Weekly update. . .scheduling events

I started making my Christmas ornaments in August this year so I would have lots of them available. 😎 I have spent months searching, researching, contemplating events, trying to decide which ones I want to sign up for. There are a lot of things to think about when considering events aside from the booth fee and space. Is it an established event, does it have good attendance history, what kind of crowd is it? 

I tend to do well at craft shows and family events, I have a variety of products that range from $5 braided leather bracelets to $100 fancy necklaces, from jewelry to paintings so there is plenty of stuff to look at for each age range in a family. 😇 So, I have selected a long running family event, a large craft show at the venue I did well over the summer, and a Christmas specific downtown event. 

Now I have less then 30 days to make sure I'm ready. The good news is the first one is not holiday themed, so I don't have to have a lot of extra "Decor" for the booth just my standard set-up. However, it will be outdoors so I will have to take my tent and sandbags and all that jazz. 😏 Probably stealing my husband's truck instead of using my little car that way I can take the 6' tall racks. I am planning to change up displays for the holiday themed shows, including a small tree to display the ornaments on, new earring displays and a new display for the pendants. 

I've had this spinning rack for years but it has issues, it blows over at outdoor events, the hooks are badly spaced, some of the hooks have broken off so it doesn't hold as much as it should, but worst is people don't spin it around to see everything. 

I'm playing with an idea and made a test version the other day, using recycled plastic trays, I think it's pretty cute. It holds a dozen pairs of earrings in a small footprint, in a way that I think people will be more likely to touch and interact with. 😉

I am hoping to have at least 3 of these little trays by the time I do the holiday show in November. I want to sort the earrings by material and style and put the little displays near the other jewelry they coordinate with instead of having all the earrings separated in another place. At my last event I had someone looking at bracelets and she had to ask if I had earrings to match because they were on the other side of the booth. But it made me wonder if other people just didn't bother to ask and I missed out on potential sales. 😕

I also plan on changing the way I display the pendants, for years I have had this big board and in some ways it was ok but the more stuff I make the messier it looks. Back when it was just the leather barbed wire, basically 1 style, in different colors it was cool but now it's cluttered and kind of a blur. 😒

I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do but it is clear that I need to replace this relic. 😅

I am leaning towards a plan that involves separating the pendants from the cords and making them more of a custom item. Only display 1 of each color of cord but have multiples made in each color in different lengths, offer the barbed wire as an $ upgrade, and have all the pendants in a tray so people can pick the pendants and then pick the color and length of cord. This way I could also offer an option to just attach a large lobster clasp directly and they can be zipper pulls or necklaces. 😎 It is currently just an idea I don't have a stand or tray or an actual plan yet. 

Weekly update. . .it's fall

Some people may have noticed I have been largely absent from social media this week or maybe no one noticed, but my stats show different. 😅 I've been kind of lazy this week, but I had a birthday so that's allowed. I have made a few things, mostly repetitive things just making the pile of stars and balls bigger. I am over 2 dozen now total, so many more to go. 😅 More rings are on the way and will hopefully be delivered soon.

I decided to recuse the cross from the "fail" pile and try, try again, after the 3rd change of center ring size, I did manage to mostly stabilize the design. The top and side arms are pretty locked-in but there is still some swing in the bottom. 😏 It hangs right most of the time. 

I have also found another pattern that works and modified it, so I actually like it better. This pattern works so much better with my standard ring sizes that I made 3 of them in 1 day. 😁 

So, as it turned out my lazy week "off" was still productive, I just didn't post as much social media stuff. 😇

Weekly update. . . just another week

Well, it is time for another weekly update. . .but there is not much to tell. 😏 I am still making ornaments, but it's getting a bit repetitive. I don't normally make the same thing over and over and over again. Actually, I'm not sure how people do that, don't you get bored making the same thing over and over? I've always leaned more towards the one of a kind so this "batching" of repeats is super weird for me.

 

I admit I am getting bored. 😐 The balls were fun in the beginning, but they are getting less fun now. The stars are ok, but I prefer the open center style to the overly dense version, partly because they use less rings and partly because they are easier and quicker to assemble.  😉 I did spend 1 day making a bracelet just because I didn't want to make balls or stars that day.

On a personal note, I haven't been feeling super lately not sure if it's allergies or covid or just a cold. Also, this week my birthday making me feel extra old and tired. 😅 I literally just sneezed 6 times in less than five minutes and now need to clean my computer screen. 😒

Weekly update. . .I need more rings

I live in a perpetual state of "I need more rings". 😅 If you saw all the rings I have you would not think I need more but I actually do, really. I am working on putting together my next order right now because I was right last week when I said I'd run out of rings before I had "dozens" of stars. I am just over halfway through the square rings I ordered for the stars and I only have 11 finished. 😏

So yeah, I am putting together the re-order for more square rings and some other sizes to try some new things. It seems like whenever I try something new, I need new rings, my standard sizes are great for a lot of patterns and projects, but some things really are size sensitive and just don't work with the "wrong" rings. 😐 I've had quite a few fails over the years where things end up too tight or too loose. 

Some of them I have kept some of them have been disassembled and recycled. Although, the ones I have "kept" were not saved because I liked them more like thrown in a drawer out of frustration when it didn't work. 😅 The cross attempts have cost me several hours in the last few days and neither of them turned out right. The second one I tried 3 different ways/size combos in the center and still cannot get it to stand straight like it's supposed to. 😖 Nothing quite like spending hours and hours and ending up with nothing useable to show for it. 😕 That's R&D for ya' though, it happens. 😅

Weekly update. . .stars!

I've been working through my plans for Christmas ornaments, learning new patterns for balls and stars, buying larger rings. The ball pattern is the same no matter how big the rings you use are, it is the same number of rings. Stars are a bit trickier there are multiple patterns and variations of patterns so they can vary greatly in the number of rings. 

I had thought of selling them in sets but I would need to make literally dozens of them. 😅 I'm not sure I ordered enough rings, seriously the one style is nice, but it takes over 70 rings per star. 😦 Even the lighter version have over 40 rings per star. I think I need to order more rings because I will undoubtedly run out before I have "dozens" of ornaments. 

I pulled out my little Christmas tree to set up and try to get photos of the new ornaments but I think I need to strip all the tinsel off and try again. 🤣 I do think that both the balls! and stars look cool, they look cool together and I even tried different sizes too. 

The extra large lavender even makes a good tree-topper on my little tree, although it's a 3' mini not a full sized tree. 😇 Most of the photos I shot are un-usable, they are way too busy with the extra stuff on the tree but a few of them are framed just right. I'll try again without the tinsel and extra stuff, in the meantime I'll also need straight shots of them with a plain background if I plan to list them online.  

Weekly update. . . sad

Ok, so this week's update will be short as it has been a weird, sad and mostly non-productive week. 😔 

Good news the kitty is acting almost normal, eating good, playing even. 😇 I got a small cavity filled, I have 1 more filling and the other half of my root-scaling and then I think the "weekly" frequency of dental appointments will be done. 😏 

Sad news we've had a death in the family. I haven't really made much and I haven't really been posting on social media because. . .well I'm sad. 😢😭 

In the weird column this week, I am still making balls! there are 6 sizes in this photo but I think I'm going to end up with 8. My Mom has requested a set of ornaments and I plan to make her some but not as many or as big as she initially requested. See that's the thing sometimes with shopping from photos you can't always tell size/scale. So just to clarify for anyone who reads this, the tiny gold balls are only 1" but they do get big kind of quick, you can't really tell when they are just lined up on the bench but that lavender in the back row is over 8" around, I can't close my fist around it. 👀

Also, I got an email an actual email from someone about commissioning a custom color boxchain. 😯 I'm surprised because it doesn't happen often, custom requests or actual emails. 😅 Now I'm putting this in the "Weird" column because of the email nature of the inquiry, I have no idea how this person found me, it's not a message on any 1 of the 3 platforms I have a shop, the email doesn't mention where they saw my work. 💩 So when I finish this necklace I have no idea where to list it, also after the initial exchange the person hasn't replied for days. . .so I'm not even sure how serious they were. 😏 But it is a cool color combo so I'm sure someone will buy it. 

Weekly update . . .unmotivated

I've been feeling distracted and unmotivated this week. The kitty seems to be better he's eating good and more active, acting more like his old self. My dental issues will continue for a while, I am not currently in lots of pain since we pulled the bad tooth, but I do have to get the deep cleaning and back on a regular cleaning schedule. But first I have a couple of fresh cavities that I need to get filled next Tuesday, they are very small, but I'd rather get them addressed now before they get bigger. 

Honestly, I just don't feel much like being in my shop. I've been trying to make myself make something each day, but since I didn't get into the show next month there is a part of me that is like "what's the point?" My next event is the only other event I have left for the whole year and it's not until November. 😏 So I literally have months to prepare and make whatever. 

I am calling these JingleBalls. 😁😂 Yes, I put jingle bells inside of balls, and this particular size is semi-rigid and fun to play with so the fact that it now jingles when you play with it is even better.  😎 I've also been putting beads inside some of them to make jewelry. Although, I admit that the tiny ones are a total PITA and even though I initially planned to make a dozen pairs of earrings with different colored centers I currently only have 2 done. 😅😏 I like the slightly larger sizes better and I am testing various necklace ideas for them.

This would be simple/easy but I don't like the way they look squished together. I may use the leather cord for single ball pendants, but I think some of these may need real chain necklaces so that the balls can be attached and spaced properly and so I can hang jingle bells in between the balls. 😊