Displays.

Creating jewelry is the fun part.  Getting it out for people to see is a challenge all it's own.  Very few business are lucky enough to have the financial backing to go out and get all the equipment to make things run smoothly.  You also have to gain the knowledge about your business to know what you really need and what will work best for you and your customers.

Here are some lessons I have learned about displaying jewelry.  Your displays must be comfortable for your buyers.  What does that mean?  It means your customer should feel safe browsing and touching your displays.  If your set up  looks fragile like it might fall over they are less likely to really look at your pieces.  Here is an example of what I am talking about.

In this picture the display is laying down.  The display stood upright to save table space.  Problem with this one was it was not very stable.  It was supported by legs in the back that folded in for easier transport.  I observed that people were timid when reaching in to touch or better view an item they wanted to see.  Making them less likely to buy.  In an earlier blog entitled Weathering Storms I described how this display was knocked over by wind causing many earrings to scattered which led to lost inventory.

My sales more than doubled when I went to this type of earring display.

 People were more comfortable because they are use to this type of display in store.  It rotates and they can pick up the pair of earrings they wish to look at.  It is much more stable.  I found a great place on line to buy displays at a very reasonable price.  Check out Nile Corp.

For me another big issue when taking my jewelry on the road was the time it took to set up a display.  When starting out I packed all my jewelry into fishing tackle boxes.  This proved to be a very smart move when I was caught in a surprise storm but it makes for a very long set up and break down time.

I saw many people display they jewelry in trays that they simply had to sit out and then slide back into travel bags.  I liked this idea but the trays take up a lot of room on a table and I wanted to find a way to be able to display more trays on the table.  All with in a budget of course.

For a new business that had just lost over $300 in a storm I had to bite the bullet and invest in trays and a travel bag.  Again I turned to Nile Corp.  I bought a large travel bag and trays.  Next came the challenge of how to best display these on a table.  I knew they needed to be stacked some how.  The answer came when  walking through Walmart and I saw a shoe rack.  Yes a simple shoe rack & velcro.

Velcro is wrapped around the bars of the shoe rack.  The velcro used on the shoe rack is the double sided that sticks to it's self.  That way you can still slide the shoe rack to different sizes and you do not have the velcro stuck to the rack.  A strip of velcro is placed on the back of the tray.  I used industrial strength velcro that proved to be sturdy enough to hold the trays securely in place.


Here is a view of the display I now use.  It is stable and inviting.  Sales have increased since going to this display.

When trying to set up before I would have to make at least four trips to my car to get things.  With this set up I have a large rolling chest that holds the shoe rack, table covers, the stands for the upright trays and other goodies.  I have the rolling travel bag that holds all the trays & two carry bags that I place the earring displays in.  Which means now I can make only 2 trips!  Unless I have to bring in a table.

The journey continues.  I hope by sharing this with you that you may learn something that will help you in your journey.  Happy creating!

Time Slips By Quickly

It has been too long since I have visited with you.  I apologize for my absence but as anyone who works in the medical field knows the end of the year brings a big push to get things done before the new year and the start of your health insurance deductibles again.  So things have been quite busy at my work.  It has not allowed as much time to create as I would like but I am finally starting to bring my jewelry to where I wanted it to go.
When I first saw wire wrapping I was in love.  I was amazed at these talented and wonderful artists who could take stones and wire and create beautiful jewelry.  I chose my business name to symbolize this wonderful art form.  I am now learning these techniques and here are some examples of my work.

I do not know the names of the stones but that is one of my future goals is to learn more about them.  This stone was wonderful to work with because it had its own glow.

I created the face piece for this out of polymer clay and enhanced the features with paint.  The citrine stone at the bottom came from Magpie Gemstones.  I was so excited when they featured this creation in one of their news letters!

Here are some more examples of wire wrapping pendants I created.

Thank you so much for following my blog and reading about my journey in jewelry making.  I will be back very soon with look into my new displays.  If you have read my blog you know that back in July of last year I had a disaster at a local outdoor festival.  This made me take a closer look at my displays.  I look forward to sharing with you a fairly inexpensive display made with a shoe wrack you can get at your local department store.  Stay tuned!