teaching an old dog new tricks -OR- making a short table taller.

in an effort to simplify my traveling katinka-ville setup i decided i needed to purchase a foldable table. i searched high and low, through the interwebs and retail stores. i finally decided on the 'timber creek' 6 ft. folding table with handles. i purchased mine at academy. i can't find it online but this is pretty much the same thing. the only problem was that it was waaaaaay tooo short. so i came up with a little rig...

i popped the little rubber ends off the table's legs...

so that they would easily slip into a 1 inch PVC pipe. now i could give you all sorts of measurements here, but let's face it, i suck at numbers. if i understood math or had ever passed a math class with a grade higher than a 70 i would've become an architect. so my advice here is to figure out how much higher you want your table to be and cut your pvc to the correct length based on the leggage you already have.

i added rubber stoppers at the bottom to keep the table steady and also to cover the rough edges from sawing. you can cut pvc with a hack saw, by the way. i don't recommend chop saws as they can sometimes splinter the plastic.

next slip you pvc 'leg' over the original table leg. (this is why i removed the original rubber feet)

1 inch pvc worked perfectly, but measure your own table to be sure about the right diameter. i took one of my table legs with me to the hardware store to be sure.

here's where that whole numbers thing came into play. see these little plastic bands around the leg? that's what stops the pvc from riding up any further. there's alot of the original table leg that sits down in the pvc...so you might think you could get away with using less pipe, but the more leg in it the more stable the whole thing is. or something.

once you get all the pipe slid on you'll probably need a helper to assist in flipping the table upright as the pipes want to slip off. gravity sucks, no?

so the new table is pretty tall. i love it. it's a perfect height so customers don't have to bend way over to look at the goods and also so i don't have to spend entire days hunched over a too short table writing receipts and whatnot. i used a vintage table cloth to drape the front with and a linen curtain panel i found at a thrift store for the top. i secured all of the cloth-age on the back with a few clothespins. now for the fun part--hooshing!

if you are unfamiliar with hooshing, or a 'hoosh', you should read Interior Alchemy by Rebecca Purcell. in a nutshell, it's either a noun or a verb defining a vignette. if you live in or near austin and you're familiar with Uncommon Objects, well, all those fantastikal displays? they are hooshes. anyway, on with the hooshing.

i built a new display for my longer junque jewelry necklaces. although laying them out flat on the table is great for people touching and investigating them, (i think people are more apt to buy something if they're not afraid of picking it up off a display like an old bottle or mannequin) it creates a time-consuming vicious cycle of constantly straightening the chains. don't get me wrong--i WANT people to touch and try on the jewelry but when things get busy in a booth there isn't time and it doesn't seem polite to constantly be reaching around customer's hands to straighten what they may have (in my eyes) mussed. i just like every customer to be presented with a fresh, tidy display so that it's easy for them to take it all in. sooooooo. that said, i made a hanging display from the frame of an old edwardian dresser mirror. i put little hooks on the back to hang necklaces from (still easy enough for customers to remove or ask for) and bolted the whole thing with steel L-brackets to a salvaged piece of wood that i had stained and edge-routed to help tie it together visually/stylistically with the 100 year old frame.

behind the table there is lots of space for storing my suicases, bins, and supplies. and kittens!

i bought this old chippy pink (PINK!) milking stool from my neighbors estate and the plaster bust i've had since the good ol' days of my brick-and-morter shop. she adds height and will make a good display for a possibly pricier piece that i might not want handled by 100s of people.

alot of people have asked about my little tree branch. it's rubber or some sort of rubber-foam polymer with an internal wire armature. it doesn't bend as much as i had hoped it would (i hang delicate chain necklaces on it) but it gets the job done and it's little twiglets don't snap off like the real branch that i had used previously. you can purchase one like it here. i secured it in a vintage planter with plaster of paris (you can always chip it out later if you want your planter for something else) and topped it off with some rock salt (though gravel, beans, or rice would look neat, too).

i've got a ton of old, tattered books to set jewelry pieces onto, as well. this is good for highlighting special necklaces or bracelets and also helps carry on the 'theme' and style of my upcycled/rustic jewelry.

et voila!

hope to see you this weekend at wheatsville art festival!