Busy Busy

I have new earrings up on my etsy shop. I have been busy taking pictures, editing them and uploading them into my shop. Boy that is a full time job in itself! I have 8 more pair and then I have all of my earrings up. Well not all, I have a bunch of chandelier and posts that I have to photograph. But I have to wait until I can order a head so that I can photograph them on an ear to give scale to size and how it looks on an ear. Now that my nieces are both at college I can't use them as models.

I haven't been at my studio for over a week. I have 2 consignment projects to do, I just got the beads in today so I hope to get going on them over the weekend. But I have to find that darn box that has my extension cords in so I can plug in a lamp for my table so I can see. Eyes, age, well you know...

Here is my favorite earring in the batch of ones I uploaded this week. It is called the Emerald Isle. Check out my shop for other designs.

What would you do?

Ok...this has nothing to do with jewelry, but it is an amazing story. I just finished watching this over at my church's blog. The generosity of these girls blew me out of the water. It reminds me of the kind of generosity that I have experienced in my life from many mentors, teachers, and friends. It is also reminiscent of the generosity shown on the community boards over at Etsy by many of the sellers who are so giving of advice, critiques, and encouragement. But in the outcome of the game, one has to wonder what I would have done, if I knew it would cost me the game. The answer the girls of the opposing team gave broke my heart into glad little pieces....they did it because she deserved it. Now that is truly the definition of putting others first. Check out the video

SUNDAY SUPPLIERS

On Sundays I want to share some of the suppliers I have found and use. These will not always be bead making suppliers, but art and crafts suppliers in general. I love supporting the small cottage businesses, but have a loyalty to a few larger companies too.

Today I want to show case the supplier I ordered my first beads from, Fire Mountain Beads and Gems. I love this company and have had nothing but good experiences from them. Their prices are great and the more you order the bigger the discount you will get.

There service is fast, your shipping is only $5.00 with Fed Ex. My experiences with customer service have been friendly and cooperative. Occasionally I have had item backordered, but they usually are sent in a reasonable time frame, and there is no shipping charged for the backordered items.

There is a huge amount of information and how to's on the website and a lot of inspiration for creating jewelry as well as how to's for specific designs. They also have a newsletter that is sent out frequently announcing the sales and special purchases available.

I have now spent enough with them that they invited me to become part of their platinum partners program. This program comes with a representative that keeps in contact with you and has answers to many questions and is a great cheerleader for your business as well.

While I am sure most of you have heard of Fire Mountain, those of you who haven’t check them out today.

SATURDAY STUDIO SIGHTING

On Saturdays I will peek into artists Studios. I love to see the places where people create. I also find it amazing that many people create without studios. I am a firm believer that creativity happens anywhere and everywhere. I have lived that most of my life. It has only been since I moved home to care for my mom that I have had any kind of space that I could dedicate to my creativity and call a studio.

During my years in under-grad and grad school I had no space because my living spaces were so small that my “studio” was sitting on the floor in front of my favorite coffee table (that went with me almost everywhere) that had a glass top. I was a costume designer in those days and my medium was water colors. I used that table top to mix my colors. I loved it, a palate finally as big as I needed. I don’t think I ever completely washed the table top until I sold it after I graduated. To this day I regret that sale!

For the next couple of weeks I will invite you into the area I loosely call my beading studio. I have a space in our basement that I have set up as a regular studio and a sewing studio, but because of my back issue I am unable to navigate stairs without pain and have not been in that space for almost a year and a half. It will be a while before I can show you that area…it has become a catch-all in the meantime. (sigh) But soon.

Back to the “bead studio”. Well really it is a corner of our living room. Mom finally got aggravated at having all my boxes of beads sitting on the floor, and we both were worried about her tripping over them, so we cleared out a little cabinet to store them in. I then purchased a wonderful drawer set from Notions by Nancy as well as the 2 carousels.

The table is a rescued top from an old drafting table that had long since lost its legs. I found folding table legs to attach and some cool silver coasters for feet. It is 3 feet by 2 feet – a perfect size for me. I love having the wheels as I can wheel it to a more comfortable chair that supports my back better on the “bad back pain” days.

Next week I will let you peek at the storage solutions I have come up with so far….but I am always on the lookout for better solutions for my growing collections of beads and supplies! Who isn’t?

If you would like to show off your studio, let me know. Drop me an email.

FRIDAY FINDS

This week the lovely HomeFriedBeads's shop hearted my Twin Angels shop as one of her favorites. I clicked over to see her shop and couldn't help but giggle over her wonderful menagerie of hand made lampwork bead animals and aliens. So cute. My favorite is a cute little holstein cow.

This week I added bode22 to my favorites. She makes clocks. Not just any clocks. But clocks from dinnerware. Sounds cool? Take a look. I love clocks, but these are so fun they should be illegal. My favorite is this one, because I also love birds:

Check these two shops out and let her know you found her on my blog. Have a happy Friday

jackie

New in my Etsy Shop

I uploaded a few new earrings today.

THIRSTY THURSDAY

What inspires you? What feeds your creative soul. Where do you go to get your creative juices going? On Thursdays I will be sharing where I go to get filled up creatively. I am calling it Thirsty Thursdays. Along the way I will probably also be including articles I have found on the web, from blogs, or other people’s thoughts about where they go to get inspired.

I am not sure what directions this will always take. It may take you into my sketch books to see what doodles I am doing, it may take you to pictures, books, images, thoughts and prayers that inspire me. Sometimes quotes will inspire me. Sometimes inspirations come at the most surprising times, sometimes inconvenient times.

Because I may never know when inspiration will fall into my brain, one of the first things I want to talk about is my “idea book”. This is one of the small daily moleskins. (I purchased a bunch of them a few years ago on year end clearance for about $5.00 a piece and use them in a variety of ways now that they are outdated). I also will use index cards to jot ideas down and keep them in the idea book. Sometimes it is scraps of paper too. But eventually they all get into the idea book.

This is not so much a sketch book as a place to capture ideas as/when they pop into consciousness. This happens to me in the most unusual places sometimes. At church during worship, during prayer time, during a conversation, watching a movie, driving, listening to music, reading, you name it I probably have had inspiration strike. The problem is, if I don’t somehow capture it I loose it. I always think I will remember, but really I don’t. So I carry this little book of ideas around with me read to scratch a few words or a sketch down to capture the idea of the inspiration. Most of the time it doesn’t have to be much, just enough to remind me later.

This has proved to be invaluable for me. When I feel frozen at the page I flip through the idea book. Sometimes after the idea pops up I can’t wait to get home and sketch or create what ever inspiration has struck. In either case it usually goes into my sketch book. Sometimes, in the case of jewelry it also takes me on a search for beads and findings that will translate that idea into a finished piece of jewelry.

What about you? How do you capture those creative ideas that pop into your mind at the most outrageous times?

My First Sale!!

Wooo hoooo!! I had my fist sale on Etsy.

And shockingly it was the most expensive item in my shop.

Pricing my creations. Jewelry, artwork, whatever, has always been a challenge for me. Some have said that it is because I don’t value the worth of my work enough, or have enough confidence in myself. Maybe, but I think that it is more that I can’t believe anyone would really buy my creations. Or that I am such a miser myself, I am always looking for ways to save money.

Not that I don’t believe that an artist and should be able to make a decent living off of their work and their work be priced competitively. I definately do. I just don’t think that anyone would pay for MY creations. Perhaps it is because I love doing what I do so much that it feels guilty to get paid for so much fun. I have always felt that way…even back when I was a costume designer; I had trouble asking for competitive wages if I really wanted to do a show.

But I think I could get used to not just breaking even in my pricing. It is also good to know others struggle with the pricing too.

But…today is a good day! My fist sale! I am grateful!

My Least Favorite Thing to Do

It’s been a busy time the last few weeks here at the Twin Angels Studio. I have been busy doing my least favorite thing – catching up on paperwork. I have finally created a budget tracking sheet and downloaded an Etsy sellers worksheet and a tool for calculating pricing courtesy of Chris Parry from Etsy’s Storque section. I then finally entered all of the orders, sales, etc for the whole year. Ya, ya, I know, I really hate doing the paper work. But it finally got to a point that I just had to bite the bullet and do it.


I have also been taking bunches of pictures of the jewelry I have made to get up on Etsy. Tonight I uploaded several bracelets and a necklace earring set. Check them out!