Darn!

My computer is down!!!!! I won't survive!!!!!! When did I become so dependent on a computer?????? Darn!!!!

Panic is setting in..... my computer isn't working, Open House is this Saturday (I need more inventory), I can't post pictures of the latest enameled pieces (until the computer gets fixed...... I hope it can be fixed) and I need to get some copper pieces done. I advertised "the new copper clay" for my Open House and only have one pair of copper earrings.

Let's see.....three days until Saturday. How many hours is that? Is it possible to do all there needs to be done in 72 hours? Do I need sleep? Should I cancel my hair appointment? (No, too much gray is showing.) Will the copper firing go as desired (I do have a couple ready to fire.) What am I going to serve as snacks on Saturday? Will all my mailings pay off? Will people show up?

Why do we do this to ourselves before an event? Don't know and never will. Next year it will be the same. It was last year.

Am I rambling? Yes. Sorry! I'll try to keep posting some thoughts and hopefully some pictures soon. (But first I've got to figure out how to do it on my son's computer.)

Why did my computer have to go down at this time of year? Darn!

And the winner is........

Tonight was the Taste of Home Show in Meadville, Pa. The vendors received tickets to attend the show but by the time everything was cleaned up and put back in the car it was too late. Plus, my cousin and I were on our feet the entire time and busy. So, we were too tired to stay out any later. (That's what happens when you get old.) We were even too busy to take a picture of the crowds.

I really didn't plan on making many sales. Even one sale would make me happy. (Had one sale..... I'm happy.) Instead this was an opportunity to get my name out there and make contacts and that is exactly what I did.

In hind sight I think that people didn't realize that my jewelry was for sale at the show. No one else was selling anything, just sharing information and that is what we did. The effects of the evening will show up later (I hope!)

Anyway, I gave away a necklace as a way to draw people to my table. It must have worked as I have a whole canister full of names. My husband drew the name for me and the winner is.........

Debbie Mealy from Meadville, Pa. Congratulations Debbie and thanks for stopping by my table. I will be mailing your necklace out tomorrow.

Get a Grip!

Get a grip!!! That's what my friend's husband told her after she thought she peed on a poisonous snake in the woods. I've never heard such a decibel of a scream coming from the human mouth. It was like something out of a comedy.

Oh, right, this is a blog about metal clay (and sometime grandchildren.) Sorry!

Get a grip!! Don't lose that necklace or bracelet because the clasp failed. (Done that.... more than once.) More often than not I just reach for a ready made toggle, clasp or lobster claw to finish off a new piece. But I know that taking the time to make my own clasps will move my jewelry up a notch.

One of the projects in Level II Certification through PMC Connection is to make a clasp. Since sterling silver oxidizes in the kiln, we used fine silver wire as our connector. Now fine silver wire is softer than sterling. So, there are tricks to working with it to make a sturdy clasp. We first bent the wire into a loop at one end and heated the other end to create a ball. Then we hammered the wire flat to work harden it and bent the balled end to create a hook. To keep the wire from pulling out of the metal clay clasp, the wire is embedded into the middle of the clay and runs completely through the clay from end to end. I used my clasp to finish off another Level II project, a piece with a mirror finish. (My mirror finish is very tiny as metal clay can scratch easily. I just didn't see any reason to put all that effort into polishing something that might get scratched. This is sort of my philosophy on dusting too.)

One of my newest pieces, Lola's necklace II, was created from a mold I made from a pair of my Granddaughter's shoes. The shoe had three different patterns on the bottom that all suggested an underwater theme. (For some reason lately I've been on an underwater kick.) I had already made a necklace last year from the biggest shape and finally got around to using the other two designs. The mid-size design was used to create the pendant and the smallest shape made the clasp. I found some really neat purple coral looking beads (I don't know what the heck kind of beads they are) that work great with this design. I can see some younger person wearing a strapless sun dress in this. (Someone without a wrinkled neck and wrinkled cleavage.)

The original plan was to use the Hattie Sanderson magnetic set to create the clasp. Now I really don't think I'm stupid, but I found the directions difficult to follow. I think I had it figured out, but did too much sanding and now the magnets would be sticking out too far. The clasp would have a depth of about 3/4 inch. I think that is just a little too much. But it sure would have "gripped" well. Those little magnets that come with the kit are strong suckers. Every time I get into the drawer where I keep the kit, I have to pry them (and I do mean "pry") off my locking tweezers. I'm not sure that I could get the necklace off once I got it on if I used the magnets.

Instead, I made my own clasp with the fine silver wire. In class, I made both sides of the clasp. For the latest piece I made one clasp, took a ready made soldered jump ring, and beat the heck out of it to make it look handmade for the other side. Whatever works!

Tomorrow I'm teaching a class on toggles. I've already lost a couple of bracelets. One with a handmade toggle and one with a ready made toggle. I'll be stressing in the class to center the hole, roll extra thick and make the bar on the toggle more than two times the width of the hole.

We work too hard to lose our jewelry because we couldn't get a grip!

A job well done

As I mentioned in the last post, I have a big show coming up next week. There will be two hours for 1,000 women to browse before The Taste of Home Show. The vendors will each have an eight foot table and either a wall or a curtain behind them.

Now, I already mentioned how hard it was to part with the money for the table. But noooooo.... it didn't stop there.

I've always printed up my own business cards; maybe twenty at a time. Can I print 1,000? I don't think so ......... so more money to print up 2,000 business cards. (Well, it wasn't much more for the extra 1,000 so I went for it.) Actually it was probably not any more expensive than it was for me to print my own. (Will never print my own again!)

The Froggy Radio stations are sponsoring the event and are giving each women a bag with goodies in them. Of course I was told I could put something in the bags. That got me thinking about what I could put in. My first thought was the obvious, a flyer. I checked into what it would cost to have a thousand flyers made up. The local business store charges $65 to make up a thousand black and white flyers. How boring, but I couldn't afford color flyers. They would have cost $250.

I had pretty much decided to go the flyer route until I was reading a blog from one of the artists on my metal clay forum. She recommended a couple of websites that she had used for various items. One of them was overnightprints.com. (Let me assure you though that overnight is just a name. Just like The Quilt in a Day books ....... no way can you do those in a day.) Instead of flyers, I ordered bookmarks in full color. One thousand bookmarks was around $45 (not including shipping.) So, of course I ordered two thousand. I decided that maybe people would use a bookmark (I know I do) and keep it. The flyers? I throw them out after a quick glance. So glad I found this website. The bookmarks came today (thank God, the radio station called yesterday and wanted them as they were stuffing the bags today.) UPS brought them at 9:45 this morning and I delivered them to the station by 10:00. The bookmarks are really, really nice. They're a nice heavy quality with a nice glossy coating. (The bookmark is actually a bright yellow, but for some reason it is coming up blue.)

Another site mentioned on the blog was Wilson Graphics, http://www.wilsongraphics.net. Rather than have a big empty wall behind me, I decided to order a banner. The banner is two foot by six foot with grommets. It is a heavy duty vinyl that will withstand the outside weather for up to three years. It also came today and I am very happy with it. (Except that blowing up the jewelry really shows it's porosity. ) I was worried that maybe I didn't use the best image but I think it looks pretty good. Paul David Wilson was very nice to deal with and very prompt at getting back to me. It took a little over a week (I think) to get the banner.

I highly recommend both of these sites if you have advertising needs.

The bad thing is that this whole thing is snowballing and costing me more money. Advertising is so important and I have to admit that I haven't spent much money in that department. But, I'm catching up very quickly (too quickly!) Oh well, it's only money. (Right!!!!!)

It's not about the money

Don't get me wrong..... I do like money! No question about it, but sometimes it's not about the money.

This past weekend I set up a table at the country store in Foxburg. They were having their 5th Annual Fall Festival. Since I make the logo jewelry for them, they invited me to show my work in the store during the festival. (Thank goodness as it was a cold, cold weekend. People were coming in with red noses!)

Only made a couple of sales, but I wasn't disappointed as I didn't expect to make many sales. What I did make was lots of contacts. The seven hours actually went very quickly as I met lots of new people and shared information about metal clay. (Remember I'm trained as an educator and not a business woman.) Lots of people took my business card and all the class schedules I brought were gone.

In a couple of weeks, I'm setting up a table at a Taste Of Home Show. There will be 1,000 women there who will have a couple of hours to kill before the show. Again, the venue probably won't be conducive to buying as the main focus for the evening is cooking. But I couldn't pass up the chance to make that many contacts. (Still though, the sponsors had to pry that check out of my hands. For a small business it was a large sum to pay. But I knew if I didn't do it, I would regret it. Sigh!)

I'll keep telling myself it's not about the money. It's about getting yourself out there and getting your business known. (Hopefully someday the money will follow.!)

Nicknames

My oldest grandson went to the studio with me on Saturday. We just went up to organize some orders. (I know not to try to make anything when the grandchildren are there.) There was another motive too as his parents and in-laws were painting the front room in preparation for the laying of a new carpet. I figured that one less little one underfoot would help out somewhat.

On our way home my grandson was talking about nicknames. (Not sure where that came from but he was interested.) He was trying to come up with a name for himself and mostly he was Tyler the artistic, or Tyler the winner. Since he is my little artist, I suggested Arty.

From there we started talking about other people's nicknames. He knows his Grandpa as Butch and never realized that was a nickname. His Dad's nickname was Scooter since he scooted up and down the rocks on our trip out West in '85.

My nickname was given to me by my Uncle because I was such a klutz and had lots of bruises. He called me Allybumps, which my cousins shortened to Ally. (One of my boy cousins gave it a different meaning when I was a teenager. I could have just smacked him!)

For years the only people who called me Ally were my cousins and Aunts (who called me AllyMae.) But with the creation of my jewelry business, I'm called Ally a lot. Funny how life circles around.

The bumps and bruises circled around too. The four year old grandson is always getting injured and showing me his booboos. Then I show him my booboos. I call him the booboo kid and he calls me the booboo Grandma.

Ah, the Circle of Life!

No diving!

My latest beach glass pendant took a dive into a hot bath of liver of sulfur. I'm thinking it was too hot. The glass cracked in several places. The cracks aren't all that visible, until the piece is held up to the light. It is still wearable but not sellable. So, I have myself another new necklace (which is okay.)

This experience is "another learning experience." (There are just too many of those!) If the water for the patina is heated in the microwave, wait until it cools down.

But I do like this piece with a patina.