Wordless Wednesday?

I don’t know about you, but we could all do for a little less talking sometimes. So this Wednesday, I’ll keep it short and post a few pics of our dog. He seems to gather a lot of attention where ever we are. The last picture is my favorite .... a tired dog.

The Days to Come

I can’t believe it is the end of May and Memorial Day is just a few days away. Okay, I should leave a plug here for my gem tree giveaway. Check out my gem tree blog (see links) and leave a comment prior to Monday. Here I am at work and I feel like I haven’t accomplished much at all today even though it is now lunch time and I plan to leave in a couple of hours. I feel like this often the last working day prior to a holiday. Most of the time I just take the day off, but knew that I had several deadlines coming up next week and should get a few things finished.

The weekend is piling up nicely with a large number of to do’s. Paul is off today so he is getting a few things accomplished that he doesn’t need me for. Tonight is a club night and the last meeting prior to our club gem show. Should be interesting as we still have a lot of volunteer spots open…..oh well, not something I can worry about as I’m not in charge.

Tomorrow we will be cleaning out the rest of stuff from our storage locker. After 6 years of renting the darn thing we will finally be letting it go. Have you ever renting one of those things thinking that it will be just for a little while and years and money go by. Well, this will save us over $100 per month. I’m all for saving money right now. Then off to the antique mall to dust, clean and re-stock some shelves. Then tomorrow night off to friends for dinner. That will be a nice change.

Sunday, not sure yet, but may be a day of rest and relaxation. Okay, maybe just maybe if it isn’t raining I’ll get out and pull some weeds out of the yard.

Monday, this will be family day. Take Paul’s mom to the cemetery and then off to the other cemetery to put flowers on my dad’s grave. This is never a fun chore, but makes us feel better afterwards. Then off to my mom’s for a cookout with the family to round out the weekend.

Sounds like a busy weekend except for Sunday. Um, maybe just sleeping all day and staying in PJ’s is a good option too.

Hot Jewelry for Spring 2008

I've been trying to wear some of my newer designs here at work, out to various functions and even on vacation and have found that fused fine silver link chain mixed with gemstones is getting quite the attention. Both my chain and chain with gemstones have received lots of compliments, so I am in the process of designing several for my web site and the salon consignment. Round and oval links have been and are still popular with everyone, so stay the course if you are into making this type of chain. I guess the only problem I see is using up all your very expensive silver in making chains that may not sell down the road, so try posting signs that you will do special orders.

Colors in clothing is all over the board, but the most exciting is all the blue, fushia and yellow. There are so many gemstones that will compliment these colors of clothing including several blue stones, which haven't been as popular in the most recent past years such as blue sapphire, aquamarine, and lapis. Bring those pieces back out to wear with this years fashions or create something new with beads you have in your stash.

Other hot jewelry pieces will be bracelets. Bright colors are dominating the scene in layers of large bangles or beads. Don't try to match up a necklace to these bracelets as they are meant to be worn in place of other jewelry pieces and steal the show. If you are a designer and are wondering what this means to you, try purchasing some large resin or lightweight colorful wood beads to create a large bracelet design.

Earrings have been and still will be the one item that customers want to match up to a necklace. I always create a pair of earrings to match any necklace especially if that necklace has some exotic gems or shapes that could not be found anywhere else.

I'm still not sure how the jewelry industry will be doing as a whole this year due to the slowdown in the market, but my year started out better than last year so I'm optimistic.

Happy Designs, Dana

At a Stand Still

What do you do when you have so many ideas for things that you can't seem to get to them all? I think this is where I am at now.

I entered a jury competition for RAGS this year and was turned down because my jewelry looked the same as everyone elses. Hmm, I guess when you think about it everyone's jewelry that is being designed today looks like everyone elses. I'm not put off by this, but will definately look at what I'm designing and what is selling. During the holidays, I sold a lot of wire wrapped pendants and gemstone wire trees. I tried selling them about 3 years ago and no one wanted them, go figure that I'm a few years ahead of everyone else. In doing some research on the web, I found that there really isn't a lot of tutorials about how to wire wrap a pendant. There are some simple designs, and that seems to be what everyone is making. I may have to give this some thought, but I could put a couple of designs out here for reference that I have developed. Since I have so much going on right now, this will have to be a goal for later in the year.

If you have read my blog on gem trees, you will now know that I am writing a book on how to make a gem tree. This is taking up a huge amount of my at home time reserved for relaxing. If I'm not writing then I'm making a tree or trying out a new design or material. I found some freshwater pearls at a local large bead shop that are flat and leaf like that I'm working with now. It should prove to be a wonderful looking little tree and one that I hope I have picture for the book as another option to gemstones.

On another note, anyone that knows me knows that I have jewelry on consignment at a salon. In 2006, the Salon did about a 1/3 of my overall jewelry sales and again in 2007 they did about 1/3. I did revamp the jewelry available at the salon this year to items under $50.00. Earrings are always $10.00, bracelets run up to $35.00 and necklaces to $50.00. This does create a challange for me as I have to find affordable gemstones that are still good quality. International Gem and Jewelry shows are my favorite place to look for affordable stones. Unfortunately to get them cheap, you have to buy in bulk. I may have to take a couple of friends along this year and share the wealth so that I don't end up with 6 or more strands of the same type and style of stone.

Well, I'll keep plugging along, but if you find you are stuck or have too much to do, be aware you are not alone.

Thanks for reading, Dana

What to do Now?

I've started implementing the ideas that have been floating around in my head for months. I have added two categories on my web site, one is Jewelry for Charities and the other is Chakra Jewelry.

My husband and I decided that we needed to start giving more to charities and I thought what a better way than to give a percent of my profit of sold jewelry items. I'm letting the buyer decide what charity the funds should go to and leaving it open as long as they are a 501(c)3 non-profit. Obviously I'm not doing this for all my jewelry, just those that I have labeled for charity. If you are curious, check out my web site.

My other idea was to create a line of Chakra inspired jewelry. All the jewelry in this category is made with gemstones. I have added the healing qualities of those gems and the Chakra that they support. I'm hoping to attract customers interested in the metaphysical properties of gemstones. I came up with another idea today to combine genuine copper with gemstones as copper has it's own healing qualities that people have been aware of for years. Look for some of those pieces early next year.

One of the other things I have been working on is getting my Etsy shop generated with hits so that I may get some buys off of it. I've read in several places that they way to generate sales is to have a lot of items for folks to choose from and to post something everyday. The fees for Etsy is relatively inexpensive, so if it brings sales, then I will give it a try. I'll let you know if it works next month.

Since this is the holiday season, I have three shows here in the next month and a half to get ready for along with updating the stock in the salon where I have commission items. I may do an open house after the holidays to catch folks with Christmas money to spend as I don't have time before. And if that isn't enough to do, I'm entering a juried competition for a local non profit show that is due mid December for a March showing.

Just recanting all this is making me stressed. I think the vacation that I have scheduled for Christmas time I will move up to get all this stuff completed. Sometimes the job does get in the way of the things we really want to be doing.

Thanks for reading and hopefully understanding. Dana :-0

Teaching a Class

Yet another venture I find myself doing. I will be teaching a Fused Chain class to the gem and mineral club that I belong to later this month. I've taught beading and gemtrees at previous "Hands On" sessions, but this one requires quite a bit more outlay of expenses for supplies than the other two. I demonstrated the technique at the meeting last week and had three people sign up, so this is a good sign. I currently have enough tools for three students, but if more sign up at our next meeting then I've be out buying more micro torches and firing bricks.
I will be offering my fused chain designs for sale on my web site after the class, but for now they are being used as examples of what can be made by fusing fine silver wire. My hope is that the students will be able to make a couple of bracelets and earrings or a necklace. One ounce of the 16 guage silver will make a solid 24" necklace, so I guess it depends upon what they want to make. I personally like to make shorter 18"-20" necklaces that have pearls or gemstones in between the silver links....more necklaces or bracelets for the money.
I welcome any suggestions or ideas of upcoming jewelry trends. I'll be sure to post pictures and the results of my class at the end of the month.
Dana