If you are crafty at all, I have a couple of simple knotted leather and bead necklace projects for you in the latest Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine, winter edition. My projects use beads made by us, but you could use anything with a hole in it. Let your imagination go! The folks at Stampington publishers are the lovliest to work with. It is always so fun to see the preview of the article and how beautifully the items are photographed. The entire magazine is inspirational eye candy! Thank you Stampington!
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From zero in the store to some things listed anyway. Since I have never built up the online shop to any extent, because most of what we do is at shows, my efforts here are slow going! Photographing, editing, putting on a watermark. I'm not good at naming them creatively, but really strange names aren't that great for SEO searches anyway, so there's that. Photographing silver with colored beads works pretty well, but photographing silver pieces on their own is the devil. Anyway, I'm adding a few pieces every day. Our focus, along with metal, is glass. That includes lampwork, kiln-firing & enamel. To make everything look less cluttered, it seems like some subcategories in the future would bode well for more organized display, as well as poking around. So bear with me, the shop is a work in progress, but so far, so good. Let me know if there is anything you are looking for that I haven't gotten to yet.
Bill is looking pretty happy here. Ha! Probably because he does all the heavy lifting and the Fairfax Holiday Show was our last show of the year. I'm happy too. I really enjoy doing shows and meeting so many fabulous people, but by the end of every season, I look forward to the break. We also use the time to work on new products for next year and other business related activities.
Earlier that day, however, neither of us were looking too happy when we realized someone had palmed a bracelet, including the display, right from under our noses. I've experienced the entitlement of shoplifters twice, both times middle-aged and older women, near as we can tell. I've gradually been leaving the glass off the side displays, but next year they are going back up. I really want people to try things on and have fun poking around, but I can't afford giving my products away. We make everything by hand, not buying and reselling components. So once again, a few ruin it for everyone else. On a happier note, we get so many questions about shopping on our website. I will be making an earnest effort in the next week or two to get things listed and start keeping items up for sale year round. My aim is to redo some of the categories by collections and such, so keep an eye out. Photographing, editing and listing takes time. Between all this, I'm also carving out time to enjoy the holidays. I hope you do too! If you would like to learn a bit more about how we prep and handle bottle glass for lampworking projects, check out our feature in the online Artisan Jewelry Times, November 2016 issue. http://artisanjewelrytimes.com.
So honored to be given the Judge's Choice Award at the Mount Gretna Outdoor show. It comes with a few perks for next year, but one of my favorite elements was this handmade quilted ribbon. So very precious! The show was busy on Saturday, in part I'm convinced because of the weather forecast for Sunday, which called for heavy rain, and thunder. And boy did the weather deliver. We were drenched, and the rain found every possible pinhole to drip through. This morning Bill is outside setting up the tent to dry it out, and we will have to open every bin, and box to dry everything out. But despite the rain, it was a great weekend and we look forward to our guaranteed spot next year. In the extremely competitive category of jewelry, that is a prize in itself! We hope to see you there.
Back from a most relaxing vacation down the west coast Highway 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Its a familiar trip for me, but I recommend it for any of you that may not have experienced it. We stayed in San Francisco, Carmel, San Luis Obisbo, Santa Barbara, taking side trips, and ending in Southern California. Lots of fun with friends along the way and a bonus Sting & Peter Gabriel concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I leave you with a little bit of the scenery. But now it's time to seriously get back to work!
No one could have been more surprised than Bill and I when we were awarded First Prize in the Jewelry category at Art on the Square in Williamsburg, VA yesterday. It's a beautiful show with fabulous work in every category, including ours. We just couldn't believe it, but so grateful. Not only did we receive the coveted blue ribbon, we got a cash prize too!!! So much fun!!! It was our first show of the season, and were feeling bit rusty and disorganized in the wee hours of the morning for the set-up routine. But by the end of the day we definitely got our groove back. A big thank you to the Junior Woman's Club of Williamsburg and to the support of all of our customers who made the show one to remember.
My public service announcement today is a warning about e-commerce order scams. I received two yesterday and experienced this last year too. The approach is always nearly identical. Thief is who-knows-where and wants to make a big order to be shipped overseas, but you need to pay up front with his/her shipper.
Here are two excerpts from yesterday: Am interested in some of your products, do you ship to Switzerland and accept US issued credit card as payment?, you will contact my shipper who handles all of my shipment, they pick up the items at your location and deliver directly to my store doorstep without hassle. Hello l want to know if you ship to Sweden and Accept Credit Card Issued in USA as Payment Method,Concerning the shipping l have a freight company that you will contact regarding shipping ,They can get the items picked up from your location and deliver directly to the final destination without any hassle. These are bad actors people. They won't go through PayPal and beware of PayPal scams too. They get their money for an exorbitant "safe & convenient" shipping scam, convoluted wire transfers and other BS. Once the product leaves your door, one way or the other you will be left holding the bag and the email trail will go dead. Do an online search and you will find countless stories like this. They like to target small and mid-size businesses. If you get these fishing emails you can always contact the FBI internet Crime complaint center at http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx or your local FBI field office. I've sold to lovely customers overseas through my Etsy site. I've also bought products from overseas purveyors myself. Just be careful people. If red flags go up, there is probably good reason. We joined the throngs of fine craft lovers at the American Craft Council show in Baltimore a few weeks ago. It's HUGE. We try to go every year for a day of eye candy, some holiday shopping and inspiration.
We missed it last year because of bad weather, so with a year break, I did notice some big trends in the jewelry category. So much enameling. Not just cloisonne, but simple modern pieces, and in lots of ornate shapes. I'm imagining a some laser cutting for those original shapes, because hand piercing for makers trying to fill nationwide wholesale orders could be an exhausting business model. The other trend, which I use from time to time too, are balled up wire pins as surface decoration. There was a crazy amount of that going on. If you could take 2 days to see it, that might be ideal. Otherwise focus on your favorite categories. It was a good day though and fabulous weather, certainly compared to last year. Check out the show sometime if you have never been. Some vendors that participate in all the American Craft Council shows say the one in Baltimore is the biggest one. Brooches have been on my to-do list for a long time. Finally getting around to it. Another wonderful photo by Victor Wolansky.
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