Shopping for Jewelry Supplies

Can't wait for my cutter to come in!!! I ordered it from Rio Grande, and am so excited to use it to start making more designs!! It's so fun shopping for jewelry supplies, just wish it was easy to sell the finished pieces. I know eventually I'll get the hang of it, but it is just so hard to do!! I could go for online and shop for hours and hours on supplies, beads, tools, gems, wires and more. It's so quick to buy up the stuff, then when it comes in, it takes forever to put away, and find a place for it. Then looking at everything it can be overwhelming to decide where to start. The ideas just float around in my head. Then taking the pictures of the finished piece of art.... not too bad. But then cropping pictures etc, it getting easier. Then posting online, and waiting for that person looking for the item you just posted, because when they see it, they just feel like it is them. That they have to have it. Well... that was a bit of a ramble. But good to get out.

We're all supposed to blog!

I've been reading and researching on how to bring people into my store. It is really hard out there! The online world seems even bigger than the real world!! One persons suggests to stay active on your blog. But since my blog is dedicated to my jewelry, just how much can you talk about jewelry? Wouldn't that get boring... I would think so.

So, I guess we're all supposed to blog to keep people interested, and hopefully that right person will find your site and spread the word.

No resolutions!

I didn't make any new years resolutions, because that would be just setting myself up for failure. Sure there are plenty of things I would like to change about myself, but I wouldn't even know where to start. I haven't quite gotten that special feeling that someone gets when they actually reach a turning point in their life, and know they are ready, or will soon, make a life change. Nah, I like my life for the most part. I love my kids. Love making my jewelry. Have become a Dexter addict (just what is it about that guy?). Work my regular job. I enjoy that for the most part too. So not too many complaints right this second... maybe in a few minutes I will have some complaints.

Where does time go.....

Wow, I'm really bad about keeping up with the blog... I just had to write something in here to keep it updated... Two days before Christmas, still haven't wrapped anything... made yummy lobster rolls for my party here at work.... the oven caught on fire this morning... it was like mission impossible... the flame going just along the heating element. Now I wonder if that means I won't be able to do any cooking tomorrow? I hope I can at least make cookies, otherwise I will have to go out to the store and buy cookies, but Santa won't mind.

Second Craft Fair: Part 2

Today marks the end of my second craft fair. Here's a picture of my tables - since the ladies the day before decided not to come back.

I didn't do well (again), but I believe I did better than some of the other jewelers. There was not a lot of traffic. It really stunk that I wasn't in the main area, although I hear some of those people didn't do well at all. I did get a lot of compliments, and some people took my card for to have custom pieces made. I don't know if it was the economy, or if it was just a bad weekend all together. I really don't know what more I learned today, except make sure you have things that are lower priced that the parents can buy for the kids. My big sellers were my lanyards and eyeglass necklaces along with the seed bead memory bracelets. Those were some of my cheapest items as well. I'm just going to try and stay positive and try again at my next craft fair in two weeks. Wish me luck!!

Second Craft Fair: Part 1

This was day one of a two day fair. It was a big difference from my first fair. First off, I was a bit more organized. Although I was more organized, and it was a HUGE fair (over 80 vendors), I sold 2/3 less than what I did at my first fair. From what I saw and heard a lot of people did poorly, and some people sold NOTHING! So I guess I did pretty good compared to others.

I bought myself two little dollies that have a plastic carton on the bottom. I found them in Wal-Mart for less than $20.00. This helped me limit my trips back and forth to the car. I also only used one jewelry case, instead of three. I packed my earrings in plastic bags, on homemade earring cards with the lips on the back so I could just take them out of the bag and hang them up. It save a lot of time.

I really have no special hints or tips, because I wasn't very busy, so I learned no real lessons. I did hear that a few vendors are not showing up tomorrow because they did so poorly, so hopefully tomorrow more people will show up, and enjoy my jewelry!

I met a great artist (her table was next to mine). She's another jeweler, and I learned a lot from her. It was really refreshing talking with someone in the same line.

First Craft Fair - some lessons learned.

I went to my first craft fair on Friday at my place of employment. There were about 15 tables there, five of which had jewelry. I got there a little after 7am to set-up to open at 9am. This being my first craft fair, I figured I would a little to be ready for my second fair. My first BIG mistake was having things packed poorly and with little or no organization. It took about six trips out to my car to get everything to the room. I'd like to make only one trip, and so hopefully next time I will be able to whittle that down a little. I had everything in boxes, which, I then had to take out of boxes to hang on the earring stand. That took a long time, since I first had to take it out of the box, then put the hanger on the earring card (I make my cards myself), then hang them up. First off, I am not going to store my things in the individual boxes anymore. I will store them in plastic baggies, with the hanger already attached. This will cut back on me having to bring three craft cases filled with the jewelry in the boxes, and maybe only have to bring one craft case, and a bag filled with boxes.

Second big mistake, I forgot a pen. ooooppppsss!

Third mistake, I had no way to hang my banner up. I thought I could hang it with ribbon on the table, but the ribbon kept pulling the banner, and the banner kept trying to keep rolling back up. I will have to figure something out with that.

I only had about four busts to hang necklaces on, so I had to keep a lot of necklaces in the boxes on the table. I thought it looked crappy like that. I have ordered a few necklace boards, so next time it will all look a little neater.

On a positive note, I did have small bills, my cards, everything priced and a mirror available for people to try on necklaces.

It was a good day. A bit stressful, but I am looking forward to another fair.