Cool green displays can double as home decor

I was making some new displays today for my booth at this year's Craftstravaganza, and thought it might be worth sharing because I could see these things being used in someone's home as well. I wanted to get a tiered counter top basket display to hold my loose beads for people to dig through, much like this display. But, then I thought to myself, silly me...why should I waste any of my precious margin on a stock fixture like this? I mean, I AM an experienced retail fixture designer after all, and the business that I am designing these displays for is all about repurposing old stuff.



So, after recovering from my momentary lack of judgement, off to the thrift store I went! In one stop at Saver's, I found some heavy brass candlesticks in varying heights for the tiered effect, and three sizes of baskets. ( I also found a miniature mailbox that I will paint and use in my display, going with the junk mail theme of my work.) All of these items cost me about $10-$12. (Most thrift stores have an entire aisle of candlesticks and at LEAST an aisle of baskets.)



So, here is what you need to know to do this fun DIY project:
STEP 1: Glue candlestick to basket.
STEP 2: Spray paint the whole thing.

DONE! What a simple project. I could totally see these being used on a dining room table to hold some fruit, a plant, some potpourri, or a grouping of candles. You could even use something else in place of a basket, like a pan, plate, or bowl. The possibilities are endless. I went for wicker so the base would weigh much more than the top, keeping them stable when shoppers dig through the beads. I was hoping to find a candeabra with several arms on one base, but I think these worked out nicely and still gave me the tiered effect with the flexibility of arranging them however I please:



For what shipping alone would have cost me for that stock fixture, I made something unique and totally within my Junk Mail Gems brand...not to mention a cool item to use in my house and a great DIY project to share with you!

Creating Displays for Junk Mail Jewelry

Over the past couple of days I've been working on some ways to display my products for the upcoming Craftstravaganza this April in St. Paul. For jewelry I decided to use this piece of drift wood. I originally picked up this piece of wood on the shore of Lake Erie back when we were living in Ohio for my iguana's habitat! It traveled with us on our move to Minnesota where it lived near the pond/fountain in our back yard for over 4 years. I have now turned it into a jewelry rack by drilling small holes in it and inserting little wooden dowels as hooks. Not too bad for it's third life after death!