Sunday 3 April 2011

How to make an awesome (easy) ring display!

As promised - here's my first 'How to' guide. I was stumped about how to display rings on my craft market stand, I needed something that both protected the rings from bumps and scuffs, and also gave them impact and stand out from a distance. I also wanted something pretty anough to use on my dressing table when not in use at craft markets. This is what I came up with:

Finished ring display for craft market

To make it you'll need:

- Upholstery foam, half an inch thick (got mine on ebay - about 1.50 for a metre)
- A box photo frame (this one is a 'Ribba' from Ikea)
- Half a metre of fabric (I used Amy Butler's Fresh Poppies from the Midwest Modern collection)
- Needle and thread, scissors and pen or chalk

Make a Ring Stand 1

1) Measure and cut a long section of foam - the same width as the inside of the box frame (just draw along the inside of the box). Make it quite long, as you're going to fold it up into a concertina shape.

Make a Ring Stand 2

2) Lay the foam onto the back of the fabric and fold up the edges. Tack the fabric in place on the back of the foam - this'll keep it all in place when you fold it up.

Make a Ring Stand 3 and a half

3) You're going to make a concertina shape with the covered foam. The folds need to be the same width as the depth of your box frame so check how deep it is (mine was 2 inches). Stich along the bottom of the folds to keep them in place - it doesn't have to be particularly neat as the stitches won't show on the finished piece.

Make a Ring Stand 4

4) Working along the length of the foam, you'll have something that looks like this:

Make a Ring Stand 5

5) Fit the foam into the box frame - it should fit quite snuggly. I needed to do the foam bit in two sections, which you can see from the back, but not on the front - seamless!

Make a Ring Stand 6

Finished ring holder - ta-daaah!

Make a Ring Stand 7

You can see the ring holder beign put to excellent use at Wonder Hill High Craft Market yesterday over on my Facebook page.

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Action Stations!

I'm having a busy week, firstly appearing in this Etsy Finds email last Friday (global superstardom awaits!) and make make making jewellery to make sure my stand will look all pretty for this this Saturday's Wonder Hill High Market up in Highgate (Nooorf of the river - gasp!).  I'm thinking about adding some 'how to' picture stories to this blog - Would anyone be interested in this sort of thing?  I made a sort of upholstered ring display this weekend which turned out surprisingly well given my remedial sewing skills. It's for craft market display really, but I'm going to use it on my dressing table too. Might upload some pics and instructions, what do you think?

In the mean time, I've been featured in another gorgeous Spring-tastic Etsy treasury from Loves2CrochetUK who makes some super-lovely bright wooly goodies. I love colour, as you might have guessed from the jewellery I make - so this is just perfect!
Needle Felted Mushr...

$4.16
Retro Mosaic Polyme...

$19.00
Bubblegum Rainbow n...

$17.95
Over the rainbow bu...

$24.00
Large Flowered Hear...

$3.69
Lotus Flower Earrin...

$19.00
vintage 50s, 60s ro...

$25.00
Navy Apple Motif Co...

$10.00
ACEO Print - Rabbit...

$2.60
Pink Rose Heart Mos...

$15.00
Enchanted Garden St...

$21.00
Charcoal/Multi Ribb...

$15.00
Plastic Bag Dispens...

$5.99


$
Spring Fling, Finge...

$16.00
Hand Quilted Baby Q...

$130.00

Sunday 6 March 2011

World Book Night 2011 - Final thoughts

Left over from World Book Night

A Big Issue seller took one, the Fish and Chips leaflet man took one, the ladies out on the town in the cash machine queue all took one, school-trip girl took two (It’s free?  Can I have another one?)  The man waiting for his sisters took two, the boys behind the counter in Hope and Greenwood took two and started reading them as soon as we left, duly ignoring their customers. Dowdy fearful out of towners scurried onwards and clearly thought we were loonies – despite my issues of: ‘Don’t worry, I’m not a loony’.  Have I converted any non-readers – probably not. Did I generate a discussion about the book? Yes but only once. How many had heard about WBN – about half (so well done WBN for at least getting their publicity right – a BBC endorsed WBN evening and the backing of Boris worked wonders).  Did I see any other sellers in the West End of London – not a sausage... maybe they were all hiding in Waterstones swapping books with each other.

Saturday 5 March 2011

World Book Night 2011 - It's all gone a bit wobbly

It’s World Book Night tonight, where I’ll be one of the 20,000 who have volunteered to give away 48 copies of one of their favourite books from the WBN list. All very benevolent and worthy so far right? Well, my jury is out about the ethos behind WBN. I’ll forgive them the shambolic nature of the contact they have had with both the givers and distributers at the book collection points, WBN is in its first year and these things will happen. But I’m not convinced it will just be a self congratulation-fest of nice middle class people giving books to other nice middle class people. The original impetus behind the event is to encourage Adult reading – to reactivate literacy amongst those who have not read since school. WBN seem to encourage the opposite – their website lists hundreds of events taking place which givers can use as a book distribution outlet – but nearly all are in libraries and book shops, bypassing any opportunity to reach out to people who don’t visit these places. I will be giving The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie out in the West End tonight, I will try to give it out randomly, since you can’t tell who reads books and who doesn’t (you would be surprised both ways) and I’ll report back here tomorrow.

Sunday 5 December 2010

SPECIAL OFFER - FREE SHIPPING for the Holidays!

Spread the festive cheer! FREE SHIPPING on all items in my Etsy shop until 9th December.

I've also listed some new items including these lovely vintage rhinestone earrings:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/63666381/vintage-sapphire-blue-rhinestone

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