Stupid babies need the most attention!
Mar. 14th, 2006 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellymellThis is torture. Inspiration and motivation strikes in a huge way for jewelry work and I'm stuck drawing diagrams of where I want tables put for the wedding reception. *sigh* I haven't gotten a single moment to work on my gown and I'm getting really antsy about that. I was planning to work on it all day Sunday, but no, I wound up having to work with Chris on a carpentry project.
To explain, we live in the woods so if we want fresh veggies or herbs, they have to be grown indoors under lights. We have a huge 400w HPS and a bunch of 4' fluorescents that we've used before, but closets get too hot, even with just the fluorescents. Under the house (in the garage) is the perfect place to do it because it stays like a cave. BUT, if we just hang that light over a bunch of pots, we're wasting a bunch of valuable (expensive) light and that equals inefficient garden which equals low yields and unhealthy plants (it's a delicate balance indoors without the sun to rely on). So, we built a large 4'x2'x5' cabinet out of 2x4s and 1/4" thick particle board with doors and a mount on the top of the light to enclose the stuff. A year ago, I bought an automatic watering system for container gardens (with drippers, sprayers and misters) with the intention of using it on our ornamental plants for the deck. I actually bought two separate systems (one drip system and one all purpose system with the misters and sprayers), so I have plenty of water emitters and hose, plus two timers, so I can use them in both places. It's really a great thing, and I'm looking forward to getting it all set up but it took valuable wedding gown time away from me. Took all day on Sunday and we still have to hang the doors on the thing!
Tonight we're going to dinner for Chris' mom's birthday, but that will be right after work. We're skipping the brew club meeting tonight and I'm going home and working on my gown, period!
I did get a really awesome brooch to wear with it over the weekend. I won it on ebay last week. It's a purple cameo with a butterfly landing on a flower. The butterfly's wings are 3-D (they extend off the cameo). The cameo is set into a beautiful sterling silver filigree brooch setting that is set with four purple faceted stones (probably rhinestones) and four faux pearls. It's really beautiful and I got it for less than $15 (including S&H). Another wedding thing I won was a serving set. It's a granite cutting board from the Bombay Amethyst sets (the handles on it are silver and look like tree branches with blooms on them and in the center of each bloom is a little purple glass bead). It came with a set of 4 canape knives. The knife blades look like leaves and the handles look like the twigs with blooms and again, have the glass beads. I think it'll work great for the cheeses we'll have at the reception. If I can just find a cake server and knife, I'll be set!
Also, I got in the brocades for the groomsmen vests last night. Man are they gorgeous! I found a place directly from China to order from. It's a place called Go Fabric. They have really good prices and a great selection of brocades! But, they're order processing leaves a little to be desired. I got four different colors of the lotus design. Actually, I ordered 5 colors, and I'm trying to see if I can get a refund or credit because I need it by tomorrow for the vests to be done and don't have time for them to ship me the missing yard. Luckily it was the one for the ring bearer that is missing and we can just put him in something else. No biggie. But I don't want to pay for a yard of fabric I didn't get. I'm pretty sure they gave me the yellowish green color instead of the green I ordered too (that more kelly green looking one on the page is what I ordered). Well see how that pans out. Man, I've had to do a lot of complaining to merchants lately.
So, ok, onto what inspired me to post. . .
I've been following a jewelry marketing class lately. Don Norris has generously offered a free "class" in the form of a Yahoo group called jewelrymakingforprofit. We're on lesson three right now, not sure when the next one will go up. It's a neat forum to use for teaching because people can discuss everything together rather than just filling in answers or doing our "homework". We can talk about what we tried and what worked, or brainstorm ideas for things to try. From this, he's writing a book and using our experiences as proof of his methods of selling. Thus far, he says, make a line of $20 pieces and make as many of those as you need to pay your bills. Spend only one day making them and only invest $5 per piece for materials. Then go out and sell those every chance you get during the week. These are your "living". Then he allows the rest of the week for "gallery" pieces or the higher end things that go for more than $100. Basically the pieces we're all doing this for anyway.
I've gotten so many good ideas and I just really want to focus on jewelry making now. But it has to wait for at least another couple of months. I just can't spend the time on it right now. I'm still taking the class and all, but I can't put anything into practice yet.
Also, on the Metal Clay group, Yvette, I don't know if you noticed the post today about "Priscilla's earrings" but what a fantastic idea! Here's the front and here's the back (to anyone else looking, I think you have to be a member of the group and logged in to see the photos section). What she did for the gold designs was took PMC Gold 22K and made it into a paste. Then, she painted it on (3 layers) using stencils that she said she found here. She painted it onto unfired silver metal clay, then fired everything together. I took a look at the stencils on that page, and there are several that are very Elvish or Rohirric looking. Just a bug in your ear when you're dabbling in PMC. ;]
To explain, we live in the woods so if we want fresh veggies or herbs, they have to be grown indoors under lights. We have a huge 400w HPS and a bunch of 4' fluorescents that we've used before, but closets get too hot, even with just the fluorescents. Under the house (in the garage) is the perfect place to do it because it stays like a cave. BUT, if we just hang that light over a bunch of pots, we're wasting a bunch of valuable (expensive) light and that equals inefficient garden which equals low yields and unhealthy plants (it's a delicate balance indoors without the sun to rely on). So, we built a large 4'x2'x5' cabinet out of 2x4s and 1/4" thick particle board with doors and a mount on the top of the light to enclose the stuff. A year ago, I bought an automatic watering system for container gardens (with drippers, sprayers and misters) with the intention of using it on our ornamental plants for the deck. I actually bought two separate systems (one drip system and one all purpose system with the misters and sprayers), so I have plenty of water emitters and hose, plus two timers, so I can use them in both places. It's really a great thing, and I'm looking forward to getting it all set up but it took valuable wedding gown time away from me. Took all day on Sunday and we still have to hang the doors on the thing!
Tonight we're going to dinner for Chris' mom's birthday, but that will be right after work. We're skipping the brew club meeting tonight and I'm going home and working on my gown, period!
I did get a really awesome brooch to wear with it over the weekend. I won it on ebay last week. It's a purple cameo with a butterfly landing on a flower. The butterfly's wings are 3-D (they extend off the cameo). The cameo is set into a beautiful sterling silver filigree brooch setting that is set with four purple faceted stones (probably rhinestones) and four faux pearls. It's really beautiful and I got it for less than $15 (including S&H). Another wedding thing I won was a serving set. It's a granite cutting board from the Bombay Amethyst sets (the handles on it are silver and look like tree branches with blooms on them and in the center of each bloom is a little purple glass bead). It came with a set of 4 canape knives. The knife blades look like leaves and the handles look like the twigs with blooms and again, have the glass beads. I think it'll work great for the cheeses we'll have at the reception. If I can just find a cake server and knife, I'll be set!
Also, I got in the brocades for the groomsmen vests last night. Man are they gorgeous! I found a place directly from China to order from. It's a place called Go Fabric. They have really good prices and a great selection of brocades! But, they're order processing leaves a little to be desired. I got four different colors of the lotus design. Actually, I ordered 5 colors, and I'm trying to see if I can get a refund or credit because I need it by tomorrow for the vests to be done and don't have time for them to ship me the missing yard. Luckily it was the one for the ring bearer that is missing and we can just put him in something else. No biggie. But I don't want to pay for a yard of fabric I didn't get. I'm pretty sure they gave me the yellowish green color instead of the green I ordered too (that more kelly green looking one on the page is what I ordered). Well see how that pans out. Man, I've had to do a lot of complaining to merchants lately.
So, ok, onto what inspired me to post. . .
I've been following a jewelry marketing class lately. Don Norris has generously offered a free "class" in the form of a Yahoo group called jewelrymakingforprofit. We're on lesson three right now, not sure when the next one will go up. It's a neat forum to use for teaching because people can discuss everything together rather than just filling in answers or doing our "homework". We can talk about what we tried and what worked, or brainstorm ideas for things to try. From this, he's writing a book and using our experiences as proof of his methods of selling. Thus far, he says, make a line of $20 pieces and make as many of those as you need to pay your bills. Spend only one day making them and only invest $5 per piece for materials. Then go out and sell those every chance you get during the week. These are your "living". Then he allows the rest of the week for "gallery" pieces or the higher end things that go for more than $100. Basically the pieces we're all doing this for anyway.
I've gotten so many good ideas and I just really want to focus on jewelry making now. But it has to wait for at least another couple of months. I just can't spend the time on it right now. I'm still taking the class and all, but I can't put anything into practice yet.
Also, on the Metal Clay group, Yvette, I don't know if you noticed the post today about "Priscilla's earrings" but what a fantastic idea! Here's the front and here's the back (to anyone else looking, I think you have to be a member of the group and logged in to see the photos section). What she did for the gold designs was took PMC Gold 22K and made it into a paste. Then, she painted it on (3 layers) using stencils that she said she found here. She painted it onto unfired silver metal clay, then fired everything together. I took a look at the stencils on that page, and there are several that are very Elvish or Rohirric looking. Just a bug in your ear when you're dabbling in PMC. ;]
