Monday, December 20, 2010
Holiday distraction....
So here it is Monday, I totally forgot about my own "promise" to myself to blog every Saturday, but I blame it on the christmas being around the corner....though I seem to have absolutely no motivation to do ANYTHING. I have not been keeping up very well with any of my sites, I have not been in the mood to make jewelry, I just don't feel like doing anything I guess. It's crazy how the weekend came and went, and I really don't know where my time went, I didnt do anything that I can remember that took up my whole weekend....I just feel completely unmotivated. I like the whole facebook thing, but at the same time, I knew it would overwhelm me, because I just want to be able to keep up. I think what I need to do, is do my best to hit that 5000 mark so I can't do anymore, and I don't have to worry about it. Then I can focus on my other pages and websites. I also ran out of certain supplies I need for making jewelry, AND I don't have a camera that will take good or even decent pictures. So I guess that doesn't help my motivation any. If I had a way to post pics up of new stuff I make, that would be great. And if I had all the supplies I needed to make new stuff that would be nice too. Not that I don't make good money, but I just can't afford to go spend a few hundred bucks on myself like that. I have not made any sales just yet, which is my own fault for not promoting and such. I just don't know what is wrong with me really. I think i just feel overwhelmed. I need a daily planner or one of those desktop calendars to write my daily goals for my jewelry business down or something. I guess I could just use a piece of paper huh? I don't know. How do I get motivated??? Hmmmmmm. I need to break it all down into baby steps.....hmmmmmm. Well til next time, I hope to have a much better blog and good news or something!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Slowly but surely....I'm getting there!
So it seems like I am always a day late with this blogging stuff! I said I would do this every Saturday, but I always end up super busy on Saturdays. Either I have company, or have to be somewhere...and next weekend I will be working for time and a half pay! whoo hoo! Beads? Beads? I think I will deserve some beads for working the weekend. Today, I was able to progress with my website a bit, I added a visit counter, changed the home page wording a bit, and I also customized a welcome tab for my facebook page which I am very pleased with! I feel like I accomplished a little something today. Usually, I spend hours on end just doing the #LINKLOVE stuff and liking all these wonderfully talented artists pages. I honestly love seeing other peoples work, it is very inspiring to see such beautiful creations that were not just another "made in china" item. It is unique, and hard work and patience was put into it, and I can appreicate that as an artist myself. I know sometimes you can feel like your work is under appreciated or goes un noticed, but just know that I at least appreciate it and absolutely love it all! If I was rich, I would have nothing but handmade everything in my home, like the pictures on my walls, my furniture, my clothes...nothing would come from some production line in china or some other country. Dont get me wrong, I do not have anything against all that, except knowing it is made by the millions at a time, therefore is is anything but original or unique, as well as the fact that the people who make this stuff get paid cents! I have seen some beautiful jewelry in like Wal-mart, and other large chain stores, but unfortunately, it is all made in china and is not at all original. It is simply a "product" to be sold just for the money, not for the love of making the pieces, and most likely not hand made.
I have a dilemma on my hands. I need to get my hands on a good camera. I just hate not being able to show my pieces that I have been working on, and there are even times when I would love to snap pictures of the steps as I go along, so other can see my pieces being "born" so to speak. I will post some pictures of my pieces in my blog here too, I also am going to try and find a way to make my blog more noticeable and attractive by figuring out how to customize it. I think adding pictures is going to help, and looking at how others have designed their blogs to understand the layout possibilties. I have seen some really beautiful blog pages on here, and I am so impressed! I need to do that with mine here too. I need to figure out how to offer coupons, and have sales in my website and my artfire studio too. I need to get to a point that I am happy with on each of my pages, so that I can do all this. I need a lightbox. ugh, my mind is wandering now. Ok, well, I have enjoyed blogging, and need to get back to working on spicing up my pages as much as I can. Bye for now, and Thank You so very much for following my blog! Feel free to leave me comments or send me a personal message.
I have a dilemma on my hands. I need to get my hands on a good camera. I just hate not being able to show my pieces that I have been working on, and there are even times when I would love to snap pictures of the steps as I go along, so other can see my pieces being "born" so to speak. I will post some pictures of my pieces in my blog here too, I also am going to try and find a way to make my blog more noticeable and attractive by figuring out how to customize it. I think adding pictures is going to help, and looking at how others have designed their blogs to understand the layout possibilties. I have seen some really beautiful blog pages on here, and I am so impressed! I need to do that with mine here too. I need to figure out how to offer coupons, and have sales in my website and my artfire studio too. I need to get to a point that I am happy with on each of my pages, so that I can do all this. I need a lightbox. ugh, my mind is wandering now. Ok, well, I have enjoyed blogging, and need to get back to working on spicing up my pages as much as I can. Bye for now, and Thank You so very much for following my blog! Feel free to leave me comments or send me a personal message.
Monday, December 6, 2010
The need for more beads
So....I am a couple days late here, I swore I was going to blog every saturday. I don't know about you but with the holidays around the corner, I have tons to do that I still have yet to finish. I have a bad back, meaning, I have bad scholiosis, bulging discs and sciatica nerve problems. I can't do hardly anything anymore, thank god my favorite hobby is not stressful!
Anyways, I made some more jewelry pieces and last week, I got this really cool idea for this beautiful triple strand necklace. Well I got all the beads out I could possibly use, and had to get creative with my ideas because everything I thought of I couldn't do because I did not have enough of a certain bead, or something.
I got the beads that I could use for it, and began with building the part that the pendant was going to hang from. Let me tell you, it took me a long time to figure something out to hang that darn pendant because I didn't want it to just hang from jumprings or something simple.
So I used three looped sterling silver earring findings, and did the same in the back by the clasp. so there I was with that part finally built with all the strands of wire put on, and then could not figure out a pattern with the beads I had. I had to get clever because I only had so many of each bead to work with, so I had to divide them equally so both sides of the necklace could be the same. To make a long story short, I let it sit for a week, to keep coming back to it and see if I could come up with something. I finally did, and put it all together and somehow after several hours of thinking, and stringing and re stringing, I managed to make it way too long. I don't know how I did it, and yes, I pay attention to the beadboard, but I did not realize it was going to end up 25" long when it should rest right below the collarbone if that. What a waste of wire, crimp beads, and crimp covers all in sterling silver. Now I have to take it all apart again and shorten it. So that is that, and I will do that maybe next weekend or somehthing, but I have put so much effort and thought into this necklace, that I seriously do not want to even look at it, and it frustrates the hell out of me to think all that time material and effort wasted!
Ok, here is my other dilemma. Right after I finished that triple strand necklace and realized it was too long, I decided I wanted to make something I would be successful at making and something I would be proud of when done instead of frustrated. I made this beautiful necklace, and was so proud of it. I packaged it up with some antitarnish strips and set it on the table with the other stuff I made that is new and needs to get pictures taken.
Back at my desk now, and I found some beads that I did not think should have been left over, so I second guessed my necklace work, and went back to the table, picked up the necklace, it slid out of the package and hit my tile floor and shattered the glass pendant! I was soooooo frustrated by then! I went in the other room, got the bigger desk, brought it into my bead room because I feel if I would have had more room on my bead desk, I would never have place the necklace on the table behind me, and never would have dropped it! So now I have two desks in there, and I am going to rearrange it this week, and I need to go somewhere and get some rugs to put on the floor, so if something breakable drops, it wont break.
Of course this all happened on sunday night, making me not want to go to work on Monday! I just wanted to stay home, rearrange my beadroom, and fix everything. Unfortunately I have no choice but to buy a new pendant, but I'm thinking of something a little prettier.
The reason I say the need for more beads, is because I really do need more, I am constantly limited to designs, I always find myself not being able to pull through on an idea for a necklace or set because I don't have the right amount of a certain bead. Im so tired of being told I have "tons" of beads, and I dont need any more because yes I do, I am the one that uses them, and I am the one that knows what I need or don't need. I just need to stop talking to people about it I guess. Fine, I'll just blog about it! LOL but really, it gets frustrating when I get this really awesome idea and I can't go forward with it because I only have half the amount I would need in the beads I want to use. Any beader knows, beads can get super pricey, or I would just go right out and buy what I need. I need to start buying like 3 or 4 (or more) strands of each bead, instead of 1 strand. But you know, that is a learning curve for me, I now know that I need to change my ordering methods. You would think after all these years, I would have figured it out, but I have not run into this problem as much as I do now.
I am very tired, it is only 9:10pm and I was going to get on facebook and do #LINLOVE stuff for a few hours, but Im so tired, I had to take a benadryl to calm the allergies that I just figured out I had. My eyes have been soooo bloodshot for a week now, and today they were really really bad. So I decided to stop at the store on the way home and get visine allergy drops, and some benadryl. Thank God the visine seems to have cleared it up better than the other stuff I have been trying. But the benadryl is making me very sleepy....We'll see, I might just see what is going on in facebook.
Anyways, I made some more jewelry pieces and last week, I got this really cool idea for this beautiful triple strand necklace. Well I got all the beads out I could possibly use, and had to get creative with my ideas because everything I thought of I couldn't do because I did not have enough of a certain bead, or something.
I got the beads that I could use for it, and began with building the part that the pendant was going to hang from. Let me tell you, it took me a long time to figure something out to hang that darn pendant because I didn't want it to just hang from jumprings or something simple.
So I used three looped sterling silver earring findings, and did the same in the back by the clasp. so there I was with that part finally built with all the strands of wire put on, and then could not figure out a pattern with the beads I had. I had to get clever because I only had so many of each bead to work with, so I had to divide them equally so both sides of the necklace could be the same. To make a long story short, I let it sit for a week, to keep coming back to it and see if I could come up with something. I finally did, and put it all together and somehow after several hours of thinking, and stringing and re stringing, I managed to make it way too long. I don't know how I did it, and yes, I pay attention to the beadboard, but I did not realize it was going to end up 25" long when it should rest right below the collarbone if that. What a waste of wire, crimp beads, and crimp covers all in sterling silver. Now I have to take it all apart again and shorten it. So that is that, and I will do that maybe next weekend or somehthing, but I have put so much effort and thought into this necklace, that I seriously do not want to even look at it, and it frustrates the hell out of me to think all that time material and effort wasted!
Ok, here is my other dilemma. Right after I finished that triple strand necklace and realized it was too long, I decided I wanted to make something I would be successful at making and something I would be proud of when done instead of frustrated. I made this beautiful necklace, and was so proud of it. I packaged it up with some antitarnish strips and set it on the table with the other stuff I made that is new and needs to get pictures taken.
Back at my desk now, and I found some beads that I did not think should have been left over, so I second guessed my necklace work, and went back to the table, picked up the necklace, it slid out of the package and hit my tile floor and shattered the glass pendant! I was soooooo frustrated by then! I went in the other room, got the bigger desk, brought it into my bead room because I feel if I would have had more room on my bead desk, I would never have place the necklace on the table behind me, and never would have dropped it! So now I have two desks in there, and I am going to rearrange it this week, and I need to go somewhere and get some rugs to put on the floor, so if something breakable drops, it wont break.
Of course this all happened on sunday night, making me not want to go to work on Monday! I just wanted to stay home, rearrange my beadroom, and fix everything. Unfortunately I have no choice but to buy a new pendant, but I'm thinking of something a little prettier.
The reason I say the need for more beads, is because I really do need more, I am constantly limited to designs, I always find myself not being able to pull through on an idea for a necklace or set because I don't have the right amount of a certain bead. Im so tired of being told I have "tons" of beads, and I dont need any more because yes I do, I am the one that uses them, and I am the one that knows what I need or don't need. I just need to stop talking to people about it I guess. Fine, I'll just blog about it! LOL but really, it gets frustrating when I get this really awesome idea and I can't go forward with it because I only have half the amount I would need in the beads I want to use. Any beader knows, beads can get super pricey, or I would just go right out and buy what I need. I need to start buying like 3 or 4 (or more) strands of each bead, instead of 1 strand. But you know, that is a learning curve for me, I now know that I need to change my ordering methods. You would think after all these years, I would have figured it out, but I have not run into this problem as much as I do now.
I am very tired, it is only 9:10pm and I was going to get on facebook and do #LINLOVE stuff for a few hours, but Im so tired, I had to take a benadryl to calm the allergies that I just figured out I had. My eyes have been soooo bloodshot for a week now, and today they were really really bad. So I decided to stop at the store on the way home and get visine allergy drops, and some benadryl. Thank God the visine seems to have cleared it up better than the other stuff I have been trying. But the benadryl is making me very sleepy....We'll see, I might just see what is going on in facebook.
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