Don't hide your love away - Costume as Objet d'Arte

Ok, I know this sounds mad, but I believe my clothes and jewellery get sad when they're ignored. I hate being the centre of attention. It's not one of those 'Oh no I please don't take a photo of me but secretly I love it', I actually loathe having my photo taken. Its a bit of a problem because in my line of work you always get pulled into shot to be an extra or to be interviewed, and people who love it genuinely can't understand that there's no false modesty going on.

But my clothes are different. Some days I'll open my wardrobe and say 'Hello. You haven't had an outing in a while. I'll wear you today' (not aloud, but in my head, cos that would be weird!)

This is a photo of the my husband and I in the fancy dress costumes I made for a Midsummer Nights Dream Ball. Ok I was a little loose in my interpretation but obviously I'm a peacock fairy and Dave is a faun. Definitely things you would find on midsummers eve. I loved this outfit and decided the peacock feather wings were too pretty (and time consuming) NOT to hang on my wall of my sewing room. The perfect combination of costume as art.

But the point is that I feel guilty hiding away my treasures so noone, not even me can see and appreciate them. I like to keep my jewellery on display like a shop but I'm completely disorganised, so it ends up in a big pile of mess so that I can't find anything. A few years ago my Mum gave me an earring display which I love, and even when I lose one the single earrings get to stay on the rack so that they can still be admired.

This is the BEFORE shot of my dressing table (ok it's the top of a chest of drawers but in my head it's a dressing table in my boudoir!)

And this is AFTER. I made a pin board to hold my brooches. It's an old picture frame sprayed black, the glass removed, and the back board padded with a few layers of wadding and upholstery fabric (that bit is important, it has to be fabric that's going to be strong enough to withstand lots of pins!)

And this is what happened to my flower clips and brooches.
There was this weird 4 inch thick board at the side of my shelves doing nothing. The long string is a black linen belt from some trousers hanging on a nail that was already sticking out.

The shorter strand is grosgrain ribbon threaded throught a suspender clip so that it's double layered, stitched through and stuck to the wall with a piece of that 3M double sided stickers that you use with for hanging picturers on your wall. Alligator clips, snap clips, barrettes, brooches, claw grips and bobby pins all easily attach to it. As an added bonus because they're inside the cupboard they are protected from dust and whinging from the male occupant of the room.

Now it's much easier to find everything I choose what I want to go with my outfit, but I also get to admire them as objet d'arte every day.