Massive Sale on Artisan Jewelry

Wow, apparently I fell off the face of the earth. Hm.

The kids are taking up a fair portion of my time… and that usually means I’m away from home. Hard to work on any big projects, designs, or techniques so for the interim I’m having fun using up my current collection of beads making more simple jewelry.

After I finish struggling with trying to photograph earrings, I actually have a slew of them to be listed. Was up until 11:30 last night trying to get some decent shots. Ugh!

I really shouldn’t have done that seeing as how we won’t be home until midnight tonight after Monica’s game in San Jose. I can’t believe the HIGH SCHOOL league schedules games that start at 9pm on a school night. WTH?

Anyway, I currently have a humongous sale going on in my eBay shop. I was feeling nostalgic for the old “bidding wars” days and I just went crazy slashing the opening bids on everything.

Take advantage… it’ll probably be awhile before I reach that level of craziness again.

Click here to see the sale!



The items that end in a few hours include (and we’re talkin’ some SERIOUSLY LOW prices)… if you see a piece you really want make sure you put your max bid on it… there are snipers out there!:








Well, I’m going to cut this short so I can get this posting up. Dentist appointment soon.

TTYL!

Market Research, New Jewelry Listings, Foster Kitties

SELLING… OR NOT…

So, I was doing some market research. I was really saddened by what I saw in eBay.

I decided to look up a couple of artists I know who do high quality work. They both had Etsy stores. They both had websites, too, but their websites directed people to their Etsy stores.

Anyway, the first artist had nothing listed in her shop. Her sold items totaled three, two of which were during a half-price sale. This artist does beautiful work of such a quality I would be hard-pressed to find anyone her equal when it comes to metal (anyone I know, that is... I’m sure there are others out there who do the same extremely fine work).

The other artist was one known on eBay as always commanding high prices for her distinct and lovely creations.

Her prices now, however, seem so low to me. Is she, like most of us, catering to a pathetic market?


NEW JEWELRY

Got a few new things up… (click on the photos for more product details).















And to really make me feel fab, I sent out an email to my customer list and copied and pasted the links from my website and AFTER sending the email I see they don’t work like that (as copied and pasted). GGgggrrr! Oh well, learned something new about URLs in my website, I guess.


NEW FOSTERS

Here are two early pix (within an hour of bringing them home) of the new fosters. They’re about 21 ounces at the moment… they’ll go back when they’re about 32 ounces. Bear is being his usual mother hen self. They have no fear of Bear whatsoever. He’s very gentle when he plays with them.





And that’s it for now… TTYL!


see more Lolcats and funny pictures


see more Lolcats and funny pictures


see more Lolcats and funny pictures


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Friday... nothing but work... but TOMORROW... now that's another story

So… here it is… Friday. The kids are at their dad’s and all the teams are preparing for their finals so I am not even going to hockey until Monday night.

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the first time I want to Hadar’s studio for a class. I hope to go back someday soon. For now I’ll have to be satisfied with her latest book… and a vial of bronze clay. :-)

Tomorrow is my first full day off. I want to do two things (go to the gem show in San Mateo and go to the Botanical Garden at UC Berkeley), then I’d like to actually do something creative. At the moment, I have no clue. Metal clay, polymer clay, enamels, wire-work, beading???

Oh, wanna see one of the reasons I stopped listing on ArtFire?



BTW, did you know I offer a gradient background (just click here) for use with bead and jewelry photography? Just print it out on glossy photo paper and voila.

So… hopefully, starting tomorrow I’ll have more interesting things to show you… or at least to talk about.

Oh… I do have something new to put up on Etsy, but it’s not jewelry. Hee hee

Wire-Wrapping Attempt, Inspiration, Fear of New Things

Fear of New Things

Me? Not usually, but I seem to have a problem with certain jewelry making techniques/tools.

I bought some Art Clay Silver when it was first coming into the main stream and I didn’t open the package until four years later. How pathetic is that? Ha ha ha!

I had a flexshaft that I didn’t even take out of the box for nearly a year. As it is, I think I’ve used it once since then (and that was about six months ago).

I have a jumpring maker and a bead liner… both of which I really want to use… but it’s like… well, it’s so complicated to figure out how to use them and what all I need to order to make them work.

Maybe if I start doing beady nights once a month or so, I’ll come across someone who can show me how to use the tools I have. The jumpring maker REALLY needs to be learned because I am in serious need of jumprings. Ha ha ha! Please, don’t tell me how much easier and cheaper it is to just saw them on a wooden down or something like that. I can’t. Okay?

Well, maybe I could… but I just don’t have the desire to do that and end up with raggedy edges and have to file them, etc.


Photoshop

Speaking of technology… I have Photoshop Elements at home and just got Photoshop CS4 at work. Ack… it’s like two different languages. I am totally lost in CS4. Totally.


Time for Jewelry Making

So, starting tonight, I have no hockey games/practices to take anyone to for several days. Fancy that. Easter, I believe, is the first day I’ll have to take someone to hockey.

So…. I’d better be ready to use my time wisely. Can’t waste it sitting there going, “Hm… now what should I make?” :-)

I may leave the beads aside for a bit and concentrate on wire and metal clay.

Okay, several hours later… I didn’t do any jewelry. I decided to finally list some more estate items. I took photos. They should be up in a few days.


Comments on Comments

BTW, I stand corrected on my opinion about not using “objects” in photographs of beads or jewelry. I still agree with my original opinion for 99% of what I see, but every once in awhile I run across some photos that are just beautiful and there is a subtle piece of rock or branch or leaf in the photo.

One of the artists I want to feature in an upcoming blog entry uses just such a technique for her exquisite photos. I hope to be showing you her work very soon.


Inspiration

Here’s a photo I took (with my phone) as I was walking through Oakland the other day. Something about the red tape on the monotone building really struck me as … a usable jewelry inspiration.



I’ll let you know if I do anything with it. If YOU do, show me!


Jewelry

Another phone photo (sorry).



With all the hockey activities lately, I’ve been going through jewelry-making withdrawal. So I grabbed some wire and tried to entertain myself.

The first thing I made was a disaster. Not in looks, but in practical use. It was a completely wire-wrapped bracelet, but my little wrist hairs catch in it when I tried it out. Ack! And ouch!

The second thing (these earrings) came out better, but still fairly unimaginative. I’m thinking I’ll patina them and then maybe do a quick eBay listing.

Here is a REALLY bad photo of a really cool magnifying glass I gave my mom… made with Alex Spinglaschell beads.




Anyway, it’s 9:30pm and I’m getting tired so will call it an evening now. Mon and I are gonna go spend some quality time together now vegging on the couch (and I get a foot rub!).


see more Lolcats and funny pictures


see more Lolcats and funny pictures


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

March-something

Well, I didn't drop off the face of the planet... just been doing kid hockey... non-stop for a week or so.

Mon's team finished the NorCal finals and is moving on to States (including preparing like there's no tomorrow). Same thing for Gabe's team, which has moved on from States and is now going to the Nationals (in Rochester, NY).

Gabe also has driving lessons, goalie sessions, driving tests, school finals, high school hockey, night school and tennis.

It's 12:13am... we just got home. TTYL!


see more Lolcats and funny pictures


see more Lolcats and funny pictures


see more Lolcats and funny pictures