And a wonderful box to put it in

As our launch weekend gallops towards us, we need to think about presenting our merchandise.

Our survey told us that smaller souvenir items will be popular and we decided to make keyrings, badges and fridge magnets. We will also have pens, pencils, erasers (from a local supplier) and include the beam engine booklet that is already for sale in the museum.

However, we needed a way of displaying all of these items and have decided to design and make two large custom display boxes, with smaller boxes inside to separate the different items. To make sure that the boxes are the right size we made a cardboard prototype and once we confirmed this was the right size we used a laser cutter to make the wooden boxes.

These photos show the progression from design to the box you will soon see in the Wollaton Gift Shop.

For the display of fridge magnets a volunteer, Chris P, kindly made us some wooden display stands.

We are grateful to Nottingham Hackspace [link opens in new tab/ window] for the use of their tools and workshop facilities to make the wooden souvenir display boxes and some of the other items of merchandise.

If you are wondering about the screen…the museum will also sell smaller items and will use the screen to let visitors know about upcoming events.