I love jewelry. I
don't have a lot of it, but that's changing. I own a beautiful silver-toned
jewel box, but it doesn't hold everything. This means my baubles make a mess of
my nightstand or get tangled in a bag. I
decided that it would be nice to create a nice display organizer to go over my
night stand. This would be my second attempt at a solution actually. The last
one was a minor disaster and an even bigger eyesore. I didn't even bother to
photograph it. This is better. Just better.
I started with two
old store bought pictures that I didn't have a place for in my house. The
frames on them were gorgeous, and I came to realize that's why I still had
them. They had sage colored mats however, and that did not fit the plan. In
fact, that just made the mats look dingy. Black acrylic paint solved this
problem nicely. I used a dry brush and applied the paint sparingly and the
result gave it a woody, natural looking texture. Next, I prepared the cardboard backing from the
original picture by covering it in craft foam sheets in black. I just used my
hot glue gun for this because I was
feeling impatient and didn’t want to wait for white glue to dry. Also using hot
glue, I covered the padded side of the board with a fat corner of black fabric.
This all got reassembled (minus the picture) into the frame. This was easy for
this frame because I didn’t have to remove any of the staples that secure
everything in place.
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| This is the cardboard backing covered in foam. I had just enough! |
To actually have
somewhere to place the jewelry, I turned to wine corks. I have a collection of
these as well. I chose the cheap artificial ones for this because I have more
of these and because of their uniformity. For post earrings I cut the corks in
half and wrapped them with silver-toned wire strung with purple glass seed
beads. I attached them using screws and hot glue. Run the screw through the
back of the board to the front the screw the cork about halfway onto the screw.
Add a drop of hot glue, then finish attaching the cork. Add a drop of ho glue
over the head of the screw for extra security. The earrings just slip into the
cork, and I only keep the backs in the jewelry box.
For bracelets and
rings, I used whole corks with divots carved into the sides. I decorated these
with more wire, and a silver mother of pearl at each end of the cork. I
attached these one at either end of the inner mat using the previous technique.
The rings are placed on bamboo sticks that lay in the grooves. For the
bracelets I glued several sticks together for strength. The rings and bracelets
get placed between the corks and nothing slides off.
I love this so far. Another part that I love is that I can add to it. As you can see, I began using it before adding a second row of earrings and the bracelets. I have the other frame to use for necklaces, but I haven't decided on a design
there yet. There are quite a few of chains, beads, and ribbons, and some are quite long, so I want to
get it right. At any rate, I hope this design inspires you to create something
good looking and useful out of your odds and ends. Please feel free to drop me
a comment below, and be sure to check back every so often. I have a few other
projects in the works that I can't wait to finish and share with you. Some even
involve antiques!
