Tutorial: Dead easy earring display

I made this display to replace my tatty acrylic one at craft fairs and it was so easy I thought I’d share it with you. You can also use it to hang your own earrings on at home, and works for both dangles and stud types as long as they’re not too small.

YOU WILL NEED:
– 2 sturdy wood frames the same size. I chose 2 black A5 size ones, but the bigger they are the more earrings they will hold
– 7 mesh plastic canvas
-2 jewellery box hinges (4 if going for A4 size)
– Hammer and miniature screwdriver or pin vice
– Glue Gun
– It’s optional, but if you wanted to colour your mesh, you could do so by leaving in fabric dye overnight.

1) Take your frames and carefully remove the backing board and glass.
2) Cut the plastic canvas to size using the backing board as a guide. It will need to be the same size. and you will need to cut two.
3)Put the canvas into the frame and fold down the prongs on the back to secure it in place. Add a small blob of glue from your glue gun in each corner to stop it from sagging.
4) Once the glue is cool and hard, put the frames together so that the front on both are touching. Attach your brackets to the top and bottom of the long edge. Use your pin vice or tiny screwdriver to make the initial hole before bashing the pins that hold the brackets in with the hammer.
5) Admire your (not very) hard work! The way that the frames open  means that they will stand on their own accord.

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Visual Merchandising

I was reading Garden Trade News at work today and the feature on merchandising the gift department caught my eye. Some of this is very relevant to craft stalls and I thought I’d share.

1) Display items in groups of three with clear lines. Apparently this psychologically appeals in a “one must be better than the other” way even if they’re the same product. I also personally believe odd numbers are easier on the eye, so three works well here.

2) Repetitive display of multiple products accounts for the bulk of sales, but with some items it is hard to do this with when relating to the craft fair.  Keep it eye catching with deliberate asymmetrical or symmetrical arrangements, band your colours if possible, and on a more simple level, don’t try and put all of your eggs in one basket- stick to a theme of clothes, or jewellery or glassware, don’t make your table look like a jumble sale stall.

3) Composition is crucial. The magazine advises organising the display to have a focal point at eye level, which then leads the eye further along your stall. So in craft terms, make an interesting centrepiece to grab attention, even if it’s not something you’d actually sell. I’m thinking of making a big resin guitar for example!

4) Cleanliness and uniformity. Keep the table looking organised, even as things sell or people pick up your items. Keep some things under the table to fill in the gaps.

I have started looking at my table layout as I’m not happy with it, I’ve created a layout incorporating shelves to group themed items (seaside, fabric, etc) together (in threes) rather than all necklaces together or all rings together, for example. The differing heights also encourage people to look at everything as they can’t skim across the stall just at their eyeline, which helps keep people at your table for longer. Some people use boxes under their tablecloths and other techniques for this. I have tried to keep a rummage factor by keeping some of my necklace arms, as some people do like looking through (which is why TK Maxx is successful!), bargain hunting as it were.

I still need a centrepiece, and another display cushion on the top shelf and some of the signage has got a bit tatty, but it’s coming together nicely. Still a work in progress! Quite proud of my lighting system on my shelving though!

Folksy Angels and new presentation

I uploaded my first of a possible two entries into the Folksy Angels competition I mentioned earlier on this month. I made resin tealight holders with pieces of chocolate coin foil embedded inside. Sanding the inside of these was a bitch though, I won’t be making more of these in a hurry! The other possible entry involves spoons. I won’t say any more!

I’ve also been working on a better presentation of my necklaces at craft fairs. Remember my guitar stand tutorial? Well I wasn’t 100% happy with the way it turned out, so some citting and folding, my old damaged tablecloth and two cork pinboards from Ikea later….

I am taking part in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month), so I will be blogging every day in November. Today is post 28: http://www.nablopomo.com/

Making a jewellery display from a guitar stand

So normally I use a 30″x20″ canvas and my storage boxes to prop it up to display some of my necklace ranges.  It looks like this, and I use pins to temporarily keep them in place:

Unfortunately in order to get to the craft fair this weekend (http://handmadeoxford.blogspot.com) I will need to use the park and ride, so need to fit everything into a suitcase. No storage boxes and definitely no canvas with dangerous pins sticking out everywhere! This is my solution:

Here’s how I made it. I took a guitar stand like this:

I took two lengths of wood and marked the centre, then marked on notches on one piece to fit snugly on the bottom support. I then cut them out with a saw. I also cut a length of fabric, shorter than the maximum height of the stand, and as wide as the wood pieces and hemmed the sides.

Using a hot glue gun, I glued the piece of wood without notches to the fabric. The I glued along the front and top to secure on two sides.

At the opposite end, I used the glue gun to stick the piece of wood with notches onto the fabric. The notches were facing upwards towards the top piece of wood that had already been glued, then any stray fabric was glued to the bottom so that it was also covered on 2 sides as before.

Once dry, I lined up the notches with the bottom of the guitar support, so that the wood was positioned below it.

Then the top piece of wood was rested on the neck guard.

Using the screw at the back, the height could then be adjusted to pull the fabric taut.

Now the plan is to staple my jewellery onto the fabric and roll it up into an easy to transport roll. The guitar stand breaks down into 3 or 4 pieces so it should all fit nicely in my suitcase. All I’ll need is a staple remover 🙂

Don’t forget to enter the November giveaway here: https://pennydog.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/november-giveaway/

I am taking part in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month), so I will be blogging every day in November. Today is post 4! http://www.nablopomo.com/