Dog exasperation and Potter jewelry

The dog that ate the garden has now eaten our sewing counter. Yes, eaten it. He pulled all the drawers out, scattered the fabric and gnawed T-Rex bites out of the wood. He's lucky the sewing machine didn't fall on his head.

In other news, M and I have realized that we have just over two weeks to prep for Azkatraz, this year's Harry Potter convention, where both of us are delivering lectures on the formal programming (she's something of an expert on participatory culture). We also both have vendor booths booked and I'm selling one-of-a-kind House-color jewelry.

I swear there has never been such a challenge to my creative abilities as trying to come up with unique, interesting designs when limited to four color schemes.

There's an equal problem in that I have to come up with roughly equal numbers of each (that's Gryffindor red and gold, Slytherin green and silver, Ravenclaw blue and bronze, and Hufflepuff black and yellow, for those not in the know). There are a LOT more interesting ways to combine blue and bronze than black and yellow. Also, the shortage of yellow beads -- not only at craft stores and small independent bead stores, even at some of the nation's biggest wholesalers -- is at screaming-and-rending-of-hair levels. Not to mention that pale translucent yellows look green next to bright orangey ones and that only highly specific greens read Slytherin once put together and I've been using lobster/spring clasps so much that my fingers are literally bleeding and don't even get me started on the fact that I can only find phoenix pendants in silver ...

You know what? I think I'll go make something in purple and white and bright copper to ease the mental pain. Possibly followed by a nap.

Shop redesign and discount/bonus codes!

I've reorganized my Etsy shop so it now sorts everything by style instead of type (i.e. "steampunk" and "whimsical" instead of "earrings" and "charm bracelets.") Not at all sure how I'm going to handle this if I actually do add hijab pins to my lines ...

Anyway. I've decided to celebrate this and share the joy of my first-year anniversary, which I celebrated this week, by starting to offer discount codes!

From now until 11:59 PST on Sunday the fifth of July, get a free pair of earrings in your color of choice with every purchase from the section called "Upcycled, Buttons, Notions." Just add the discount code "megan" and your favorite color in the "Notes to Seller" box.

This section includes the button-weave bracelets (see previous post), my wildly popular bobbin jewelry (hey, let me dream), and a couple of pieces made with soda-can tabs.


Available here.

Button bracelets are go!

Finally found the camera! As such, the button bracelets are going live on Etsy. The promised photos:


Available here.


Available here.

Another advantage of this technique? It finally gives me an excuse to buy colored wire. I use nylon-coated stainless-steel wire in my jewelry and while I've previously stuck to silver, gold, bronze and black, it comes in many many colors - even non-specific craft stores generally carry red and blue wire, and more colors can be bought as well. The wire doesn't show in most of my designs, but it's gorgeous in the button-weave bracelets.

Might as well face it: you're addicted to charms

My partner just returned from a trip to Berkeley, and she happened to go through a bead store. She tells me it was ridiculously overpriced. There are these lovely blown glass beads we've seen at the local craft store, about $4.99 for three to five of them with coordinating plain glass spacers. And at this Berkeley bead store? Five dollars a pop. Yup.

Anyway. She stayed away from the expensive beads, but what they did have was charms. Discount charms. Eight or ten nice pewter charms in a little plastic packet for $2.75.

I spent over an hour sorting them, and resorting them, and matching them, and giggling evilly. I'm so addicted.

There are Hawaiian shirt charms in pewter and gold - nine of each. Little red enameled mouths that beg to become a Marilyn Monroe charm bracelet. About a million corkscrews in gold and silver. Yellow enameled bananas. About fifteen tiny, anatomically correct copies of Michelangelo's David (!). And a pack of wine barrels and grape bunches in antique gold with one horse's head included. I'm assuming that was an accident, but I would like to credit someone else with that kind of a sense of humor - The Godfather Charm Set, I suppose?

Spent today trying to fend off that nestless feeling by making our garden work. My partner, M, has an incredibly stupid flat-coated retriever who is convinced that something is living in the drainage system under her grandmother's gravel patch. He may be right, but considering the twelve-inch pavers in the way, he'll never find out. Unfortunately, he's destroyed our little tomato garden in the process. We jury-rigged a solution involving half a futon frame, three lengths of rope, two bricks and a crowbar. The garden is now quite a respectable little corner patch, and has morning glories. This gives me joy.

Earring Earnings

I like being able to offer five-dollar earrings at shows. Actually, I stagger the prices: I have five-dollar, eight-dollar and ten-dollar earrings. You would think the sales would be inverse to the price; they're not. Ten-dollar ones go better than eight-dollar, even though the primary difference is in price of materials and I'm selling on a college campus. What can you do? The five-dollar ones always go best, though, which was the point of that story -- and interestingly enough, stated reasons to buy are a fifty-fifty split between "Oh, my friend would like these" as an addition to another purchase, and "Oh, I forgot to wear jewelry today and these match my outfit."

Online I can use prices that would require change in person, so I'm thinking of branching out and charging eleven or twelve dollars for these:


After all, they're real turquoise beads and the dangles were an absolute pain.

But every so often I see a pair of earrings like these, and think maybe I should add another price point. Aren't those incredible? I wish I'd thought of them. Obviously I won't exactly imitate someone else's design -- that would be immoral as well as illegal -- but what about hefty shell button pendants with a stack of spidery red coral branches over them? Hey, I have these flat diamond-shaped shell components in a pretty canteloupe orange ...

International Shipping! Um ... wait ...

Price of the bracelets I just sold on Etsy: 6.00 USD
Additional shipping charge to Lancashire on Etsy: 2.00

One small bubble mailer at the UPS Store: 0.99
Shipping rate, inclusive of customs fees and California sales tax: 3.89

My gross profit, even before deducting price of materials and labor: 3.12
Minus cost of goods sold: 2.12
Minus minimum wage labor: 0.12

My profit: Twelve cents.

So. Um. I'm going to be upping my international shipping rates.