I’ve gotten a few questions recently about the background that I use for my shop photos. So I have decided to write a little blog about it.

My Supplies:

2 sheets of 23/32 2 ft x2 ft Sanded Plywood

2 Rolls of 18 in contact paper

Now, I bought the contact paper before I bought the boards. I got both rolls off of Amazon. In retrospect I should have gotten the 24in rolls, but on the woodgrain side that I use most, you can’t really tell that the roll wasn’t wide enough. The other side, with the blackboard paper, well, it’s pretty obvious that that the roll was the wrong size, which is part of the reason that I don’t use it, unless I’m using it as a background for filming.

I bought the boards from my local Home Depot for $7.32 a piece. The boards are now up to $10.94 a piece. I will note here that wood product prices vary for many reasons, including the time of year, the location selling said product and where said product is sourced. I know this because before I really got into my crochet business, I working for 9 years between 2 Home Depots and 4 years between 2 Ace Hardwares. I worked these hardware stores in Virginia, Alaska, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.

You do not have to use boards this thick, I used them because I wanted something that could stand up on its own with minimal assistance from me.

Once I got all the pieces, applied the contact paper to both sides of the boards.

Side one:

As you can seen, woodgrain is awesome for hiding seams. I know that all the sites that talk about setting up for product photos tell you to use a white background, but I felt, with my product, white would throw off the colors and I likes the wood background better.

Side two:

I was, originally going to connect the two boards, I even bought a couple of brackets just for that purpose. Ultimately though, I opted not to do that. I like being able to move the boards around and changing the direction of the grain work.

• Business: Behind the Scenes