Worth the effort!

[caroleallen]

Last year I gave up doing shows so sold all my display - absolutely everything, including the large estate car! This year, I changed my mind and decided to keep doing a couple of local shows that work well for me. It's taken most of the year to make my new display which fits into a Renault Clio and has nearly led to divorce several times, but I used it for the first time recently and love it.

The beauty of it is that I can pin all the jewellery on at home, arrive at the show, open it up and hey presto! I can close up the frames at night so nothing gets nicked. All the silver rings are set into the display and secured with fishing filament and weights so they can be tried on. The expensive stuff is locked into a display case. I even managed to find canvas bags that everything fits into perfectly.

Even better, when everyone else is waiting for hours to be able to bring their vehicles onto the site, I can load all my display onto a sack truck, trundle it to the car, load it up and be gone within less than an hour (three quarters of an hour, I think!).

[ShinyLauren]

That's brilliant Carole - I hope you don't mind if I steal some of your ideas!

I've seen the fishing wire/weights on rings before at a couple of shows and wanted to do something similar. I can't see from yours where the fishing wire and weights are hidden though - do you have any close ups? The ones I've seen before have had an open shelf with holes drilled through and the weights hanging through the shelf. I guess that's easy enough to do if you have your own table that you can drill holes in, but not so much if you're using tables belonging to the venue!

[Lucie]

That's really effective Carole! Did you make them yourself?
I'd thought about doctoring some pasting tables before, but don't know if that would look as good as these. x

[mizgeorge]

That's brilliant Carole

[caroleallen]

Thanks everyone. The fishing weights are hidden under the base Lauren. If I was using an actual table, I would get a covered box and drill holes into the lid so that the weights are hidden. I've seen them too where the weights are visible and I think that ruins the look of the display.

I think one of the things I like about it is that the ends of the chains are hidden behind the pad. I always think chains pinned onto pads can look untidy. I also like that my stud earrings are on little velcro'd strips of fabric which I can push the earring post into with the butterfly on the back. Despite lots of battering on the journey, every single thing stayed in place and nothing got damaged. I also love that I can stick tiny price stickers on the fabric so I don't have to mess around with tying on tags.

I love also that I can hide all my gubbins (oops, glad I spotted that autocorrect had put gibbons!) behind the stand and absolutely nothing can be seen from the front. Very important for an untidy person like me (and an even untidier person who shall be nameless who likes to display empty crisp bags, cake wrappings and coffee cups for all to see!)

It won't be used again till Christmas, though I'm so in love with it, I want to do more shows now! Ooh and I love that I can keep all the stuff on the display so that if anyone comes to the studio it just needs to be opened up and voila! It doesn't take a lot to make me happy!

[ps_bond]

Thanks everyone. The fishing weights are hidden under the base Lauren. If I was using an actual table, I would get a covered box and drill holes into the lid so that the weights are hidden. I've seen them too where the weights are visible and I think that ruins the look of the display.

I've seen Peter & Sandra Noble's display - they have the weights in a perspex box as a free-standing item; doesn't look too bad, TBH.

Great solution overall!

[caroleallen]

The Noble's display is huge and a massive effort to erect and take down. It's worth it for them because they're on the road all the time and their stuff is all high end. Mine needed to be compact for local shows. I don't think it would work so well for something like Desire where most people have or hire display cases.

[ps_bond]

Oh, absolutely - this was their stand at Badminton, after all. Horses for courses (no pun intended).

[Tabby66]

As previously said elsewhere, your display looks fabulous Carole.....so pleased you had a good show and it worked so well for you.......has me inspired and thinking now!!!!

[caroleallen]

Go for it Jill.