U.K. Commission: Strawberries!

Someone asked for something similar to a bracelet I made ages ago, the strawberry fields one, here:

Cute huh?

Well, I didn't have all the things at my disposal to make an exact replica, but I came pretty close.  I hope my prospective international client is pleased.

There's more green on this one, but I tried to keep it from taking over

Destashing Supplies

I was going through my stash, looking for bits and baubles to finish some of my current projects a few days ago (I'm writing this in March for anyone who's curious).  Going through your stash is like going through geological strata.  On the top layer, everything's new, fresh and shiny.  A leaf still looks like a leaf.  An animal is still an animal.  Near the bottom, though, those leaves and animals and dirt have been compressed over the years and become rock or in some cases fossils and gemstones.

That's what the bottom strata of my stash looks like.  Tons of semiprecious gemstones, wood, bone and shell beads.  There's nothing wrong with them and, to be honest, if you tried to buy beads of the same quality today at the prices I paid for them, you'd end up with a handful of scratched up acrylic.

But, I don't even like working with this kind of stuff.  I'm more of a Victorian/Edwardian, Flapper Era, punk, gothy, kitschy kind of girl.  I don't deal with tribal things very much.  I'm not especially fond of carved bone and shell pendants unless they go with a Victorian inspired piece I'm working on.  There's literally no reason for these things to be in my stash.

SO....I'm getting rid of them.  At the very least I can reorganize my other supplies instead of housing them in decorated cardboard boxes (Seriously, have you tried that?  It's a great way to get rid of boxes and use them in a functional way besides shipping.).  I've listed some lots on my Etsy page as Destash items and they're priced to move- less than a 3rd of the original price.

You should check it out.  I'll only post more as the items in my shop are sold.  I'm still not wholly sure how interested people are in this sort of thing.   At any rate, here are my current offerings.

Lot 1: Amethyst Donut and rhondelles, Tibetan silver Roses, Pewter star, and metal coated acrylic pendants: SOLD

Lot 2: Asian Inspired Beads, 1 brass coin bead, several small glass coin beads, 1 carved bone bead with a dragon: SOLD

Lot 3: Periwinkle Faux pearls, Crackle glass beads, Blue goldstone beads (I'm told this is kind of hard to find nowadays.)

LOT 4: Red Wooden Beads, Seeds, Handmade Copper Links, and Shells

LOT 5: Red Shell beads, Premium Czech glass beads, Vintage Pendant

There ya go!  If you want to pick up any of these lots for your collection, Click here for my Etsy page.  Thanks for the looks and the reads. 

Heaven's to Betsey!

Do you like Betsey Johnson?  She used to design patterns for the Vogue Pattern company.  Now her name's featured on a line of ultra-bright, eclectic and glam-heavy high-end fashion including fragrances, jewelry and clothing.  Her fashion line always features the hottest colors of the season in some really interesting designs.

Photo Courtesy of davidlpm021 on Ebay

Courtesy of Google search

Courtesy of Google Search

Since I like eclectic jewelry and eye-catching statement pieces, I've always admired the construction and designs of many of her collections.  Working at Carson's jewelry counter over the holidays gave me a first hand look at Betsey's stuff.  I got to handle what I, previously, could only ogle online.  Unlike most costume jewelry, Betsey's stuff is well-made, durable and features high-quality materials for extended wearing.

Photo Courtesy of ebay

The only thing that stopped me from buying any of her costume jewelry was the price tag.  On average, a pair of 'simple' (really, Betsey Johnson has no concept of simple in her jewelry designs) earrings would cost $35-40 dollars. Can you say, sticker shock?   A little problematic if you're on a tight budget.  Little did I know, I could find the discontinued styles online at discounted prices on eBay.   A $60 bracelet, can be acquired for a sixth of the price thanks to stores clearing out leftover stock. 
But even better is the ability to Do It Yourself.  There were elements to all of Betsey Johnson's pieces that I enjoyed, but also plenty that I despised.  There is such a thing as 'too much of a good thing'.

Case in point

With the abundance of quirky jewelry making elements, I can make my OWN Betsey Johnson style jewelry.  And so I went on a hunt for elements I could use to make my own Betsey Earrings.  After a little work and a lot of tweaking, I got it to work for me.

Simple Pink Polka Dots

Black and White Polka Dots

Gray Plaid with Bows

Pink Plaid with Bows

I started small because I just wanted to try it out, but I'm fairly certain that I will experiment with adding more elements to my jewelry works in the future.  It was an enlightening experience.  Now I'm looking to expose some of my necklaces to the same treatment...but I'm sure I'll need to purchase more stuff...a lot more.

I am so full of angst!

With my jewelry inventory bursting, my Etsy store practically dying, and my need to make room/money, I looked up some boutiques that I could sell my things to.  Many of the shops in my neighborhood shut down because of poor sales during the recession.  Of course, a lot of these small boutiques were where I would sell off my jewelry items after a big convention.  I had a big problem.  So I had to search for new places to hawk my wares.

I did what any intrepid Gen Yer would do.  I turned to the power of the internet!  I found a place called Buffalo Exchange.  It wasn't too far, just a train ride away in Wicker Park on the north side of Chicago.  There were tons of positive reviews about the place too, so I felt it could be trusted.  I packed up my things and headed down there Monday, October 22nd.

 I'd called the boutique earlier to get a feel for what they'd be up for buying- to save myself and my back the trouble of dragging suitcases of crap there.  The sweet young lady on the phone stated that they would buy old clothes, Halloween costumes, jewelry- pretty much everything- store bought or hand made.  Good.  She stated that I would get 35% pay out in cash OR 50% payout in store credit.  Sounds fair.  That's how the merchandise things in big retailers.  I was pretty confident that I'd come away with at least $200-$300 if the boutique was as great as people were saying it was online.    I lugged my stuff down to Wicker Park.

Image Cred: Broke and Chic.com

Now, I'm a smart girl.  I know the signs of a struggling boutique that won't give me much pay out.  There won't be a lot of people inside, the racks will have tons of 'on sale' or '30% off' on prominent display and there may even be a side show clown spinning a sign outside the shop to lure buyers in.  There was none of this at Buffalo Exchange, so I walked in with confidence.

I wish I hadn't. 

It took them a long time to look through all of my stuff.  A very long time.  I brought a lot of stuff, you know.  I brought old clothes I couldn't fit, Halloween costumes I was...bursting out of, and a few accessories that I just didn't like any more.  Only the good stuff, though.  Bringing bad stuff is just bad business.  In the end, I came away with about $150 expected cash payout OR a $225 store credit.  WHAT?!
I was flabbergasted and I asked the nice ladies if the jewelry I'd brought wasn't trendy enough to make the cut because I saw that they'd heaped up a lot of clothes and hadn't finished going through the jewelry yet.  That wasn't the case at all.  They loved the jewelry- just about all of it, in fact.  They loved the details, every little thing about it.

The issue was their pricing model.  They were pricing things that I would sell for at least $60 at a potential retail value of about $30. That's just a little over cost of materials and doesn't even pay for the hours I put into each piece.  It felt like someone was offering me $100 bucks for my left kidney.  Granted, I don't need the kidney to live, but do you realize that this thing is worth 200 times what you're offering me?
F*ck that noise.  I bargained with the ladies of Buffalo Exchange and they were surprisingly amicable about the whole thing.  No one got nasty and they understood the situation.  They even went back into the system and recalculated the items' worth.  In the end, after examination of what they wanted for their store and what I wanted for my work, I came out a little bit above cost of goods sold.  That is, for those of you who didn't have to take accounting and finance classes, BREAKING EVEN.

In the end, I came out with about $70 in store credit and $150 in cash.  It doesn't sound like a big difference, but in total, that's right in the modest $200-$300 payout range I was initially going for.  I would have liked to be paid out MORE, but well, I broke even on my costs and labor and I got a few jazzy clothing items to boot. 

Now, I have to get myself ready for another week packed with job interviews.  Catch ya later.

The Cuff Bracelet Phenomenon

Once upon a time, it was cool to wear large afros and day-glo bell-bottoms.  Not so chic today...  Today fashion translates to 'whatever makes you happy'.  Beribboned, beruffled, and bejeweled accessories for all!
All of a sudden, I see opposing subcultures trading beauty secrets like teen girls at a sleepover.  And, they've gotten creating stellar statement pieces down to a science.  Of all that I've seen so far, my favorite is the cuff.  A cuff is a solid band formed into a bracelet.  Typically it's one or more inches wide and decorated with stamped designs, wood, filigree, or inlays.  It's versatile and timeless.

A Cuff by Beth Church. 

Every lady I've ever seen as 'classy' has at least 2 cuffs.  Since the cuff movement made a resurgence, younger women sport the thick bracelets in a variety of styles and materials.   I decided 'I gotta get me some o' that!'  For creative purposes only.  I swear.  Stop looking at me with that accusing expression!

I looked in department stores, but...  It's silly to go to a department store and pay $20+ for a poorly made cuff that isn't to your taste.  It's even more ridiculous to pay $50+ for a higher quality one.  Any self-respecting DIY addict wouldn't stand for it.  I went to my old pal the internet and queried for cuff bracelet blanks and/or tutorials.  Most of the tutorials showed you how to make a fabric cuffs that weren't polished and would disintegrate.  I'm sorry, but when I decide to put a lot of work into something, especially when it involves hand-stitching, I'd like it to be worth my while.  More wear, less tear and preferably something that can be weaponized.  A girl's got to have her priorities straight.

I kept searching.  What I wanted was aluminum (It's lightweight AND flexible) cuff blanks that I could cover with fabric, rhinestones or whatever else I wanted.  I found nothing.  At one point, I nearly lost hope.  The only aluminum bracelets that anyone had available were the finished, stamped and highly-polished ones and, of course, raw sheet metal, but I don't have metal working tools more sophisticated than a pair of pliers!  What could I do with sheet metal?

With proper tools and training, I could do this.

But to do that, I'd need all this...and a blowtorch.

Eventually, I stumbled on a little shop on Etsy that carried pre-cut, pre-bent, and virtually unmolested cuff blanks.  What's more, they had several sizes, ranging from 1/2'' wide to 3 inches wide (That's HUGE!).  My search had ended.  All that was left to do was to acquire the cuffs and ask the shop owner if they knew about covering cuffs with fabric.  Guess what!? ...They didn't.  They'd only ever used the cuffs for stamping and other metal-working...things, things I can't do without the above toolkit..and training...and better safety goggles.  Suddenly buying the cuffs wasn't such a great idea.  I mean, there was a chance that I'd be stuck with product that was only good for a type of jewelry-crafting for which i was ill-equipped.  Maybe I should give up, right?
Right.  Just pretend your brain squirrels went into crazy spontaneous mode.  What would THEY do?  I bet they still didn't do what mine did.  That's cause my squirrels are crazier than yours.  I bought the blasted cuffs anyway, thanked the shop owner and began experimenting.  You would not believe how many rhinestones, yards of fabric, and tubes of glue I went through before I got it right and I made beautiful little babies.  I love my little darlings!  I'll even show them to you tomorrow...BUT FIRST! 

THE ETSY SHOP OF THE WEEK!

This week's feature is the little shop where my cuff blanks were found, Gotta Get A Deal.  GGAD, features a wide range of raw aluinum products for making ornaments, dog-tags, bracelets and regular stamping supplies.  They even have colorized aluminum and solid aluminum blocks.  I've no clue where they get it, but I consider them a 'friend' because they are the only shop I've seen so far with this kind of product line.  I recommend you visit their shop if you use the tutorial I will post tomorrow.  You'll find the product selection very useful.

Designer Jewelry Rip-off

Everyone's had an experience like this.  You've gone into a store, seen something sparkling and beautiful (be it clothing, shoes, or jewelry) and knew in the very depths of your soul that you and it were meant to be!  ...Well, I get like this with jewelry designs.  I see a component, no matter what it may be and I feel in the very depths of my SOUL that I must CREATE the vision that's dancing in my head. 
It is this vision, this ex cathedra specter of the perfect application of your skills and materials that becomes a juggernaut of activity.  It moves and breathes from your mind to your heart, and finally to the very tips of your fingers.  The power of creation that God gave you blooms fully and completely until...until it spins itself, beautiful and whole out of your sliced and bleeding fingers, leaves you with the joyful emptiness and fatigue-stricken body of a mother after childbirth.  And then...you see someone wearing a department store knock off of your vision, a twisted and abhorrent doppleganger of your talent smashed together by soulless machines, it's uniqueness and beauty whored out for the masses at 3 times the price.  Your labor of love has been stolen, drugged and pimped out till it's not special any more.

It's a sad thing, but it happens more often than many artisans realize.  Just this weekend passed, I visited a few relatives of mine and found that one of them had bought, for $20+ a bracelet that I could have made for 5 dollars, or less.  I had all the materials in my bead box, working fingers and more than enough time to complete it for her.  Yet, it must have seemed more convenient for her to buy it while she was out shopping.  I didn't dwell on it for long, but it did hurt me. 
I vowed that instead of allowing myself to get depressed over it, I would do some scouting at these high end department stores that everyone raves about.  It was partly to make myself feel better and partly for product forecasting research.  It was my plan, actually, to rip off their designs and sell them for half the price.  I'd even planned to use it as a means of advertising.  Hey!  I made the same crap as NORDSTROM but I'll let you have it for $10 instead of $50. 
I visited their websites, looked at all they had to offer and realized that my stuff was far less expensive and... THE SAME or better than theirs.  It jarred me.  In a good way.  Instead of continuing to be sad because they had product that was beyond my scope, I was heartened.  The song 'anything you can do I can do better' played through my head and I posted some more things on my Etsy.  Suck it Nordstrom.  You and your 25 dollar bow and pearl earrings.

Nordstrom's Pearl Drops for $25

 

 

My Bow Dangles Earrings for $12

Dare to compare.  I mean it.  Visit my Deviantart and Nordstrom's gallery and REALLY compare it.

Making Christmas, Making Christmas

I've been stressing holiday bootcamp a lot lately and keeping up with it fairly well.  I've been able to make a little money, save a little money and plan out possible bought gifts (which I can really afford!) for my close friends and relatives.  However, there's usually at least one Ren-Made item in the lot of Christmas gifts.  It was when I was perusing my stash that I noticed that I've taken absolutely no time out to make any heartfelt, handmade Christmas gifts for ANY of my family members.  Uh... Oops.

Then, of course, I overheard some of my sweet aunts randomly chattering about how excited and proud they are about my little side-business and how they've kept up with my deviantart page and can't wait to see what I've made for them for Christmas.  Uh.... Oops!

So... Holiday Bootcamp's discipline will now be applied to gift-making and planning.  To pacify all THREE of my faithful readers, I'll post a couple tutorials- maybe a reflective piece for you guys to gnaw on while I get busy.   All this, it's no big deal, right?

I've still got time and now, NOW, I also have legitimacy.  I made my first PURELY online sale a couple days ago.  Why is that so important?  Well, it's important because that means that all my DA posting and Etsy fiddling and all that enabled me to make someone want to buy something that I MADE simply because it looked good on a photograph.  That means, that my stuff looks professional from every angle.  That means, I don't have to work myself to sell a product.  It sells itself.  I feel... lightheaded.

That said, my Etsy Shop is now open for business.  There aren't many items RIGHT NOW, but there will be... soon.  I'm pacing myself.  If I post everything at once, I'll have a mondo huge listing bill and I won't be able to personally sell anything in my inventory.  So, for now, I'm plucking out some of my best pieces and putting them up for the possible online market. 

And now!  Before I forget, our Etsy Shop of the Week!

This week's feature is one mouthwatering, jaw-dropping marvel that'll excite your sweet tooth.  Fusion Sweets caters to any gourmet sweet tooth's deepest desires.  Run by the mother/daughter team of Kay and Angela, the shop offers enchanting new takes on old favorites from marshmallows and butter caramels to traditional hard candies, all in exciting and innovative new flavors.  Everything is handmade, organic and flavored with real, all natural ingredients.  You can even get custom orders!  Here are some of my personal favorites.

Peanut Butter Caramels

Guava Lemongrass Berlingots

Neopolitan Marshmallows

Rose Infused Marshmallows

Wicked Cool huh?  I might get me some of these treats for the holidays!