New Materials; Old Favorites

First off, sorry for the delay. I have another deliverable for work next week so I've been working my butt off trying to get it wrapped up and finished. In other news, I had to rephotograph two of my best selling items recently, because the type of bead I used for them is no longer available. One of the products is shown here, my Santa Fe Teardrops earrings (available in my Etsy shop); the other is my Santa Fe Red Teardrops (also available in my shop). If you look closely, you'll notice the teardrop bead is flat rather than round. It's also a little more blue in color. Not big differences, but differences, nonetheless.

I have quite a few custom orders going on as well:

• A Reloj variation
• An Ocean Storm variation
• A set of stackable rings (sorry, not available yet, but soon I promise!)
• One plain hammered ring
• A pair of sterling silver hoops that have interchangeable beads (really fun to make!)
  

I'm happy to take requests! One of my favorite parts about custom orders is that the customer can give me an idea of what they want, and then I just go with it. It really helps spark creativity. If you're in a slump, I highly recommend going out and marketing the fact that you do custom work. You'll thank yourself for it, trust me.

In other news, I'm out of the studio all next week; another trip for work. I'll be fulfilling orders upon my return...4/19/08. If you don't hear from me until then, don't worry, I'm still around, and hope to be back working with much wire and metal upon my return. I also hope to do another giveaway beginning this month, which will probably trickle into early May. I'm considering a ring instead of earrings (that I would make for the winner, to fit her size). Which would you prefer, dear readers?

Happenings, Updates, Etc.

A short post tonight, folks, as I'm a bit under the weather. I finally posted Reloj on my Etsy site (it's also in my banner, above!), so now it's officially for sale. This one was really a struggle coming up with just the right look for it. After much scrapped wire and a few temper tantrums, I am truly satisfied with it. I hope the wearer who ends up with it will love it as much as I do. As mentioned before, I said that the colors were inspired by the talavera tile in my kitchen, and I posted a photo of it here for ya. Perfect match!

Later this week (hopefully sooner than later, depending on this cold of mine), I'm going to be starting a weekly feature where I highlight Etsy sellers who have "How-Tos" or helpful information for Etsy sellers. The feature will be called "Sharin' the Love." My first two highlighted sellers will be strumpfkunst and ChristinaPerdue.

Finally, I purchased three showcase spots...one for the Storque and two for the main page...hopefully it will lead to some more exposure.

Improving the Etsy Shop, Part 3

So I'm at day 3 of improvements already. Tonight's is easy:

Update your sections.

I'm going to keep it standard, based upon the products that I have, which are necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. But, I want to add something clever to the categories, just to make them a little different than these one-word descriptors. So, I'll be using the following:

• Adorn my neck with marvelous!
• Decorate my wrist with spectacular!
• Embellish my ears with dazzling!

There, that should do it. I'm sure there will be much more difficult tasks to come.

In other news, I have to travel to D.C. next week for work, so that puts a damper on the shop opening. Sigh. Oh well, more to look forward to when I return. Last night and tonight I started taking some pics and working out the settings for my new camera. I put a few of the pics here; let me know your likes/dislikes.

Canyon Drops Earrings

Warmth Earrings

Festival Earrings



Reloj Necklace

Funny how a new piece of equipment can totally mess up a whole process. With the old Kodak camera ("the brick"), I had everything all set--lighting, settings, exposure, etc. With the new Canon, I had to go through the process all over again. Plus, because of all of the new and improved settings and adjustments that can be made, it took me twice as long (please note that I'm not complaining about my new camera, I love it!).

The photos are still coming out a little bit gray, but I attribute it to the fact that I only have one lamp shining in the lightbox. My Photoshop skills can handle this for now. I need to get two more lamps, but I just haven't been to the store yet to find the ones that I need. In addition, I also need to get full spectrum bulbs, which I think will make a world of difference.

Anyway, that's all for the night. Long day tomorrow, as I have a deliverable that's due for my day job.

Hugs 'n stuff,

Chelsea

It's Here!

My camera is here! I'm still learning how to use it, but I'm quite proud of this macro shot I took today of one of the flowers on my deck. Oh, how I'm going to love photographing the jewelry. I didn't get the chance to try it yet because I need to move my lightbox outside, etc. But hopefully tomorrow I'll get some time.





I also got a photo of this little guy, who's hanging out on the railings of my deck. He wouldn't turn around for me, and then I kinda blew at this web to get him to move around a bit and he ran away and hid. I'm totally not a spider fan, but I am a fan of webs, so I have to make the trade. No sense in photographing them if their eight-legged little habitants can't get credit for 'em [shudders while thinking about the spider].
Another thing that I did today was clean my copper jewelry with lemon juice. It really works! Reloj and Egyptian Goddess are super shiny, waiting to be worn. I can't wait to photograph them for my Etsy shop!

Anyway, more to come in the next few days folks, I promise.

Click-click-click-click-click goes the camera,
Chelsea

The Smell of October

I caught it today after I walked down my driveway, returning from a quick trip to the store: October. Breathing in, the crisp air burns from the golden sunshine that rises later and sets earlier, reminding us that our summer has had its finale. If you know me, you know that I'm not really an autumn fan; I'll take spring and summer forever. But for those few weeks in October, as the leaves glow orange, red, and yellow amidst their lack of light, and pumpkin patches bear their signature fruits, I take it all in.

In my little nook of the U.S.--Western Pennsylvania--the leaves are not quite turning yet. From my deck at the back of my house, my view is covered in trees, all trying to hold on to their green while their neighbors slowly transform. Soon, they'll give in, and the view from my sliding glass window will be adorned with nothing but color. Even my birds know that fall is upon us; their numbers are dwindling, hopefully because they've discovered the birdhouses my husband and I built for them.

This morning I began the fall scrub-down of my house, which is why I'm late on posting and why I'm delayed in jewelry making. I need to get things in order on the homefront in order to let my creativity flow without interruption. Halloween will be here soon, and I'm doing a revamp of all of my decor (mostly because my house is in the process of a complete transformation). Tonight, because of my completed missions today, I was able to finish Reloj (yeah!) and get busy with Talking in Circles (see my previous post on these for details). With my camera arriving tomorrow, I hope to get things photographed, descriptions written, and open that store soon...but I'm patient. It will come. Until then, I'm going to let the chill of the air creep in when it can, let the leaves begin to color my backyard, and get ready for All Hallow's Eve. All is good.

Look how the sun has painted the trees
All these colors never known to them
Colors never known to their leaves
I'd like to sing like that
--Chris Pureka, "Compass Rose"

It's Coming Along...Slowly

I'm making some progress on Reloj. But it's coming along slowly. Way too slow for me, but I guess I'll have to live with it. I have the most recent version posted here; you can check my Flickr page for additional views.

Notice from the last photo that I took the tusks out...they just wouldn't work right for me. Plus, I couldn't get the wraps exactly the way I wanted them, so I figure I'll save them for something else. My collection of beads will always have room for them! I also plan to restring the amber strand...it's a little too long right now.

Finally, I'm going to make some coiled beaded jump rings to connect the three strands together on the sides. It will add some more wire to the piece, balancing out the large amount of beads I have in the strands.

In other news, I bought a rock tumbler this week, and it arrived today. I opened the box and it smells like it came straight from the factory. Not that this is a bad thing, but you can tell it's made in some huge machine shop from the smell.

I figured I'd be able to throw my earrings in there today (see 'em all? Aren't they cute? And there's even some Halloween-themed ones in there, just in time for the season), and have them ready to put in my Etsy shop on Monday. No such luck. It turns out you have to do an initial run of the tumbler, and you also need stainless steel jewelry shot. My supplier gave me the polishing grit for rocks/gems, but I failed to do my homework in this area. So, it's ordered and on its way. Hopefully I can use it this week. The other funny thing I noticed about the directions is that it calls the water, polishing grit, and other materials inside the barrel a "slurry." I think this is a nice word for "sludge." This should be interesting. And oh yeah, the tumbler is from Chicago Electric. From the reviews I read, it's a decent tumbler to start out with (mine holds 3 lbs and was about $50, with shipping). The only problem is that the belts come off a lot, but luckily my supplier sent an extra one, which I thought was nice. Anyway, more updates to come soon, hopefully one of them being a "Finally, I'm Open" announcement.

Wire rocks,

Chelsea

Reloj - In Development

Rejol - In Development
Originally uploaded by Simply WiredCustom Jewelry

As promised, here's a necklace that I'm currently working on, hopefully finishing up by the time the Etsy store opens. Check back often for updates, as I hope to document this work in progress!