DIY Jewelry Displays Part 1

Well thanks to the pioneering spirit of my maternal grandparents I knew I could make some pretty amazing jewelry displays from scratch. After all they are all hand assembled in Korea, Hong Kong or China anyway. No offense meant, I appreciate the value of craftmanship is still present in the world .... Anyway I stayed up nights thinking about how they construct the neckforms available to retailers here in the US. I decided that a form on a metal stand was by far the most versatile and impressive I'd seen. So I came up with a materials list:


For the Neck Forms:
Bookboard (or 3ply Chipboard)
Thin Headliner Foam
Fabric
Trim
Adhesive (one that can be used for adhering foam as well as paper and fabric)
Boxcutters or Heavy Duty Shears
a Cylindrical Form (for molding)
Steel for weighting the Form

For the Stand:
Steel Tubing 3/8"
All Thread Pipe (called a nipple in the hardware world)1/4"
Washers 5/16'
Nuts 3/8"
Finials that fit a 1/4" nipple
Antique/Vintage Metal Lamp Bases
Spray Paint


#1
I started with drawing a template on one of my boys old game boxes (it's essentially 1ply chipboard) and drew the ouline onto the 3ply chipboard I bought at the art supply store.

#2
I cut it with my jewelers saw. I cut like butter but ... broke a few blades. I have only 0/8 sz blades (very fine tooth). So the next ones I tried a boxcutter & shears. The boxcutter didn't work (dull). The shears worked but my fingers were sore the next day.

#3
I took the cutout's over to the sink and ran them very quickly under a small stream of water from the faucet. Just enough to dampen but not soak. This is the trial and error part. If the board gets too wet the layers start to separate. If this happens just tape the edge together with masking tape.

#4
I gently bent the board around the cylindrical form which I thought would be the perfect thickness with out being too big of a radius. I tried a few different cans and bottles but - as you can see the arisol container is what I stayed with. To keep the form from curling I used one of my huge old files to keep the angle I wanted.

* for future displays I'll probably have the rest

of the form curve outward, so that it projects
out a little rather than going straight down.

#5
After drying for 30 min I removed the chipboard form and set it out side to cure in the sun for a few minutes (that's all it takes in the FL summer sun). I did have minor layer separations on each of the pieces at this point so you can probably ommitt this step and let it dry at a slower rate - I'm just impatient ;)

next post Finishing the Neckforms ......