Praying For Something Good

Since I went out on Thursday I've been laying low in the house for a couple of days making necklaces.  I made this light weight Rock Crystal, Tourmalated Quartz and Pearl necklace.  The Rock Crystal is clear so it has a very spring/summer look to it despite the darnkess of the Tourmalated Quartz.  I've been trying to make more necklaces that people would want to buy for the spring/summer time but it's kind of hard because when I go and buy beads I always gravitate towards heavy looking stones or darker colored stones. 

Aside from that I'm finally going to meet this guy today who would be helpful in getting the word out about my jewelry.  He runs a really good website for things to do in DC and we've been trying to meet for about the last month but something always happens where we can't meet.  But today is the day.  He's already seen some pictures of my work but it's nothing like seeing it in person.  It's going to be very informal at Bus Boys but you never know what can come of an informal meeting. 

You know the title of this post is Praying for Something Good because now I really need some additional prayers. I find myself doing things I would have never done before and it's getting really hard.  I'll just leave it at that.  I still have my Etsy shop which I check more than I want to on a daily basis only to see the numbers the same and no request to buy anything.  Just for fun here's the shop name http://www.jgirlred.etsy.com/  Oh but I do have some good news - I did find a site where I was able to make a free banner for my shop.  So instead of it being super bland with bad pictures, it's just bad pictures with a nice banner.  LOL!  Hey if I don't have a sense of humor who the hell will?  But my next purchase will be the necklace stands/statues.  It's a good investment especially when doing shows.  It shows the necklaces off instead of them just laying down on a table.

Ahh other good news, I got a response back from Crafty Bastards and they haven't posted their application but it will be up soon.  So I'm gonna keep an eye up for that.  If I can get in there it will be amazing.  Their next show is in October in Adams Morgan so you know that's gonna be big.  I must also say that I have this really good woman who's been helping me and I kind of look to her as a mentor somewhat.  We don't speak on a regular basis but she always sends me information for possible craft shows to sign up for. 

Anyways,  one more thing to be happy for is today is my 1 year anniversary. 

Here's the necklace I made yesterday.  My camera really sucks and this is under the best light in my house.  But I hope you enjoy.

Questions

Why do people leave you when you need them the most? 
Does being successful mean you have to be sad?
Is traveling your own path right if it makes you feel wrong?
What good is anything if there's no one there to share it with?
If you don't have anyone to talk to is it okay to talk to yourself?  If you don't know the answer then what good is it to talk to yourself?  Where then do you get the answer from when you need one?

I'm in a sad mood right now and since I'm the only person that reads my blog I guess no one else will judge or answer my questions. 

Good Night. 

Dainty and Feminine

It's been about a week since I've made a necklace and this morning I made a beautiful necklace with Rose Quartz and Pearl.  I wanted to do something dainty and feminine since my last two necklaces I made were kind of funky looking.  Considering the weather here in DC has been hot and sticky, this light hearted necklace goes perfect with the weather and would go perfect with something light and airy. 

Let me switch to another topic which is my shop that I have on Etsy.  I've placed 6 necklaces up for sale and haven't sold anything.  I'm not expecting for people to automatically buy my stuff because I realize that my shop isn't all that appealing.  I don't have a banner, no colors to catch peoples attention, and no shop name, just not so great pictures of my jewelry.  Compared to the thousands of other people that sale on Etsy, this shouldn't come as any surprise but I'm gonna be honest and say that it is a little shocking.  Maybe that's just my ego speaking because I think my stuff is great. 

However, because I want to be successful with my jewelry business and things are getting a little stressed for me and money isn't falling from the sky, I'm going to definately start working longer and harder to get what it is I need.  Don't get me wrong I thought I had been putting in long hours but I need to do more obviously.  Anyways, I'm going to leave you with a picutre of my new Rose Quartz and Pearl necklace. 

Enjoy!

I Love NY

With the New York trip finally behind me I can now tell you how awesome it was.  I left on Wednesday with a one-way ticket not knowing how long I was going to stay and not knowing what was going to happen.  Let me be clear when I say that was the BEST decision I ever made.  As you know, I finished the rosary for the girl and decided that it would be best for me to go to NY to hand deliver the rosary.  That way I would get a chance to meet her and I also thought that hand delivery would give a good impression and show dedication.  When I finally met her, she absolutely loved the rosary I made for her.  She said that it was just what she wanted and the colors were perfect.  I was beyond happy and still don't have any words to describe my feeling.  She was very nice and we had a good dinner where we were able to chat and just get to know one another.  During the dinner she took me by surprise and said that she wanted to sell necklaces and wanted me to make them for her.  She said she was really impressed with the way I kept in contact with her and my overall work.  I was stunned!  I was in no way expecting that but it just reassured me that coming to NY was a good decision.  And after we finished dinner, of course I had my jewelry bag with me, I showed her all my other jewelry made and she loved my work. 

Then I finally decided to leave NY on Saturday at 1:00.  Little did I know that a light was shining down on me because here I am standing in line and there's a young girl standing behind me.  We begin talking having a good conversation and we sit next to each on the bus.  She tells me that she works for NY Magazine and I tell her that I make jewelry.  She ask me do I have a website and I tell her no and she says that she makes websites and will make me one for free.  WTF!!!  She continues on to say that she makes websites for fun and they are pretty easy to make.  Thank you JESUS. We talk the whole trip down to DC and she's a really nice person.  We exchanged information and she tells me to email her on Monday, which I do.  The one thing I've been struggling with and I knew was most important to having a business just fell in my lap.  I couldn't have been more thankful.  So I emailed her today and she won't be able to start working on the site until this weekend.  However, she gives me a website to check out.  I can't wait for her to help me with this.  Once again, I'm blessed. 

Rosary Done New York Here I Come

I've finally finished the rosary that I was working on and man was it a doozy.  I think the last time I spoke about it I was still waiting for the letters to come and when they did I was disappointed because they were smaller than what I wanted.  They are 1/2" tall and when I saw them online I thought they would look fine with the beads that I had on, but instead they wound up looking small to me.  But I still put the rosary together and was emailing the owner back and forth and I took pictures and showed them to her.  To my surprise, she liked it and didn't have a problem with the letters.  She asked me to take pictures with the rosary on and I did in various ways since it is so long and now I'm just waiting for her response, I'm thinking I should get it tonight.  We've been emailing one another today and I'm gonna go to NY on Wednesday, just because I think it would look good for me to hand deliver it to her and I'd get to meet her.  I want to make the best impression I can because you never what could happen.  When I go up on Wednesday we're gonna have dinner and that way we can chat and talk and I'll get a chance to show her my other work and maybe I'll get more work from her.  To be honest, I don't mind going to NY because I love the city and hell it's a break from DC.  I wish I could show you a picture of the finished product but it's too long for one picture.  Literally I had to take 3 picutres just to show the whole thing.  CRAZY!

But other than that I haven't been doing anything, no jewelry made.  Unfortunately I was sick yesterday so my creativity was stiffled.  But I will blog tomorrow before I leave.  I'm super siked about meeting this girl.  I want to make the best impression I can.  Another reason I want to go to NY is because if she has anything she wants me to change I want to be available to do.  I want her to see my dedication to my work and my customers.  These are the things I have to do. 

Application Where Art Thou

As I predicted I wasn't able to blog yesterday but I'm back today with not much, but something to talk about.  So the weather is crappy and I've been in the house all day.  I had plans but the weather definately put a dent in them.  But I've dedicated the past 2 hours to surfing the Internet and looking for different art shows coming up to apply for.  Well luck struck not once but twice.  They are still accepting applications for crafty bastards which is having their arts & crafts show in Adams Morgan in October.  So once I find out where the application is I will fill it out and hopefully I'll get picked to be a vendor.  That's a huge show and I'm sure things will be good the second time around.  Plus I'm also gonna check out the Liberty North market here in NW and SW. 

Yesterday I went to a mixer for a Radio Station and it was cool.  I met a lot of nice people there and it was just good to get out.  I believe I said before that I'd been in the house for like 3 days, ugh, I know but it's good to relax sometimes.  I'm finding the more I relax the more I'm able to concentrate and

Oh I think I promised the pictures of the 2 necklaces I made the other day.  Well look no further here they are.  What do you think? 

2 Down How Many to Go

I'm sitting here on my bed working on this Kyanite and Goldstone necklace.  I've been wanting to put these two stones together and now that I finally have I'm wondering how it's gonna turn out.  The Kyanite is green and the goldstone is like orange color with brushed gold.  Don't know exactly how to describe it but the stone is a beauty.  Anyways, as I'm sitting here looking at it (not quite done), it's much different from my pieces in that it doesn't have the consistency of pattern as my other pieces do.  I usually stick with some type of pattern to give it a balance but this one doesn't have it.  Like I said, I absolutely love the stones but the pattern throws me off a little, but in a good way.  Maybe it's the mood I'm in.  You know my feelings have always driven me in the way the necklaces come out and this off balance necklace is exactly how I feel right now - off balance.  But that still doesn't take away from the beauty of the necklace.

Earlier this morning I made a necklace with turquoise and silver.  Ahh, talk about AMAZING!  That stone gets me everytime, especially when paired with silver.  But check this out, I did a U-turn and added another stone with it - HOWLITE!  That's right I did it - Turquoise, Howlite and Silver balls.  At first I was just playing around with the Turquoise and silver then I decided to try something different and those 4 Howlite beads I used were exactly what I needed.  It gave me what I was looking for.  I'm sure you're thinking by now what mood was she in earlier?  Well let me tell you I was amped up and in a funky, fun mood and that's what the necklace is - funky and fun. 

I haven't uploaded the pictures of the 2 necklaces to my computer but I will post the pictures tomorrow.  P.S. I got my contest necklace back and it's on the market for sale.  No I didn't win but one of the women who works in Beadazzled told me that she loved my piece.  She loved the funkiness of it.

So let me jump ahead to tomorrow because there's a good probability that I might not blog.  I told you about the React Radio Station premiere thing I'm going to, well it's not for me but my girlfriend but I'm gonna go and use it to gain contacts and show my jewelry.  It's early from 3-7:30 but there's a good chance I will go out afterwards and just try and sell or get more business.  I find myself always looking to meet contacts, etc.  My going out just to be going out days I'm noticing are kind of over because I'm always promoting myself/jewelry.  I guess that's what happens when you rely on yourself for income and not a bi-weekly paycheck.  Whatever, I'm not complaining.

Lets Try it Etsy

I've decided that I could not go a full 3rd day without blogging so here I am.  With my past weekend and Monday being hectic, I've been laying low the past couple of days by doing a little R&R.  My body was worn down and I feel like I'm working harder than I did when I had a 9-5.  Now don't get it wrong, it's not like I've been laying in the house doing absolutely nothing, remember I spoke about my rosary project, well yeah I've been working on that.  And trust me making a rosary is a lot harder than you would think.  I'm making a chain, vintage, non-traditional rosary, plus on top of that, instead of the crucifix, I had to shop around and find brass letters (which I finally found on Etsy last night).  For the last 3 days, I've had wire burns on my index fingers from all the wire wrapping I've done, but I must say this rosary is beautiful.  The colors of antique brass and metallic bronze came together to make a beautiful statement.  Now I'm just waiting for the letters to come in and once they do I will add those and stare at my masterpiece before I send it off to its rightful owner. 

In shopping for these brass charm letters I never thought that I would find them on Etsy, but the site came through for me.  And although I've known about Etsy for awhile I finally decided today to open shop there at http://www.jgirlred.etsy.com/ and try to sell some of my necklaces on there.  When I tell you I've been trying all the stops to sell my jewelry I really have.  I already posted two pictures on there and they've received quite a few views so I just might add another one tonight.  The good thing is they give you 4 months for each picture to stay up for only .20 or until they sell.  If they don't sell in the 4 months then the site automatically takes them down.  But hell, 4 months is a long time.  Plus do you know how many necklaces I can make in 4 months?  Anyways, I hope it works out cause it would be nice to have an income come in from just posting pictures on the Internet. 

Networking

Okay so yesterday I was drained of all energy I had but managed to get myself out of the bed early this morning to go to a bead show at the Marriott Hotel, and boy am I happy I went.  I carried myself and my bag of jewelry down there, brought cheap strands of gemstones and even did networking.  I spoke with some vendors down there and even the woman who hosts the event.  She was very nice and I showed her my jewelry (which she loved so much she even took pictures to diplay on her website).  We swapped information and I talked to her about my interest in doing more jewelry shows and she said she was willing to help me and wanted me to be a vendor at the next show she hosts. 

When I left there I caught the bus and went to another bead store where I had to pick up more beads to start working on a rosay project I have.  I managed to work on the rosary for about an hour and half but still have more to do.  Sometime this week I have to go to Michaels craft store and look for some metal letters for this rosary.  It's not the traditional rosay but has a more vintage look, I'm already loving the colors I picked out for it.  This time I'm not using gemstones but instead colored glass czech beads, they have a metallic brass color which gives it that very antiquish look. 

Anyways, I'm tired so I will follow up tomorrow.  No more bead buying for awhile but I definately have a lot of work ahead of me. 

   

First Show

Let me start off with saying that I would like to thank the woman who gave me the opportunity to show my jewelry at an art gallery. 

Today I accomplished a big milestone with doing a jewelry show.  I was a vendor along with two others at a gallery and I must say it was an experience.  It wasn't good and it wasn't bad, it just was what it was.  I learned alot about selling, displaying and people.  Lets start with selling.  I learned that I don't have to be intoxicated to sell my jewelry, that I have a lot more to learn and that for the first show I did very well at selling my pieces, although not many sold.  When it comes to display, I need more money.  My table was very bland compared to everyone else table, however, the vast array of colors in my jewelry helped tremendously in catching peoples attention along with me saying hello to the customers.  And lastly people - ahh this I could go on awhile about.  But I will be nice but I'm sure you will be able to sense a little tension and ire as I write.  First off, I cannot say enough about how this was a great opportunity for me to display my jewelry and have so many different people see it, but I also ran into some rude people.  People picking up my jewelry (which I make with gemstones so some them break very easily) and throwing them back on the table.  Other people being dishonest, and then lastly, the unreliable.  Now before I go any further let me say that I can deal with the first two, but the unreliable ones gets under my skin a little.  I'm not going to explain why but when I did a show such as tonight where all of the customers where friends of the other two vendors (with the exception of 2 people - who came to see me and then a few walk-ins), it makes things very difficult to sell jewelry because they aren't there for you.  They come into the door and go straight to their friends.  They take a couple of looks at my stuff and keep it moving.  Okay I get that because I would probably do the same, but when your support doesn't support you on your big day, yeah it's a stab in the heart.  But you know what, at the end of the day I did make a small profit, not what my initial goal was but something is always better than nothing.

Now on from the ranting, I will tell you which pieces I sold and which pieces I exchanged.  Ain't that some shit, an exchange at a showing where I'm supposed to be selling jewelry.  But whatever to keep the customer happy.  Oh and one last thing, I cannot thank the one person that is my biggest supporter for everything they have done.  I'm not going to say any names but that person has always supported when no one else did, and for that I cannot thank them enough. 

So on to the pieces that I sold and made an exchange for tonight.  Lets start with the exchange cause this is so funny.  Remeber I told you I sold the Chipped Carnelian necklace (I did a post called the Carnelian Wonderland) well that got exchanged for the Magnesite and Pearl necklace.  There was no charge because the Magnesite necklace was $15.00 less than the Chipped Carnelian necklace.  Now the necklaces and earrings that got sold were the Shell and Rock Crystal necklace, the Rhodonite necklace, Olive Jade with black beads and wrapped wire necklace (I will post a pictures of these), and the brass leaf earrings.  Funny because the brass leaf earrings are actually part of a set with an accompanying necklace (but hey whatever a sell is a sell).

                                                             Rhodonite Necklace

                                             Olive Jade with black beads wrapped wire necklace

P.S. I don't know if this is how most people start out with their first jewelry show but I would love to have comments from my fellow followers.  Good nite and you will definately hear from me soon. 

Keeping My Promise

With 4 days left for me to show my jewelry at the DC Loft Gallery, I spent all day working on jewelry.  My goal is to have at least 4 new pieces ready by the showing and I'm almost there.  I made one last night and 2 today, so I'm almost there.  So in keeping with my promise here are the 3 new necklaces made.  Enjoy! 


                                          Magnesite and Pearl

Amazonite and Tourmalated Quartz

Rock Crystal and Shell

Long Day = Productive

This post is gonna be short and sweet.  I accomplished all that I wanted to do today which was getting up early, picking up my beads, enjoying the weather and making a necklace.  I know I said I would upload some of the beads I brought but I'm so tired now I can hardly keep my eyes open.  I finished one necklace made with Magnesite and Pearl so I'll upload that picture tomorrow.  I'm also gonna start working on another necklace made with Amazonite and Tourmalated Quartz, it's gonna be stunning don't worry.  But like I said this is short and sweet so I'll chat tomorrow.  Good Night. 

Playing Catch-Up

Hey everyone, as you can see my days are getting busier and I'm not able to blog everyday.  But it's cool.  To give you a recap of yesterday, first off it was long, I was out the house early and back in late.   I went to the Arts, Beats and Lyrics Exhibit down at the Mellon Auditorium and it was really nice.  It was my first time going and it was a huge hip-hop party with art.  It was really cool to see all the different people there, all creative in their own ways.  Since I don't usually go out to parties, it was really nice to be somewhere where they played good hip-hop music and you could also walk around and see the different artists work.  It was also a great place for networking.  I must admit I just walked around looking at the art and then chilled in the corner listening to the music, but I was content with that.  The exhibit was over at 12 which was a good time because I was able to catch the train and go straight home.

I'm gonna play catch-up and tell you about my day today which was all about the computer, surfing the net looking for different art events in the DC area and just learning how to get exposure for my jewelry.  Staying on the Internet for 3 hours can be hard but I see that it's really paying off because I'm finding more sites that are beneficial to me.  That means that I'm also meeting more people too, and the art world is all about networking.  

In a few days I will be uploading some pictures of some beads I brought and let me tell you that this one stone I brought is gonna blow your mind away.  It's off the wall crazy looking.  I can't wait to make a necklace out of this, it's gonna blow your mind.

Well I gotta go but i'm gonna leave you with a necklace.  This is one of my more aggressive pieces but also one of my favorites.  This is Granite with African Metal and Brass Balls.  ENJOY!