NEC: What a great day!

Well, I've done it!  I taught a workshop at the NEC on creating beaded jewellery using the two needle method.  I think it went very well, largely thanks to the organisation and to the lovely ladies who took the workshop.  Very impressed to say that almost all of them completed the bracelet in the time (it was something that I'd been worrying about beforehand - was it too ambitious? not ambitious enough?)  Some of them were even kind enough to buy my next kit: to be available on Etsy by the end of the week when I've sorted the photos!  Meanwhile, here's a picture:

I will also be selling it as a made item, again by the end of the week.  Everything has been delayed slightly because of my lovely cat, Winston.  He decided that 6:30 a m on Saturday was the perfect time to get me out of bed for some food.  Unfortunately, my brain did not agree, and I managed to fall down the stairs, at which point the little ingrate legged it through the cat flap.  I won't bore anyone with the details, but I haven't been able to sit down since!

These are as far as I've got with things festive at the moment (see above)
Hopefully I'll be a bit more organised next week - I'm planning a trip to my favourite bead shop on Monday (could be expensive).

 

Finally, the kit is online!

Well, the title pretty much says it all this time.  The kit that I've been working on for what seems like forever is finally on line and available to purchase.  I'm actually pretty excited about it, because so much work has gone into making is as perfect as I can, especially as I'm giving a workshop making exactly this item on Friday.  At the NEC, no less!  I have spent the morning counting out beads into little plastic packets (sounds easy, but you try counting 16 lots of 120 beads with any degree of accuracy - it's not the most boring thing I've ever done, but it's definitely on the shortlist).  I managed to get half way through the task of packing up all the materials, only to realise that I'd left out my business cards.  Back to square one.  Opening up gripseal bags which you've carefully closed so that none of the packets of beads can get mixed up is way more difficult to do than it has any right to be!  

Incidentally, I hope you spot the way I've used the word "kit" 3 times in big red letters on the photo - maybe I am being a bit over-cautious here, but you can never tell!  The kit is available on my Etsy shop, in gorgeous festive colours of either red and gold or green and gold for a mere £6 plus postage.  Buy more than one kit (maybe 1 in each colour? and there's no extra postage charge).  If you really want to push the boat out, contact me through Etsy or this blog and do a deal for larger numbers of kits!

To buy through Etsy, click here

Roofers 1, Cats 1

Last year, just before Christmas, part of our roof decided to go for a little trip into our garden.  When the man came round to repair it, the news was not good.  Along the lines of "Well, it's hardly surprising, the roof's worn out".  (He may have used slightly stronger language).  Obviously we needed a new roof.  For various reasons we didn't have it done over the summer (I had an operation, we spent a lot of time not knowing what our children were going to be doing and where) and we generally perfected the art of procrastination.

Eventually, it hit the stage where we realised that we had to get a move on, or we'd end up with the whole roof in the garden in the next high wind.  So this week the roofers are in.  And it's raining.  However, they seem to be a cheerful bunch and not overly deterred by the inclement weather.  The cats, on the other hand, are not at all happy.  Winston (serial killer, but scaredy cat) legged it across the back wall within ten minutes of their arrival today. Sammy (big and ginger) has decided to stick it out, but keeps looking round at every crash and bang.  He has now retreated to the safety of my gym bag.  We will see whether he stays in for the whole day, and how long it takes Winston to decide that it's safe to come home.

The minutiae of running a business...

You know when you start running a business that there will be things that you have to do that are mind numbingly boring, but necessary.  Well, I seem to have had a weekend of those.  Ordering business cards (can't believe how hard it is to choose a design), working out an exact cost for the kits (making sure to include all the latest prices), trying to change the banner for my shop (that was the worst of all: started with GIMP, ended up with Paint because I could not get GIMP to work).  I've been through about five attempts today, still not entirely happy, but at least it doesn't have part of the name missing and it's not too pixellated! 

On a positive note: I had my first international sale (woo-hoo).  And I finally found out why my new phone makes weird noises - apparently the Etsy sales app is trying to let me know that someone has favourited an item.  If only it hadn't been at 4 am that I discovered this!

The wire wrapping is coming along nicely - I listed my first pair of wire wrapped earrings today:

Buy them here

More designs coming this week, plus the kits will be online by Friday.  Everything is ready, apart from the packaging, which is due tomorrow.  It looks like being another busy week.

Rhiannon Rose at the NEC!

I am really pleased to be able to let you all in on something that has been being planned for a while - I'm going to be teaching a workshop at the NEC Birmingham as part of Prima magazine's Make and Take Theatre!  We will be making the festive bracelet that I wrote about a while back, just in time for Christmas.  If you come along, you will get the full kit, with a choice of bead colours and I will guide you through the whole process.

These are two of the colours that will be available on the day, there will also be an option for a glass pearl bracelet, made to the same pattern, but which looks very different.



The Christmas Craft fair runs from Thursday, 6 November 2014 at 10:00 - Sunday, 9 November 2014 at 16:00, with a full programme of workshops, which may be booked in advance.
My workshop is on Friday 7th November, from 10:00 to 11:00.  Tickets cost £10, plus booking fee.  They are limited, but you can book in advance through this link:

Book Workshop

It should be a fantastic day, as there are lots of great workshops lined up, plus the rest of the Christmas Crafts fair to enjoy.  I look forward to seeing you there!

U day - 1

Tomorrow is the day.  My youngest child and only daughter is off to Uni.  We are surrounded by boxes, packing materials and lists.  Apparently she has done one-third of today's list.  We have sorted out what time we all need to get up tomorrow.  I am cooking her favourite meal tonight in a sort of "condemned man's last meal" kind of a way.  Now there is nothing much left for me to do except think about how strange it will be without her.  We will still have the two cats, of course, who will no doubt be confused.  Sammy has clearly spotted that something is going on, as he's been sleeping in her room (mostly on the most uncomfortable box of packed things that he can find) for the past few nights.  He has now disappeared, so we don't know if this is in disgust, or if he will be back in the middle of the night to check if she's gone yet.  Meanwhile, the washing machine is in constant use ("it will cost me £4 a load at Uni") and we are in danger of running out of newspaper.  Oh, if anyone wants to know the best way to pack cacti, you need a mug, newspaper, a yogurt pot and lots of packing tape.  I am not looking forward to tomorrow.

Christmas is coming!

I've been working on some new ideas today.  I'm creating a kit (possibly more than one) for Christmas jewellery making.  Today it got one step closer - my daughter followed the instructions and made a bracelet!  She found 2 mistakes for me (which was the whole idea) and the only thing I had to help her with was threading the needles at the start.  Next week: my mum and some of her friends are going to give it a try. 

This is the bracelet:

Then all I have to do is source the right size plastic bags, get lots of copies of the instructions printed, price it up (it will be less than £12 as that's what the completed article goes for), and start counting beads into little packages.  Makes me quite exhausted just thinking about it!









I've also been practicing wire wrapping - something that I've only ever done on a very small scale with earrings - because I have some amazing pieces of druzy that are just crying out to be wire wrapped.  I want to be able to do them justice, but I think I'm going to have to use some quite heavy duty wire to get the look I want.

Now on Pinterest!

OK, I'm beginning to get this social media malarkey all joined up!  I have managed to set up a Pinterest board (well several in fact).  There is a whole board just devoted to my cats, one for promoting my shop, and a couple of others.  I'm hoping to add a board about the different materials and semi-precious gemstones that I use, because people are always asking about those.  When I've got my workspace sorted better, I'm also hoping to get some pictures up of the different stages of creating a piece of jewellery - I think that might be quite interesting!

Meanwhile, if you fancy having a quick look, click on the big red pinterest logo, and it'll take you to my boards.  Feel free to share the love and repin!  Any ideas about what you'd like to see, feel free to contact me: comment on the blog, message me via pinterest, via ETSY (shop link above), whatever!

New work room. Plus cats.

I've had my eye on my own workspace for a while.  Up to now, I've been working out of my bedroom, which is not very convenient, and things were all getting stacked on top of each other.  My second son had just finished uni, and we weren't sure where he would be living.  Anyway, he accepted a job up in Leeds (starts next week) and has moved out.  So, naturally, I moved into his room.  I'm still in the process of removing all the stuff he left behind (you would not believe how many clothes he has!) and moving my stuff in, but it's going to work well, I think.  One of the cats started sleeping on the bed the day I moved (they both used to sleep in with me while I was working.  The other one waited until today.  He didn't like the bed.  He didn't like the box that he'd previously slept on, but was sleeping on it , on the bed when I went off for lunch.  When I came back from lunch, he'd moved and I couldn't see him anywhere.  I went into the bedroom in case he'd moved back there. No Sammy.  Quick look round upstairs, couldn't find  him.  Went to sit down at my desk, and this is what I saw:

He's still there now as I type this.

OK, I am a slacker!

I have not been keeping up to date with my blog at all.  I'm trying to keep on top of my life: running my shop on Etsy, getting my children sorted into university/into post-uni life, sourcing new supplies, and generally just trying to keep going.  I've started a pinterest board (but I haven't a clue what to do with it), joined something called craftori (ditto) and don't even get me started on wanelo!
All this social media is a bit overwhelming - I know that it could all help me get my shop to the next level, but I'm just not sure how.  I'm also trying to get the precious metal clay ideas sorted.  About the only thing I have managed recently is to get myself (half) moved into my new office (ie my son's former bedroom), and to crack the concept of bib necklaces.

Meanwhile, look at the gorgeous little kitten on the left.  Sweet, isn't he? Adorable? Pretty?  He is also a serial killer.  In the last 7 days, we have had 3 pigeons (one headless) and 1 live mouse placed under our dining table. (The mouse disappeared but we did find a kidney later, so I guess it didn't have a happy ending.

I wouldn't mind, but I can't cope with live mice.  Body parts, yes, no problem, but when they're moving, I want to stand on a chair!
Apart from that, Winston is the cutest cat ever. He's 2 and a half now, and shares his birthday with our daughter and his brother Sammy, who is ginger and the most adorable cat ever.  Hang on, that's Winston.  Actually they are both lovely, and you couldn't choose between them.  Apart from the dead things, that is.

Oh yes, it has arrived!

Absolute utter excitement: I have finally taken delivery of a blowtorch!  I am so pleased with this - it's something I've been itching to get my hands on for a while now.  I've been interested for a while in the idea of making more of my jewellery components from scratch: especially the idea of making pagan pendants in silver.  I've just started doing a course with silver art clay, which allows you to do exactly what I'm looking for, but then you have to fire them.  I looked at the idea of a home kiln, but once I'd seen the £300 price tag, that wasn't going to happen.  But... you can use a blowtorch instead!  My mum was a bit thrown when I announced that that was what she'd bought me for my birthday,  but she's used to me buying odd things.
It finally turned up last week, at which point I realised that I'm going to have to get hold of butane refills for it.  So it's still in the box.  I will get there eventually! 

Success!

The last few weeks have seen a couple of successes:

My son graduated from York university. A brilliant day for us all, and I'd just like to quote from my former GP: "There's nothing wrong with the boy.  You just shouldn't expect ll your children to be smart enough to go to university".  Shame he hadn't been able to diagnose his Asperger's syndrome.  On the other hand, in this instance the worried mother did know best.

And (at last) my first sale on Etsy.  I'm especially pleased as it was of an item (moonstone earrings) that I particularly liked.  Target for August: 2 sales.

I've been branching out recently, working on more "pure bead" designs, but with a darker side.  Here's an example of what I mean:

I've got a whole load of black pearl beads (for some reason the one colour that most people don't stock, just begging to be made up into gothic bracelets, so this will be the first of many, I'm sure.  

In pursuit of the white background

OK, this week I'm doing Etsy photo school in an attempt to increase sales by having better pictures.  The main criticism I've had is: your photos don't have a white enough background.

So I ran them through photoshop.

Perfect white background.

Next complaint: Yes, but now the colours are wrong.

So I bought a tripod and a cable release and read my camera manual on how to over expose the background.  Now look what I can do!  Yay, perfect white background.  Shame about the earrings.

 I think I may need to experiment some more here...Any thoughts or suggestions gratefully received.

Businesswoman of the year...

I don't know if there is a businesswoman of the year, but I bet that if there is, she hasn't just sat down to work on a new creation and been prevented from doing it by shrieks of "Oh my God, I don't know what the cat's done at the bottom of the stairs, but it's white and bubbly"  (he'd sicked up some milk).
I've been busy networking this week (my brother's niece has liked my facebook page), met up with another Etsy team member, attended a webinar on how to get better pictures (buy a tripod), bought a tripod (hasn't arrived yet, so I can continue to believe that it will be the answer to the "perfect white background problem") and contacted two local craft fairs with a view to exhibiting. Oh, and somehow set myself up a Pinterest account which already has 1 follower by accidentally clicking on a logo. I now have more online "things" than I knew existed last month, and there are still more out there.
So how are the sales going?  You may well ask.  There are as yet no sales.  I'm thinking again about going for the Guinness world record  for not selling anything, but I think that may just make me more depressed.

How many ways can you get it wrong?

When I started this blog, I said that I would try to share the day-to-day frustrations of setting up a business selling jewellery.  So I guess that I ought to share some of the stupid things I've done:

Earrings.

These come in pairs, right?  So they should be identical.
Mistakes so far:  1 gold fixings, 1 silver fixings
                             Beads in different sequence
                             Different size beads
                             Beads which looked the same, but then didn't

Bracelets.

Perfect bracelet with sliding knot closure (I learnt how to do that this week on youtube).  You end up with four ends of cord, two of which need to be cut off.  I think you can guess what happened here...

Beads which have different coloured ends, so naturally you put one on the wrong way round....

Necklaces.

OK, you have a focal bead in the middle.  You put matching beads on each side.  Until you put the bead on the wrong side.  Then it isn't symmetrical any more.

On the other hand, I can get it right as well.  This week I have made the items below.  Check them out!

      
 Paua shell earrings

Bridal pearl bracelet

Strange week

My youngest child had her last A level exam this week.  Bizarrely, I burst into tears after I'd dropped her off.  Why?  What will I do when she leaves for uni?  I then spent the whole time that she was taking the exam (Mechanics 2 - 2 hours I think) trying to thread two beads onto some knotting cord.  Before you start to think "poor old bat, she must be really past it" I need to point out that in fact the hole through the centre of the bead was silted up.  After I'd poked all sorts of things through it, breaking a yellow plastic taper in the process, I researched on line (was a bit worried what I might get if I put "enlarge holes" into google) and discovered that there is a tool called a bead reamer, a tiny little file, that you can use for this purpose.  Even better, Amazon had a pack of them for sale at a ridiculously small price, so I bought them.

Meanwhile, I'd emailed the beads manufacturers, Jesse James beads, about the beads, and eventually got a very helpful reply about how to deal with the other bead that was giving me problems.

 They even offered to replace the beads if I couldn't get them sorted - how nice is that?
Things started to go downhill from there though.  I discovered that my bank hadn't cancelled a standing order, and when I complained, I found myself dealing with some really unhelpful people.  However, being a stroppy individual ("feisty" if you are American) I complained, and eventually got through to some lovely people who understood my problem and resolved it. So all told, a massive "thanks" to Barclays Bank (especially the CRT team).

So the week progressed, I paid my car tax, took no orders on etsy, put up lots more listings on etsy, got invited to a webinar (apparently that's a seminar but it's on-line) on how to increase my sales - maybe I need the stage before that - how to get ANY sales - read through loads of stuff on search engine optimization (most of which contradicted itself at least twice), made some very pretty elasticated bracelets, learnt how to make a sliding knot clasp - youtube where would I be without you? and best of all went back to the gym for the first time since having my gallstones removed.  (Closely followed by shocking realisation that I am now so much less fit than I was a month ago.)

So, all in all, a strange week. Oh, before I forget, my beloved has acquired lots of gorgeous young lady followers on Facebook.  Hmmm.   

Tired, but happy

Well, it has been a long week.  At the start of it, my partner gave me a target of getting 25 items in total made and online in my Etsy shop.  At the time I thought, well I won't tell him, but I think that's a bit easy.
So here we are on Friday afternoon at 15:16.  I have just managed to get the 25th item posted.  Maybe he had a point!  I'm not sure what I should set myself as a target for next week - I want to experiment with spiral rope bangles, and I got hold of some very pretty lampwork beads that are screaming out to be made into something (I'm just not sure what!).  
More importantly, it's now only ten days until I'm allowed to go back to the gym and discover how unfit I've managed to become thanks to the op and a month recovering. I am so looking forward to swimming again.  And the jacuzzi, of course!

Listed at last (see previous post!)

Well, I finally got the items up on Etsy. Now all I have to do is wait for the hundreds of people trying to buy (spot the slight exaggeration if you can).  As a bit of shameless self-promotion, here are a few pictures:

If you think these are gorgeous, or even OK, please comment on my blog, or even better, follow my Etsy shop banner and have a look!

Utterly frustrating day...

I was shattered over the weekend (doing too much too soon after an operation).  So, I put off taking photos of my packaging until this morning.  Big mistake.

Briefly:

• My camera wasn't working.  Took 5 minutes to work out that the battery needed recharging.  Then it took 3 hours to charge it.
• Uploaded photos.  Went to use free photoshop online.  Site was down.
• Decided to use photoshop by downloading (legally) from an intermediate site.   Also acquired malware.
• Spent 45 minutes removing malware.
• Finally, at 1845, have just managed to edit my photos.  Am now too tired to put up listings on Etsy.

Wonder what's the longest time that anyone's ever taken to list an item on Etsy? 

World cup woes...

I am not a football fan.  I do like sport (some sport, well OK just the one ... NFL), but football as played here in England is not the game for me.  But at the moment, the whole country seems to have gone mad over it.  

It began last week.  Lots of surprisingly clean looking red and white flags started appearing draped out of houses, flying on the occasional flagpole and attached to cars.  Then the drivel (sorry, "build-up")  began in the media, with far too much information about the venues all over the news.  Then I received an email from one of my bead suppliers, telling me that the "trending item" was wristbands woven out of rubber bands in World Cup team colours.  OK, I thought, tenuous, but you have to promote your wares somehow...

It got worse.  Every time I turn on the news channel, there is a picture of that beach in Rio, with someone drivelling on.  My daughter (19, no previous interest in football) has watched at least two matches so far.  I'm not as concerned as I might be though, she did say that she was more interested in the players' .. um .. physiques (or at least specific aspects thereof that we definitely don't need to go into).  

And then, this afternoon, the final straw.  I threw open the windows (it's hot here - well what passes for hot in deepest Derbyshire).  The first conversation I heard - the people round here shout in the street a lot - you guessed, it was all about the England game last night.  On a plus side, one of the people taking part in the conversation admitted to having gone to bed at half time because it was boring. 

How many more days of this?  Will it be better or worse if England crash out ignominiously after the first bit (group stages?).  Thank goodness it's only once every 4 years.  Maybe I could bribe FIFA to make it every 8 years?

Slow progress...

Well, I have made some progress today.  I have ordered gift boxes and ribbon, cleared space to use for photographs, taken photographs (much improved) and managed to link my shop banner on this blog  to my Etsy shop.  I have also added one whole listing to Etsy.  (OK, the target was for 10 by the end of the week - only 9 more to go).

Unfortunately, seeing how good the new photos are means that I will now have to redo all the previous ones.  So that's more like, well, negative progress.  And I cannot master the art of tags.  I mean, how can I guess what people might type in to try to find a pair of earrings?   I usually find things when I'm looking for something else, or by accident.  Or because someone else sent me a link...

So, to meet targets, I need to spend all day tomorrow taking (or retaking) photos and listing.  I will definitely need alcohol or chocolate by tomorrow evening.  Or both.  Now there's a thought.

Who am I, and why am I blogging?

Let's start with the big questions.  I am (depending on your point of view) in the prime of life, or completely over the hill.  I'm a fifty something female, who has (unexpectedly) hit a complete life crisis of: what should I do now?

I've had lots of jobs in the past.  Most recently, teaching.  I left for complex reasons.  I don't really want to go back to teaching, the idea makes me wake up screaming.  So I need to do something else.  I've also just had an operation, which I'm recovering from: if I had a job, I 'd be signed off sick at the moment.

So, I decided to set up making jewellery to sell on Etsy and Ebay.  I've been making jewellery for over twenty years, so it seemed a logical choice.  I also like photography, which helps.  So far, so good.  I'm intending to post as and when, regarding my trials and tribulations of changing career, setting up my own business and generally running a chaotic life.  Either you think: boooring, or maybe you'll read about my journey.

Rhiannon.