countertop sample earring cards

As you well know, I am committed to repurposing whenever i can to not only keep things from going into the trash, but to stretch the budget as far as possible.
I have a bunch -i mean, a BUNCH- of countertop sample chips;
their colors and textures appeal to me, as well as the neat way they are collected on ball chain. I acquired them without a purpose in mind, but over the summer as soon i envisioned a physical space for NikCo, i knew they be perfect for earring cards.
At festival and shows i am standing right there, so it would be kinda hard to shoplift (not impossible of course), but in a physical location i needed a way to keep pairs together and make them harder to pocket.
 
Plus it makes an easy surface on which to affix the price tag and NikCo online information.
I decided to use the slightly smaller Formica samples so that more could fit on the display. My handy-dandy Dremel made quick work of drilling all the holes for the earring wires. In fact, the hardest part was matching earrings to cards so that the background color highlighted the jewelry instead of distracting from it.

Mayhaps you recall that i was trying to build a repurposed display, but that failed miserably so i ended up buying a metal and glass shelf from Objects Found (so i guess still technically repurposed). For months i had seen so clearly in my mind how i wanted the cards to be hanging from binder clips stretched through the air:

The open metal work of the shelf supports allowed me to stagger several strings of them with black wire while the glass shelves themselves gave me areas to group some recently acquired cream and sugar sets that i am showing a great deal of self-restraint by selling instead of keeping.

top shelf

middle shelf

The hole in the top of the earring cards made it easy to hang them on the branches of a little pre-lit tree so that i could create a Christmas display of Quirkees.



Here a couple of (terribly lit) pictures of NikCo's little corner of the world:

To see how much prettier it is in real life (really, that lighting is horrific for taking pictures) visit booth 110 in the Antique Depot, next to the Phoenix in Old Ellicott City. I am already working on how to display bracelets and necklaces and will be switching the Quirkees display from Christmas to snowy weather later this week.

trashy turkey display

No, it didn't come out trashy; i saved it from the trash.

I was in Objects Found when the staff realized that a piece of a wooden thanksgiving decoration was missing; my shocked exclamation [imagine a slow-mo No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o with me diving towards the counter] as they threw the remaining pieces into the trash gave poor little Maggie such a fright that she snatched them out of the can and handed them to me before i think they even had time to hit the bottom.
SCORE!

These foam gourds (and a random apple) have been in the ugly craft overflow dresser (the crafts aren't ugly; the dresser is) for... ummmmmm... four years maybe.
I tried all the pieces and not surprisingly they looked best with the punkin.

It took tin snips and a hard plastic mallet to get all the pieces in place, but it looked cute when everything was finally in place.

Of course, since it was missing a piece and my gourd was foam instead of, you know, gourd the turkey couldn't sit up straight.





Velcro to the rescue!

I velcroed him to a plastic lazy susan and added some foam shims to keep him balanced and negate wobble.

Voila!

A piece of cotton calico nicely covered up all the nonsense once i cut and tucked it.
To help keep the earrings from slipping the back of the feathers got notches from my Dremel.
With a few silk leaves i think it made quite a presentable display (several people inquired about the price on it actually) for some Thanksgiving earrings.

The notched wood and velcroed base worked so well for my turkey that at that show in early November i did it to my small winter tree, too; now i have so many winter and Christmas earrings that at the last show i used an actual Christmas tree instead (that looked much cuter than this pic i swear; the lighting was dag-nasty in that room) and will probably use it this weekend as well.


On a semi-related note:
I wrote this specific post tonight because i had to take a break from the earring rack i am working on making for the store. You know, the one that i am constructing from a broken laundry rack, wire and binder clips; the one i am supposed to install in 37 hours.
It isn't going well.
I needed to remind myself that perseverance really can turn trash to treasure; that sometimes it just takes time to figure out how to make the idea in my head work in reality.
Though if it doesn't start coming together in the next hour i am tossing the idea and buying a shelf tomorrow... stupid reality.