Jewelry:Behind Glass or Not?

Every year we have worked to improve our image to the public at Art Fairs. I have used the sage advice of experienced AFI members, my great photographer Larry Berman and observations at every great Amdur Fair.

We started with a standard tent, white gridwalls and cloth covered tables. I will not bore you with a picture of that year.

Every year we upgraded our graphic display, built risers for the tables, then upholstered that structure, diminished our use of gridwalls.....well, attached is a picture of our jury booth now.


We love it. BUT.....

My husband feels glass cases are the next step He is an excellent engineer and finisher. The time is now to construct a new look for jury shots.

I do not know the pros and cons of putting my work away where customers can not see it closely. Would buying electricity for lighting be worth the money these days? Do people assume a booth with jewelry cases is automatically too pricey? Is the glass hard to transport and set up? Would I like being behind a counter? talking over something to people? Is what I have "good enough"? Or is it what is keeping me from that one top show?

Help?

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  • I want to go in there and touch everything ...

    Nice job.

    • Thanks, Connie and Mark,

      Ruth, would acrylic do the trick and do the glass panels meet at the corners? Also, are they able to be locked?

      I would never leave my jewelry overnight in the tent, that isn't the point. I saw an artist that had open backed glass cases once.

      Wouldn't acrylic get scratched a lot?

      I do like the half/half thought.

      • Linda - we use tempered glass, when we started researching this a few years ago, we just felt it looked better.  I understand the acrylic options are better than they used to be, but we went with glass.  Our metal (I think they are chrome) brackets can be adjusted for the shelving heights and the glass doesn't quite touch at each corner due to how the bracket fits.

         

        We have locks and use them to hold the glass doors closed, however, we rarely actually lock them, very few people ever try to open them without our help.  We also do not ever leave jewelry in our tent.   

        We bought all of our glass/locks/brackets through Grand & Benedict's, I think they have multiple locations but not sure if they extend beyond the West Coast.

        • Thanks Ruth and Mark,

          We'll look into cost and maybe start with a case a year. Of course, I like things to match and if you don't buy the hardware all at once it may never match.

          Well, let's research first the cost and weight.

          Ruth, we have a recycling glass plant near us. I have bought sshatter proof table tops from them that are so cheap and lovely. They custom cut.

          How thick is your glass?

      • Linda, this is outside of my area, but I would think you would want to use a scratch resistant acrylic or tempered glass (break resistant). Not sure about the cost. Ruth might be able to help there.

  • Linda - we decided to add glass our 3rd year due to theft issues.  We got tired of the people who thought they were entitled to our silver bracelets.  We now have all of our expensive pieces under glass but we still balance that with items that are on display racks.   My husband built boxes that then became the stand for the glass cases with a shelf attached for additional display items.  I had posted some pics last year when Annette was looking for quick set up / tear down ideas.

    http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/display-helpsuggestions...

     

    Attached is a picture of our booth that was taken at a show this year (not our formal booth shot, didn't get  a new one this year that we were happy with) that shows how we tried to balance what is behind glass and items that are more easily accessible for people to touch and try on.

    20120727_130051.jpg

  • I think your booth looks incredible! In regards to glass you probably already get reflections off the jewelry and unless you can control the lighting you will get additional reflections off the case. If you do go with the case, I would probably have it made from acrylic instead of glass. A lot safer and easier to transport.


    Cheers,Mark

    http://www.framedestination.com/

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