simply-crafting

You’ve probably been wondering what I’ve been up to for the past few days.  Well now I’m going to tell you all!

A couple of days ago, I stopped in to our newest store in town.  That would be the newest beading and jewelry supply store.  Well, of course I picked up a few supplies (just couldn’t help myself ).  After I had made my purchases the owner of the store told me that if I needed any help with anything just ask.  So I did.  I haven’t been able to make earrings and I really wanted to learn so I could add them to my sets.

Well she showed me how to make earrings and when I got home I tried to make them myself.  And….I was able to do it!!   So for the past few days I have been making earrings, necklaces and bracelets.  My motivation has returned and I couldn’t be happier.

Today was the first opportunity I have had to visit the new bead and jewelry store that just opened up in our area.  I had planned on being the first customer in the store.  But with two little people coming down sick and then me getting it as well, my plans really didn’t work out the way I thought they would.

But, today I had to go into town to purchase a few bits of groceries (I kind of depleted our toilet paper stash with my runny nose) so I decided to stop in this new store as well.  Although it’s quite a small store, she has a lot of variety in beads, supplies and findings and her prices are really good.  So after making a few purchases (I know I shouldn’t have) I informed her that I will be back in the not to distant future.

If she keeps her prices the way they are now, I can see myself going back time and time again.

Well the Christmas Craft Fair season has begun. This coming weekend I have booked a table at one of the craft fairs in the town next to mine. Below you find some pictures of some of the items that I will be having for sale.

I will be charging $12.00 for the necklaces and $7.50 for the bracelets. Someone had told me that my prices are extremely low. But there is a reason for that. I really do enjoy making the jewelry as a hobby so if I can get my money back from the supplies and make a little bit of a profit as well, I will be extremely happy. Hopefully I sell most of what I have made so I can go out and purchase more supplies and make more jewelry.

Well I hope you all enjoy looking at the pictures and please let me know what you think of all my creations.

As you all know I just recently went back to work outside the home.  When a co-worker asked me what I had been up to in the past year and a half I just had to tell her all about my latest love.  That would be my love for creating unique pieces of jewelry.  She then informed me that she creates homemade jewelry as well.  Then she went on to say that she has a friend who is opening up a small craft store in a town very close to us and if I wanted she would contact her friend about me to see if we could work something out for me to sell my jewelry at her store.  I thought this was an extremely wonderful gesture on the part of my co-worker.  So hopefully she does contact her and hopefully I will be able to try to sell of my crafts there.

I will let you all know how I make out with this experience.  I’m just thankful that my co-worker is willing to talk to her friend on my behalf.

Well today is the day that I intend to take a whole bunch of pictures of my jewelry.  Why?  Well because I found a site that lists a whole lot of places where I can advertise my jewelry for sale and I need to get some good pictures of them to upload onto about five different sites.

As a crafter and creater I do fine, but as a photographer I don’t do so well.  All the pictures that I currently have of all my jewelry are pretty crappy.  So I have decided that I’m going to haul out my digital camera and try to take better ones.  So far the sales of my jewelry online isn’t going so well and I think part of the problem is because I do not take a good picture.

So I have decided that today I’m going to spend a lot of time making these pictures just right.  Hopefully then I will have some very pretty pictures to show people and hopefully this will create more sales.

It’s not even the end of August and I have started receiving some Christmas orders already for my jewelry.  Yesterday I took out my jewelry to show my neighbor and was pleasantly surprised when one of the neighbors asked me to make her three custom orders of a necklace and bracelet set.  I already have an order from a friend of mine for a set so this makes four now.  The neighbor I took the jewelry out to show has already stated that she will be purchasing some pieces from me as well.  She doesn’t require a custom order, she will just pick pieces out of the stuff that I already have made up.

This will be my second year of making jewelry and trying to sell it at Christmas time so things are definitely looking up.  Now all I need to do is get the free supplies that a friend is holding for me and then I can start making these orders and some extras for people to choose from.

If you’ve been reading the posts in this blog, then you have come to realize that one of the crafts that I’m heavily involved in right now is creating unique pieces of jewelry.  Now all the jewelry I have been creating is for sale and I have sold a few pieces.  Not as many as I would like, but I do realize that all this comes with time.

Well a few posts back I had a reader ask me if I would post some pictures of some of my creations.  So this post is to show you all some of the jewelry that I have created that I currently do have for sale.

I hope you all enjoy looking at the pictures and I really hope that you will leave me a comment with your thoughts on my pictures.  But I need to give you all a warning.  I’m a really bad photographer.  So the pictures really don’t do the pieces justice.  But at least I have pictures right?!

Well the news is not good.  This past weekend a friend of mine took all my jewelry with her when she attending a craft fair that was out of town.  When I called her yesterday to see how we did, she informed me that we didn’t do very good at all.  She never even sold one piece of my jewelry.  To say I was disappointed was a mild understatement.

But, she didn’t do very well with her stuff either.  She said the main reason for this was because their booth was set up at a pretty crappy spot and they didn’t get much traffic even come to the booth.  But she is going to another one in November and has offered to take my stuff.  So I guess we will just have to see what happens with that one.  Hopefully she will have a better spot with more traffic next time.

Honestly folks this is so funny!  This is a true story.

Yesterday my husband and I took the kids to a giant flea market in another town.  My main reason for going was to look for books and jewelry supplies.  Well I didn’t find any beading supplies, but I did pick up six books at a very cheap price so I was happy with the day.  On our way back from the flea market when stopped at a little vegetable stand that also has a barbecue and ordered some dinner.  After we got our dinner and were sitting outside eating it I started looking around.  On one of their signs they had posted carrots, cucumbers and BEANS for sale.

Well you know your addicted to beading when…..you read a sign that says beans and you think it said BEADS.  LOL  I got so excited that I told my husband after we were done eating I was going to go into the store and see what kind of BEADS they had for sale.  Then my husband burst my bubble when he told me to read the sign again.

That would be beans, not beads.  Oh well.  All I can say is I tried.

So up until yesterday I only thought we had a tooth fairy.  But after having a discussion with one of my friends, I discovered that I have a jewelry fairy as well.

Earlier in the week I took down all my jewelry to my friend to take to a craft sale that she is attending this weekend.  While I was there, she then requested that I make her a custom piece.  Well that was no problem and I was happy for the sale.

When I took her piece down to her Friday night she then asked me if I would like some FREE jewelry supplies.  A friend of hers bought quite a few supplies but then decided that she didn’t want to make anything.  So she is willing to give me everything she has (according to my friend, enough to make over 1000 pieces) for FREE.  All she wants is for me to make her a couple of pieces out of the supplies.

So of course I said YES!  So this is why I now have a jewelry fairy.  And this is the end of my fairy tale.