Laurel Moon Jewelry and Beads

To do, or not to do

2009-11-07T13:19:00.003-05:00

One thing I struggle with incessantly is trying to decide what to do next. It's a very simple question, of course, but there are so many possibilities that it can often overwhelm.

Yesterday I decided that this weekend should be All Jewelry All The Time, but today I find myself emptying the last few boxes leftover from the move--framed pictures and decorations. I wish I had done this before the garage sale, as I'm finding a few items that I'd like to get rid of. Still, it's good to do this, but there is no jewelry being made. Nor photographed.

I have been fairly motivated about listing a piece of jewelry each day in my Etsy jewelry shop over the last few weeks. I have missed a day or two, but overall I've managed to keep it up. I feel like I'm posting it to the void, most days, but at least the shop is starting to look full. I am getting to the end of my original set of items, though, and I really need to start making new things and, more importantly, getting the photos together so that I can continue listing them.

I'm trying to understand what I need to do to be where I want to be. I am always thinking in a million different directions and sometimes I wish a giant glowing arrow would descend and point me to the Correct Path.

Spookyheads for me to play with

2009-11-05T22:08:00.004-05:00

I have just received my special order from Melanie of Earthenwood Studio! These adorable little handcrafted ceramic sugar skulls are awesome and I can't wait to make new jewelry with them.

Happy Hallowe'en!

2009-10-31T23:54:00.001-04:00

I hope you all had a lovely, spooky day!

The days grow shorter

2009-10-24T12:36:00.004-04:00

The pond has leaves floating on the top of it. The trees are getting bare. I'm starting to want to withdraw into myself, and I find that I want to make jewelry. I have house guests this weekend, but I have Monday and Tuesday to myself, and I think I will do a little playing with beads on those days.

Plus the mini photography studio needs to be set up again...

I think it's time to experiment!

The listing continues

2009-10-19T20:28:00.004-04:00

I've put all sorts of new items in my eBay shop! I've found some lovely base metal chandelier earring findings, and some great vintage Japanese marble glass leaves.

The earring findings are really beautiful. They're so easy to use to make earrings--just attach hooks to the top, and hang a few crystals on the bottom of each!

Committing to jewelry

2009-10-13T23:26:00.002-04:00

I've been so absorbed in selling jewelry supplies that I haven't done much in the way of jewelry recently.

So I've decided to commit myself to listing one piece of jewelry a day in my jewelry Etsy shop. I'll try to keep this up until the end of the year. At worst, it gives me some practice with my photography skills, right?

Jam-packed weekend!

2009-10-09T17:30:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow I'll be at the West Michigan Bead Expo in Grand Rapids, MI. And then on Sunday I'll be at the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild Bead Bonanza in Southfield, MI. I'm running around the house, packing everything, rebagging inventory, and printing out more signs.

Hope to see you all there!

Milwaukee bead show

2009-10-02T12:16:00.002-04:00

This Sunday I will be at the Knot Just Beads Milwaukee Bead Show from 10 until 4. It takes place at the Milwaukee Wyndham Hotel near the airport (the address is 4747 S. Howell).

I'm still packing and putting together my merchandise. I'll have some new things and a lot of great closeout beads, as always.

Hope to see you there!

Cleaning and organizing

2009-09-24T18:42:00.003-04:00

After taking care of a few odds and ends at my grandmother's Assisted Living apartment, I've come home to start some organizing.

I've purchased another cabinet from Best Craft Organizers, and I've just put it together and labeled the drawers. These things are addictive, I swear; I've already filled the new one, and I'm contemplating a third.

I have new merchandise to sort and lots of things to bag for my upcoming shows. And here, a pic of the nightmare so far:

It can only go up from here, right? *grins*

Unfortunate news

2009-09-22T23:25:00.002-04:00

I just drove in from a business trip to find out that my grandmother passed away tonight. Fortunately, I will be home for six days and that will allow me to help my family out with the arrangements before I leave again.

And another Day of the Dead necklace...

2009-09-11T11:24:00.006-04:00

...this one featuring a lovely pendant by Gaea (website).

Which brings me to a small story. I originally ordered the pendant in March, and read her emailed instructions, which stated that the order would be custom-made and the next firing would be in April. For some reason, I don't think I really understood that I'd receive it April; I thought I would receive it in May. I didn't need the pendant until late August, so I wasn't concerned.

Well, May (and June) are crazy months for me because of Bead & Button, and I didn't even think about the pendant. It wasn't until July that I remembered it.

I contacted Gaea, who was extraordinarily nice, and she researched it and said that the pendant had been shipped in April.

I was flummoxed, until I realized that my home Paypal address was incorrect--it was still listed as the apartment address. The business address was correct, and I'd assumed it would be shipped there.

Since Gaea never received it back, and we never received it, I believe that it was either lost in the mail, or stolen by the apartment's new tenant, which makes me very unhappy indeed, considering that an entire set of checks was sent there by mistake and they still haven't resurfaced.

But I digress. I purchased a new pendant from Gaea, who very kindly looked through her inventory to find something similar, because there wasn't enough time to have a new one made.

My picture doesn't do the pendant justice, but here it is:

Frosted black onyx, faceted pearls, antiqued sterling silver chain.

Making jewelry

2009-09-09T06:43:00.005-04:00

I haven't made much jewelry recently, but I did make a piece for a dear friend of mine:

It's very simple, meant to be a casual piece.

The skull pendant is from Andrew Thornton of Green Girl Studios and is made of bronze clay, and the beads are fossilized wood.

I've always loved skulls and memento mori, and it's wonderful to be able to design with such a fun piece!

New rhinestone lots going up on eBay!

2009-09-06T12:50:00.005-04:00

I've spent this week getting a new set of rhinestone lots ready for my eBay store. It's been tricky, as always, looking up the specific lingo for these items, and also making certain that I get each listing correct. I always have to triple-check new listings because there are so many little pieces of information in each one.

I'm just going through my second check right now, and hopefully I'll be able to list all of these within the next few hours!

The next phase

2009-08-29T17:17:00.004-04:00

I've been very intrigued by electroetching brass, and I've made the first, tentative steps toward doing so. Today I visited a hardware store and picked up polyurethane varnish, and a brush. I'll pick up a car charger at a Murray's, and they might have copper sulfate as well. I'm going to compare prices for blanks and order some this week.

For years I've thought it would be intriguing to have the ability to pick and choose artwork somehow, and attach it to some kind of merchandise. I always though that T-shirts would be fun to design, for example. I find myself intrigued by the etching process, and I'm already wondering which kinds of designs would work best. I'll definitely be photographing the process and sharing it with you all.

And finally, they are here!

2009-08-17T20:15:00.003-04:00

I've just listed 42 lots of glass gems in my eBay store. I'm so excited! They are just awaiting being labeled with their item numbers, and then in the drawer they'll go.

I feel like I've been doing this forever...

2009-08-15T23:17:00.004-04:00

...this cropping of pictures, this prepping and adjusting. I'm nearly done, though, and I have a good feeling about it. The glass gems will be going up so very soon. Tomorrow, or perhaps Monday. Here's a sneak peek:

I'm crossing my fingers that I'm able to list them all very soon. And then I'll start on the rhinestones...

The scanning continues unabated...

2009-08-09T13:57:00.002-04:00

I have just finished scanning in all of the new glass gems lots. All sixty or seventy of them. This should be an exciting project! I still have the rhinestones left and the odd cabs left.

Next step? Cropping and cleaning up the pics. That will be the work of a day or two. And then working in TurboLister to set up the listings and post them. I'm very intrigued to see the reaction to these. Some of them are very small, some of them are unusually-shaped, and they're all in very nice colors, so hopefully they'll be popular.

The weekend beckons

2009-08-07T17:57:00.003-04:00

My parents are staying with us this weekend, which means I'll be putting off listing the huge batch of glass gems I'm working on right now.

I have some really cool sets, and I think they'll be popular.

Of course, this brings me to a dilemma. I have always listed them as "glass gems," but I now see that a major company is calling them "stones."

This is the type of merchandise I'm talking about:

I'll have to research them on eBay and see what the most common term is. I always have balked at calling them "stones," because they're glass, but if this is the usual term then I'll have to start revising my listings.

Home again

2009-08-04T12:16:00.003-04:00

And for more than five days this time! A whole month.

I have an enormous backlog of items to list in Etsy, and I have finally managed to finish cropping and editing the pics so that I can begin listing them in my Etsy store. Thank goodness!

I'm so excited about being able to work on a few things this month. Plus, in September I'll be taking a few metalsmithing classes. I've taken metalsmithing before, but I thought it might be nice to do it again.

Hope you all are having a great summer so far. For me, it feels like it's just beginning, hee!

Off to Cincinnati

2009-07-31T11:15:00.002-04:00

I'm heading down to Cincinnati for an Intergalactic Bead Show at the Sharonville Convention Center. The show runs Saturday and Sunday from 10-5, and it should be a fun time! I'm really looking forward to it. I have lots of favorite stuff to sell, plus some new beads, too!

Home for a few days

2009-07-28T23:30:00.002-04:00

I'm back from Arcadia Daze. I was disappointed by the weather, which turned cold and rainy on Sunday, and dampened sales somewhat. Still, it was a fun time.

Now I'm getting read for the Intergalactic Bead Show in Cincinnati, held at the Sharonville Convention Center. Hope to see you there!

Another stepping stone reached

2009-07-23T10:32:00.002-04:00

I was keeping my eye on my eBay account, and sure enough, yesterday I hit another little milestone:

How cool is that?

You know, I never expected eBay to be such an important part of my business. It's still a surprise to me that people want to buy things from me, y'know?

The garage is nearly empty.

2009-07-22T20:24:00.004-04:00

A guy who stopped at the garage sale offered to buy everything that was left, and I accepted, and he stopped by and picked up most of it today. There are still a few bits and bobs left that he'll stop and pick up tomorrow, but overall, it's gone.

I am so excited. I feel like this is one of the final steps to really owning the house, in a way. And I feel like this is a new step forward in my own jewelry-making. I am very excited to experiment for the first time in ages, and I'll have the space to do so now.

I've also signed up for a few metalsmithing classes. I took one course ages ago in Birmingham, and it was terrific, but I just recently found a fabulous opportunity to take more, and I'm really excited about it. I'll be taking the classes with a friend, which makes it even more fun.

Even better, while preparing for the Arcadia Daze show this weekend, I discovered a tray full of jewelry in my organizer. Jewelry I had completely forgotten about. And quite a bit of it, too. I will have more jewelry for sale at this show than I've had in the past three years. I'm not certain anyone will really be interested in it--a lot of it is funky, Etsy style jewelry--but at least the displays will look very full. I'm pretty excited by this.

Back from a conference

2009-07-20T14:44:00.002-04:00

What could be more welcoming than a sunflower blooming next to my front porch?

I'm so happy to be home. I'm preparing for Arcadia Daze. I have so many beads to bag, and jewelry to price. I hope I have enough time to get ready!

The garage sale is over; the roller coaster continues

2009-07-13T12:48:00.002-04:00

The garage sale was not incredibly satisfying in terms of money. Nor in terms of getting rid of things. However, we did at least get everything into the garage, and I was contacted by a guy who wants to buy everything (for a very low price, I'm assuming). I'll be setting up an appointment next week for that purpose, and after that I look forward to parking in the garage again--and setting up a little workdesk out there for experimenting. Hooray!