Monday 21 January 2013

Jewellery Display Ideas

This morning has seen me coming up with some new ways to use some of the items I already have and make them even more useful in terms of displaying my handmade jewellery.  I've set myself a task this year and have booked myself into a craft fair each month for the rest of the year.  So I wanted to make sure that I could get everything set up as quickly as possible and have it look good too without having to spend any extra money.

First of all I took out my print tray and considered screwing in some little eyes so that I could hang earrings but then I had an idea......why not use some of my card-stock and make cards that could slot into the sections.  Each card has two holes and then the earrings (and a few other things) are hung on the cards.  Customers can then take out the card and even buy the earrings with them still attached to the card should they wish to.

jewellery display case

handmade earrings

Positioning is important and I need to play around with where things are but overall I'm happy with this - and the tray fits on my easel so I can have it standing on the table or lie it down flat and the cards make sure that the jewellery gets seen.  I've also added a little price sticker onto the top right corner of every card so the earrings are not marred by having a price label directly on them.

Here's the tray propped up against my dolly/body:

Next up was a way to display and house all of my handmade bracelets.  I have a cute little case and again was going to screw in some hooks but that idea was thwarted by my inability to actually screw the things in once I had drilled a little hole.  How pathetic.  Never mind, necessity being the mother of invention I remembered I had a couple of metal coat-hangers left so I cut one up and using my pliers and the strength I do have, I fashioned a wire hanger that sits on the top edge of the opened case and onto which I have hung some bracelets.  The rest of my handmade bangles can sit in the bottom of the case.


handmade bracelets and bangles


I used another length of hanger wire to make a similar hanger for a similar sized box that can stand on one end and have a few necklaces draped across it.

Also in my possession is an ornate tray that has a slight verdigris on it and although I didn't have enough length of wire to make another hanger, I did have enough to fashion some hooks that slide on and then they can have jewellery hung on them inside the tray.  The pic doesn't do this set up justice and the beauty of the separate hooks is that I can use them on either the long or the short side of the box making it more versatile.


So now all I have to do when I get to a fair is position these various devices on my table and then artfully arrange my necklaces on the dolly body and some of my vintage and vintage looking frames so that they can be easily seen.  Although I will confess that I do love how they look when they are all piled around dolly body's neck:

assemblage jewellery

Now that the kitchen is clear I shall make another cup of tea and see what everyone has been up to over at the 100th Handmade Monday blog hop.

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Happy New Year

Wow, I'm shocked.  Almost a month since I last blogged, how very remiss of me.  No matter, as the children are both back at school today I've been able to get myself together and get a couple of things done. Headers mostly....blog header, website headers, Facebook headers and Etsy header have all been re-done.

I wrestled with Pixlr for a while last night before giving up but this morning sense and creativity returned long enough for me to get them all done and loaded.

And despite the children being off school I managed to have  little play around with an idea that's been floating around in my mind.  Tiny books, decorated with hand-dyed silk, lace, vintage beads and this and that and place on a chain to be worn as a necklace.


They have vellum paper inside that I sealed in case the item got worn in the rain, but I'm going to play around with resin coated paper next time I think.....


These books don't open but I'm going to make some that do......



I have a couple more to make into necklaces or to use as charms on other assemblage jewelry pieces.....






I'll definitely be making more of these as they're very cute.