USPS 2016 Postage Chart and Lots of Spinner Rings

Apparently, December was a good month for spinner rings.  Here are six that I just listed plus non-spinner ring leftover from a few weeks earlier.

You can see the rings in my shop or on Etsy.

And here is the best I can figure the 2016 USPS postage rates are. 
*Please note Endicia will use retail rates when lower (1-3oz) than commercial rates.  Other online stamping systems may do this also.

Lots of changes besides just the rates.

Commercial rates are lumped from 1-8 ounces.

International like more than doubled!!!

Under 3 ounces, retail pricing is less than commercial rates.

Using Click 'N Ship (printing postage from the USPS website) no longer gets you commercial rates.

If you use Etsy calculated, make sure you've selected "commercial (aka Etsy) rates" or "retail rates" so your customers get charged appropriately.  You find this option at the bottom of the overall shipping profiles page.  [Note: there seems to be an Etsy bug/glitch at the moment whereby if you have "commercial rates" selected, your customers are still being charged "retail rates".  I hope they fix that soon.]

Teaching Myself Jewelry Hinges Part 1

A *LOT* harder than I imagined... and I imagined it'd be pretty hard.

For my first attempt, I took two 18 gauge pieces of copper (first mistake) and cut some copper tubing.  Decided that since everything was copper, I'd opt for my copper solder as well.

These pieces of copper were way too large (1.5") and thick (18g) to heat with anything other than my plumber's torch.

For those not following my escapades, I don't use any "cool" torches.  I only use butane torches (aka micro torch or creme brule torch) and plumber's torches.

So what I can do is limited but that doesn't stop me from trying.

As I recall, with my first attempt, all that happened was the copper solder just went over to my tubing and wanted nothing to do with the big square pieces I was trying to solder the tubing to.

Then I thought, "Well, I'm just experimenting anyway, so I'll switch to silver solder.  I am more familiar with it and find it easier to deal with."

I did have success (with step one).  I was able to solder tubing to flat pieces in preparation for making a hinge.

With minimal clean up, here is the final effort (you can click on any photo to enlarge it).

I already knew from previous excruciatingly disappointing experimentation that I can not do a double sided balled up pin with my torches so I am doing cold connection rivets on these hinges.

In hindsight, I see I should be filing concave grooves into my panels.  Not a deal breaker, but might make things easier.

So here's the first panel.  Oh wait... there was an identical one to this first... that I managed to totally (and unintentionally) reticulate when I was trying to solder on the tubes.  So here is my second attempt.

First I soldered on the moon eclipse, then I soldered on the two hinges.  Except they didn't solder on at first.  Well, one did and one was "hanging on".  So pickle and repeat.

I finally got both little tubes to solder. 

Trying to solder the other tubing onto the other panel was another matter.  After my reticulation debacle, I was afraid of over-heating. I also thought the fine silver bezel cups would just turn into puddles.

I think it took me four tries before I got my hinge to solder.  By that time I didn't care how much of a mess I made with the solder overflow.  I just wanted the darn things to become one.

And that's pencil lead inside the tubing (if you were wondering).  I didn't have it in there the first time I soldered and... you guessed it... soldering flowed up inside the tubing and clogged it up.

This image makes the panel look quite the mess.  These shots were taking right after soldering.

Here's the same piece after pickling and minimal brushing.

I wanted to add the patina and insert the cabs and then show you... when it dawned on me (yes, I *am* that daft at times) that I still have to solder tube hinges onto the other sides of each of these panels.  Ha!  That will be fun... trying to keep the first tubes in place while I do that.  Next time I'll try to get all the tubes soldered on at the same time.  But that's why we try new things... so we can learn.

These are very small panels.

I hope you stay tuned as I attempt to finished the entire bracelet.  Why did I pick such a huge project when trying to learn a new technique?  I thought forcing myself to make 8-10 sets of hinges would be good practice.  BTW, if this works out, you're getting a sneak peak at one of the pieces of my first 2016 collection.

See you shortly!

Goal Setting isn't an All or Nothing Proposition

I have a long and close-knit history with setting unrealistic goals.  It's never bothered me... I feel like the higher you strive, the higher you end up, even if it's not that extreme goal you set for yourself.

But can extreme goal setting be a bad thing?

Maybe... at times.

If you let the failure to reach the extreme goal be a reason to either quit (the "all or nothing" syndrome) or to berate yourself ("I'm worthless because I didn't reach my goal").

So I made a list... a really super long list of little goals I want to achieve, daily.  It's a crazy list.  Not even superwoman could keep up.  Why did I do it?

Because each day I will "x" out the things I didn't get to... and I will be left with a list showing all the things I *did* get to.  Accomplishments.

If I put 20 things on my list for what I want to get done in a day and I get to 12 of them.  Yes, I didn't do 8 of the things on my list, but without the list, I might have only done 4 of the things.  12 is darn good!

Not only is there really probably not enough time in a day to do everything on my list, things come up.  Like today... I had to go into Kaiser for a tetanus shot.  That was an unplanned event.

Want to see an example of a typical day?

1. Take trash to bottom of hill
2. Do laundry
3. Mop kitchen floor
4. Plan weekly menu
5. Clean cat box
6. 5 mile walk
7. Make stacker rings order and ship
8. Organize cabochon inventory
9. Charge AA batteries
10. Shred previous week's receipts
11. Water plants
12. Check car's tire pressure
13. Cook eggplant casserole
14. Organize fabric for KG
15. Inventory supplies
16. Add stuff to septic tank
17. Wash dishes, clean counters and sink
18. Process SRAJD applications
19. Work on supplies inventory 
20. Do business accounting

So I can see that aside from my normal work in my workshop (making jewelry and/or teaching), I still accomplished a lot of little things that needed taking care of.  I can feel good about that.




If something on the list didn't get done but is still important, I can just move it to the next day, etc. until it gets done.

There are some things that are there every day, other things that are only on certain days... like, I'm obviously not going to check my tire pressure every day, and still other things that are very infrequent (like putting additives into the septic system).  But if I have this list, I can see when something comes up and I might put it off for a day or two, but I'll eventually get to it and then nothing important gets forgotten about.

The air conditioner maintenance happens on schedule, there are always prepared meals in the freezer, bills get paid on time, etc.

Maybe you have to be a list person to "get this".  I am definitely a list person.  I'm also an extremely forgetful person so until things become habit I have to have reminders.