Swim In That Color

The hubby took two boys to the fishing hole for the day. I hit the workshop and made some of my silver banded beads. (I REALLY need to come up with a less descriptive name for this pattern.) This is Dawn Gleaming and Aqualith together, still on the mandrels they were created on. I love how the blues and green swim together, and likewise the amethyst and golden hues. One day i'll make some of these for myself. I really enjoy the kind of bracelet where you can fiddle and see at least one neat thing about each bead.

And other than that, i made a pork roast, drove across town to tend gardens for holidaying friends, harvested some swiss chard and zucchini, added my shop website to each listing in my etsy shop... I forgot to include that when i wrote them up initially. I think it's a very important little detail. When i was advertising my "bone shaped birthstone charms" to places like dog groups, my potential customers were very often not etsy members. Therefore, if they came across a link to one of my charms in the shop, say August, they wouldn't know how to find the rest of my shop and the rest of my months. So i started putting "To see all of my offerings go to: http://www.thebeadyouneed.etsy.com". Then, if someone's isearch sends them to just one item, there is still hope that they will find the rest of my stuff, too.

This is called cutting down on your Bounce Rate, in Google Analytics speak. :-) My Bounce Rate tends to be about 62%. I need to get it much lower to feel like any serious shopping is being down in my shop.

I've got an idea for the Closing Sock Monkey Beads giveaway. I'm going to coincide it with Fourth of July celebrations, favorite party time of my quasi-adoptive country. Yes, the prize will be beads. And no, they won't be red, white and blue! ...more to come...

Bead Calendar

I wish it was more affordable to make these calendars. I used shutterfly.com for this printing project. I am very pleased with the product! I swear the photos look better than my actual beads looked.

Spaced Out Beads

A little bit of eye candy for you today.

I've got a couple of sets of beads to stock in the shop tomorrow. I did a set of my old standby, Aqualith. The subtle green gleam that comes through here and there on the blue band is particularly nice in this set.

And the other set is of some beads that i've made for use in collections of bluegreen transparent bead that i've put together for bracelets, but i've never put a set of them in the shop before. So check them out: i'm calling them Orbits. They are made with reduced silver foil so they have a slight metallic sheen.

I don't know if i showed you the calendar i made using my bead photos! Talk about your eye candy. I'll give you a peak in an upcoming blog entry.

Made-to-order "Love Spikes"

The crazy awesome pink transparent spiky beads are now available on a custom request basis. Yay.

Latest News in the BirthBones Biz

The BIG bone has arrived! My original ivory glass and silver wrap BirthBones are now available in kingsize. This is a much better size for the medium or large dog. So far i only have one listing in my etsy shop for the BIG BirthBone, and will just custom make it for whichever month is required. If i can find the time, i'll make an amethyst one for myself as a zipper pull or a dangle on my bag. They are very handsome in this size.

I've also made some listings for a crystal version of the birthstone bone charms. They don't seem to be drawing hits in the same proportion as the original design. But they are pretty and i'll keep them on offer for now.

I've had several customers tell me that they bought their BirthBones for their own use, not to hang on dog collars. I'm trying to figure out how to tag my charms to take best advantage of the kinds of search terms people would use to find charms for human jewelry use, and pendants.

Testify! Love Hurts! Valentine Beads

Naw, that's not fair. These beads are pretty pink and sparkly, but the spikes don't need to mean anything sinister. Maybe they symbolize, say, reaching out. Yeah, that's it. Love reaching out and spreading and offering warm fuzzies.

Ahem.

These ones have already sold and will be going to France, which everyone knows is synonymous with love. Fitting. Let me know if your want your own set. They are very cheery to make. :-)

Re-read

If you know me, you know i like to read. My readings favor fiction novels where the main player is a strong woman. I have a feeling that this is a common reading choice particularly amongst women of a certain age... Closing in on 5o, but i can't bring myself to use the term "middle-aged". lol

One of my fave book series that i enjoyed in 2009 was the Amelia Peabody adventures by Elizabeth Peters. Amelia Peabody is a very opinionated, intelligent, turn of the last century egyptologist, who loves her gloriously (to hear her descriptions) dashing and manly husband, while subtly manipulating him, and disclaims maternal feelings for her unusually loquacious son. When the situation gets tough and dirty, she is in the lead, brandishing her reinforced parasol and her cutting wit.

Last night i tucked into bed and cracked an Amelia Peabody book that i didn't think i had read. I was thoroughly enjoying it, when i began to get suspicions that i had read this one before. I argued with myself for a while:

...since i'm enjoying the writing so much, shouldn't i just keep reading even if i have read it before? but i have another book that i can read, it isn't Amelia, but it's supposed to be good, and life is too short to re-read books...

I fell asleep at about that point, wondering what other experiences this "woman of a certain age" no longer remembers with certainty.

Birth of a BirthBone©

I keep checking the weather forecast and getting hopeful when i see that three days down the line it's going to be much nicer. But then when the day comes, the prediction has been revised to the actual, colder temps. So i'm still working in the kitchen. It's very convenient and i could get used to it, but i've already got so much of my miscellaneous, half-finished projects crap piled up in our living spaces. DH hasn't said anything yet, but i know it bugs him. I figure when the temps climb back into the upper 40's (F) i'll head back to the workshop and the nice spaceheater DH purchased for me.

A very nice lady that i have been doing some BirthBones© dealings with, told me i should be using the copyright symbol. I'm going to use it here just for fun©. (Ooo, i wonder if anyone has the copyright on fun!)

I got a nice wholesale order i'm filling for a boutique owner in Texas. Forty-eight BirthBones© coming up!

Also, since my last posting, i've designed a new business card and have ordered 250 of them. I used vistaprint.com again. The website is really easy to use, they offer tons of options, and are very affordable. You just have to make sure you don't click on all the other advertisings offered through their website, and you can get away clean©!

A couple of brilliant moves

Unheated studio and two weeks of frigid weather. Dear hubby even went out and bought a space heater, which really helps, but when you need to leave the windows and doors open for ventilation, "heater" is a bit too strong a word for it. It keeps the chill off my knees and postpones the grip of the deep, bone numbing chill that inevitably sets in.

But, in a flash of inspiration (go ahead and say it: Duh!), i brought my torch and equipment into the kitchen. Just one of the perks of using the propane gas torch system--no hoses and big tanks. To prevent the build-up of toxic fumes, i only do one bead at a go, taking a break between to yell at the kids or put a dish in the dishwasher, and i shake my head that i never thought of this before. And so my spread of junk around the house grows. And so my stock of BirthBones is building. But where are the sales!?

Second stroke of geniousness in as many days: I added a BirthBones Gift Certificate to my etsy shop. I was thinking: what if people are looking at my BirhtBones and saying to themselves, "Well, that would be an excellent unique little gift for Kathy, but i don't know her precious pooch's birthdate. Oh well." And now, they can just go ahead and buy the Gift Certificate, and cross Kathy off their list.

The BirthBones and a little charlie brown christmas tree of my minigourd snowman ornaments are now available in the Crafty Creations shop downtown. BirthBone sales have totally stalled at the vet's office. I will pack that one in if that doesn't change by mid month. Maybe they need to be in a business where you spend money on your pets frivolously, rather than out of medical necessity.

BirthBones Grand Opening!

If you haven't already done so, please drop by my new etsy shop, www.BirthBones.etsy.com, for a look. Twelve months, so only twelve items in the shop. The listing for each month includes a horoscope for dogs born in that month. (I have never studied astrology, so take it with an extra grain of salt.) But they're fun.

I'm offering my charms with FREE SHIPPING. And with Christmas coming up, i hope that's a good enough incentive for pet lovers around the world to drop all sorts of orders in my In box. I'll be focusing on shop promotion for the next few weeks. And we'll see what happens!

"Charlotte", new beads

Aren't these fine beads? The customer, a jewelry designer, thought my Alien Aura pattern (with the clear lens) was close to what she wanted. She suggested making them without the clear lens in the middle, and these beauties were born. I really enjoy artistic collaboration.

oh man, i couldn't post again without any photos, so here's a timely photo of red leaves. And my dog, Jack, for good measure.

I was wrestling with technology this morning. I am not computer savvy. I know my email, how to do web searches, some photo stuff, but that's about it. I'd like to learn it all, but one makes choices, you know? So after trying to figure out registering domain names and choosing website hosts and then making a webpage with ecommerce linkage, well, i just took the easier way out. So now i am in the middle of making a second etsy shop for my BirthBones lampwork pet charms. While most of my lampworking is targetted to jewelry makers/designers, my BirthBones are for dog lovers. That is quite a seperate customer and i need to be able to advertise and promote the charms differently. My BirthBones will soon be available by going to www.BirthBones.etsy.com. (I'll make a big Grand Opening posting.) The only negative to this is that the customer must register for an etsy account. Easy enough to do, but one gets leery of giving out one's personal info. Plus they would already have to have a PayPal account. I'm not sure how many people do PayPal. I prefer to use PayPal over giving out my credit card info any time, but probably different strokes, etc.

Beans, Beads and Boards

It's "blustery" today. A perfect autumn day. I believe it might even be mild enough for me to be out in the workshop this afternoon. But, hmmmm.... what to work on? I seem to be without a lampwork plan. Often that will change as soon as i sit down in front of the torch and pick out a couple of rods of colored glass. Then i'll get an idea for something to try. I'll be counting on one of those spur of the moment inspirations if i get out to the workshop. I'm putting a big pot of beans together at the moment. Beads and beans. How's about beads that look like pinto beans? That would make some elegant jewelry! ha!

As i mentioned earlier, i've got a number of CatBling cat collar charms made up. I don't quite know what to do with them. I threw one up in my etsy shop at $5 with the entire sale going to my local vet for her emergency rescue fund. I don't know if the others will follow suit, or not. They're cute, but i'm not sure there's a market for cat jewelry, you know?

Middle Son lives and breathes skateboard. He dearly wants a good (read "expensive") digital video camera so he can upload his tricks to YouTube. Meanwhile he got me taking some still photos of him. The sun was low, the skatepark was under a roof, and i'm not the most knowledgeable camera worker. The quality of the shots are mediocre so i tried to compensate by playing with them in a photo manipulation program. I like some of the results. But they weren't quite what Middle Son had in mind.

There, now we've got beans, beads and boards!

New Fish Beads

I've got a few new fish beads to get listed in my etsy shop. I like the shape of the orange, no make that tangerine, one.

My BirthBones dog collar charms will soon be available on a Dutch luxury pet supplies website. How cool is that?

Prize Chicken

Here's a pic of Betty W.'s prize. It's in the mail, Betty! :-)

I've got some cat collar charms to show you next posting. And i'm working on some nice twisty bones as a special request. And working on a small sock monkey for my bf (babyfriend). And trying to assemble a tin flower/glass bead combo thingy for mom's bday (pretty sure she doesn't read my blog so no surprise ruined). But at the moment, i'm running out the door and leaving the house in a mess ... ! When will they invent a self-cleaning house?

Bones Beads Clearance Sale

Starts tomorrow morning! Whoop!

I will be listing a total of 12 separate lots of bone beads. I hope to get some in the shop before i go to work, but all of them will be on the shop shelves for sure by the end of the day.

Lots will range from 4 bones to 11 beads each. I've organized them by color in some cases, size in other cases, by style in other cases. I'll be listing them at $2 per bead and less--pretty reasonable for artisan made lampwork!

Confessions of a Guppy Nerd

I wish these beads didn't take so long to make because they look sooooo cool! But i don't have as much patience as i should have. I mean, it's good to take the time and make something special, right? But when you constantly have the feeling that there aren't enough minutes in the day, you tend to want to wrap things up quickly. Fast art for the convenience junky. But my X Fish take time and i almost always feel that was twenty minutes well spent.

I was an odd teenager. One demonstration of this was my guppy breeding experiment. One year my room was filled with about 60 jars and tubs with breeding pairs of guppies and the offspring of various pairings. I kept detailed notes and made full colour illustrations of all my subjects in this breeding operation. I can't remember what characteristic i was trying to promote, maybe big red dorsal fins or something. When i have a group of X Fish sitting on the kitchen counter, i am reminded of those good old days of abundant fishies, and i am happy.

Flashy Bright Silver Wraps

In tomorrow's blog i will be introducing an etsy seller who makes handsome tin flowers.

Some really bright and flashy new beads, still on the mandrel. I'll photograph these tomorrow and get them into the shop.

My parents are avid readers and put me on to J.A. Jance mysteries. So i'm racing through my first one this weekend. The majority of my reading material over the past year have been book series. So it's always a bit unsettling for me when i finish the last book an author has written. I feel a little lost until i get turned on to a whole 'nother writer. And Jance has quite a list of novels so i should be good for months! Long live the serial writer!

New Beads to Start Off August

I've got 4 new sets of beads to put in the etsy shop, as well as six new fish beads. But here is a preview of a couple of things. I'm loving the new bones, "Sunset Bones". The color looks awesome on sun tanned skin and there's more than enough length here to make a bracelet. They will be available tomorrow.

Glass vs Clay

While flitting through etsy offerings, i couldn't help noticing that artisan polymer clay beads are usually being sold for much less that handmade glass beads. I hope our sisteren don't hate us glassworkers for this inequality. But let's look at it, shall we?

The artist of etsy shop sigaliot (click on photos to go to shop) grabbed my eye with these bead designs. (I'm liking the retro dots thing, and the pink and green color combos, and i love the shapes!) IF, and that's a big if, i could make a bead like this in glass, it would take me at least 20 minutes per bead, i'm thinking. And for me, that makes it a $6 or $8 bead. (I'll explain my pricing system sometime if anyone cares.) Sigaliot doesn't charge that much, and if you look at other clay workers, their prices often look ridiculously low.

So using these beautiful beads as an example, a clay worker would first need to spend a couple of hours to make the canes to get ready to assemble this set of beads. Then there is the cane slicing , the assembling, and the shaping of each bead. I'm guessing, but this step alone might take about 20 minutes per bead. Then after baking, there is the laborious process of hand sanding and buffing to get the lovely, glassy surface shine. I think polymer clay is at least twice as expensive as a similar amount of glass, so there is the added cost of materials, too. Sure, the lampworker has to have a rather pricier oven to "bake" (or anneal) the glass beads, and the gas used in the torch costs something... Okay, so i can' t factor it all in, but it still seems to me that most clay bead makers are getting a bum deal.

At the end of the day, the clay artist has invested hours of labor into one set of beads and it would be nice to see that expertise compensated. I used to tat, and i loved using that classic knotting technique to make a doily, but no one wanted to buy it for more than you would expect to pay for a machine-made, Chinese produced, doily that you can get down at the Dollar Store. There are so many arts and fine crafts that suffer this fate. I'm sure it's a labor of love for the artist, but i wish the buying public could see their way to putting a fairer monetary value on such beautiful little works of art, a value that better represented the time and expertise that goes into the creation of the piece.