I tried out something at this weekend’s show that I had been meaning
to try for a year or more, and it was such a hit that I want to
share it with you folks.
Everybody likes to play with rings, right? I saw this at SOFA a year
or two ago, and finally put it together. I drilled rows of holes in
a piece of opaque plexiglas and put it on top of a folding
(open-topped) pedestal. I ran heavy tigertail through rings, then
through the holes, then down a foot or so and tied on weights. This
made the rings stand up, and left them in the open where anyone
could try them on, but not take them. I feel pretty sure that if it
were not for this enticing display, I would not have sold the
expensive 18k and aquamarine ring I mentioned in another post. And
even though I didn’t sell any of the other rings I had out (it was
not a great show for me), I got a lot of feedback about what people
liked-- and I think I will get some orders. I plan to continue this
method of display-- maybe you should too!
People like to try on rings and are sometimes too shy to ask for
something out of the case, especially if they are not intending to
buy. But, once they start playing with them sometimes the desire
overrides the pocketbook!
Here’s a question, do you do any stacking rings? I do a lot of those
which people have to play with to see whether or not they like them.
I was wondering how this system would work if they wanted to try on
more than one ring on a finger. It might be difficult.
I need to figure something out for my rings, they are too easy to
walk away with. It happened this year, 18K. Ouch!
I'm having a hard time visulizing this, is there anyway you can
take a picture and send it to me... I would love to see this !
Sorry, I didn’t take a picture and will not be setting it up again
until spring, but I’ll try one more description…
The rings have a “string” (cable, actually) tied to them, about 2
feet long, with a weight on the end. The topper for a pedestal has
holes drilled in it. The ring is on one side of the hole (on top of
the pedestal), the string and weight on the other (inside the
pedestal). People can pick up the ring, try it on, play with it-- it
is on a string. The weight pulls it back down to its hole, where it
stands at attention because there’s weight pulling it down.
This worked out great except for the two middle-aged ladies who
thought it great fun to pick up the rings and let them go in mid-air
so they would snap back to place with a loud crack (not making this
up).
I hope this word-picture is cleraer. If not, I’ll do a drawing and
put it on my blog.
[snip] Here’s a question, do you do any stacking rings? I do a lot
of those which people have to play with to see whether or not they
like them. I was wondering how this system would work if they wanted
to try on more than one ring on a finger.
I see no reason that they could not put on several rings at once, as
long as the tethers are not super-short. They just couldn’t move
until they took them all off again.
Everybody likes to play with rings, right? I saw this at SOFA a
year or two ago, and finally put it together. I drilled rows of
holes in a piece of opaque plexiglas and put it on top of a folding
(open-topped) pedestal. I ran heavy tigertail through rings, then
through the holes, then down a foot or so and tied on weights.
A low-jack for rings!! snip... This worked out great except for the
two middle-aged ladies who thought it great fun to pick up the
rings and let them go in mid-air so they would snap back to place
with a loud crack (not making this up).
Maybe putting a padded foam insert on top with holes drilled through
would protect the rings from those silly shoppers. Might get some
funny looks, too, becaue it would really hide the wire part of the
cable.
Tigertail is fine steel cable covered with nylon, used for bead
stringing-- very strong and presumably difficult to rip off,
literally and figuratively.
Maybe putting a padded foam insert on top with holes drilled
through would protect the rings from those silly shoppers.
Yes, this might be a good idea. I’ll be tweaking the set-up before I
use it next-- not til spring.
One cool thing about the way this turned out-- I used a piece of
clear plexi, painted white on the back. As a result, the rings
seemed to kinda float above the surface. Nice effect!
Coincidentally, there’s a picture of the type of setup Noel uses at
a link pointed to in the “insect” thread on this forum. Go to http://babel.massart.edu/metals/allschoolshow/alschl-imgs.htm and
hover over the name Deanna Devries. It’s a little hard to make out
the rings but the weights show clearly below the pedestal top.
I made a very similar ring display a couple of years ago for my
outside shows after ‘losing’ a ring. My material list: 4 foot length
of 2 inch diameter PVC pipe, corresponding PVC pipe cap, 8 inch
plastic flower pot, cement, 14 inch square piece of plywood.
Sink the length of PVC pipe into the center of a cement filled
plastic flower pot. Attach the PVC pipe cap to the center of plywood
square with a screw (counter sink the screw). Drill evenly spaced 1/4
inch holes into the plywood.
Assembly & set up: To assemble - fit the cap onto the pipe. You may
need a rubber mallet to bang the top back off. Set up - Use a
loosely woven (read that cheap), round tablecloth long enough to
cover the hanging weights below the tabletop. Cut some metal tubing
into very short lengths to use as crimps, lead fishing weights and
fishing line work very well to secure the rings. Attach the weights
to lengths of fishing line & add a piece of tubing to the line.
Working from bottom of the table top; thread the fishing line up
through the hole, through the tablecloth, through the ring shank and
secure with the crimp (tubing).
Be sure to attach enough line for the rings to be tried on - about
an arm’s length. If the weights are heavy enough, when the ring is
put back down on the table it will reposition back into its original
spot. One older woman didn’t realize that the rings were secured in
place and literally jumped when the weighted ring ‘magically’ moved
back into its place on the table.
Saw that done in a store, where the cord was high test fishing line
and the weights were crystal ornaments and prisms, probably much less
breakable then they looked, and very sparkly when moved.