Weekly update. . .recovery is a process

Thankfully my kitty is recovering 😇 he made it thru the medicine and seems to be eating more voluntarily. The vet check-up was ok, his blood work is still not right, but we will go back on Monday and hope for continued improvement. 🙏My own toothache is still here, I'm almost thru my antibiotics so it is hurting way less than before. 

I feel like I didn't accomplish much this week, but I actually did. 😉 I did finish a 3rd pumpkin.  I did redo the stem on the large one.  I did get them turned into jewelry. 

I did get set-up for a photo shoot and I did get some really good shots, I think. 😊 I even did stylized photos with props, which is a first for me. 

I think I need some practice, but after lots of shifting things around and trying different display stands, I am pretty happy with the photos in the listing. 😎 The best part is I did get it finished, photographed and listed just in time for the #makerchallenge deadline. 🎉  

Next week it is time to dive into the kits I bought, scalemaille flowers, Japanese balls, and star ornaments. Yes, I am starting on Christmas ornaments, I am hoping that by starting so early in the year I can have dozens of them done for the "holiday" shows I applied for. Even if I don't get into the second juried event, I'd like to list them online as sets this year.  😉

Weekly update. . .not so good

Well, it is time for a weekly update but this week the update is not so good.  I have a dental infection and am on drugs for my toothache. Also, my Jaspurrr has been diagnosed with FIV and is having a bout of anemia. 😞 

Ironically my cat and I are both on amoxicillin 😅 although mine are capsules and his liquid is mixed with something else. 

I did get a couple of things done.  I even got them photographed and listed too. 😉  But I have not started on my kits from Metal Designz yet. I really need to get another pumpkin done so I can make them into the earrings and pendant set to submit to the #makerchallenge for the month. There are only 5 days until the deadline for the monthly maker challenge. I did not get to make several practice versions or work on my wire stems, but I am going to finish the set and submit it. 😐

I got a new tool! A cute little tumbler to clean and polish all my bright aluminum rings. I have used it a bit, just testing but I cleaned and started to polish a couple of my old bracelets. A good and bad idea at the same time because not all patterns took it well. 😏 I mean all the bracelets came out clean and shinier, but I had to spend some time getting the one un-bound and straightened out.  So, I plan to pre-tumble the rings from now on that way they can be clean and extra shiny *before* they become complicated weaves that are hard to clean. 😉

I am claiming victory over my google analytics conversion, I got the new stuff to work with my Mosiac, so I can still get visitor/traffic data. Unfortunately, my pinterest html has all been blanked again. 😐 All this tech stuff is supposed to be easy-peasy set and go but it seems like it is in constant need of maintenance and monitoring instead.  😅

Weekly update. . .busy week

In this week's update I admit to being too busy. 😏 I had big plans for learning all the new things and making lots of Christmas ornaments and pumpkins and earrings. However, that didn't quite work out, instead someone bought the rainbow box chain before I even had it finished. 😧 So I had to finish it and get it in the mail quickly and start it all over again. (I took the listing down this time) 

I did get it shipped on time and the latest re-make is going quick so hopefully soon I can get back to doing all the other things, which would be good because I have a lot planned.  I need to make the Celtic star earrings in several colors with matching pendants. I did figure out chainmaille pumpkins and I can do 2 sizes with the rings I have on hand, but I do need to practice with the wire stems. 😏

Even though the pumpkins are cute I have no idea what to do with them. I'm not sure I trust the wire stems for earrings or pendants, maybe my wire is too soft or I'm just crazy, but I am concerned that it will wear badly and not last. 😟 I have always been way paranoid about people being disappointed. 

In a rare move for me I bought "kits" from another mailler. 

I have not purchased an actual kit since I first started over a decade ago. 

Thanks go to Metal Designz

I have never been able to figure out scale flowers, I have tried and they just don't work, I think it's because my standard ring sizes are the wrong sizes for the pattern. I also really wanted to learn those Japanese ball ornaments because they look amazing but again I didn't have the right rings sizes to make them. Now I get to test myself and see if I can follow directions, lol.

😅 I'm not sure the odds are in my favor. 😂😅

 

It's July and I'm late. . .

I have been trying to post weekly lately but after the craft fair and recovery and the July Fourth holiday I've been busy planning for the next big thing. 😅 I have been making things, learning new chain patterns, and I applied for 2 more events. 😉 I'm not sure I'll get into both, one of them is a "juried" thing which I've never done before, the other is a fall version of the craft fair at the fairgrounds like I did last month.  

Both events have a fall/winter/holiday theme, so I am working on more Christmas ornament designs and autumnal wire trees. I'm also going to add some orange and black chainmaille and attempt some pumpkins. 😎 I have several ideas for booth decorations including a small Christmas tree to display the ornaments. 

There are some star designs that I think will make great ornaments if I upsize the rings. My current ring sizes are a bit limited, but they do make nice earrings. 😇

And also pendants, especially if I can find the right sized crystals to capture in the center. 

I have so many ideas for things to make, it's a good thing that the shows aren't until September and November. 😅

It was fun but I'm tired. . .

I've had a few days to unpack, reorganize and recover from the craft show. Looking back, I think I over did it for the venue. Looking at my booth set up compared to those around me, I think I got carried away. 😅

 My tower of art was almost the tallest thing in the hall. 😁 While it was part of my plan to have the tall thing to attract attention and mark my space as different, I didn't expect it to stick out quite so much. 😅

 I mean most of the other booths were just flat tables and/or small stands. I also noticed that most of them didn't have much if anything for the "beach themed" booth decorating contest, where I had extra decor all over the place. 😐 

Literally, beach towels, sea shells, sand toys, beach balls on every display, racks and tables 😎 plus the whole front of ocean waves art. I mean come on, I "beached" my whole booth, but no word on who won the contest, so I doubt it was me. 😐

Kind of a shame really, I put a lot of thought into this, a lot of extra effort and planning that now kind of feels like it was a bit of a waste. I mean I was happy with my display, I was proud even of what I had come up with. I mean did you even see the shark about to swallow the toy boat?!!? 😆

The 3-sided art display worked pretty great, I'll probably do that again.

It created a good amount of hanging space and I was able to display quite a few paintings showing off different styles. 

The second rack was absolutely necessary to split the jewelry up and keep it from overwhelming the tables.  

I still think I have too much stuff and I need a better plan for the leather bracelets because they take up too much surface. Overall, I had fun (which was greatly aided by inviting a friend) and I would do it again, although I will probably reign myself in a bit next time. 😅

Tick tock. . .

No not the social media app, the countdown clock to my event. The first event in my new "home" area, the first event in over a year. The first event since the move has taken a lot of preparation, digging thru the garages searching for tables, racks, and shelves, cleaning said tables and shelves; 😉 building out inventory, making more little trees, filling jewelry displays. I didn't get quite as much done as I had planned but that's life sometimes. 

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the booth set-up, partly because I haven't done a lot of indoor events and partly because of the booth decorating contest which I've never done before. Normally I set up outdoors and have the canopy/tent overhead that I use to hang things like the wire trees and paintings. So, setting up indoors without it presents a bit of a challenge for displaying certain things. 😐 I have a monster wire display tree, but I have no place to hang it, so I am leaving it home.

I had decided on the 6 foot rack because without the canopy I feel I needed some vertical attention grabber. I also decided to use it a bit differently instead of "cornering" it I am flat facing it so people can walk around and I can use all 3 sides. 😁 The "front" is the beach theme with all the ocean waves paintings and some decor stuffs, there is more I just didn't get it all out for yesterday's test. 😉

Side 2 is the wall of flags, with all the embellished abstract flags. The third side is just a sampling of abstracts and rainbows. 

While I do find the tower of art pretty and kind of impressive it is just art leaving me with mountains of jewelry. 😏 I had planned for two 6 foot tables but when I set them up and started loading the stands and displays and the book of little trees, I realized I have too much stuff and not enough surface. 

Plus, if both tables are just covered in jewelry I have no place for crates of other art. 😕 So I went back to the drawing board and double checked measurements and decided I will need a second rack. If I put a 4 foot in the back corner, I can move some of the larger jewelry things over and have enough table space for 2 crates of art.  

One of the major reasons I decided to use a second rack is because I realized I had no place to put the necklace board without it, it zip ties in the top normally. 😐 So if I can use the second rack I can move over the barrettes, rings, earrings, giant triple bar, and it gives me more space for hanging wire trees. 

It seemed like a great solution until I went back to searching the garages for more shelves and realized I don't have enough. 😖 Normally I use either the 6 foot or the pair of 4 foot, so I have not had this come up before, but I only have 6 shelves. The 6 foot configuration I tested had 5 shelves all by itself, but the 4 foot rack requires at least 2 shelves just for stability and ideal 3 for display purposes. After about half an hour of semi-panic searching, realizing there were no more shelves to be found and that this would not work without them I jumped online and order more. 😏 Now I am fingers-crossed just hoping they arrive in time.

Sad but Accepted. . .

Well, it finally happened, after 8 years of selling on etsy I finally got a less than 5-star review. 😞 I am a little sad but I accept it. 😐 It is still 4 stars so it could be worse, like a 2 or something. 

The overall rating is still 5-stars at the top of the shop, at least for now. I could have messaged them and tried to offer a discount or additional things for them to change the review but it's not really a bad review it says they are happy with it and likely to purchase again, it's just that barrette clip has a loose center. 😑 They said my chainmaille is beautiful they recognize the clip itself is a supply, so instead of trying to get them to change the review I simply apologized recognized the clips can be an issue and in the future I will test them more carefully.   

I am a bit disappointed because there is a good chance that at some point my shop will show as 4 stars instead of 5, because of the way etsy calculates the average on a 1 year rolling period, combined with the infrequent nature of reviews in my shop complicated by being closed for several months for the move making a period of no new reviews.  It's just one of those things, I see it coming but as there is nothing to be done about it, I have to just let it go. 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅰𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅝 let it go 

Over the years I have seen many, many sellers freaking out in the forums over a "bad" review and often I have thought to myself "ok but that is not that bad" 4 stars is actually technically not bad at all, it is not negative it's just not perfect. For many years on etsy you couldn't even publicly respond to a 4 star review it had to be 3 or less. They have recently changed that and now sellers can respond to any review even 5 stars which seems weird to me because what would you say other than "thank you". 😅  

With a Father's day trip this weekend and my craft fair next weekend I just don't have the time or energy to be overly-upset about one less than perfect review. I do care, I care a great deal about my customers being happy, but if you read it they are not really un-happy so I am going to choose to not obsess over this.  There are so many other things for me to obsess over right now. 😅😆