Helix Jewelry Display

This is a project I completed last year for SYTYC, which came in very handy for the craft shows I went to.  It added height, interest and color to my display table, and can be used at home too.  Any guesses on how it was made?  This Helix display was created using a table leg and some dowels.  The best part is, if I add a coat of food-safe Shellac on top, I can also use this as a rack to dry some homemade pasta.  Yay for multi-taskers!

As I walked through the hardware store looking for dowels, I came upon the table leg and banister section of the store, where I found a lonely 21″ table leg all by itself, with a big yellow clearance tag on it for $1.  One dollar!  Destiny, I tell ya.  The table leg became the center post for the display.  The arms are cut from 1/2″ oak dowels, and I bought a 8″ circular base from Michaels.

I marked the table leg to drill holes in a spiral helix pattern as a nod to my inner scientific geek.  I was lucky that the table leg was already 6 sided, so I did not need to measure angles as I went around; I only needed to measure the vertical distance between each arm.  Then I drilled 7/16″ holes, shoved in the arm dowels, glued them in place, and sanded the whole thing lightly.  That was followed by a coat of primer then two coats of gloss spray paint.

I also bought a lazy-susan gear to attach to the bottom of the base.

What do you think?  With this new job, I have to actually dress up for work, and use all that jewelry that’s just been sitting around.  Maybe having my necklaces out on display will help me choose my outfit in the mornings!