Dishfunctional Designs: Creative Ways To Display Jewelry On Gallery Walls

Today I'm going to share with you the fastest jewelry display I have ever put together!

Rushing to get ready for Bethlehem PA's May First Friday celebration in my new studio,
I had only about a week to figure out how to get my jewelry up on my studio walls so that
folks could check it out when they visited my studio at the Banana Factory on First Friday.
I was still in the process of moving in to my studio (hence the rush!) but I was determined
to get my jewelry up on the walls! I knew right away that I wanted to use canvases, but I
had no idea how to go about putting it all together. After a little bit of brainstorming, I
came up with what I thought was a creative display!

Because my jewelry is made from antique and vintage china, I wanted my wall display to
reflect that, so I stuck with a neutral, vintage theme. The elements I used on the canvases
were; neutral acrylic paint in a shade that resembled old yellowed book pages, an old map
page, antique photographs, a vintage doily, a torn page from an antique ledger, and of
course, some broken antique china plates. Check out how I put a few of them together!

Vertical jewelry displays are important. Jewelry displayed at eye level is comfortable to view
and allows the viewer to see things close up and right in front of their eyes without them
having to look down.

Old grungy broken china plate + hot glue gun = creative display!

I love the contrast between the incredibly damaged plate and the new jewelry.

This canvas turned out to be one of my favorite displays, and it got a great deal of comments.

For this canvas, I stretched an old doily across the canvas and secured it to the frame on
the reverse side with a staple gun. Then I ran over the front of the entire thing with a few
wide brush strokes of acrylic paint.

For this canvas I painted most of it with acrylic paint but left a corner unpainted. Once it dried, I
pencil sketched my jewelry design directly onto the canvas. I would have liked to tear a page from
one of my design sketchbook journals and adhered it directly to the canvas, but I could never tear my
jewelry journal apart, so this is the next best thing. It gives the viewer a glimpse into what my design
journal looks like when I am sketching out ideas for a piece of jewelry.

I created three photo canvases. First I did a light wash over the canvas with a wash of acrylic paint
mixed with water. After it was completely dry I attached a vintage photo to the canvas with Mod Podge
(by coating the reverse side of the photo with Mod Podge). I should have taken a photo before I sold the other blue pieces that were on this canvas. It looks a little bare now but it was really pretty when it
was filled up. Back to work!

I took this photo when I was working on the display at home. I think the key
necklaces look great on this display!

I created this map canvas by adhering a torn map to the canvas with Mod Podge.
Then I painted over it with a light wash of paint mixed with water to allow the map to
show through. I wanted folks to see the map but I didn't want it to distract from the jewelry.

For a few of the canvases, I hammered small brads into the tops of the frames to hold the chains.

For this canvas I adhered an old torn ledger page from 1890 to a blank white canvas.
I displayed a vibrant piece on this display made from antique materials. Anything lighter
would have gotten lost in the background. I still may wash over this canvas with a wash
of paint to dull the background a bit. Still deciding.

Beginning to fill them up with jewelry...

I should have mentioned earlier - this cost me next to nothing to do. I bought the
inexpensive stretched canvases on wood frames at Michael's and they were on sale
for 50 percent off, so I think I paid $10 per pack of seven canvases. I bought two
packs, so I got 14 canvases for $20.00 USD