torn ligament?

The Saga of my wrist pain continues.
Yesterday afternoon I had my third appointment with my hand doctor. The cortisone shots haven't worked. And I had a very interesting and stressful consultation with my Doctor.

There happened to be a Doctor from Sweden who was there visiting the center, working with the doctors to demonstrate a new piece of equipment that tests muscle strength. Dr. Brown gave him a little of the background information on my case, mentioning that I had been worried that one of wrist bones seems "prominent"? was that the word he used. My Doctor hadn't seen anything wrong around that bone, telling me that the bump on the wrist is normal and that it was nothing to worry about (he wouldn't listen to me when I said that it WASN"T normal for me, and that my wrist seems to be twisted to the side). The swedish doctor immediately and gingerly picked up my wrist, felt around, and said "that bone isn't pushing up. THIS other bone is pushing down!" I knew that was always the case, but Dr. Brown had never paid attention. The appointment continued, with me being tested by the swedish doctor with the new machine, and nothing came up abnormal. So basically, at the end, Dr. Brown told me AGAIN that he just couldn't tell what was wrong me, and if he couldn't find anything wrong then he couldn't fix me! (but he will keep trying) It was at this point that Swedish doctor said to mine, politely, obviously not wanting to intrude on his diagnosis. "Her case reminds me of one I have seen before". The swedish doctor knew what was going on, and I'm going to get an official second opinion from someone else, because this is what the Swedish doctor said - he has seen cases where a very small ligament inside the wrist has come loose, making the wrist look very much like how mine looks. It apparently is very difficult to diagnose, and even harder to fix. The only way to know for sure if this is what's happened to me is to open up my wrist and look inside.

I need surgery. I'm screwed.

So many ear wires!

My gods. I have sold and made SO many pairs of ear wires through my etsy store. SO much! My ear wires take a lot of time and work (with the measuring, cutting, shaping, re-measuring, hammering and filing), and I know I'm underselling myself. I'd love it if my other findings received as much attention and orders.
I just calculated how many ear wires I've made to order since I opened my store a few months ago. 116 pairs, total. Out of those, 60 pairs have been my "Curly-Q" style. Those are definately my best seller. I'm relisting them every couple of days.
I'm getting a little -ear-wired-out. Making them to often. Now that I'm back to work, and back to teaching classes, on top of my etsy store, I have had NO time to create jewelry. What to do? Perhaps in a few weeks I'll let some of my ear wire designs sell out for a little while. Take a little break. In the meantime, I've got some ear-wire orders to make....

Back to work and busy busy

On a side note....I'm having some serious problems with etsy.com!!!! I haven't been able to log on and access my store. Which is very very frustrating as I have orders in progress, and need to contact some customers!!! Even my link from this blog to my etsy store is all screwed up. I had to remove the link in order for my blog to even load! Arg!

So. I've been busy. Back to work at Manifest Beads after 4 months and wow is the store busy!!!! Tons of new customers, lots of sales, including jewelry sales and custom orders. Classes will start up soon and then I'll be even busier. And my etsy store has been keeping me busy as well. It's a lot....but it's nice to be seriously making money again. Hopefully it won't take too long to replenish the savings I used to have (after paying off some debt).

Oh, and I thought my wrist was fixed, but it's not. After working for several hours last night, the familiar ache and pain was back. Which means that the doctor will want me to come back so that we can try again. Ugh.

exciting news???

So, the coolest thing about my day today:
A fellow Etsian linked me to a posting on craftystylish.com - which was about how awesome my handmade findings are!!!!! Wow! Cool! Craftystylish.com is a HUGE site with thousands of subscribers. Can we say massive free advertising?? Perhaps!
See it here: http://www.craftstylish.com/item/8264/beautiful-handmade-findings-for-sale-on-etsy

The other cool thing:
I went to the hand doctor again this morning. He's not exactly sure what is causing the pain and discomfort in my wrist besides tendonitus...BUT - he gave me another cortisone shot, this time in a different part of my wrist than before. AND I am not in excruciating pain! The last time, a few hours after the injection, I could barely move my hand. It took days and days before I felt close to normal (normal being the daily level of pain and discomfort when I do too much with my hands). So. No horrible pain. Does this mean he found the right spot? I am still feeling the normal stiffness and achiness... but its not bad at all. The cortisone DOES take several days to fully take affect and work as the "magic cure". Does this mean that my wrist is actually going to be fixed??? Gods. I hope so.

Exciting stuff!

Creator's block

SO, it's been a couple weeks since I've created anything. Last week I was busy helping out at Manifest, getting ready for the store open, the week before I couldn't handle my tools to do ANYTHING because of the stupid cortisone shot in my wrist (which HASN'T cured me, by the way).
I know I need to make more jewelry....I just can't think of where to start......

Is my wrist WORSE now???

Well, it's been almost a week since I saw the hand surgeon and got the cortisone shot (I think I finally have the spelling right). The shot was horribly painful for days. That pain has lessened, but my wrist still feels aweful. I can move it up and down pretty well, but I physically CAN'T move it from side to side. It generally aches. My fingers go numb periodically. And sometimes simple actions like turning a doorknob causes a jolt of pain, with my wrist giving out at the same time. I managed to make a custom order of ear wires this weekend, and /luckily/ I haven't had any other orders. I can work on them little bits at a time, but damn, is it uncomfortable. My fingers are half numb and stiff right now. Trying to find somethig I can do to keep busy without having to use my hands....I can't think of anything. This is one of those times I wish I had TV.

horrible pain, but good news

The good news is that there is nothing seriously wrong with my wrist. I saw one of the best doctors in the region as far as hands and wrist and arms go. Diagnosis? Oh...probably tendonitus. SO I ask him what I can do about it. He tells me that there is nothing I can do on my own. The only thing that will help is an injection of cortizone.

He tells me that from the injection I will feel some pain and discomfort for a few days. That's fine! Thats what I've been experiencing for months now! Well, different type of pain. It's called horrible excruciating pain. Yesterday afternoon I couldn't move my fingers. It's been a day and a few hours and I can now turn the keys in the ignition and shift into drive - slowly and carefully - without wanting to scream. Had to drive entirely left handed yesterday, it was very interesting. I can bend/rotate my wrist a few degrees more as the time ticks by, but only in a few directions. There's no way I'll be using any pliers any time soon. So no jewelry making.

After five days or so, the cortizone should kick into gear, making my wrist feel better instead of worse. For many people, this stuff makes you feel like you have a brand new wrist (or other joint). If there's no improvement in three weeks, then I'm supposed to go back. Hopefully that won't happen.

This cortizone stuff better work...because right now it REALLY SUCKS.

Oh yeah, and I'm going to be able to pay for this...not an arm and leg at all...spread out over as much time as I need. Thank god for having a sister in law with connections to doctors.

Appointment with a hand surgeon

My wrist issue has really come to head. I'm still able to make things, but I have strained my wrist severely, TWO times this past week...last thursday, getting up from a sitting position, I accidently put my full weight on my bad wrist. It hurt SO badly, it felt like I had broken it. It was the kind of pain that transported me to another place. I had to sit there for a few minutes before my head cleared. Then yesterday, getting out of the car, I used my bad wrist to close the car door. Big mistake. It took the breath right out of me. It hurt and continued to hurt, then it burned. Then my pinky finger started feeling funny. I used my microwavable heat pack on it, and felt better.

Friday night I had a long chat with Mark's parents. This was only just after thursday's experience. Both of his parents have had hand/wrist surgery (from the same place I'm going to tomorrow). They convinced me, quite easily, that it was time to see a doctor.

There is this money situation, however. I don't have any. No health insurance either. Can't afford it. So my biggest fear is that what I will need to do to fix my wrist is going to cost an arm and a leg. My parents have never offered to help me. I think Mark's parents just did on friday.

Luckily, I am going to be able to do this without anyone's help. I have this connection, thank god. My sister in law used to work with a hand surgeon. She was his main surgical nurse, and worked with him in the operating room for ten years. The surgeon's daughter ended up becoming her best friend, and her maid of honor. This doctor's office has been known to work with people who don't have health insurance.

I talked to the office manager today. She knows me. She set me up with an appointment to be seen tomorrow afternoon. The doctor will more than likely give me a reduction in the fees, then I will be able to work out a payment plan. Just being diagnosed shouldn't cost too much. It's possible the doctor might recommend a cortesone (spelling) shot. I don't think that will cost too much either. But if something anomolous shows up in the x-ray...will I need surgery to fix it? I'm already in a little bit of debt from my lack of work this summer. Gods.

I am really glad that this is going to happen. Years ago, when my wrsits first started acting up in grad school, I had an orthopedic surgeon tell me there was nothing wrong with my wrists. Just go home and rest them. Hah!

Making A Living

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting another one of my fellow artisans at the Jewelry Cafe. He was a skinny man, scarecrow style. He had greying strawlike hair in a ponytail down his back, and he was either really unshaven or just had an unkempt beard. He reeked of cigarette smoke, and sounded like it too.
I was there working on switching over my tags to my new logo, and he was there to meet with Laura about a style of earring he wanted to bring in. This man has been in the jewelry business for over 30 years.
I wanted to ask him how his hands were....heh.
We got to talking because I needed some advice on what to put on a price tag. I had brought in some of my sterling ear wires, not the finished earring, just my ear hooks, to put up for sale alongside the JC's tiny little bead bar. Now I've been selling these ear hooks for $3/3.50 a pair, but figured I could get more at a place like the JC. But how much more?
Laura was too busy, so I got a chance to talk to Scott. And he had lots of questions for me. "How much wire is used per pair?" "How long does it take to make a pair?" These are questions I have thought about, and answered. But he had more. "What about your overhead?" Overhead??? Gods...how do you figure that one out?
I make my own tags and labels. I don't think about the cost of this in my final price. Scott asked me, "If you had to pay someone to make these tags, and then pay someone to put them on, how much do you think you would spend?" I have NO idea. But it adds up. The ink, the paper, the time.
Scott mentioned, back in his "heyday", he sold wholesale. BIG wholesale. Department stores. 5000 items made in 3 weeks type of orders. So he had to hire people. Some one to cut the pieces, someone to make the tag, put the tags on, etc etc. Costs a lot of money.
I don't think I want to do wholesale. Ever. I want my jewelry to be one of kind, and with my findings, I could never make them fast enough to wholesale at big orders like that and still make money.
I don't know if jewelry making is Scott's only income. He has really been making a living of it all these years? Can I do it?

Wheeee!!!

Etsy sales are blossoming! I actually ran out of envelopes this weekend and had to go out to get more today. Now I am SO well stocked in envelopes...bring it on!!
I am looking into RME - Revolution Money Exchange - as an alternate form of payment. It sounds pretty good. No transaction fees like with Paypal. I have only just heard of it, and am surprised it's not more widely used. Everyone should check it out. If you are looking into making an RME account, let me know, because they have a referal rewards program (we both get FREE money).
Cool.
On a note besides jewelry sales, I have SO many zucchinis. I'm picking one or two every other day, and I'm swamped. I was supposed to be baking loaves of zucchini bread tonight...but the internet has sucked my time away.

Manifest Beads

Ahhh... high speed internet. Laptop. Wireless. I'm at my boyfriends's house, drinking his coffee, using his internet connection. I have dial up at home. Dinosaur age, I know. It makes it impossible sometimes to check my email, let alone upload or download anything. Someday I will remedy this.

Any way - I need to tell every one about Manifest Beads! Manifest is a bead store in Milford, Ct, where I have been working for three years. Mostly what I do is teach classes, three days a week, with the occasional day or two of working the store. This is also where I started designing and selling my handmade wire findings.

Earlier this year, we were looking for a change. While our location had been very functional, we weren't in a very busy area of town. Knowing our lease was going to end in May, we found a new place to move the store! An amazing location, right in the heart of the downtown, and twice as big. We scheduled the move, giving us a week and half off to get everything together. New stock, and some minor facelifts.

Then the city screwed us over. We were supposed to open on May 9th. Today is July 11th, and we're not open yet. We had planned to re-face the bathroom: new sink and toilet, new tiles etc. The city said, "Hey, this bathroom is not handicap accessible. It needs to be made so before you can think of opening." Okay, no problem. Plans were drawn up by the city architect, and the permit for construction was applied for. 30 days later, after much complaining to the city and politcal battles, we FINALLY got the permit to be LOOKED at. And it was failed. Permit application resubmitted. 30 days LATER it was looked at again and approved. It took TWO months to the go-ahead from the city to do the work they told us to do. Now work is STARTING VERY SLOWLY. It's been painful. For all of us. Manifest Beads has been my main source of income, and I haven't been able to work for over two months. My bank balance is hysterical.

This "lay off" is what prompted me to look into selling on Etsy.

It will be fabulous when we can get the store open again. By the end of the month? Most likely, and if not, then something is seriously wrong. I think we have to apply for an occupancy permit once the construction is done, and knowing how much the building department hates us.....ugh. I don't want to think about it.

www.manifestbeads.blogspot.com for more on our story.

Figuring Things Out

I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to figure out how best to sell online.

I'm learning about selling fees and international shipping costs.

I'm figuring out how to treat my wrist problems.

I have had a few more sales through Etsy, including custom orders. I'm going to be doing a little more revising on my pricing tonight. I'd adjusted my sterling silver findings, but hadn't fixed my plated wire findings. Then I got a custom order request, and couldn't afford to give any kind of discount on some of my earlier listed items. I want to be fair, affordable, and still make a living doing this sort of thing. Selling through Etsy has been a nice little side job, and I hope to do more, a lot more.

One thing I've noticed, when I go searching, as a buyer would, for certain products that I sell, they end up buried under pages and pages of items. Etsy is VERY big. Items are listed every second. Some stores have a system, that I am trying to do, in my own way. When you search for items, they are listed chronologically with the more recently listed items on top. If you relist the same item every couple days (like handmade earwires let's say), then that item is more likely to be noticed by buyers. It's tough. Because I don't want to be that seller that's trying to drown out every other seller. And it costs $0.20 every time you list an item. It's not much, but it adds up if you are trying to push an item that's not a big seller.

So here's my listing plan:
Since I make my findings in all different shapes and all diffferent metals, I can list each individual variation, one at a time. When I have every single style that I make listed in my store, I can start listing bulk item deals. Actually, I'll start mixing in those bulk item listings before that happens. If I can just keep up with listing something new every day or two, then I won't get lost in the sea of Etsy sellers.

Wholesale Pricing Plan:
Individual items will have a set price that you can click, buy and pay for. Discounts will be available on custom orders of 5 or more of a type of item. I.e. one pair of curly-Q ear wires: $3.00. Five pairs of curly-Q ear wires: 2.75/pr. I'll have the different prices noted on each item.

One another note, my darling boyfriend has been helping me with my wrist problem. His mum gave me one of those stiff wrist braces for the right hand (I'd only had one for my left hand, which has been fine lately). I wear this at night and when I know I will have to be lifting or moving heavy objects (like my vacuum, good lord). On top of that, he bought me three wonderful stretchy wrist glove/wrap thingys that I can wear while I work, AND one of those amazing microwaveable heat wraps. LOVE that thing. It's easy to use, and I don't have to try loading a tub full of heavy hot water to soak my wrist in - this does basically the same thing.

Time to go edit my etsy things. OriginalBeadwork.etsy.com

Price Revisions

Now that some of my items have been selling on Etsy, I have seen that I need to raise my prices. I hate doing it, because I want to keep my items affordable. But there are all these fees to consider on top of my materials and time costs.

So I've come up with a plan. Most of my sales have been custom order bulk requests. I've only listed my ear hooks by the pair, with the option of requesting a bulk listing. I'm going to have to raise the price of individual items, and do a discount on bulk orders.

How things are currently:
one pair Curly-Q ear wires: $2.50
Shipping: $2.00
---------
Total: $4.50
Fees: Etsy Listing Fee: -$0.20
Etsy sale fee: -$0.09
Paypal Fee: -$0.43
Postage: -$1.34
Delivery Confirmation: -$0.75
---------
End Total: $1.69

Hardly worth my time and effort and materials costs. Now I could leave out the Delivery Confirmation, but that's my security. I'm currently using packaging materials I've had around, but when I need to buy more, I will have that cost to think about. Right now my shipping charge doesn't cover it. And I had no idea how much paypal was going to charge me.

Previously, I have been selling my ear hooks retail at prices of $3.50 and $3.00 a pair. I get 60% of that: earning $2.10 or $1.80. Not a whole lot either, but OK for retail.

Revisions:
Single pair ear hooks at $3.00
Postage w/confirmation: $2.50

Custom order Bulk discounts: after the first item, $0.20 off each additional item.

Etsy Sales and Wrist Woes

Hooray! People are starting to find my Etsy store (4 sales so far). I've only sold some of my ear wires (they ARE awesome, aren't they?) and I'm hoping to get some jewelry sales. I finally got some better pictures for the necklaces I had listed - I modeled them while my boyfriend played photographer. They look much better on a neck.
Geez, my wrist is killing me. I made six pairs of "fancy" ear hooks and now I can barely use my right arm. Damn. It's an ongoing problem, and it's been at it's worst lately. Typing doesn't help. Time to go soak it in the sink.
Ow.

Will-O-Wisp Wire

For years I have been using the name "Original Beadwork by Kira" for my line of jewelry. I love the name. I registered it as a business, bought originalbeadwork.com, and had goals of setting up a fabulous website. I got as far as getting a spiffy logo made for me, and a web page design that I never fully used. As a name for jewelry, it is all encompassing, I can use it on all my styles of jewelry (stitchwork, stringing, wired).
However, my work at The Jewelry Cafe, which is the main place that I have been selling at, is entirely my wire line of jewelry. Original Beadwork no longer fits, as the focus is the wire, not the beads.
So I contacted my handy-dandy web designer/graphic artist friend.
Henceforth, my line of wire jewelry is going to be called "Will-O-Wisp Wire". What do you think? I LOVE it. My friend designed a gorgeous new logo for me, and there are plans in the making for a new website that I can more easily take care of than my old one.
Excitement!
Gosh, it means I have a lot of work to do. All of my tags for my creations say "Original Beadwork". I've got to print hundreds of new tags and change everything over. And my printer is broken (I print the tags myself). Speaking of which - I'd better got on it.

Doing Well at the JC, and first Etsy sale!

Yay! I had my first sale on etsy! (OriginalBeadwork.etsy.com). A woman in Switzerland bought a bunch of my handmade ear hooks. Yay! First etsy sale!

I've been doing pretty well at the Jewelry Cafe. Just got my check from last month's sales. Gosh...I've got to explain what the JC is...but not right now. Anywho, I was the top-selling artisan for the month of May out of 20+ artisans!!! I've been in the top three for several months, and missed "first place" (it's not really a competition) back on December by about $5. Laura publishes a newsletter to all us artisans at the end of every month, in it the announcement on the top three sellers. It's a way for everyone to see what is doing well, (who's doing all the selling and why), and for those who aren't selling well to be able to aspire to do better.

Well, I've got to go weed my garden, clean my house, and make some jewelry. Ambitious.

Etsy Store

About a month ago, I decided to look into ways of selling my work at more places. I'd heard about an online place called Etsy.com, and decided to check it out. Wow, what an awesome thing Etsy is. I joined up right away.

About Etsy: Etsy is an online vending site exclusively for hand-made goods. You can find ANYTHING handmade here. Pottery, paintings, clothes, sculpture, refridgerator magnets, sketches scrawlled on newspaper, all-natural-vegan soaps, AND jewelry. There are some other things that can be bought and sold on Etsy as well: supplies for making handmade goods. You'll find yarn, thread, buttons, beads, findings, and I'm sure loads of other things that I haven't surfed upon yet. And vintage goods. You can't get around not selling vintage stuff.

The coolest part about Etsy is the COMMUNITY that it fosters. There are groups and teams to join, tutorials, articles, interviews with sellers, featured artists, events, and tons of networking possibilities. Pretty much everyone that is a member is there because they love hand-made goods.

It's very exciting.

I'm working slowly on building up my Etsy store. There is the picture taking process - very difficult to make images look good without the proper lighting. And the uploading process - very slow and next to impossible with dial-up internet. So I do most of it at my boyfriend's house using his high-speed wi-fi lap top from a borrowed flash drive. High tech.

I have yet to make a sale through Etsy. That's a tough part. Because I am a new member, I don't have a substantial "rating" - this comes through feedback from buyers and sellers and can be positive or negative. So, no one knows how awesome I am.....yet.

References for people who want to know if I'm any good:
Manifest Beads 203-877-7778
The Jewelry Cafe 203-263-8599
newspaper article: http://www.newtownbee.com/Features/2007-12-06__12-10-17/Jewelry+Cooperative+Works+For+Jewelers+And+Customers

new blog!

I often have things I could write about, concerning my jewelry business. Things that I know my customers, and my friends, might be intertesting in reading. So here is the start! I will start posting news about my jewelry and other things...starting...soon.