Budget Jewellery Display Ideas

by Claire Humpherson

As I mentioned in my post on The Principles of Jewellery Display, I noticed that designers were getting creative with their display at IJL. Some of the best ideas would be cheap to achieve, but could create a big impact. here are some ideas I picked up.

Use Natural Materials

Some of the most effective displays I saw at IJL used natural materials as the actual display stands. One particularly notable stand was created by Malcolm Morris to display his new coral inspired collection. He cleverly used sticks that had been painted to look like coral, on a sand base. The display was stunning and attracted a lot of attention at a show full of jewellery! Can you make your collection stand out?

Malcolm Morris's Display

I was inspired by this so I decided to have a go myself. If your budget is tight, why not try experimenting with natural materials like sticks, logs and stones. Go out for a walk one days and see what you can pick up! I decided to pick a natural theme for my stick display, incorporating jewellery with flower and insect motifs:

Natural materials can also be fantastic for presenting your most glamorous work. This works because the natural material contrasts with the sparkliness of crystals, drawing your eye to your jewellery piece. Here is an example:

So far, you’ve probably spent nothing on your display! Hopefully you’ve picked up some great natural stands in your local park or even your garden. You could add a more professional touch by spray painting your branches, or varnishing stones for minimal cost.

Use Household Items

Some other ideas I had centre around household items. You can again achieve some great results with a fairly low budget. here’s my top 5:

1. Use glasses to hang earrings from. This can be great for photography but can also work for display.

2. Cover different sized boxes with scraps of material, wallpaper or wrapping paper. Then arrange them to make a step or pyramid display as I mentioned in my post on ‘The Principles of Jewellery Display’.

3. Vases can be big enough to wrap a necklace around, and you could also hang the matching earrings from the top.

4. Try laying some delicate pieces out on tiles. You can add a label to the tile that explains more about the piece and also add a price. It gives each piece a little platform of its own.

5. Cardboard is really useful! Find a big box made of corrugated card and cover it with material for a cheap display board that you can pin your pieces to at eye level.

I hope this has given you some ideas to display your jewellery without breaking the bank! Above all, have fun with display ideas. If you do something different, it might just get you noticed.