When you are looking for display cases – you have
several things to consider. While cost is certainly one
important factor, consider also security, weight,
reflections, ease of lighting inside case, and on what you
are going to place the cases. If you have angled tops on
your displays, you need to allocate a flat space somewhere
to show individual pieces out of the case. Also, consider
how much space you have to transport the cases.
One of the major considerations with cases is how are
you going to get them to a show. For ten years, I did shows
out of my VW Passat wagon. Initially I had all the stuff
inside, but eventually bought a large car-top carrier for
the tent and poles. Consider how you would load your
vehicle. Tent weights go on the bottom always. Do you have
to entirely unload your car to begin setting up because the
tent is under everything? Last year I bought a used GMC
passenger van, removed all but the two front seats and
fitted out the van so that everything can be accessed
individually. It has greatly simplified my life because I
never unload it. I treat it like a trailer that happens to
have a motor. It is a real treat to go to a show without
having to load up all the stuff first. If you are going to
use the family car for shows, do you have a place to put all
the display stuff?
I currently have several Arizona case displays – I had
them make the portable cases only 16 inches deep (back to
front) instead of the standard 22 inches. I display them
on propanel podiums, which are 30 x 16 inches, and I use 42
inch tall ones. The Arizona cases are secure – I can lock
them and actually go to the bathroom without fear of being
ripped off. I have halogen lights for inside shows and
bright leds in a string for outdoors. In general, I really
like them and they look very professional. All of the
transparent windows are tempered glass. That makes them
heavy – about 35 pounds without the carrying case. They set
up very fast without tools – an important point where the
unions have rules about tools. You can buy relatively
inexpensive packing cases for storage and shipping and
schlepping. My cases are powder coated black. The inside led
lights are very cool, and the halogens don’t heat the case
up too much. I have deep cycle marine batteries to power an
outdoor show, and also a low noise e1000 type generator to
use where allowed. I can run the led lights all weekend on
one battery. Halogens take more power.
My prior set up was with Dynamic Display System (DDS)
cases. I had three double angled glass cases and one
stackable single cube. They are lightweight, and fold up
into practically nothing. They look really good. Then are
not secure in any way – the Plexiglas is too flexible, it
scratches, and the doors are a joke. The bases wiggle and
scare folks away. If you put the cases on a sturdy base,
for example a propanel podium, they are sturdier – but not
secure. And if you put them on something other than the DDS
bases, you have to modify the posts that hold up the walls
because they go below the flat plate of the base. They are
fiddly to set up and the little screws are a nuisance. The
more you use them, the more the bases wiggle. And until
they get wiggly, they are very difficult to get them to give
up and fold down. These don’t come with storage cases,
instead the legs are supplied with canvas sacks. I put the
top in a pillowcase and made fleece fitted cases for the
Plexiglas. The posts store in a flat piece of cloth that
you roll up and secure with rubber bands. Light bars are
also in canvas sacks, and I stored the lights in egg cartons
because they are fragile and expensive. Their available
shipping cases look like what you ship golf bags in and are
expensive and bulky. In retrospect, the DDS system is ideal
for shipping because it is lightweight and it looks good.
It lacks substance in my opinion. Another consideration with
the DDS cases is that their halogen lights run very hot, and
the way the cases are made, you need two strings of lights.
I’ve used Abstracta cases. They fold down flatter than
anything. They go together fast. They don’t like to come
apart when you break down. There are a jillion ways to set
them up and they are sturdy. They are the 90 percent choice
of artists at big shows like the Buyers Market of American
Craft. They look like Abstracta. They are not particularly
secure – again Plexiglas is the culprit. Lots of fiddly
little clips and holders break at nearly every use. It is
an erector set for jewelry display. We made bases out of
foam core for the inside floor and the inside shelf. We made
skirts for them out of surplus fireproof fabric from the
local art theatre. The tops with Plexiglas are so insecure
that at the last show we skipped using the Plexiglas at all
and displayed jewelry au natural on open bases. That was in
a relatively secure vetted wholesale show. It didn’t feel
good to have it all out there in the open, but we lost
nothing.
I didn’t start out with all nice stuff. Here is the tale
of how I built my displays from the beginning. My first
cases were the flat three-inch ones from Arizona case that
you open the top at an angle and there you are. Not secure,
attractive or professional.
Then I found some “dump tables” on sale at a fabric
store that was closing out. We made some supports and
angled some Plexiglas into the tables, put pretty blue
pleated skirts on the tables and had our first tent
display. We even put pleated blue curtains over the top and
down the sides. It was awful – it looked like a second rate
puppet theatre, and the curtains wrinkled and got dirty so
you had to wash and iron (!) them before every show. It all
was on a cheap EZ-up tent. We did put that all together for
under $300 for a first try however. Our second lesson with
this display (the first was the ironing) was that the nice
full skirts on the tables moved in the wind and scared
customers away.
At one time, I had some Allstate cases – the 14-inch
tall aluminum things that look a lot like aquariums. Another
try was some hand made oak cases from a lapidary in Utah.
They went together with nylon straps, and had sharp
corners…and in their carry cases, they weighed over 60
pounds each. We made plywood covered with indoor/outdoor
carpet for the bases with shelves on straps and held the
mess together with bungee cords. You get the picture, a
Rube Goldberg contraption. Each 24” wide case and base
weighed over 100 pounds, and we had five of them. That
weight issue is what took me to the DDS cases.
Bottom line – I’ve gone from the erector set – cheap, to
the Dynamic Display stylin’ deal, and have happily settled
on the Arizona cases – flat and vertical portable ones. I
think I’ll stay where I am for a while, they work well and
look great. Incidentally, the Arizona case solution is less
expensive than the dynamic display one.
Reference these websites for current pricing:
