Item Fiction

I am (Devon) into fiction and the fantastic.  I love science fiction and, to a lesser degree, fantasy stories.  Awhile back, I was creating names for each piece of jewelry and a short story to go along with it, describing the supposed special powers that piece contained.  While it was fun and entertaining for me, it didn't seem to increase views, sales or any kind of reaction to the items.

So, my question, or my discussion topic, is this:  Do buyers appreciate those little bits added to the items?  Or is it merely a way to spend time amusing myself?  I'd really love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

New Ideas

I've been experimenting with a couple things this past week.  Or couple weeks.  I took a picture of the three bracelets I've done.  On my left arm is a hemp and wooden bead bracelet.  There is also a square knot bracelet made from strips of an old t-shirt.  On my right arm, is an anodized steel bracelet.  I once again discovered my joy of working with metal!

I love how the dark steel wire looks, but I'll need to figure out how to treat it.  Since it's anodized, it can be dirty.  I wore it while doing some service at church and my sweat pulled the oxidation off it and got my wrist dirty.  Hmm...  time for some more research and experimentation!

Let me know what you think about these.

Photo Management

I received in our email an article from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads.  The article is here and is titled, "Pixel Perfect".

It has a lot of advice on how to maintain and manage your photo files of your jewelry pieces.  Or of any photos you take with the plan of using them in different media.  I intend to implement this today, if I have time to take some photos.  (I really need to!)

In our case, we may be small and unknown now, but someday we'll have a design worthy of appearing in a magazine or such, and we'll need to have high quality images for printing.  Or, we'll want to make our own printed newsletter.  In that case, we'll need high quality images for the printed version and lower ones for an online version. 

Up until now, I've only been keeping the photos that we use to put on Etsy.  And they are only a 1000px square; Sadly inadequate for any kind of physical printed format.

I hope someone finds this article useful, as I did. 

Dark Shimmers

"A flash in the Dark.  A glimmer of color in the gray night.  A bright glimpse of light, flashes... then disappears.  Dark Shimmers.  Appearing on a throat near you!"

There's my movie trailer for this latest piece that I've called "Dark Shimmers".  The stone is really dark, but has beautiful shimmers of green and blue with maybe a hint of red streaks.  The pearls brighten it up, but don't overpower the beauty of the pendant.

This one was a true collaboration.  We both contributed to the design and the work to get it done.  It's very satisfying to complete a piece like this, especially when it's so loved by the person who commissioned it.  Here's a photos of the completed piece:

2010 - The Best Year Yet!

Here's to 2010!  The best year you'll have yet!  Don't believe me? Go out there and make it the best year you'll ever have!  We sincerely hope that you'll set goals and bust your butt working towards those goals.  We hope that you make changes for the better.  We hope that you make it a point to smile every day.  We hope that you search for truth and joy.  We wish you all these things and more.

And, we hope you wish them back to us!

What's our goal?  We're setting a goal to have 1 online sale a week!  Thinking reasonably, I realize that we probably won't get that, but as long as it averages out to 1 per week at the end of the year, and we bust our butts every week working for that sale, we'll have accomplished a great thing. 

Karla and I started our New Year with laughs!  After our little one went to sleep and we did all the things we normally do to get the house cleaned and ready to start the next day, we decided to rent and watch a movie.  I ran across the street in pj's and flipflops (man was it cold!) and we rented "The Proposal".  Oh my goodness, the movie is extremely funny!  It has lots of humor and a nice, romantic story.  I'd give it 8 stars at least (out of 10) and I imagine Karla would give it more.  It was quite a nice way to bring in the New Year.

So, Happy New Year, to your family from ours!  May this year be the Best Ever!

Men's Wire-Wrapped Buckle Ring

That's what I'm calling it, anyway.

This morning, I woke up wanting to create a wire-wrapped ring for a guy.  Something that I'd wear, as well as other men.  This is what I came up with.  I'm happy with the basic design, but I'm thinking there are some things I'd change before I started to sell it.  For one, I'll probably use a heavier gauge wire.

For those of you who frequent the blog, let me know what you think about it!  Is there anything you'd change on it? 

Wire Wrapped Pendant

A friend of mine asked Karla to make a piece of jewelry out of a stone she (the friend) picked up at some tourist spot. I have completely forgotten where it was picked up or what kind of stone it is. So, it fell to me to do the wrapping to make it a pendant.

This is what I came up with: 

I must say that I'm extremely proud of it!  I used the tutorial here for inspiration and the general know-how to be able to do it, as I've never done it before.  Karla will be finishing the piece, finding the perfect chain and other embellishments.

As this is a custom piece and specific order, it's not going on Etsy.  But, everyone take note!  Should you want something like this, all you have to do is Convo us on Etsy, or send an email to kelleyaccents [at] gmail [dot] com.

Learn by Doing

So, I've spent the morning cruising the net, trying to promote our Etsy store and generally wasting time.

I did, however, have a learning experience.  Yesterday, I purchased a coil of copper wire to experiement with (since it's sooo much cheaper than sterling) and try out some designs.  After a wasted hour, I broke it out along with a couple jewelry pliers.  I started twisting, wrapping, and bending wire.  I came up with some cool spirals that I think I want to use in a pair of earrings.  I looked at them and thought to myself, "Self.  These earrings would be REALLY cool with some hammered copper!"  I don't have a jewelers anvil or an appropriate hammer.  So, I broke out the carpenters hammer and a pry-bar to hammer on.

It didn't work.  I finally ended up hammering the copper wire into the concrete of the patio.  It takes a lot of fine hammering to get a good look, yet you've got to know when to stop.  I was trying to flatten out the whole piece, eyering included.  The wire wrapped around the eyering cut the post and cut the eyering right off!  Oops.  Well, now I know not to do that again.

It was a wonderful experience, simply because, had I not attempted to do it, I wouldn't have learned that it doesn't work!  Now, I know, and 'Knowing is Half the Battle!'

Working with Wire

Since I've started making jewelry with my wife, I've been drawn to working with wire.  There is something that makes it a very satisfying pursuit.  I'm not quite sure what it is.  It may be taking something and using my hands to form it into something that looks (or tries to!) beautiful. 

As I was pondering what to write about tonight, I was browsing through Etsy and found this shop:  WireYourWorld

The work there is absolutely beautiful!  I especially love this piece!

It also appears to be a very successful shop.  Which is a good thing!  It means, if we do it right, we can reach that level as well.  We just need to figure out how.

I'm a big Stargate fan and have had an idea for a few weeks now to do some wirework based on the symbols of the different Goa'uld.  I think it would be great fun, but I'm not sure how well the pieces would be received!

No Sleep!

I'm not going to sleep tonight until I sell something! Or, until it's 1am, whichever comes first, but I want it to be a sale!

Help me out, peeps! If it's not going to be you, IM or text a friend and have them check the shop out! If the person who makes a purchase was referred by someone else, I'll even try to do something special for that someone! Who knows!

I'm feeling silly this evening and this is likely to be ONLY THE FIRST crazy thing I do all night!

So, come check out the store!  Give us a hand...

Headpin Tutorial

So, I finally finished the tutorial for making headpins.  It's in .pdf format and hosted on Google Documents, so you can read it directly from the net or download it to read it later. 

Making Headpins

If you'd like to see a finished piece where I used this technique, see this ring.

How to Balance Art and Life

If you're an artist, struggling to make a living off of your art, it can be really, really hard to dedicate enough time to your art while not neglecting the other facets of your life.  I suppose that can happen with any field of interest that takes time, but I'm going to concentrate on art, because that's what I love.

For Karla and I, it has gotten really tough to dedicate the necessary time to promoting the site, creating new pieces, keeping a regular posting schedule on the blog and store... ugh!  It is a nightmare of a balancing act.  Between the little boy, my day job, cleaning, cooking, going out... we've only got a few hours each night to work on this stuff.  But you know what: we work on it!  That's the only way to get it balanced.  Do everything you need to do to make life livable and confortable.  Then, take your spare time and go at it!  If art is what you love, do it, practice it. 

I, personally, think it's better to branch out, as well.  Let's say you don't want to do any jewelry tonight.  Pick up a sketch pad and draw out your next cool design.  Grab some polymer clay and work with that for an evening, instead of crystals and wire.  It helps clear the mind and, a lot of times, provides inspiration that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. 

Another source for inspiration, at least for me, is always being observant during my day job.  It's always funny the ideas that come to me as I watch someone walk down the sidewalk, or push a cart in the supermarket or whatever! 

I think that art should permeate life.  Art is inspired by life and it imitates life.  Embrace it, think about it and you may be surprised what you come up with.

A Brand New Item

We've just posted a brand new bracelet! It's a lot of fun. If you like ruby colored crystals, this one's got'em!


On a side note, we've been very busy these past couple weeks. Or however long it's been. I've had a bunch of work to do in my day job and Karla's been working in every bit of free-time she's had to create new pieces. She has a jewelry party scheduled for later this month. A lady from church is setting it up. And I'll get to stay home and take care of the little guy. I'm sure she'll have a lot of fun!

And, I still have those photos for the tutorial, I just haven't made time to write anything yet. Hopefully soon!

Polyclay Cuff Bracelet, Pt. 2

Ok, so I think I'm making progress!  I took the polyclay blank that I made the other day and tried to superglue some wire to it.  Yeah... not so much.  It didn't work as well as I'd hoped, mainly because the superglue took SOOOO long to dry.  So I gave up on that.

I rolled out another 'slab' of polymer clay.  This one was a little bit thicker than the base I made and with colors!  Of course, I'll put more work into this layer if these things actually get off the ground.  Into this layer, I embedded the two thin wires.  I learned that I have to just embed part and leave a curve to the wire, otherwise it blows out the topside of the fresh clay when I try to wrap it around the blank.

So I got it wrapped around.  It looked good.  I took a Bic pen and just made some knicks in the clay and some small slices with the blade to make it look a little worn... "stylish" if you will.  *grin*  I made sure the wire was bent so that the cuff would be a small size while baking.

Then I put it in the oven.

I let it cool for a half an hour in the oven after it was done cooking and then pulled it out to let it cool the rest of the way.  I'm wearing it right now.  I was afraid to put it on.  It was really small, but it bent very well to go on my wrist.  It's stayed on for at least 20 minutes.  The only thing I'm noticing is that, since it's plastic, my skin isn't breathing very well.  I'm not really concerned with that at the moment.  The thing is pretty comfortable.  It's gripping my arm well.  It even felt tight a little bit ago, but I think it's conforming a little to the size of my wrist.

So... this part of the experiment is done.  Now to see if it stands up to a weeks worth of daily use!  Stay tuned...

"Same Cuff time!  Same Cuff channel!"

 

Art Supplies

Karla and I decided to go and buy some more art supplies today.  It was quite enjoyable!  Ok, enough with the proper English.  It was a ton of fun!  I grabbed some linseed oil for my oil painting projects and looked at some beads.  I also got some copper wire (colored silver, of COURSE!) to experiment with.  I'm going to try to make the ring I referred to in the last post.

Karla bought quite a few crystals and some stone and glass beads.  And some more silver.  It's all about the silver.

And, tonight, we're making time to sit down and work on some jewelry!  Well... that is after our son falls asleep and he seems to be taking his sweet time about that.  Sometimes I get so exhausted when I'm putting him to sleep.  It's amazing how much work it is.

Anyhow, that's the news for now!

New Ring?

Karla found this amazing HowTo article in a magazine she has, about making a bunch ring out of wire.  I love the design, it's so cute!  I'm going to try it.  I just need to get some wire.  I've heard that copper is in style now, so I'm going to get some of that and give it a try. 

For anyone who's curious, it's on pg. 25 of 'Step by Step Wire Jewelry'.  It appears to be the Summer Preview 2007 issue.

Inspirations

So, I've been trying to think of something that I love to inspire a piece of jewelry.  I'd like to make something with some kind of wire-wrapping and a semi-precious stone.  However, it needs to be different.  Something that makes you think.  Something that carries a message.  Isn't that what Art is supposed to do? 

Perhaps if I make a list of questions, it would help:

• What image does my situation in life bring to mind right now?
• What color do I feel?
• Do I feel fluid or solid?
• Do I feel free or bound?

Now it's time to get out the sketch book and think...

Jewelry Making - HowTo's

I found a blog on jewelry making thats name, coincidentally, Jewelry Making.  It appears that the authors stopped their jewelry making business in 2008 and also stopped updating the blog, but they do have quite a few HowTo articles on the sidebar of their blog.  I've only had a chance to browse through one of them, but it looks pretty well done, if I do say so myself.

I'm definitely taking the time to browse through them all.

Tutorials?

I've been thinking about how to drive more traffic to this blog and the store over the past couple days.  I read some tips on Etsy and they say that it's beneficial to make tutorials and other things that are interesting and that people want.  I wonder if that would work?

What kind of tutorials should we make?  Simple things, like, putting a clasp on a bracelet?  Crimping the end of a necklace?  Or, should we design pieces of jewelry and put up a tutorial to make the entire piece?  It bears thinking on.

I know that when Karla and I first started, tutorials helped a LOT!  Now that we're (a little) more experienced, maybe we should help pass on our knowledge...

Amber and Silver

I just wanted to let you know about a clearance item that we've got to get moving.

It's a lonely Mexican amber and sterling silver necklace, just waiting to be adopted. Is it right for your home? Check it out and see...