The beast, the triffids, and the goal…

I finished the beast by taking out the Serpentine stone after I gouged a great big 5mm wide trough through it from one side to the other and managed to work with it on the Jool Tool (beginning to like this thing) until it was looking better.

I found that Serpentine, at least the ones I have, are very crumbly and I’m not completely sure I like that.

I worked with it as much as I could, but it isn’t one of my better pieces.

I think I set myself up for the fall because in the back of my mind I didn’t think I’d done the best job I could with forming the stones.

You can see from the above that the bottom bezel is too high, and the top bezel is just annoying because the bottom edge of its collar soldered to the top edge of the middle bezel’s collar and I had to saw it apart.

I say I had to. I could have sweated the three bezel collars off and started over, but, as I said, I don’t think I ever thought it was going to be a good piece in the first place and believe I set myself up for sabotage.

Oh the dark inner workings of our minds…

I like the back though :)

     I’ve been cleaning up my work for the art fair on Saturday and reworking some pieces that I don’t really care for.

I hate cleaning the jewelry, but wouldn’t be seen dead trying to sell it without it being its absolute best. As a consequence I’m probably not taking the beast.

Unless little pixies break into the studio between now and Saturday and work some magic on it.

Could happen.

I finished the second needlework piece.

And started another.

And that’s about it really.

Except I’m fiddling around with a new website as, although I like the Wix one I have, I’ve discovered that Indiemade seems easier to use.

I’m not sure about it yet.

And I’m just about to send off $800 to Care for the Nepal disaster so guess what?

$30,000!

Goal reached!

Going for $40,000 next…

Onwards and upwards people

:)

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Thank You

I had a little run of sales just before Christmas.

And was able to send $1,000 to Care.

That makes my total to date

$13,500

Onwards and Upwards people

:)

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Happening stuff

I’ve been adding new pieces of jewelry to my Tictail shop.

I’m quite pleased with Tictail. It’s easy to use and I think it looks nice. So far not many sales so I guess I’d better get my act together and take my chicken boots off and start handing out business cards. I was going to ask to leave some at the hairdressers this morning, but accidentally, on purpose, left them at home.

No hope for me yet.

But, I did send out postcards :)

I think they came out pretty good.

If you need some you can get them from vistaprint

I’ve haven’t seen one in person yet, but you can put the addresses on the card along with the postage which saves a lot of fussing and post officing later.

I’ve always worried about my photographs, but think they’re definitely getting better.

Oh the burdens of being a perfectionist …

I’ve also been working on some rack cards which are longer. I’ve been thinking of leaving them in shops for wholesale, but I haven’t quite got my head around the wholesale thing yet so I keep procrastinating.

They’re pretty much the same, but I thought I could get more information on the back.

I don’t know, I might just stick with the postcards.

So that’s what I’ve been up to.

That and finishing the quilt.

I think I’ve got about 36 stitches to go then I’m done. I’ve only been quilting in the evenings, but I’ve been dragging my feet over it a little. It’s still in time for Christmas though so I consider that a success :)

I also was just able to send $2,000 to Care for the Philippines. So I’m pleased about that.

Oh, and I’ve also been working on my mailing list.

Like a big girl.

HERE

It’s all happening at my house :)

What have you been doing?

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It’s O.K. really :)

Update from this mornings post.

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So, perhaps the hair didn’t come out so well but I had a jewelry sale this morning which topped me close to the $1000 mark.

Okay, so I didn’t really make $1000, as P would be eager to point out to you, as I have never worked my jewelry making as a ‘proper’ business. I pay taxes on the money I receive, etc., but I don’t include my expenses and supplies in that figure – I just get excited when someone buys something from me and then I add up all the money I get for the jewelry and tell P how successful I am :). I consider the expenses and supplies I buy a gift I give myself to be able to enjoy my craft. The other part, the part I ‘earn’, I consider a gift I give back, which in itself is another gift I give myself. One day I am going to get it all together and try to work it properly but right now I am just happy that I was able to send my hard-earned and completely enjoyable, $1000 to Care.

Thank you to everyone who bought a piece of jewelry from me in the past few months.

You are good people :)