A Little Grin

In the description for the earrings below, I actually used the one really cool thing I learned from the Etsy writing workshop: Using a quick, unusual story to explain damage to a vintage item.



Sold!

To wit: "The two large pearl beads have slightly different shades and imperfections (I like to imagine it comes of their being worn by a dangerous gang of flapper girls for a famous faux pearl heist), but this is barely visible and what can be seen only enhances the vintage feel of the earrings."


It's always nice when something you wrote makes you smile a little later on.  I got this feeling from the descriptions of some of the stick incenses for my current Elance client, too.  It's a high, like suddenly realizing that the beads are falling into an additional pattern you didn't even plan but which is perfect.  Flipping over a pancake to find you've judged just right and it's wholly fluffy, and melt-in-your-mouth gold.  Or perfectly executing a martial arts form.

Things I Am Slightly Chagrined By

1. I'm making more in a month of copywriting than I ever made even in Decembers from my jewelry business.  Admittedly, most of it's coming from Elance, but I've been at the jewelry for three years (going on four) and the copywriting for three months.  There is something slightly frightening about this.
2. I'm officially giving up the ghost on frontal toggles.  Every time a new Stringing hits the grocery store, there's a new and interesting way to put the clasp in front, to the side, as a pendant base, interchangeable, adjustable, convertible -- just stop.  I am going to accept that my jewelry has boring clasp placement, at least for a while.  I use too many different toggle designs (because I match them carefully with the piece's look) to put myself through this anymore.
3. Teapot earrings -- a billion variations on a single finding -- beat out every other category I can make for top jewelry sales ever.  Maybe this is less chagrin and more astonished laughter.  But yeah.

Sold!

Jewelry Sets and Busy-ness

I've become a lot bolder about listing coordinating items separately of late.  My bridal jewelry all links to the rest of the collection in the listing, since those are intended to be sort of infinitely mix-and-match.  Lately, I also listed this set:



Available here and here. Sold!

That ... is a weird piece.  I have to say it.  It's really odd.  Even more disparate materials than I usually combine, which, with me, is saying something.  It would be awesome to layer with a longer piece, though, a pendant on a very long cord maybe?  I haven't done a lot of A.) chokers or B.) multistrand before, though I've done a good few of the latter lately.

And I'm fond of the earring photo; I think I managed the depth of field and dimensionality, what with turning the pot that the earrings hang in toward the light and away from the camera, which makes them a little more interesting.  Not sure it's visible at the teaser size, though.  Hmm.

Also, since I originally wrote this post, the set has sold.  Obviously I'm not the only one who likes it!

I always consider jewelry sets to be an excellent gift -- coordinating necklace-earrings, bracelet-pendant, pendant-earrings-bracelet or what-have-you vastly increases the perceived value.  However, I'm getting more confident about breaking up jewelry sets listing-wise because I often sell them that way in person, with someone wanting just the necklace but not having pierced ears, preferring studs, or not caring for the pendant but liking the color combination and so purchasing the matching bracelet alone.  Things like that.  It's only twenty cents more for me, and it takes my customers to the Priority-shipping upgrade faster, so I think this is actually better.  Thoughts from the reader pool?

On another note, we've just finished out the semester at the tech college, and in the sudden glut of free time and M-is-home time I've had a couple of stupidly productive days.  We're still decorating the house, the garden flourishes, and I made hamburgers with homegrown spinach on them last night.  The Japanese maple looks like the Japanese maple.  The English primrose and daisies are not terribly happy, which is not unexpected, but my Oscar milkweed, liatris, and (shockingly) trout lilies are all remarkably happy.  The Jack-in-the-pulpit died but it's been the only thing to croak out of season so far.  More topically, I've made approximately a thousand charm bracelets, two with bits of miniature tea set and three with buttons, including my weird but somehow trademark combination of plastic buttons with pearls. We're discussing having all our work friends over for traditional British tea and jewelry-showing sometime next month. 

For those interested, I'm selling off much of my collection of vintage hematite in the Ballet Llama storefront.  There are also some nice hard-to-find charms there.  Get 'em while the getting's good!

It's hot, but life is nice right now.

Tutorial: Wire-Wrapped Earrings

I figured I might as well do a free jewelry tutorial at some point, so why not the wire-wrapped bridal earrings from February?  They're a lovely simple, graceful, infinitely customizable design that can be made more or less casual.  And maybe I can get the photo onto Craftgawker (unlikely; they like their straight-on hero shots at Craftgawker, though it's much easier to be vetted in now, either because I've improved more than I realize or because they're no longer permitting Etsy post photos so there's drastically less competition).

Anyhow.

Free Handmade Jewelry Tutorial: How to Make Hand-Brushed Wire-Wrapped Earrings
suitable for bridal, formal or casual wear, with a subtle 14k brushed gold finish.

You will need:
- 8 inches (or so) 21g 14k gold-filled wire, dead soft
- 2 round 10mm beads
- 2 contrasting round 6mm beads
- 1 pair gold-filled earwires

- flush cutters
- round-nose pliers
- chain-nose pliers
- sanding block
-nylon-jawed pliers

The sanding block can be acquired inexpensively at your local hardware store.  As for the rest, get the good stuff.  Instructions after the jump.

I dream in black and burgundy

My customer's wedding was at the end of February, so time to show off the jewelry I made for her party!

Her earrings, wire-wrapped 14k gold fill with a hand-brushed finish.  I'd never actually done a brushed finish, so I allowed myself an hour or two to devote to learning the technique on inexpensive wire, and purchased a nice fine wire brush and file set.  I soon discovered that: (a.) it's really easy, and (b.) five minutes and a sanding block works better and looks better.  We live and learn.



I'm contemplating making up a tutorial for those.  Look for it at the beginning of April!

The bracelets were three-strand Bordeaux Swarovski pearl and black onyx with pewter toggle clasps and silver-plated charms made of crystal pearls with bead caps.
Lessons learned here:
(a.) Get the wrist measurements before ordering the supplies -- I think this customer may have gone handmade partly because she couldn't find anything ready-made to fit her very small bridesmaids.  I have a bunch of extra pearls.  But this is okay because I also learned:
(b.) Allow "wiggle room" in your pricing for stuff to sell out two minutes before you place your order.  That is not the originally planned clasp.  And I had to get the 6mm pearls much more expensively from Beadaholique when Fire Mountain Gems sold out of them since they were having a sale.
The clasp: an adventure.  I highly recommend this shop and this one for supplies; neither of them were selling multiples of the clasp, but they were both very prompt in telling me so!

I couldn't resist doing "vintage" styled shots of the jewelry.  This is the "winter" version, styled with browned leaves of flowering kale -- I desaturated, soft-focused and upped the dynamic color range for a sense of time and nostalgia:



And here's the "warmer" version, half-sepia-filtered, graduated-tinted, and soft-focused after styled with a litter of the deadheads from my apricot violas, for a sense of nostalgia, the warm blush of the beautiful and impermanent:


Pruning makes for great props. Also, I definitely want to do some more sanding of metal for the nice matte finish. 

The total of the jewelry was five bracelets and a pair of earrings: all in all, a good-sized commission, though if I hadn't been custom-sizing each one and thus redesigning a little, I'd have naturally gone stark raving mad on bracelet four.  But as it was, getting the same design with varying wrist sizes was an interesting challenge.  Much fun!

Meditation upon Chandeliers

Surely someone must wear chandelier earrings these days.  Right?

Chandelier earrings have seemed since I started my Etsy shop to just be not worth the effort.  They consistently get lower views than similarly tagged earrings in other styles, I've never sold a pair, and they are actually harder and more repetitive to make than even many-tiered drops.


Available here.

The wholesaler I use is having a sale on a bunch of Swarovski stuff and I ordered some of their silver-plated pewter findings, but found myself hesitating over the chandelier findings.  "Chelsea," I said to myself, "these are the best deal they have.  Chandelier plus post plus clutch.  If you're trying to get the most for your money this is what you should be doing."

Then I said to myself, "But it's foolish to throw good money after bad getting things that won't sell.  And the likelihood of someone requesting a pair of chandelier earrings, let alone a single pair in the specific color you're getting, is apparently slim."

Then I said to myself, "I need to stop talking to myself.  It alarms Megan if I do it too often or earnestly."

So really, which is worse?  Passing up a pretty good opportunity to get discount supplies -- or getting supplies that I know are slow sellers?

The pair above was for the wedding collection, mind you, and wedding jewelry sort of across the board seems to be largely the same stuff so I felt obligated to have some "classic" boring pieces.  I don't think they're especially boring, though, and I'm really proud of the photo, where the slightly darker clay sets off the rainbow effect of the AB crystal quite well for this neat sort of carnival effect.  Still, they were meant as a complement, not a showpiece.  This pair was more intended for actual, y'know, coolness, sort of a Steampunk Atlantean feel:



Available here.

Possibly the slow selling is because people are highly aware that anonymous chandelier earrings are a staple of the cheap import fashion jewelry market and the look can be gotten for a lot less -- for which I can't blame people at all.  It's a little ludicrous to try to compete with dollar-a-pair outfits at their own game, and the look has to be significantly different for jewelry to not be a futile market.  The look has to be different (unexpected bead and finding choices); the quality has to be higher (I wire-wrap the elements together, because that's a whole lot of a small, fine-gauge jump rings to put so much trust in and wire-wrapping is much more secure).

I did take the trouble to list another set this week, because I've had these forty-year-old curtain rings in my hardware box for ages, then found that it is remarkable how much grey transparent glass will take on the tones of the metal it's nearest:

Available here.

Still, ones like the second photo seem like they ought to be going better than they do ... which leads me back to my original question.  Is it just that I'm the only one who wears chandelier earrings anymore?

Fabric pearls through the ages

This is my fact for the day.  Not something you often think about ... fabric imitations of pearls. It's an interesting little fashion meme through history.

These are Japanese cotton pearls, from this NOS Etsy seller, whose prices are remarkably okay:


Photo copyright J.A. Hershberger.

Cotton pearls were made in the 1920s and are literally made of very tightly wound cotton thread with a nacre coating.

During the Victorian age, the finest evening toilettes might be accented with chenille balls, embroidered onto the fabric or strung in imitation of ropes of pearls:


Image from an 1870's Harper's Bazar, reproduced in Stella Blum's awesome book of plates.

All the round beading you see is chenille.  The effect was often quite luxurious and medieval-looking.

This does mean that soft fuzzy balls are perfectly acceptable for steampunk designs, historically speaking.  Hm.

So that would be today's unusual historical fashion thingy, for no better reason than that I've been thinking about imitation pearls what with the Swarovski I'm working with of late ... I like how they feel!  The weight of pearls is really hard to mimic, but those are heavy and weighty and rich running through your hands.  This is why I always let people pick up my jewelry at shows all they like:  I like my jewelry heavy, with the sole exception of earrings.  It makes me perceive it as more valuable.  Is this uncommon?

Shop reorganization

I've finally redone my shop sections, because I was starting to get irritated by some of them ("Feminine Touches"?  Really, Chelsea?  Could you possibly be less specific?).

So now the sections are "Elegant Accessories" for the classier, simpler pieces, "Fun Fashion Jewelry" for the cute, bright styles I occasionally randomly do, "Steampunk Assemblage" because I never do anything normal with the steampunk stuff but that pretty much covers it all, "Eclectic Style" for the bohemian looks and the found-object edginess, "Bridal Couture" for the more high-end sparkly pieces that are intended to make a statement and take a long time to construct, and "Versatile Jewelry Pieces," for stuff that's generally pretty workable for multiple styles.

I think this is working, because I don't find myself dithering over which section a listing fits in nearly as much as I used to!

In celebration, special offerish thing:


Available here.

Through February 28, when you order any item from the "Elegant Accessories" section, use the code palmetto in the "Notes to Seller" to get free shipping on your second item,


OR


When you order any item from the "Bridal Couture" section, use the code bread to get 20% off any coordinating pieces from the link at the bottom of the couture item's listing.



Available here.


Discounts will be given through PayPal after you purchase, custom orders don't count, and ... yeah!  It's been way too long since I did one of these.

I want to work with those copper pearls some more.  God, I love those.

Sketching, for a given value of sketching

Still in a haze of trying to get the business going again, so a quick post today.  But here are the "sketches" for my current custom order, a pair of earrings and some bridesmaid-and-flower girl bracelets for a vintage-Hollywood-glamour-style wedding where the colors are black and burgundy and the bride will be wearing this lovely gown in silver and pale gold:

The designs will probably be in silver-plated pewter with black onyx and Bordeaux Swarovski crystal pearls.

And yes, this is how I "sketch" for almost all my custom orders.  I'm a pretty fair artist, as long as I don't try to draw feet, but I find it easier for both the client and I to see what I'm trying to show them given clear differentiation and being able to type into the sketch.

The Conversation About Coral

This Craftivism article was on the Etsy blog last month: Declaring Coral Too Precious to Wear.

The thing about it is ... well, yes, coral is a living thing, but that also means coral dies.  And the exoskeletons aren't food for anything that I know of.  Basically, once a coral dies, it becomes proto-sand.

The coral I use in my jewelry designs was sold to me as "responsibly collected."  And I do believe firmly in the responsibility to source one's materials, especially in jewelry design -- we need to know our diamonds are conflict-free (link is disturbing), we need to know if we're selling Swarovski crystal jewelry or a Chinese imitation that will fade to grey-brown before the bridesmaids wear their bracelets -- but there's also a limit to what is possible.  And honestly, I'm willing to accept that the grab bags of broken coral pieces from which I get my branches are pre-deceased coral, that it's found on a beach and not cut from a reef.  I can't follow the shop owner around stalking her to see if she does any snorkeling.  I can only note whether she's offering whole ocean corals next to my grab bags of broken pieces, and make an educated guess about her suppliers' collection practices from there.

So when I say that my coral is "responsibly collected," that's what I mean: "To the best of my reasonable knowledge, this is coral that was not poached or killed to be sold."


Available here.

That makes it sound a little creepy, doesn't it?  But honestly, all the ocean-sourced materials -- shells, coral, starfish, everything but pearls -- are the exoskeletons of marine creatures.  It doesn't necessarily have to be alarming, unless we're also finding bone, horn and leather alarming.  Let it be stated: The coral and shell jewelry isn't vegan.

So why did I make this post when it makes my jewelry sound mildly creepy?  Well, I wanted to join the conversation about coral -- and I like it when customers ask me about my sources.  It makes me respect them a little more if they're concerned and it allows me to talk more about my favorite thing: beads and found objects.

Also, I alluded to it in the first part of my article series about writing descriptions to sell handmade products, so I thought if the question was going to arise in such a timely manner I'd better clarify here.

Now, having read the Etsy Storque article, there's another thing -- all those pink and red coral beads that are so readily available.  I guess I've always assumed that coral was farmed somewhere, like pearls, but according to that article, it can't be.  So while I'm not going to toss my small current supply, once I've used it up, I'll be trying some alternatives like ceramic or mountain jade to get that effect.

tl;dr: My coral is responsibly collected to the best of my knowledge and I'm going to stop purchasing any I'm unsure of.

Bridal Collections 3: Ocean Branches

This is the collection that was actually requested for consignment -- longtime readers may remember another white coral piece with wire-wrapping which sold last Christmas, and around the same time I showed the photo for consideration, which is why I was asked to do a whole beach-wedding line.

This collection is the only one that's 100% sterling silver, and it involves a lot of fine wirework. The wire is used both to adorn the coral branches and to create a smoothish surface against the clothing or skin -- coral is a lot smoother than it looks, but it never hurts to be sure.


Available here.

Two pieces broke in their return shipping, one irreparably and one just depressingly. The rest, however, is now in the Etsy shop. This elegant one-of-a-kind coral and pearl bridal collection for classy ocean-themed affairs is now on sale:

Through October 18, purchase any piece from the Ocean Branches bridal collection and get 15% off a coordinating item. If only one item is purchased, I'll send you a pair of pearl earrings as a free gift.

Discounts are before shipping and given after purchase through PayPal.  Just mention this post to get your deals!

On another note, that piece on the lower left is in an absolutely amazing number of treasuries.  I'm not sure if it's because I've been making a lot and people are reciprocating with the first image they like in the shop, or if it's the white-on-white closeup that people like.

Bridal collections 1: Antigua Cove

This was the first collection I made for my 2010 bridal line, and I'm posting it first because I think in many ways it's the truest to my style.
It uses ivory, bronze, brass, topaz and gold shades. The inspirational motifs:

1. I wanted each piece to be able to go from an ivory wedding dress to a cute jeans outfit.  This doesn't mean they're simple; quite the contrary.
2. I wanted a bit of a pirate-queen feel,which could be played up or down with the right accessories.
3. I wanted each piece to be something my mother would wear.

Mom likes earth tones and relative simplicity, and wears a lot of bracelets and earrings.  If she and Dad got married now instead of twenty-two years ago -- yeah, I think she just might wear these.


Available here.

Apparently I achieved my goal; some of the pieces shown above, Mom loved and has been persuaded to make off with.  I'd love it if she took more; I can generally persuade her by reminding her that she's my advertising department. For the rest, a special offer on this eclectic, sophisticated one-of-a-kind collection of seashell and pearl wedding jewelry in brown, gold, ivory and antiqued brass tones:

Through October 6, purchase any piece from the Antigua Cove bridal collection and get a second piece of equal or lesser value 25% off.  This is not combinable with other offers and is taken from the price before my small customization fee, but it does apply to orders for multiples of one item.  Discounts will be given through PayPal refund.

Happy shopping!

Doing the custom order dance again

I'm pretty sure I've talked about both of these orders before. But now they're done. Which is exciting.

Here's the full wedding-party set that started with my teeny teeny pink cameos.



See, what happened was, after I made the little ones the customer asked if I could do a slightly larger grey one, and then I made a big one as well to match the original I was matching the others to. The grey had to be hand-painted, because I ordered it from a new source and said new source was apparently unclear on the difference between white and dark ivory. Which was interesting, doing the small delicate paint work, since that was right after it became suddenly and painfully obvious that my wisdom teeth had to come out and I was drugged to the gills. But off they go.

When I was "posing" the photo I was actually thinking heavily of Rossetti's The Beloved. I'm not sure it comes through. Hmmm.

And here are the diamonds.



It's really ... immensely flattering to be trusted with precious stones. And they're so incredible to work with, diamonds. No worries about wrapping too tight, no bloody fingerprints (bloody in the swearing sense, not the exsanguination sense). Gorgeous flash. And the planes of the uncut stones are just made for wire.

Other than these, I've been listing on eBay. And listing. And listing. And listing.

Oh, and now that I think about it, I really oughta link to Jewelry Findings Online. I got all the cameo settings from them. Don't be fooled by their catalogue, their products are great and high-quality, and they're very speedy. I've used them for a bunch of designs.

Things I never thought I'd be excited by

My jewelry design has given me a previously-unknown passing interest in Fashion Week. I was a little chagrined to discover this, but not altogether surprised, since I already scan the covers of trashy magazines to see what kind of sparkly things are on their cover models and, when my coworkers and I were streaming Project Runway after work, I was sketching accessories to match the outfits instead of following the drama.

Then I got distracted by the Olympics, specifically the gorgeous, occasionally exquisitely pagan opening ceremony theatrics, and the awesome music choices in pairs figure skating -- Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever" and the overture to Man of La Mancha, both out of the People's Republic of China. If neither of those couples won I'd have thrown things.

But now I have something new to be excited about -- Swarovski has come out with their Innovations for spring and summer 2010. We're getting two new colors in crystal beads (fern green and Provence lavender) and a new Lavender crystal pearl. A bevy of new shapes, too, of course -- the ones that interest me most are the couture Lotus pendant, which reminds me of a sand dollar and will definitely have to make an appearance in my beach-wedding line, and their new baroque pearls. I think I would still use a genuine pearl by choice if I was going to have an organic look -- for one thing, freshwater cultured pearls are actually cheaper -- but I've seen skeins of Swarovski pearls in person and their shimmer is amazing. You can see the whole spring-summer line here.

So that's exciting. Hmm, I was supposed to be working, wasn't I.

An article for buyers

An interesting article for jewelry purchasers from the Federal Trade Commission on what to look for in jewelry descriptions when buying.

I came across this and the only thing I can see lacking is my pearl descriptions ... I rarely say whether they're natural or dyed. I think all the ones I've used in my Etsy shop are dyed or bleached apart from the ones in the birdhouse necklace and the peacock pearls in the button and pearl charm bracelet. Those are natural.

I don't agree with the bit about gold metals -- gold is a color, and is used that way in descriptions, so unless there's a karat weight or the terms "gold-filled" or "gold-plated" or, more rarely, "rolled plate" are used, it's best to assume that goldtone is meant -- but of course the FTC isn't interested in my opinion of their terminology, so I'll go fix that. :) It's a good article for those interested in very fine jewelry.

My jewelry is more at the fashion jewelry end of the spectrum, with some exceptions, but I still try to follow those guidelines. This is partly just a matter of trade honesty, and partly because I don't think "fashion jewelry" means low quality. Unfortunately, we have that association with the term. My work is very high quality and made to last years; however, it's also affordable, which aside from karat weight is just about the only difference between my jewelry and that which can be properly called fine jewelry.

Anyway, it's an interesting article, and there are a few others on the site of interest if you're in a browsing mood.

Pearls plus polymer ...

Looking at the items that the week's special offer applies to, I have to say ... I always seem to have these bizarre whims to combine pearls with really inappropriate materials.

There was this early-on experiment with printed wood beads where I appeared to think that red plastic and white pearls went perfectly together.


Available here.

And then there's these. Polymer clay and freshwater pearl is just not generally thought of together. As M says, "Those are strange. I like them, but ... they're strange."


Available here.

Mind you, I think both of those are great designs and great pieces of jewelry, but there's this ... almost a creeping sense of guilt for combining the two. Bead elitism, if you will. Like the clay should stay on its own side of the tracks, or the pearls' fathers will beat them up. Is that weird?

New offer through Aug 25

Until 11:59 PM Pacific (that's GMT -8, for reference, have I mentioned?) on Tuesday, August 25:

Get a free pair of simple pearl earrings with the purchase of any item containing pearls when you enter the code "almost" in the Notes to Seller section.


Available here.

No, sorry, glass pearls don't count, but mother-of-pearl does. :) The offer includes several items from the Etsy shop, and more to come in the next week!