The Cost Of...

New stickers

New Canon printer and 5 x ink cartridges:                            $300

Business cards, stickers, return address labels, and banner:  $179
Domain name re-registration:                                             $10
Starting to feel like I am getting on top of my to do list:        Priceless.

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Sneak Peek -- New Photos

I have been working hard to re-style my jewelry photos for Etsy with a little more deliciousness.  It is a lot of work and a definite learning curve (with help), and I have a LOT more to do!  Here is a sneak peek:

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How I package my jewelry

Since I was packing up an Etsy order tonight, I thought I'd take some pictures of the process and show you the way I send out my jewelry. I've had a few nice compliments on it, though I imagine this is something that will change and evolve over time. There are so many great threads in the Etsy forums about packaging, the options are endless.

First, I pull out a page from this book, that I bought from a secondhand store. At first, it felt a bit sacrilegious to tear pages out of a poetry book, but I've desensitized to it by now...

Then, I fold the page into a little origami envelope:

Which I learned to do from this video: 

Then I put each piece of jewelry into its own plastic bag, unfold the envelope, and put a business card and the jewelry inside:

I then fold the envelopes back up, and seal the backs with an Art & Clasp label:

The finishing touch is a birds-egg blue ribbon, tied in a bow:

Finally, for mailing, I put them in bubble mailers, with an Art & Clasp address label (blurred out for the photo!):

That's it! Doesn't take long, now that I've mastered the envelope folding.  Fairly cost-efficient too!  How do you package your wares?

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Alice in Wonderland Pendants - Sneak Peek!

I am so excited.  When I first started making these pendants, I bought supplies to make round ones and oval ones.  For some reason, every single oval one I attempted was riddled with blemishes and unusable, but the round ones were working out ok, so I figured it was because of the shape and gave up on it.  The ovals sat in my materials drawer and taunted me with their yuckiness.

Recently I switched from acrylic cabochons to glass and so I bought a pack of oval ones just to try again.  I pressed some Alice in Wonderland images yesterday afternoon, looked at them when I got home from work today, and oh happy day, they came out GREAT!  I used a longer chain length for these ones too.  I am so excited about them.

Above is a sneak peek of the pendants I'll be listing on Etsy... I even got brave and took photos of myself and actually left my face in the pictures (at least part of it), horrors.... I hate having my picture taken, I swear I am the most unphotogenic person on the planet.  Luckily a bit of soft-focus in Picasa took care of the worst ;)

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Here I Am

I've been neglecting things (Etsy, blog, creating, housework...) a bit.  Feeling a little disheveled and not sure where the time has been going this past week.  This weekend has been one of those where you have to spend $520 on maintenance for a car you hate, you go to two stores and your (and only your) make-up shade is out of stock, and you unwrap a Laughing Cow cheese only for it to immediately fall on the floor. 

Anyway, less complaining...

Last weekend was much happier.  On Saturday (the 5th) two of my wonderful friends and I ran the See Jane Run women's half-marathon in Alameda, CA (near San Francisco).  It wasn't easy, much too warm for my liking (I hate running if it's more than 60F), and the last two miles were the longest of my life, but we finished.  Here we are afterwards with our medals (that's me in the middle!):

After the race (and much-needed showers), we headed to Viansa winery in Sonoma, where my friend is a member so we could taste as much wine as we wanted, for free!  Bliss.

Creatively, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed this week.  I've been trying to keep up with the Taking Flight e-course and there is just SO much information, it's hard to read and take it all in, but it's all such gold I don't want to miss a thing.  I've also been trying to visit the blogs of other class members and show some support (and have received some wonderful comments and compliments in return).  The e-course also reminded me that I have been neglecting Twitter and I could definitely be doing a better job on my Facebook page also.  Sigh.

I've also been having trouble with the adhesive I use to make my jewelry, which was very frustrating and resulted in a lot of wasted materials, but I think I've figured out the problem.  I have one thing finished (one! but there are a few more near completion), photographed, and ready to list on Etsy, finally.  I haven't listed anything new for ages, tsk tsk.   Here's the owl ring I will be listing shortly:

Hope you all had enjoyable weekends and your cheese didn't fall on the floor.  I will be more productive this week!

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Silver and Copper Vintage-Look Rings

As promised, here is your sneak peek at the new rings I will be putting up in my Etsy store next week.  All bands are adjustable so one size fits all/most. The copper rings are smaller than the silver-colored rings.If there's anything that strikes your fancy, send me an email (artandclasp [at] gmail dot com) or an Etsy convo and I will create a reserved listing for you.  There's currently only one of each though!

P.S. Don't forget to email me to sign up for my new newsletter and enter the draw to win a necklace!  Drawing is at the end of May.

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Super Fun Weekend Part One

I am a big fan of Joy Wilson's baking blog, and On the Lamb Food and Beverage, Joy's joint venture with Whitney Adams and Rachel Humphrey.  Today these ridiculously talented ladies held a free demonstration of strawberry deliciousness at Surfas in Culver City.

 Whitney Adams, Joy Wilson, and Rachel Humphrey. How cute are they?!!

First up was a fantastically refreshing strawberry-basil drink, that I am definitely going to make when the suffocating San Fernando Valley summer kicks in.  Next came strawberry and black pepper biscuits (scone-type things for my South Pacific readers) that were quickly inhaled along with a simple but delicious strawberry-arugula salad.  Finally, Joy's strawberry-banana cream pie (served as super cute mini-tartlets) was amazing, lactose-intolerance be damned...

H

How awesome is the setup at Surfas?! The TV screen and mirror are positioned so you can see exactly what's going on on the stove and counter. 

The ladies of On the Lamb have all sorts of upcoming shenanigans that I highly recommend you look into.  Just don't take my spot...

Before and after the demonstration, I was busy at my workbench making eight (!) new necklaces, two pairs of earrings, and a bracelet.  I am so motivated by the new supplies I bought, including some awesome hot-air balloon charms and Eiffel Tower charms that I hope you're going to love.  Here's a sneak peek, I'm aiming to get all the new pieces listed on Etsy tomorrow:

Hope you had a great start to the weekend also!  Tomorrow brings more crafty fun -- I'm going to learn to make hot-process soap, I've been wanting to do this for a long time.  Can't wait!

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Photographing for Etsy

I’ll admit it, photography is not my strong point, as much as I would love it to be. I use an 8MP Canon PowerShot A590IS, which is still just a point-and-shoot but probably capable of taking much better pictures than I manage to produce. I've made my own (budget) lightbox using instructions I found on the internet, and I recently bought some clip-on work lamps and daylight bulbs, which have helped somewhat. Here are some pictures of my current set-up for photographing my jewelry for Etsy…

Yep, those are indeed my running shoes that the lamps are clipped on to...

Some of the photos on Etsy are PHENOMENAL.  Check out Sea Unicorn for an example for this (ok, so she's a professional photographer as well as a jewelry maker...)  Most sellers on Etsy work really hard to take the best possible photographs of their items.  As well as trying to help potential buyers get a feel for their items through the computer screen, the prime way to get into Treasuries and onto the all-important Etsy homepage is through excellent photography.  Mine is certainly a work in progress.

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Obstacles

Little, tiny, bubbly obstacles...

Last week I showed you a glimpse of my necklace creation process.  This time I wanted to share with you one of the significant obstacles that arises when I create the pendants.

Before assembly, I have to inspect each image/cabochon for tiny air bubbles or other small imperfections on the surface of the image that are created in the gluing process.  Although the images often look fine immediately after they have been glued, and then sit under heavy weight for 24 hours, upon inspection I sometimes have to throw away up to 50% of them because of these minute flaws (I tried removing the cabochons and cleaning them, but the adhesive is extremely strong and I couldn’t get it off).  I’m working on perfecting my technique (just the right amount of adhesive plus careful application plus pressing time and weight) to reduce this wastage.

Before photographing, each pendant will be inspected again.  Unfortunately, I have found that over the first couple of days more bubbles or flaws may become visible (or perhaps I just missed them the first time).  If this happens, I extricate the image and cabochon and clean the bezel for re-use.  It’s horribly disappointing to find imperfections at this stage, but such are the trials and tribulations of the craft!

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Creating Necklaces -- Before and After

Here I’m giving you a sneak peek into the process of creating my copper necklaces.  Once the laborious process of gluing the cabochons and images has been completed, the pieces pressed under a stack of heavy books for a day, and the excess image trimmed, it is time to adhere them to the bezels (more pressing and waiting), and then they are finally ready to put on chains, add beads and charms, etc.

The first photo shows the before set-up on my work desk (oh yes, I am always this tidy…).  Here I have the pendants, chain, headpins, jump rings, clasps, glass beads, copper charms, a tape measure, rubbing alcohol and cotton tips, and tools:  flat-nose pliers, round-nose pliers, flush cutters, and chain-nose pliers.

After, the finished product!  Each piece has been assembled, cleaned, and inspected, ready for photographing and listing on Etsy.

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