Button Jewelry

http://www.life123.com/hobbies/jewelry-making/making-jewelry/how-to-make-button-jewelry.shtml

Take a few hours and try a new segment of your craft!

Getting Ready for The Show

It seems whenever you get ready to do a show (August 20th Downtown Olympia WA) it generates another round of buying supplies, having to take inventory and to make something that may be especially appealing to this next market.  When you create for your website...you design more for the unknown customer and you find something that sells so you make a little bit more of it.  When you are just creating, you find yourself making the type of thing that you love to wear.  When it comes time for a show - you have to stay true to your vision - but still make something that will satisfy the market place.

Then you have to think about set up. What were the gaps in your tablescape at your last show? What worked well?  What might create more of a draw?  In a world crowded by beautiful jewelry, how do you draw the customers to the best jewelry in the whole show - yours?

The next step is to pull your inventory together for the show. Should you take what you posted in your Etsy shop or not? What if by chance someone bought online what you had just sold in person?  Would this mess you up?  Should you risk the fact that your inventory which hasn't sold for months from your online shop may infact finally sell? Should you make and/or pull together inventory you had scheduled to put online?  So many questions to answer.  So much to do....

Please visit if you are in Olympia on the 20th....bring your wallet and be ready to turn loose of your money!  Let me know, how I answered all my own questions.

Accessories, Accessories, Accessories

How many of us have the money to run out in September and buy new outfits for the year? 

Well, that is no longer cost effective or feasible for most of us who are struggling on limited incomes.  We have to strategize on other ways to look our best.  Don't get me wrong, I am not destitute, but when the interest rates on savings accounts is soooo darn low, I too, am economizing.  I find that if I go through my closet and take a couple of hours, I can put together "new" outfits.

But I can also go through all my accessories and pull them out.....try them on.....imagine wearing them in different ways....can that necklace become a bracelet?  Will this pair of earrings go with that necklace? Bracelet? Outfit?  Try it on in front of the mirror....you may be genuinely surprised.  Jot it down on a piece of paper so you will remember your smart combination or take a digital picture. 

But what if you do need something new...because everything is looking a little tired?  Start with accessories....sometimes you can get away from a huge clothing expense if you just embellish and enhance what you have with a little sparkle, some glitter and some glow.  I love retro pins.  I find a new pin can be just the thing to jazz up an old jacket's lapel or I can wear it at my waist or hem of my dress to draw interest.  I have been known to put a brooch on a hat band or buy an adapter so I can wear it on a silver collar as a pendant. 

Sometimes all I need is a new scarf to go on top of the winter coat (I knit) or a funky necklace draws the eyes in new ways and makes me wear something deeper down in my drawer that has the perfect neckline.  What about hair embellishments?  On Etsy, a number of my fellow artisans make pretty little hair ties, headbands and fascinators.  They are cute, affordable and very, very clever.

So look at accessories before a big purchase you can't afford.  Go through your jewelry box....go through your scarves.....(look in your sister's jewelry box when she isn't looking)!  Try to put together a new and inspiring accessory wardrobe from pieces you already own.  Then if you find you need a new piece, get to your computer and instead of buying the latest "trend" item get something interesting, fun, different, signature from an artisan. Etsy shopowners are waiting to fill your orders.

Make It Olympia

The proprieter of BluJeanBeads will be helping the proprieter of Ashar gems (http://etsy.com/shop/Ashar) in a booth at Make It Olympia next Saturday, from 10-4 pm.  Hope you can stop by.  Ashar has some of the nicest pieces, they are elegant, made from silver, handcrafted clasps....if you want a piece for your favorite evening ensemble....get it at Ashar.

I hope the sale goes well.  Last year, we did a booth at the Festival of the Rivers and though we enjoyed the powwow....it was hot.....almost 100 degrees....dusty.....and no buyers.  Came back with a deficit instead of any profit.

That day...there were vendors from as far away as Sante Fe and they fared no better.  I know that is the nature of retail but wow.....you'd think someone would have wanted some pieces to make themselves look good.

Anyways we are excited and hope you will join us....at least to say hello and to look at the merch.

Friendship Necklaces and Bracelets

Check out this website.  This is cool.

http://www.how-to-make-jewelry.com/friendship-necklace.html

Shopping and Silly Husbands

K., and I went to Seattle to celebrate our 12th anniversary this past weekend.  Seattle is approximately 1 hour from Olympia on a good day and it was a so so day so we made it in 1.5 hours.  We settled into the Sheraton....rested a bit, puttered across the street to eat at Palamino's one of my favorite restaurants.  Then coffee and back to the room to read, and relax.

Saturday we get up and head towards the Pike Place Market and food.  Breakfast time. We hop a Metro bus which is free in the downtown corridor so we do not have to fight for and pay for parking.  We wander along the market looking for a suitable breakfast spot and my husband settles on Chinese.  Until,  I look at the menu and decide I would prefer a typically high fat American breakfast: eggs, toast, jam, coffee, hashbrowns and bacon.  We wander through the market and head for the Sanitary market across the street and find the perfect little hole in the wall cafe with great breakfasts and crappy coffee.  Just what you would get in a diner of it's size. 

We wandered about a bit and checked out the fruit at the stalls. I was quite taken with an Aubergine (eggplant that was extremely beautiful). Then we went after a new bottle of Basalmic vinegar in the high hopes that the sun will come out and we can enjoy fresh tomatoes, basil, mozzerella and basalmic vinegar in August. 

My husband, hates shopping if it is not for food.  AAAAArrrrrgh!  I wanted to scream but held it in.  I got him to go into an antique store with me and he seemed to enjoy that and the little stool he found to perch on while I looked around.  Then he was tired so we headed back to the Sheraton by bus.  I went up with him, although it was sunny out (rare these days) and I was in town.  I set at the little table in the room and got out my beading supplies and made three bracelets out of blue glass beads and blue crystals - reminiscint of the sun shining on blue water. They are lovely and I wore them for the rest of the afternoon although they did not go with my earrings or outfit.  I will be posting them for sale this week on www.etsy.com/shop/BluJeanBeads.

Then I got out of the room and commenced to walk and shop. I had such a good time looking at clothes, jewelry and trying to decipher the going "looks" in accessories.  I took in the colors that were beginning to come in for fall and the fashion trends coming up.  While I do not like trendy jewelry I will use the color of the day to imply the trend....but make something that can become a signature piece and worn for years.

Back to the room, read a crime novel and a fashion magazine...joy....then out to dinner to a brew pub.

Sunday morning....headed for home.... Still married although he hates shopping.  AAAAARGHHHH!

Hello Blog

I went to Victoria BC last Thursday with my mother and neglected my blog.  Sorry Blog....I still love you and still love all my readers.

The Victoria trip was wonderful. We left Seattle at 8:30 am on the Victoria Clipper and quickly found ourselves in rough water.  Could not cruise open waters so the boat routed itself through the San Juan Island's, went through Deception pass and on to Victoria. The closer we got to Vancouver Island, the sunnier it became.

When we arrived we were whisked from the dock on a Victoria Clipper tour bus to Butchart gardens. Fabulous....we saw delphiniums that had to be 6 feet in height, roses to die for, a beautiful sunken garden that featured beautiful maple trees and begonias with blossoms the size of dinner plates.

We learned that Victoria is in a rainbelt - surrounded by mountains and normally gets 33 inches of rain a year, typically houses cost $700,000, and they have not been hit hard by the recession. Commercial building is still strong and because of a high tourist season - spring thru fall and then the onslaught of students from September to June they are able to manage fiscally.

We visited the BC Museum and saw artificats from the Haida people and marveled at the lion skull that was on display.  This was a large lion like you see on the savannahs in Africa.  A reconstruction showed mane and all. Skull was found in a cave on Vancouver Island.  Who knew?

On Government street their are two galleries side by side that feature Native art. One showed contemporary jewelry created by First Nations artisans and featured gemstones, wire wrapping, metalsmithing and lampwork beaded jewelry.  The other was filled with more traditional arts and crafts. Equally as beautiful but more earthy.  I bought my grandson an Orca Whale puppet.

You should visit Victoria and tour the gardens and the city. It is a wonderful adventure - close to home.

www.etsy.com/shop/BluJeanBeads