For Our Teacher

Look at what we made for our kindergarten teacher!

Blue Topaz Birthstone Love Bracelet

This turned out fantastic! It's a combination of blue topaz swarovski crystals with pearls and sterling silver balls. But the big focal point is a beautiful sterling silver heart bead frame that looks stunning. It is finished off with a sterling silver clasp and extender for long-time wear.

This bracelet is perfect for a teenager or a young adult coming of age and it's going up to the etsy store tomorrow.

First Show

I called today to register as a vendor for the next arts and crafts fair in my town. The next show is in February.

AND I AM FREAKING OUT!

Whew, just thought I would get that off my chest. So here is a list of why I am freaking out.

1. The lady who I register with for the show tells me that "there are many jewelry vendors who do this show, do you realize that?" I replied "uh huh". FIRST FREAK OUT...I have competition and lots of it.

2. I don't think I have enough product to fill a table. SECOND FREAK OUT. Must make more stuff.

3. I don't know if anyone will buy my stuff. THIRD FREAK OUT. People are looking at my stuff on etsy but no one is buying. Could be the resession even though it's Christmas. Must make my stuff unique. But how do I do that.

4. I realize that the jewelry at these shows is generally for adult women. Mine is for children. Aha! I have a catch. Keep making quality, affordable, but beautiful, cute and novelty jewelry for children. FOURTH FREAK OUT! Must do this by February.

Ah, so many things to do. So little time. But I have always loved a time challenge. And now I got one.

I Feel Stuck

I admit that I am just starting out showing my jewelry on etsy and while I had some really nice hits on the site, I have no sales yet. I did get excited because a few people "hearted" me which means bookmarked me as a favorite. I know it takes time but I am not that patient.

I am still developing my line with more products...some cute jewelry and then I want to add some really elegant jewelry for little girls. Nothing really flashy but just really pretty. I have to work on that this week. I am still in the process of creating and it just takes time. I know that.

Etsy keeps me busy. I am finding so many new offerings on that site. I am also working hard at an advertising scheme. More to come on that one.

One Step Forward One Step Backward

I was so excited about my latest creation which is the clay bead memory wire necklaces. I blogged about them below. I found these really cute focal beads in all Disney characters. When I ordered them I could designate where the holes went so I chose to have horizontal holes that went through the top of the bead. Well that was a big mistake. When I was quality testing the bead by having my princess bang around in the necklaces, the beads started breaking at the bottom. I had to go back to the design board and change up my design so that I could have the holes going vertical. This would allow me to insert a head pin through the bead and hook it on the necklace that way. It looks like it will work in helping to anchor the bead and at the same time create some equilibrium in the bead. No biggie except it meant a bit of a delay in design and production and into my etsy store. Stay tuned for more info on when this design is coming but I expect it within the weekend.

New Etsy Store

WooHoo! So excited about my new etsy store. It takes a deal of work to get it all uploaded so for now I have 4 bracelets in it and more to come tonight. Keep checking back. For now my store address is here:

Oh So Cute Jewelry

New Jewelry Sample Designs

I was toying today with some new jewelry designs. A good friend of mine gave me some really good business advice. I have been really struggling with developing a target jewelry market. But as I was telling him how my idea of a jewelry making business came about he saw how enthused I was in describing all of the jewelry I was making for my young daughter. I also told him I was inspired after last Christmas when I was shopping for my young nieces and could find nothing in the jewelry section that was age appropriate that didn't look cheap and didn't look hoochie-mama. Enter my young daughter. She is also coming to an age where she loves little girl jewelry and I cannot find anything that is unique enough to her personality. So I set my sights on learning how to make it my own and it has kind of taken on a life of its own.

So I told my friend how much I love to make jewelry for myself. He then noticed I was not sticking to a target audience...young girls....go further though and say young girls age 4-9. Make a line. Get a website. Give the jewelry away. Do shows. Create a buzz. So I am excited. Before anything I need to work on that line and I spent much of last week shopping for beads, supplies and things I think would be unique to my business.

I created some jewelry samples this weekend much to the liking of my daughter because she gets all the leftovers. That's double good for me because she will wear the stuff to school and one day I hope to keep creating a buzz. For now I am going to share a few of the samples with you. But remember that I am playing with beads and stringing materials. These are not finished products and things I will be selling because there is a bit more fine tuning I want to do to the product to make it look more finished. But you get a peek at my progress. Also I am posting this same post at my jewelry blog. I would sure love it if you would bookmark me and check my progress there too.













Here I am tinkering with memory wire. This stuff is great for kids for many reasons. First, you are not bothered by a clasp so the child can take it on or off at will. It doesn't fall off either because the memory wire conforms to the area and overlaps around the back. There is no sizing involved because, again, the wire conforms to the neck area. It cannot choke because it is open at the back. The only drawback to the memory wire is that you can only make short choker style necklaces with them so I will have to create other alternatives to this style.



Here I am playing with my multi-colored Hello Kitty beads. This is a stretchy cord bracelet for a little girl. I love all of the colors. Who knew that Hello Kitty can be found in all different colors.




More pink Hello Kitty beads on a memory wire choker. This is also so cute. Too bad the photo isn't so great because I was running out of natural sunlight. Will try again tomorrow.