So, in the shock of the decade ...

... we love South Carolina. I know. I'm as surprised as you are.

We spent most of the time househunting. We checked out a couple of actual houses: a duplex which was gorgeous (granite countertops!) but we suspected we'd be having conversations with the landlord that went "So, I was in your house changing a light fixture and I noticed ...", a very nice 70s house which had nicotine-stained acoustic ceilings, and a cottage that we loved but which was too much upkeep for M to do by herself.

Then we moved on to apartments, ranging from rent-controlled horrors that reeked of McDonald's french fries and desperation to a place where, as we drove up in our rental, I exclaimed, "Oh, look! Ponceville, run by Poncy Bastards, Ltd.! Do you want to look at it? This is way too posh for our kind."

One day I'll learn to shut my mouth, because ... we're going to be living in Ponceville now. ;) But we have a balcony and a dining room with a chandelier, and they'll let us paint, and we couldn't be happier with it. Well, we could be happier with it if it were cheaper -- money's going to be tight until I can get employed back East too -- but it's not a bad price considering it's a quiet, safe location and, knock on wood, I think she'll be okay there until I can join her. You can't put a price tag on peace of mind.

Other things we're happy with:

This will be M's commute to work.

And this is the view from our balcony.

Yeah, we really can't complain about that too much.

The tiniest thing I've ever made

One of two tiny cameos I set into silver-plated necklaces for a pair of bridesmaids. They're only 8x6, about half the size of a dime. Very delicate!

I'm also working on a diamond necklace for another customer, though she's in no hurry so it will be completed after we return from SC (leaving Tuesday to house-hunt!) I'll be wrapping the diamonds in fine-gauge sterling silver wire and connecting them with S-curves. It should be quite lovely.

I defy you, Etsy!

Unofficial "rules" of Etsy success that I am cheerfully breaking:

1. Develop a presence in the forums to draw in customers.  I spend almost no time there, for two reasons: One, people are really, really catty there.  They're way nastier than their enemy Regretsy, they just frost it in sugar.  Two, I'm still having trouble seeing the point of dealing with it in terms of sales.  I am in a very saturated category.  If I sold one-of-a-kind poodle warmers or something, then it might be worth it, but frankly?  I kinda doubt it.

2. Views are the most important thing ever.  Nope; customers are the most important thing ever.  I love to have my work appreciated, but views are a number.  If I got to talk to everyone who viewed me, that would be something else.  This is more a philosophical mindset than an action, but nonetheless, I defy it!

3.  Put your shop policies in your descriptions.  I'm resisting this one.  I'm resisting it hard.  Those who have been around for a while will notice I've recently added a little blurb at the end of "all orders ship USPS First Class, allow two weeks," etc., but honestly?  That's more to give the descriptions an obvious stop-point ... the same reason you put strong-colored binding on a quilt ... than as a policy advisory.

4.  Create a unified product line.  I frankly cannot imagine how people do this without going mad.  I would be utterly insane if I tried to make all my stuff match a theme.  I'm going a little crazy trying to make stuff that I can put in Flickr sets, fergodsake.  I love the steampunk assemblage stuff, that's really sort of my home now that I have developed sufficient skill to execute it the way I picture it, but trying to confine myself to that style would result it truly unmarketable bizarrities.

5.  Put your best item in your avatar.  Mine has been and remains my little orange dancing pig.  I hand-drew that logo when I first got started and I plan to use it forever.  It stands out a lot more than most of the jewelry-business avatars, which are all, y'know, jewelry (and occasionally cause me to go ... "Yes, I have bought pendants at WalMart, too, I recognize that which is the sole thing in your image").  And because of the above, my goal has to be to build business and name recognition, not style recognition.  My style is very different from others', but also occasionally from itself, and you have to see the milieau of work over time to see the common threads.

6.  Use a solid-color background.  Oh, god, I am defying this one hard.  But I love my broken-pottery-and-raw-silk background.  I have occasionally contemplated switching the background color behind the ivory pots to orange, but a.) this would require rephotographing the whole shop and b.) I wouldn't be able to use my brother's T-shirts anymore (seriously, worn jersey-knit is the best fabric for photographing jewelry on).


So maybe it's killing my sales, but I have been a stubborn mule approximately from birth, so this is my business model and I'm stickin' to it.

New special offer through June 30

This is the "hopefully it will garner a lot of sales to help Chelsea pay for moving expenses" special offer!

Available here.

Until June 30, buy any three or more items and get free shipping on your order, no limit! Just use the code walking when you order and I'll refund the shipping through PayPal 24 hours later or less.

On a completely different note, howzabout the new layout? I decided the last one was a little painful with all my gadgets being white on the dark background. Very harsh, very modern. I'm not modern. So I think this looks nice and is a little less eye-torturing.

Show report

Show went quite well by the standards of recently! Roland Gridley more than broke even and wants to plan on WyrdCon again next year. Apparently sharing a table with some TangoPig and Ballet Llama merchandise was great for them -- my style and his are so vastly different that we don't compete with each other, but draw interest for each other. We'll do shows together again if we can -- although that might be geographically difficult since it is now confirmed that we'll be on opposite coasts by the New Year (eek!).

We sold the pin from the last post, a collar/choker of M's that involves an adorable little steampunk bee, and the necklace I featured with my weird little story in this post, which was a collaborative effort as I recall. It's actually great results for a small con, and we sold more of the bigger pieces, which is opposite of what we get at other venues.

So that's the baggage paid for!

I am extremely happy with this.

Available here. Sold!

My high school art teachers would have loved this. I love it. Without realizing it, I followed all the rules of composition that they gently ground into my skull. The round vintage metal bit at the end balances the same-color round charm that makes up the lower layer of the spinner. The heavier wrapping balances the wider spinner end. The color layering alternates almost exactly. And every metal color appears in the patina of the key.

Right, right, supposed to be doing the marketings, precious ... this is one of the pieces that will be at the greatly talented Roland Gridley's booth at Costa Mesa/Southern California's WyrdOne this weekend, June 11-13. Mr. Gridley is actually my cousin, who plays in my RP with me, so anyone in the area can meet him and his very lovely girlfriend while shopping his exquisite work.

... and ... um ... it's official, and it's big.

I will be moving to South Carolina in the next year.  Because M is going in the next two months.

This is a good thing.  She's been offered a job as a lecturer in the English department, starting in composition, which she's very good at, and moving into her areas, Victorian and children's literature.  The university department sounds extremely excited to have her.  It's got full benefits.  It's guaranteed for the full year and she has been off-the-record assured that there's an excellent chance of the next several years too.  It sounds like their whole philosophy is actually about teaching and teachers, not Prestigious Research Names.  They're family-friendly.  They're excited about having her.

Oh, and did I mention which university it is?  It's Clemson.

I am ... terrified.  I am excited.  I am scared to death.  I am going to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.  This means that I'm going to be here without M for several months, and then I am going to move across the entire continental United States.  This means for the first time we are going to actually have a home of our own.

We'll be alone together for weeks at a time for the first time in our entire relationship.  We'll be able to work without being yelled at to clean up every five minutes.  I'll get to have my own garden.

I've been crying off and on since I found out.  I'm just overwhelmed.  This is so enormous, and so soon .... just.  Wow.

And, just to make this vaguely topical, I've arranged to have Mom fill orders for me while we're back trying to find an apartment, so I shouldn't have to vacation the shop or anything.  This gives me something to do: arrange everything into lettered-and-numbered drawers.  Thiiiis should keep me busy for a while.

WOE

You know what the never tell you about cabochons?

Today, they are measured in millimeters. Vintage cabochon settings? They're measured in inches.

Which leads to quite. A lot. Of trial-and-error. In which you can't actually snap in the cab because it will never, ever come out again, so you have get as close as you can, cross your fingers, hold your breath and hope.

Lazy Leftover Late Lunch Recipe

Corned Beef Sandwiches and Browned Butter Mac and Cheese

All the big-girl jewelry blogs have recipes. They say the regular readers (and I know I have some other than the spambot; Google Analytics reveals you!) like it. This is my very special version of that: Partly because I use the "food" setting on my somewhat-trusty Polariod i1036 for jewelry photos and I'm idly curious to see if it works as well for, you know, food. Partly because I am a slave to "How to Get Blog Traffic" tip lists. Partly because I feel like blogging today, and as soon as the temperatures hit the 90s, M decided she was craving about four different kinds of hot food, and I needed something semi-quick and cheap for in between the corned beef and the Alton Brown-recipe borscht.

And this manner of prepping mac and cheese is actually better, and it may be de rigeur somewhere, but it's different from how I learned it.

In this recipe:
Protein
Starch
Optional veggies
A pseudo-gourmet take on Kraft
Prep time: 10-20 minutes
Serves 2 hungry people
Suitable for hearty late lunch

Recipe after the jump!