Craigslist

So we had a custom order the other day. That was good. Little by little we're getting our sold number up. How much good that will do us, I'm not sure, but it looks like progress!!

To try and help with the progress, I've started to list things on Craigslist in Las Vegas. If you're not familiar with Craigslist, I would familiarize yourself! It's only the best free classified ad site in the whole entire world! Things are good.

Karla's pregnancy is going along fine. I'm totally wasted as I work over 40 hours a week and then I have to come home and cook (cooking makes her sick) and clean the kitchen (cleaning the kitchen makes her sick) and spend time with her, since she doesn't have much to do all day. Between all those activities, I don't have much time to do anything! I did buy some energy saving bulbs today that give off 100 watts of light while only using 25 watts of electricity. They work very nice; the light is nice and white and it doesn't super heat my small studio.

Speaking of that, I did take some more photographs and we listed a couple new items today. Check'em out.

Jewelry Supplies

We just never seem to have enough on hand! We got to our supplier, drop loads of money and get all sorts of neat stuff, all the stuff we needed before and didn't have. Now, with all those supplies, we're still lacking for material!

Oh, well. We've decided to start selling some jewelry supplies as well. Pretty much sterling silver. That's the material we work in and we decided that it would be a good investment to go along with the jewelry pieces. We just recently listed the first couple, so we'll see how it goes. I think our prices are pretty competative.

On a separate note... does anyone read this blog? I like writing. About as much as I like talking. And you can't shut me up. But it'd be nice to know that we have an audience...

Well, it's late and we have to get up and move again in the morning. (I hate moving... it's official now.)

Miskalaynee...

If you didn't get it... the title is Miscellany...

Anyway. So, some small updates. I recently purchased some new backdrops for photos for the jewelry. The standard white and black. I also got a yellow and a blue. I like it. I think it's really helped the photos. The latest ones are wonderful.

I've gotten caught up in the photography aspect of the jewelry again. I decided to break out and design something. I found some gorgeous Pink Jasper stones that I want to make into a necklace. I just can't seem to figure out what I want to use them with. So far, I'm thinking some white/pink freshwater pearls... but that might be too mono. The focal stone is really beautiful, one side is almost entirely stained with gray. Our medium of choice is sterling silver... but I just can't see including that much shiny with this stone! I wanted to wrap some wire, but that will pull the eye away from the star of the show...

Sigh. What am I going to do with you?

New Ring

This is a sweet little ring. It's self adjusting. The ring is sterling silver, but the rice pearls and swavorski crystals are on a stretchy beading cord, so it will fit just about any finger! Of course, if your fingers, like mine, are as big as the Incredible Hulk's, I wouldn't try to put it on!!

Anyway, I'm trying something new, putting it up for sale on the blog via Paypal. I know some people don't want to have to create a new account with Etsy just to go shopping. If there's anything you'd like to see for sale on the blog, just let me know.

Rice Pearl Sterling Silver Ring
$18.50

August

We're almost done with August and this will be my first post! Real life conflicts will do that to you, I suppose. We had our vacation in Mexico with Karla's family and then my brother's wedding... It's been a busy month! Which is good, I suppose. I would rather be busy than with nothing to do. That would be so boring.

Anyway. Jewelry-wise, Karla picked up a lot of silver. And, as you know, silver is our preferred medium. We now have quite the stock-pile of supplies and jewelry. As soon as I get some free time (hopefully this weekend) I'll get some photos taken and more jewelry posted on Etsy. I'm hoping we'll see a lot more movement as far as sales go. I think Karla is going to make the leap and dedicate herself to jewelry to get it going. I guess it's a good thing she has a sugar-daddy to pay for her habit! (That'd be me...)

I was thinking of getting off Etsy entirely and designing a site for sales, but that would be so much work. And, I'm not sure it would be worth it just to save the fees. We definitely need to start looking for some more marketing options. The things we are doing are generating a little bit of traffic, but not near what we would like to see. I'll have to do some research and see what I come up with.

If any readers have ideas, we would more than welcome them!

Sin City

So, here we are. We made it safe and sound. We are in LAS VEGAS!! *shouts* *cheering* *sputtering*

Ok, so I guess it's not that great. But, hey, job pays the bills, job says go, I go.

Well, we've got our jewelry stuff unpacked and we're ready to start rolling again. It's going to be great, I just know it! Amazingly, I actually missed it! We haven't been able to do anything for pretty much a whole week. Today is the first day we're going to actually get down and do something.

But, man, is it HOT! It's been up around 110 every single day. And it doesn't even cool down that much at night, to 90 if we're lucky.

So... that's life. Take a look at our store! Buy something! You know you want to! I know you want to! Even Bob knows you want to! (Don't ask who Bob is...)

15% Off Sale

We're having a massive sale at our online store. Any purchases made between June 11 - 17 will receive 15% off their sale price. This includes ALL ITEMS in our online store! Catch it now, or else the item you want may not be there later!

My Own Design

I've realized recently that when I say my wife and I make jewelry, that's not entirely true. I pretend to make jewelry. She makes jewelry. I photograph and post what she's made, do the online marketing and generally do the research on what we need to know to make our fledgling business work.

I've decided to turn that around. How can I truely support her in her dream if I don't take part in it? I'm not sure that's possible. And, I like it. It's a very creative outlet, and I've always been artistic. So, I vowed (is that too strong of a word?) that I would start making my own designs. I found that, it's not as easy as it looks.

The problems is, it's easy to put together a pair of earrings. Anyone with a general will to do it can. But, to put together some stunning earrings, is another thing entirely. Tonight, as we sat down to start making jewelry, and I shocked her by picking up the bead tray to find a combination I liked, I realized I had no idea what I wanted to do. I picked up beads, rearranged beads, dropped beads and a lot of other actions, before I found a design that I liked and I felt was original enough.

Unfortunately, once I started putting them together, I realized gravity was not helping my design. I scrapped them and came up with something else. My very own design... I'll get some photos posted in the next couple of days.

Edit: I finally was able to get some pictures taken of it and I posted one to the right.

Burnin' Down the House

We recently invested in some tools to start working with metal, specifically, silversmithing. I've been spending what free time I have in the garage, trying to get my technique down for soldering silver. It's really not that hard, it just take precision that I haven't trained into my hands yet. But, I'm excited! Now I can make the chains and nifty things that have been running through my head for so long!

On a different note, I've also started working harder at improving the photos I take of our products. I think that I've improved a lot! There is still plenty I can do to improve and I'm working at it.

All you people who end up here, give us a shout! I'd love to hear who you are and where you come from and how you found us! We love you guys!

Wire Weave

All hail the mighty wire weave! I learned how to do the basics today. I made a bracelet out of silver colored wire. It looks COOL! I'm definitely going to have to dedicate more time to doing this. It's great, looks great, feels great. And, I can finally wear metal jewelry. Most of the stuff we make is more geared towards the female. This can be very masculine and looks wonderful. I'll have to take a picture to get it posted. I can tell you where my energy is going to be going for the next little bit!

Edit: I just got a picture posted on the Etsy site. I posted it again here so you can see it. Cool, huh!

D

Three New "Stuffs"!

Woohoo! We got a few new things up on Etsy! Finally. It seems like it takes forever to get them from idea to storefront. But, it's done. We've got plenty more, I just don't have the energy to take any more pictures tonight. We both had a stressful day at our "real" jobs.

I do want to point out some nifty little earrings we've put up. They are a cool little item that Karla and I came up with; kind of a novelty item. I call them, the Love Potion Earrings! Check them out on the right, and then swing on by Etsy to see them listed!

It's May

Goodness, we're already welcoming another month here. (Did you notice? I started this post with "Goodness" instead of "Wow"...)

Karla is still organizing all the cool stuff she brought back. I think we're going to take some pictures tonight to list the new items she got. I've been experimenting with epoxy resin and have some pieces curing in the garage as we speak! Or rather... as I type this. I'm excited to see how they turn out. I'm planning on turning them into pendants using Sculpey.

So, that's all the news I can think of. There may be more of interest and I'm sure it will make it's way up here. So, TTFN!

Vacation!

Oh, wo is me! My beautiful Karla left for a month, to visit her family in Mexico. She is going to be bringing back all sorts of cool sterling silver pieces to include in our jewelry! So, be on the lookout in the next month or so for new snazzy pieces to come out!

So, while she's away, I get to tend the store. *Evil laugh* Now I can do all the things she never lets me do!!! Seriously, I'll be online probably a bit more than before and will be working on some new pieces and listing some of the not so "newer" pieces that I haven't had a chance to put on Etsy yet. So, cruise on over to the right side of the screen, which will link you DIRECTLY to our Etsy store so you can purchase the beautiful piece of jewelry that you like! And, if you don't see anything you like, just send an email to see if we can make what you want!! Heck, you'll never know until you ask, right?

Hello!

Hi, hey, hello! Thanks for stopping by! This is so exciting. So, I suppose you'd like to know a little about who we are and what we do. That's only natural, I'm sure. My name is Devon. My wife is Karla. Together, we create KelleyAccents. We make high quality, hand-made jewelry. Honestly, I never even dreamed that I would be doing this. It just doesn't seem very manly, does it? But that's not the point! We are creating lovely things(there I go again, being all manly) that just look so cool! I've always been an artist at heart, so I really enjoy this creative outlet. Sometimes the corporate world just doesn't let you be who you really are. Karla's mother is a craft teacher at a school for special needs children and so she grew up learning all sorts of crafts, making things with her hands and using everyday items I never would have thought of to create the most beautiful designs.

Well, I thought that I'd give you a quick hello and introduce ourselves. Stop by our Etsy store on your way out to check out what we make. I'm sure you won't be dissappointed that you did! So, for now, Adios!

Devon