Spending money to make money

Oi. Spent a lot of money these last couple weeks. Last week I dropped $238 on argentium sterling wire. I'm pretty well stocked up on that now.

Today I went to a bead show. Went looking for summery colors - blues and teals and oranges. And wow! I only went a little over my budget.

Spent $117. Got a beautiful pile of stones to play with. Love the colors. Have some ideas of what to make. Will probably do one or more designs tonight. Most likey I will discover that I need something else to go with these stones...meaning I will have to buy more things...like some crystals.

For the moment I wish I could listen to pandora.com while up in my studio....

getting back on track.

Gosh, it's amazing how much life can get in the way of work! After a couple weeks of losing track, I am starting to pull myself together again. Making new jewelry, and getting together new pieces for my etsy store! I also have a custom set for a bride (my neighbor's daughter), that I need to finish! So little time....and I am SO good at wasting it! It's late, and I am trying to decide if I am going to work on something tonight (after teaching all day). Ugh. Tired. Maybe I'll have time tomorrow?

Keepin busy!

So, for a while there, I was worried about the state of the economy affecting my business. Turns out...that's not going to be a problem! (crossing fingers, don't want to jinx things)

For several months, I have had low sales for my jewelry. My guess is that this reflected the fact that for several months last year, I wasn't making a whole lot of new pieces to sell. This has started to change now that I am creating more! The month of April has been one of my best months ever for sales! I am anxiously awaiting the check from last month's settlement, as I will probably spend it all on getting my car fixed :(

My findings store on etsy continues to do well. I haven't seen several of my big-order repeat buyers, but I continue to have new ones, and some new repeat customers!

My jewelry store on etsy has started to see some sales, which is great! Still worried that it might be a flop, as there is SO MUCH jewelry competition on etsy!

Business at Manifest Beads continues to bloom. We are having some of our best months ever!

AND, word of mouth and networking with people that I know seems to help as well. One of my neighboor's daughters is commissioning me to make the jewelry for her bridal party.

Busy busy. This is good. Keep it coming. I can take it. As long as I don't suddenly develope a social life....

:)

Sobobo Gallery

I really should pay more attention to my blog. It would help if I knew that people were reading it. Comments woul be a rare treat. Just to know you're there. But seriously. Most of my time is centered around my work. If I'm at home I'm either managing my etsy stores, managing my income and inventory for taxes etc., and making things. OR...the big time consumer, is keeping up with people I know on facebook. Basically, I'm always at my computer unless I have tools and wire in my hands.
The recent news is that I now have my jewelry at a gallery in Milford, Ct, called Sobobo. They had an event last night with a neighboring gallery, and when I stopped by, there were a lot of people there and wandering back and forth between the two places. I'm hoping that this will be lucritive. The gallery is small, but attractively decorated and has a broad range of art for sale: from prints to orignal works, sculptures, and other jewelry besides my own. Sobobo Gallery is planning on moving to a biger location later this year, which would be great, as I could probably fill a good part of it!!!! I only brought about 10 pieces of new work to Sobobo, but many of my Will-O-Wisp items will be coming out of rotation from the Jewelry Cafe soon.

I welcome comments. Say "HI - I read your post!" and maybe I'll be more prone to updating this place.

Earth Hour

I just finished celebrating earth hour. For those of you that hadn't heard of it, earth hour was started a few years ago in Sydney, Australia. Last year, 400 cities participated, this year, 4,000! What it is: between 8:30 and 9:30, local time, around the world, people were, and still are, turning their non-essential lights off. Why? To conserve energy!!!!

I had a lot of work to do tonight, between orders to make for shipping out on monday, two months worth of new classes to get organized by wednesday, and Mother's day jewelry ideas to get sorted out as soon as possible. Well, for a little excitement on my Saturaday night, I decided to celebrate Earth Hour by turning off everything in my house at 8:30, and lit a candle.

What to do? I can't make jewelry by candlelight, and I turned off my computer, which means no procrastination on the internet. So I called a friend in far away Georgia. She didn't answer, so I played with my cat with his laser-pointer (which is all so much better in the dark). Then decided to go for a walk.

I was hoping to see lights winking off as they noted that 8:30 had come, people in their homes gathered around candlelight. I walked along the waterfront. Turns out that that majority of the homes there are dark and empty on a Saturday night. It's been a while since I've walked down there at night. I know several of the homes are just huge summer homes, but not all. The ones that did shows signs of life had lights blaring, and huge flat screen TV's showing sports. I was even shocked and horrified to see one brightly lit home with it's Christmas tree and stockings still on the mantle. Hello?

It was chilly, foggy, and misty out, and there was quite a breeze along the water. Turns out I was reminded that damp + cold = bad for wrist. So when I got home, I wrapped my damaged wrist up with my re-usable heat warmer thing (thanks Tanya, it's been life-saver). And walked some more. Unfortunately, my re-usable wrist warmer doesn't seem to last as long as it used too.

I passed the time wandering around the neighboorhood, encountered a couple looking for their last cat (so sad!). And now I'm wrapped up in my larger micro-waveable warmer, but my hand is still SO stiff and ouchy.

There is so much that I need to be making tonight, but I don't think I'm going to be able to!

Making the switch!

For a long time I have heard about Argentium Silver. Argentium Silver is a version of sterling silver, which is alloy of 92.5% pure silver. With argentium silver, part of that alloy is germantium. The addition of germantium created a sterling that is highly tarnish resistant. Argentium silver has been slightly more expensive than regular sterling, but not by much. If I switch over to it, I won't have to adjust my prices.

Tomorrow I am making an order of Argentium Silver, and will begin to make all of my new jewelry and findings in Argentium!

New Store!

I haven't posted on here for while. First I had computer issues, then no intenet, but lately I've just been way to busy. Working way too much (a lot of it from home). Anywho, I've started up a new online store for my jewelry and for jewelry made by other women that I know. More info will come soon....