by Susan Verdecchia.
(Thomson, Georgia USA)
I think I’ve finally done it. Over the last three years, I have struggled with making my display interesting and professional, and also functional.
I usually attend a Saturday market in beautiful downtown Augusta, GA, on the Riverwalk at the Savannah River. This market supports artists strongly and the atmosphere is addictive. Being outdoors, occasional showers, wind, etc., can make jewelry display challenging.
Last year I suffered a torrential downpour that saturated all my velour busts, and hubby and I came up with the idea of weighted wooden busts, waterproof and heavy enough to NOT blow over in breezes.
He also made me a revolving earring display and a folding wooden shelf which I topped with 12″ mirror tiles. Cool! But I was still carting around bags of acrylic risers and all these busts along with glass shelves.
I saw a display online on another jewelry blog featuring the little brother of my old chest, and a light bulb went off! I can now store and transport ALL of my loose display materials such as busts, shelves, risers, etc., and use the trunk as a base for display!
I get comments at every show about how cool it looks and it surely solves a storage/transport problem for me. I have a couple of glass blocks, and a cool old wooden cabinet I found that has hooks for pendants and a groove on the top shelf perfect for displaying rings.
Hubby stripped off the vinyl on my rain-soaked bracelet bar, sanded and stained it to match the rest of my wood themed display. He also made me some little wood blocks with dowels that hold some more rings throughout the display, within each color family.
There is a large quartz crystal displayed here, and I also have some large rough iridescent hematite,quartz and kyanite specimens I personally dug at a local mine that I use for display when I remember to bring them. I forgot them this week.
I feel I should note here that hubby is not a wood worker. It took him forever to figure out how to make the earring display and the busts are very primitive looking. I personally love the imperfect look, because it corresponds with my handmade items and fits in beautifully with the artsy, down-home atmosphere at The Augusta Market.
Susan Verdecchia
Georgia Jewels
Husbands sure come in handy when it comes to our jewelry creations. My hubby and son in law are often reeled in to help with my wild ideas too!
Your display is not only practical, it is beautiful as well. It takes a village to get the traveling jewelry shows up and running.
Teri
Susan, you have wonderfully creative ideas for a weather resistant display. And don’t you love how compact it is to store all your loose materials in the trunk and then make the trunk part of your display! Your setup looks very organized and unique. Great job of bouncing back with something better, after having last year’s displays ruined by weather. And bonus points to your husband, for being so supportive as well as for taking on woodworking!
practical and sooo much classier looking than basic black velvet busts!
I think the wooden displays and mix-matched display items make the booth more interesting. I would most certainly walk into this booth more readily than into a booth with a more formal setting.