Dreaming of a new display

Recently I was accepted to the Rustbelt Market show in Ferndale, MI. At first I was so excited I got up and jumped around. I have lots of new jewelry and I'm excited about interacting with people there.

Then I remembered my display woes.

You see, many of my display pieces have been with me for a long time. My neckforms are all 15-20 years old, and many of my props are at least a decade old, if not two. You won't believe this, but I am still using the first set of light bulbs I ever purchased...fifteen years later. I can hardly believe it myself.

Anyway, I haven't been doing a lot of jewelry shows in the past few years, so I've been putting off redesigning my display. There's always something a little shinier to work on, you know?

But I can't put it off any longer. I really want my display to look nice.

Let's get in our time machine and head into the past for a glimpse at my very first display:

It was a hodge-podge mix of everything I had at that time; black material, plastic earring racks, the desk lamp from my desk.

After using it for a few times, I learned some interesting things. The plastic earring rack was awful. The whole rack shook whenever anyone tried to pick up a pair of earrings, and no one could get the earring cards back on except for me.

Even stranger, the black tablecloths seemed to make people head the other way. They'd barely glance in my direction. Except for...kids. Kids could not get enough of it. They would see my booth, and tear themselves away from their parents to come running over, whereupon they would bump into the table and make everything shake. They would grab stuff, and then their parents would come over and hiss, "NO! This is too EXPENSIVE!"

I decided to switch to white tablecloths, and it was like night and day. No more comments about the jewelry being too expensive, and kids seemed positively bored by my tables. My neckforms are still black velvet, though, and they're a bit worn out, and I've gone ahead and ordered all sorts of new neck displays from Rio Grande. Metal displays, wood displays, and faux suede displays, oh my! I can't wait to see them.

I'll definitely be posting pictures of the new display as I put it together!