there that will improve my display - and simple, inexpensive things can make gorgeous displays with a little effort and know how.
-durability
Once upon a time I thought it would be fun to use origami to display jewelry... it looked pretty cool when initially set up, but as people handled it, some pieces came unfolded and others weren't solid or heavy enough to continue standing up properly. I learned that displays need to be durable in the way that they will withstand people walking by and touching them without falling over, collapsing, or coming undone halfway through the day. This usually isn't a problem with purchased displays, more so with the ones I make. When I make them, the fewer moving parts there are, the better!
-how well it shows the jewelry off
Of course this is the most important part. Sure you can find a cheap piece of something to sit your earrings on but will it play them up to their best? Probably not. Some earrings look best on cards, others look best freely hanging. Bangles can look great in just about any setting, but chain bracelets can look limp and less inviting if not displayed right. It is important to have a variety of types of displays and I like to have more than I need. Since my jewelry is handmade and each piece is unique, the same setup won't work each time as my stock constantly changes.
With all of this in mind, here are some of my favorite ways to display jewelry.
- Most earrings go on cards and are then hung from some type of rack. Currently, I am using a metal grid display with Christmas ornament hooks to hang them and in the past I used converted lamps. The lamps were great, but I learned to keep them as plain as possible to keep the focus on the jewelry. The deconstructed lamp shades can also be sat on a lazy susan so that they can be turned. (I had the finial's on somewhat loosely so that the lampshades turned freely) Other earrings are laid down or hung without cards from bars or little wire displays
- The craft stores is a great place to get displays - check the unfinished wood items for a treasure trove of ideas. It is there that I got two different sizes of wooden trays intended to have mosaic added to them. They kind of look like mini serving trays, and I will be sanding and painting them, and adding a fixture to the back so that they can hold a necklace and stand up like easels. There are also items that can be painted and used as risers like trays and crates, and a multitude of other fun things. (I've decided to make using these options a post of their own... I could post several paragraphs just on painting!)
- I do use a few busts for necklaces, simply because there are necklaces I make that cannot have justice done to them by laying down or hanging flat. They have to be displayed on a neck in order to convey that they are indeed necklaces and not just sculptures. Most of my necklaces are on chains or cords, and can be hung in picture frames or on the aforementioned mini trays, or laid out flat.
- For the jewelry I'm laying out flat, I like to take some sort of dish and fill it with something that is visually attractive but also not too busy. I'd use sand, except that it would get all over my jewelry and be a mess to use. Sand just happens to be the ideal in non busy because the particles are so small. I know many people use beans or rice, but for me it's too "off" white and busy of a backdrop for my jewelry. I'm going to try out some little glass pebbles (about rice size) and see how that works. Other options are putting a piece of fabric in the bowl on top of a filler of your choice, not using any filler at all, or using dried moss as a filler. It retains its gorgeous green color and provides a lovely backdrop especially for metal or light colored jewelry.
- For rings and bracelets, I have yet to figure out what I prefer as a display. The bracelets will probably end up laid out flat in one of my trays or draped over something. Rings do seem to work best in trays or individual boxes, but I will have to come up with a solution for them as I have quite a few to display.
These are the fairly inexpensive displays I've come up with for my table, feel free to share in the comments any ideas you've had!!
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