Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A look into my process of packaging

As an online seller, packaging is a big part of the process that I go through when I've made a sale. For my jewelry, I use nice cotton lined gift boxes, but the majority of my online sales are for my handmade findings - and for those I use recycled packaging. So, I thought I'd document the process through photos etc.
First of all, I consume a lot of wheat thin crackers. Paper board is not recyclable in my area, so I save the boxes.

Next, I get my tools together: scissors, ruler, scotch tape, packing tape, pen, stapler, bubble wrap, then there's also little zip-loc bags and my own handmade thank you tags.

I start to cut apart the cracker box. Half of it gets cut into three pieces that get simply folded in half for my flatter items.



The other half of the box gets cut into three more, slightly larger pieces, that I then make my own small boxes out of.

The items get bagged, I hand cut my own printed cards, and staple them together. These get wrapped in bubble wrap, tucked in a box.

For my envelopes, I buy the larger manilla envelopes - for some reason these are cheaper than the same amount of smaller envelopes! I fold them in half to get the size that I need.


The boxed items get placed in the envelope with a copy of the paypal slip, I tape everything up, and off to the Post Office I go!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Busy Season and Roman Jewelry

Wow! I've been so busy! Now that the Christmas season is over, I don't know what to do with myself! It has been a profitable few months. Sales have been really good all around. I was one of the top five selling atisans at the Jewelry Cafe, and my etsy stores experienced a burst of activity as well!


Yesterday, I spent several hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. We spent a large amount of time in the new, and ENORMOUS Roman and Greek wing. I was amazed at the jewelry! It was really quite amazing. There were pristine, intact, beautiful wire wrapped necklaces. I unfortunately, did not bring my camera. My friend did, and I coaxed him into lending it to me to try to capture a few of the designs. Due to the fact that we couldn't use a flash, and the camera was trying to focus throught the glass, the pictures didn't come out very well.


There was one display, it was new, and there were NO dates or descritions attached, but in it were several necklaces made of of gold wire, wire wrapped links of beads, with, of course, hand made hook and eye closures. Truly inspiring. These pieces must have been 2,000 years old!!! And very much like the work that I do! Different styles, of course, but I am tempted to try to make some recreations.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Donations Well Received by the Birmingham Group


I'm a bit late in posting about this, but now is better than never. As a part of the Manifest Beading Buddies, a club to support and encourage the art of beading, I donated a piece of jewelry to a charity event. The event was hosted by the Birmingham Group and the Rape Crisis Center of Milford, Ct. They put together a special evening gala called the "Bridesmaids's Ball: Men and Women Partnering to End Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault" on September 26th. Tickets were $75, and women were encouraged to wear their old bridesmaid's dresses, and men - their tuxes. Besides the dinner and dancing there was also a silent auction. The Manifest Beading Buddies donated several pieces of jewelry, and at the end of October were given thank you letters and this one anecdote:


One of our pieces was so popular, that there were two women who were actually fighting over it during the bidding!


All of our items sold, and the event as whole was very successful.


Here is the necklace that I donated: It is one of my eternal swirl series, made with sterling silver and rose quartz, at a retail value of $65.


Thursday, November 12, 2009

Show this weekend!

I have been busy getting ready for a big craft fair this coming weekend. On Saturday, Nov 14th, my jewelry will be at St. Marys, in Milford Ct (on Gulf Street). I'll be sharing a table with my fellow jewelry artisan Sam Rawls.

ALSO on Saturday, a couple of my other fellow artisans will be at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Wallingford, Ct, 382 Hope Hill Road. Jewelry by Renee and Rosaries by Fal will be there together!

Here is a chance to see our work in person!

Since all of us from Beadworkartists.etsy.com are taking our things to these shows, our online shops are going to be put on "vacation mode". After the weekend, the shops will be back up!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Thanks to my Fellow Bloggers

Just wanted to say thank you to my fellow bloggers and artisans who have been kind enough to mention my work in their blog!

Recently, my work was featured in Regina's Writings
http://reginaswritings.blogspot.com/2009/11/original-wire-components-for-my-jewelry.html#comment-form
(www.reginaswritings.blogspot.com)

She reminded me of another blog I was in earlier this year, The Beading Gem's Journal
http://www.beadinggem.com/2009/03/handmade-earring-supplies.html

Then there was this, from last year, on craftstylish.com
http://www.craftstylish.com/item/8264/beautiful-handmade-findings-for-sale-on-etsy

I love it!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Photography Presentation for the Manifest Beading Buddies



This afternoon I did a demo/presentation for the Manifest Beading Buddies, a bead club based at Manifest Beads, of which I am a member. Kristen LaViola, owner of the store, first presented how she uses a professional light box and manual settings on her camera to take pictures of jewelry. Very different from how I take MY pictures!
Now, I am in no way a professional photographer. But I have learned some tips and tricks along the way, and have seen my photography improve greatly since last year! I shared my tips and tricks and techniques with my fellow club members, and it went really well!

I set up my amateur jewelry photography "set" and club members took turns taking pictures of their jewelry with different backgrounds, and props, and from diffferent angles etc. One of the main things is figuring out how to adjust a couple simple settings on your camera!






Friday, October 23, 2009

Valerie Johnson joins me on BeadworkArtists.etsy.com

I am very excited to have Valerie Johnson joining my cooperative etsy store! Her work is absolutely gorgeous. Valerie loves to work with seed beads, and stitches up the most amazing intricate pieces. Find her work on http://www.beadworkartists.etsy.com/ soon (hopefully next week???). In the meantime, here are some pictures of what is coming: