Thursday is for Trying Something New?

I promised pictures from Sacket's Harbor, NY! I didn't take very many (shocking, I know), so figured why not try something new for a change? I've only ever scrapbooked once before, so forgive me if this looks a little silly!

Who knew there were kits to do digital scrapbooking?!

 

You can click on it to make it larger. :) I used the "Home of the Brave" kit and a kit called "Pacific Coast Dreams" by Debbie Knorr, both from ComputerScrapbooking.com. They were free!


So, what do you think? Silly? Is the file too big, does it take too long to load?

Have you tried something new lately? If so, what was it??


Happy almost-Friday!!


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BTW and CT Beads Share

Oh, gosh. Sorry about the absence. All sorts of things have been going on! Before I get into that, though, I have some new pieces to share for Bead Table Wednesday, including a piece I made out of beads that Patty and I bought together in Connecticut.

As we all know, Patty loooves birds! So with that in mind, I used my beads to make a bracelet. Some of the other beads I got at Sugarbeads served as accents. :)

 

I know it's very simple... I tried adding more, but that was just it---it was just more. Sometimes you can do more with less, and these beads have such character, I just stuck to a simple design. Here are two other bracelets, one made with the swirly glass beads from Sugarbeads, and the other was made with a brass butterfly I altered to use as a focal.

 

I was asked to show my jewelry work at the Emmanuel Congregational Church coffeehouse near my hometown, so we rushed back to the north country. It was wonderful; lots of live music, poetry, and delicious things. Because we rushed back, I unfortunately forgot my display stuff back at our apartment. I made a quick stop at the Dollar Store (oh, shame!) and picked up some little black picture frames, wooden trays, and white paper. I wrapped the glass in the frames with the white paper and put necklaces around the frame legs and draped them over the front so that the pendants rested in the center. It worked surprisingly well!

Who'da thunk it?!

This week, a gallery I've shown at before called me to see if I wanted to participate in a show this weekend, so I've been scrambling for that. The gallery owner let me come in early this week to help me set up my stuff. She and I made a great display, although I need to get some more inventory in there. Check it out:

As you can see, I held onto my little black frames. I've grown to love them! The show is horse-themed; I don't really have any horse jewelry, but I am putting my painting and drawing skills to use by making some pictures. Proceeds from the sale of artwork and jewelry go to Equine Advocates, so it's for a good cause, too. :)

Are you all having a good, productive week?

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Displays and Lessons Learned

Yesterday's show turned out to be a little disappointing. The location was great, the price was great, the light was great, the weather was great, the hostess was great... but there were no customers. I shouldn't say "no," but there were only four customers over the six hours that we were there. The other three jewelry makers bailed on us, so there was only myself and one other person (she was also great!). All in all, extremely quiet.

On the other hand! I did make three awesome new friends who I will likely see again. The gallery owner commissioned me to redo one of her necklaces and offered me a place in the next show for free (it will be more busy for several reasons that I won't babble about right now) because she felt so bad about not having any customers. We got to share knowledge and bounce ideas off of each other and we learned a lot about both our craft and our displays.

As much as customers would have been nice, the important thing was the experience, I think. My displays have become much better, but I did learn a few lessons.

 

1. My own personal table was far too small to accommodate my inventory. I put out about a fraction of things, so the few customers we did have pretty much swooped by and didn't linger.

2. Make sure I have the time right! I skimped on sleep the night before, and when I arrived at the gallery I was two hours early because I hadn't thought to look at the flier the night before and couldn't call the gallery owner because I had neglected to put her number into my phone or at least make sure I had it. Next time, I will make sure I've got these things down.

3. While my displays were awesome, I brought too many of them. This is related to lesson number one, but more specifically, I learned to set everything up before the show so that I know how it will all fit and sit on the table. I learned this from Stacie Louise's blog but neglected to do it. What's wrong with me?!?! XD I definitely regretted it and next time will certainly make sure to try it.

4. Bring less STUFF. I had a whole suitcase of beading materials and had planned to work at my table. SURPRISE! I didn't have any room for anything! On the plus side, though, I helped my jewelry-making neighbor by lending her some of my tools and had thought to bring a handful of magazines as conversation starters, which worked out excellently. However, next time I will bring only a small travel kit and an extra table. I will also obtain a folding chair for myself. The gallery owner told us we had to supply our own tables, and it was only at the last minute that I thought perhaps there wouldn't be chairs for us there, either. I grabbed one of our dining room chairs, but it took up so much room in the car and was really clunky to transport. Next time, folding chair.

5. Bedsheets make poor tablecloths. To be fair, this wasn't entirely my fault; we were sending some stuff home and that included a huge bag of fabric. I decided that I wouldn't need my tablecloths any time soon (this was back during the winter), so I stuffed them in there, too. Oh, dear! Wait... I guess it was entirely my fault. Ah, well. I went out to buy more tablecloths, but all the stores that were open at the ridiculous hour I was out and about only had the nasty vinyl ones. Hence my purchasing bedsheets. In actuality, they weren't bad at all. But I would have preferred to wash and/or iron them first. I didn't get a chance, so my table looked a little terrible down the front.


I really like my displays. I made those brown necklace holders out of cardboard and packaging paper. On the backs are recycled twist-ties to hold the necklaces in place. I really like these a lot, but I will need to think up a better way to have them on the table. If this were an outdoor show, they totally would have blown away. I'm thinking maybe using some more of those lake stones to ballast them a bit would work, but I will have to do some experiments to see for sure. That wooden step stool was for sale at a place called Antique World, in one of the vendors' booths. It is not an antique. However, it IS handmade and sturdy (hardwood) and it totally folds up in a clever way, which makes it pretty easy to transport. It's what I got myself for my birthday this year and I LOVE it! It will NOT move, come windstorm or earthquake. I made the bracelet holder (you may remember that) and that bucket I've filled with chocolate eggs came from JoAnn Fabric. It's great because it has one flat side with two holes in it. Guess what that's going to be used for? That's right! Photographing earrings. :D

Anyway, so even though the show didn't turn out anything like we all had expected, it was still a fantastic time. I'm glad to have some new friends and will be tweaking my displays for the next show.

What have you all been up to this weekend?

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Bead Table Wednesday

I almost forgot about this; the days have been getting away from me. Guess that's what being sick does for you. I've finally finished my medicine, though, and am feeling a lot better now.

This should really be called my bead-table-away-from-home.

It's not always this clean and organized, I promise you! There's my box of cereal for munching and my huge cup of water (I was supposed to take the medicine with food or it would make me nauseous on an empty stomach, and was supposed to have LOTS of fluids).

In the lower left, next to the overflowing box with masking tape on it, are my earring card prototypes. That's mainly what I've been working on this week. They are sitting on the beautiful, fair-trade sketchbook my fiancé got me for my birthday. I'll have to get a picture of that sometime; it has an owl on the cover! :3




The picture above also explains why all the pictures I take in this room have a bright yellow tinge to them. The walls are all yellow, the lamps all have yellow shades, and their bulbs I guess are the old-fashioned, yellow-tinged ones, too. Yellow, yellow, yellow! But it makes me feel bright and cheery most days, especially now when the weather outside is still so gross.

A closer shot of those earring card prototypes. See what I mean about the yellow, though?

This is the first time I've ever participated in the Bead Table Wednesday hop, though I've enjoyed looking at the participating blogs in the past. :) Lots of extremely talented folks out there.

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Crazy Week

I've been so quiet this week! Sorry about that. It's been a crazy (bad) several days; highlights include broken rear car breaks, a bee sting, being sick, missing lots of work, finding out our mechanic went out of business, and other such ill luck. Luckily the week is almost over, but tomorrow I have to pull a 12-hour shift at the coffee shop. It's going to be tiring.

Tonight I relaxed with my beads and made several things. It was soooo nice to be able to bead again! I feel much better already. :) How can anyone not love this art??

Right now my favorite of my most recent creations is this one:



I've also been working on Lorelei's bead challenge. Everything is done, but I can't share it until October 17th! Oh, the excitement is already getting to me. ;)

There's still about four weeks until the big craft show. I put together some signs for my table based on an idea I found at the Home Jewelry Business Success Tips web site, but not exactly the same. I used a bunch of my scrapbooking supplies and had a lot of fun. :) These are the three themes of my table.



Anyway, I hope you all have been having a much better week! The rain has finally stopped over here; this is hoping that the sun stays for a little while. :)


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Five weeks to the craft show... Part I

We are one week closer to our first big craft show in November. This weekend I decided to work on some more displays. I made some jewelry, too, but the focus was on display solutions for the table.

I have a lot of pretty fabric in my stash, but I didn't want to overpower the pieces with fancy designs, so I chose a plain white cotton/polyester mix and then decided to embellish it with a tiny bit of the fancier fabric. My table is going to be decked out in fall colors, greens and yellows, browns and reds. There's an overall floral theme, so I went with a red and brown floral fabric and added some nice little red and gold tassles. I just made a roll and then mostly sewed it up before turning it inside-out and stuffing it. I bent the long seam over and glued it to the bottom so that it will have a slightly flat side to rest on and won't go rolling off the table. The tassles should help with that, too. Pretty AND practical!



It's not the most professional looking, but it looks crafty and it will do for now. I will probably put the darker colored bracelets on here, but there's a variety in the picture just to give a good idea what it will look like in use.

Hope you all had a productive weekend!


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Six weeks to the craft show... Post II

Business Cards. Some folks might not think these are a must, but I am definitely a fan. When etsy shop owners send me their business cards with my orders, I keep them in a book with notes so that I can remember what I liked and where to find what, should I want any more of a particular thing. Contact information is never terrible, either, and I find myself looking up websites and emails of folks I've met at bead shows and on etsy. Not only that, but as a jewelry maker I've found that giving out my business cards has made word-of-mouth recommendations much easier and my customers have used my card to get in contact with me for things like jewelry repair and questions about metal, etc., especially when they've purchased things from me as gifts for others. You can get basic business cards relatively cheap, or you can have a graphics designer make some up for you and have them printed. Either way you go about it, they are definitely a worthwhile resource to have on hand.

When I go to craft shows, I like to grab the business card of people whose work I like. Later I look up their website and blog to see what else they do. So, naturally, I want to offer my business cards on my table at the craft show in November.

But I didn't want to have a generic business card holder. I wanted something that would go with the rest of my entourage, something charming and accessible. I decided to go looking around.

What I found and where I found it was unexpected! Our local party store had these little sugar-packet holders for banquet tables. They were just the right size and rather unremarkable---perfect for customizing! So I bought one and brought it home and went to work on it. I used scrapbook paper, decorative note cards and envelopes, and stationary stickers. But look how well it goes with the designs on my business cards!



Speaking of which, I ordered these from Vistaprint. They're all right, but as soon as they are gone, I am totally going to get new ones elsewhere. It'd be nice to have some from someone like my friend Tara, with more customized designs and up-to-date info like blogger link and such. I do so hate to waste paper, though, so I'm stuck with these for a while.

When they are gone, I'm totally going to keep and redecorate my card holder. :D


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Six weeks to the craft show... Post I

So I've been working like a busy little bee to get ready for this craft show coming up in November. I wanted to share a little of what I've been doing, offer some ideas and tips.

Mailing List Sign-up Book

I am on a pretty tight budget, so when I was in the dollar store a week or so ago, I saw these pretty little books. You know how much of a sap I am when it comes to flowers, right? So I bought one thinking I would somehow like to incorporate it into my table decoration. A mailing list is something I've been meaning to do anyway, so this seemed like a perfect way. But I also wanted to be crafty and personalize everything. I have these little tags for scrapbooking and some pretty ribbons from my jewelry making supplies, so those seemed like perfect elements to work into the design. I used an awl to punch through the book cover and then strung my ribbons through to the front where I tied bows to hold the tag to the front. Then I scrawled in some (bad XD) calligraphy. I think it looks pretty despite all! And it has enough of that crafty quality that I'm going for.




Before I go to the craft show, I'll put some backing on the inside cover to hide the awl holes.

I know how to make books, and someday when I have more time to devote to it, I will make my own mailing list book. For now, this is pretty and it will do.

Cheaper and greener ways to display: Necklaces

In my research on jewelry display and tips on doing craft shows, I came across a lot of brilliant resources. One of the things I've been concerned about is display. This is because, on etsy, you can pretty much just lay your jewelry on a piece of construction paper and click! You're done. Not so for craft shows, it takes a lot more to make your jewelry appeal to a live audience. You also want to present yourself in certain ways that don't easily transfer from screen to table. I learned this from my first show experience, too, which was at a craft show/garage sale at our summer camp. I was woefully underprepared for that, and sometime later I will share a list of lessons learned. But today, today I'd really like to show you some amazing necklace display ideas that other crafters in the wide world have come up with to solve their display challenges.

* All of these particular projects were found  on the Home Jewelry Business Success Tips website by Rena Klingenberg. Simply click on the crafter's name or the picture to be directed to the tutorial pages.

This first one is simple and classic. It was created by a crafter named Bea Graansma. She shows us how to make a very chic and professional-looking display that anyone on the other side of the table would think is store-bought.

Next is a simpler display, but it too is charming. It also provides many ways to utilize recycled materials, making it a very green option. Rebecca Compton is responsible for this stroke of genius.

The last, and by far the fanciest, idea for necklace display was created by jewelry-maker/artist named Carolina Gonzalez. If you are also an artist, or you have an artist friend that you can request a favor from, this is a fantastic way to display jewelry!

I hope that some of these ideas might come in handy; I definitely found them useful and will be employing one or two of them in my table layout for sure! It's also nice to know that you don't have to spend a fortune on good displays and can help save the environment at the same time by choosing greener options.


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