well it's official... i'm signup as a vendor at the Temple Nertamid Fall boutique. November 18th
9 a.m.-3 pm.
last saturday's craft fair at St Mark's presbyterian church went so well that i jumped right in with this additional Fall venue...
boy was it a mad scramble to get ready for St Marks. as some of you know i decided to get some part time sales jobs this fall and i got them both in the same week. my brain was SCRAMBLED learning both of the jobs.... i worked 7 days in a row and then had the Fri off before the Sat craft fair. almost called the church secretary to bow out of selling but i managed to pull together product and a display.
so now i have 3 wks time to get more organized, make some new items for the nov 18th boutique.
tomorrow i start a 10 day work schedule, gulp. thankfully these jobs are 6 hrs or two 4 hr shifts a day. wouldn't be possible if they were full 8hr days w/ a lunch break and travel time.

Congregation Ner Tamid

Holiday

Boutique

Sunday, November 18th

9:00 am - 3:00 pm

5721 Crestsridge Rd,

Rancho Palos Verdes

Come Shop &

Stay for Lunch

Jewelry  Shawls   Handcrafted Art  Gifts Toys

 Home Décor   Scarves  Handbags

 


 

ways to organize your necklaces

oh boy, it is nooooo fun to untangle necklaces. especially very fine chain that seems to just tie itself in knots as soon as you turn your back.
there are many ways to store necklaces
so first off you need to make some decisions:
do you want your necklaces stored horizontally or vertically?
do you want your necklaces on display or kept in a closet?
if you choose horizontally, you can store your necklaces in cutlery divided containers
do an internet search for cutlery trays or visit Bed Bath & Beyond, The Container Store or the home goods dept of Target
here's an example of one
bamboo cutlery tray


if you want to hang your necklace there are many choices
this is soo much fun, there are endless okay maybe not endless but surely ALOT of choices
do you want them displayed on a wall?

several involve picture frames
you can:
 attach heavy duty fiberglass window screening onto a picture frame, insert wire hanger to drape necklaces over
same type of organizer but use hardware cloth stapled to the back of the picture frame
if you have earrings that match a necklace you can hang them beside the necklace
i love my ryobi 18Volt stapler to mount screening to picture frames. can a girl have tooo many tools?!

a wooden board with cupboard knobs screwed into it works to hang necklaces on. you could match the knob style to your decorating style...you could use a wooden shelf and screw the knobs into the board below the shelf. hang a mirror above or set a mirror on the shelf
wooden shelf with peg hooks

a towel rod mounted directly onto a wall or mounted on a board by which it can hang works by using shower curtain hooks looped over the rod. the necklaces hang from the shower curtain hooks. you could sort by color... keep those fine chains hanging away from other necklaces though....

screw cup hooks into a wooden coat hanger along the underside

mount a wire closet organizer and hang shower curtain hooks from it

spray paint pegboard and then attach pegboard hooks, insert in large picture frame or hang on wall

spray paint an old hard sided suitcase or an old briefcase and stand it upright, mount cup hooks inside along the top.

Oh dropped by to edit this and add another idea.... mount a section of molding to the wall and hammer in small nails or screw in cup hooks...fancy crown molding or a simple style which is a better fit for your style?

well i've given you some asssorted ideas, have fun thinking up your own or using one of these ideas to gain control of necklace storage
many of these ideas will work just as well for bracelets and some will work for earrings

i've neglected the studio, le sigh

well i've neglected the jewelry studio. i was reorganizing Memorial Day weekend and i hurt my back lifting too much. sadly a slew of things none jewelry related fell to the floor and i couldn't pick them up. i've been doing PT 3 times a week and am knock on wood pain free and able to pick up things on the floor so i hope to find some time this weekend to trash out the none jewelry items stored in that area.
the first jewelry item i will most likely work on will be a necklace and earrings to wear to our oldest son's wedding the end of July. having design block but i hope when i get out there and physically touch my "pretties" inspiration will strike. More than likely in the trial and error of those pcs i'll come up with some items for the shop.
Of course summer beach theme jewelry is in the forefront of my mind right now... our So Calif weather has been gorgeous, sorry for those suffering through a heat wave now. maybe wearing a beach inspired anklet will transport you to cooler clime... spread on some coconut scented suntan lotion, close your eyes and Hawaii here you come...
oh maybe i'd better get those silver and blue anklets made first LOL

Silverware key chain display at work

hooray, i figured out how to make a simple display of my vintage silverplate fork key chains at the office

the black computer monitor will be used with display fusion to 'run' a folder of my jewelry photos so folks can see examples of my work as they walk by my cubicle. slowly getting all the business pieces put together... isn't it great i work w/ my hubster so i can market my jewelry biz at my part time day job? love you honey...

sadly i picked a bad day after the agents and staff had spent the morning doing a KW cares beach clean up so there weren't many folks in the office. but that's okay this was a trial run to see if the display would work...

i will be doing a brief presentation at a team meeting as these make nice gifts when a home buyer closes escrow on their new home...

i love Container store, they have the greatest organizational items, these shelves are stackable, they have 3 different sizes.

didn't these work out great for my display purpose?

Beautiful Spring Day

wow has spring ever sprung, i've had my head down in the jewelry studio alot lately but just took a good look around my backyard... my garden has been neglected but is blooming with out any attention from me.
my bearded iris in yellow, lavender, purple, black superstion and a 2 tone mauve are gorgeous. they remind me of my michigan childhood... i loved my grandma's irises.

i wanted to share the webpage of an Owl fan friend of mind, looking at her paintings brings to mind many memories of favorite beaches of mine and i enjoyed listening to her background sounds of beach life..

Linda S Young artist

I've been experimenting with making etched brass pieces. i've made some etched butterflies and roses that will most likely turn into earrings... lots of floral themed creations screaming to get out of my brain...

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just hangin' around...

oh boy what fun i have had making key chains using vintage silverplate silverware, in this case forks...
a neat thing about these key chains is they hang over the side of a purse pocket, adding a little "bling" decorative effect, but the best thing is you just grab the handle of the key chain, no more digging through your purse hunting for your keys.
great for when you've got too much stuff in your hands to hunt for your keys..

oodles of vintage silverplate patterns available, these forks have been around the block a 'few' times so there are some age 'spots'-scratches etc adding to the patina

wanna come up and see my etchings?

okay, i don't know what old movie that saying is from or if anyone besides me is still alive who has ever heard it but i couldn't resist (pun intended) using it as the title for this post on my new etched copper fishing charm key chains
I've been playing around with my charm templates in publisher since Jan and FINALLY  the day arrived I knuckled down, finalised my designs, and had all the pieces in place to etch...
i printed out my designs on PNP blue etchant paper, mixed up my etchant chemical, cleaned my sawn copper blanks...adhered the designs to the metal and floated the pieces in the etchant
i was so impatient waiting for my etchings, i tapped the side of the plastic container to remove the etched particles to speed up the process and pass some time.... tick tock, lift, check, nope not etched enough yet

fishing reel

FINALLY  i had my etchings: Reel HOT fishing charms to hopefully bring good luck to this year's fishing season


assorted Reel HOT fishing charm key chains

bill fish Reel HOT key chain

bass fishing charm Reel HOT key chain

bye bye godaddy website

sigh, with in the hour my godaddy website will be no more. sort of sad to see it's demise. it was a huge pain to use the 'back store' features.
for those of you who aren't familiar with all the things brick and mortar stores have to do to get product on the racks and shelves so you can buy it, there is so much work involved.
so i bought this godaddy website tonite and 'easy' shopping cart. oh my goodnes, i click on it for the first time and it's so foreign, thought about asking to intern in a retail back office so i could learn what to do. but eventually i figure out how it worked but it was soooo cumbersome. i just didn't upload my products for sale. (hey i'm not alone in not using a godaddy shop after purchase, i've got many friends that throw up their hands as well)
 in an online store, there is a slew of things involved.: assigning product numbers, uploading inventory counts, taking pics and then editing them, sizing for the website uploads,  writing your item descriptions, mangaing your categories and subcategories, yada yada
finally a fellow jewelry maker told me about a website deal with supadupame. they are a UK based ecommerce site and so much easier to use than godaddy.
so today i finally bit the bullet, forward important emails stored in the godaddy goldenwaters acct, copied item descriptions and cancelled my godaddy site. the good news is i get 5 months refund...yeah
then i had to redirect my domain name to the supadupa site. just waiting for that change to take effect, fingers crossed i did everything correctly.
boy i wear soooo many business hats in my one woman business
it's the creating that i love but these other things are so necessary but time consuming

going to aspiring metalsmith spring gathering in Fl

yahoo, hubster agreed to change the date for client spring party so now i can attend the aspiring metalsmith May gathering in st petersburg, fl.
still in the final planning stages, around 15 or so going. 3 four hour metal workshops, an evening craft booth at saturday nite Art walk.  lots of time to talk, hopefully some beach walking time.
our group has never had a meet-up but some lucky folks have met on their own in various parts of USA.
the reason i woke him up this a.m. to ask about changing party was the fact that Barbara Lewis will be teaching one of our workshops. i've been a member of her online Painting with Fire group for years (actually met a fellow PWF member when i did the thompson enamel workshop in Ky in sept '10.)
Here's a link to Barbara's book, so many new PWF group members from their seeing the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Torch-Fired-Enamel-Jewelry-Workshop-Painting/dp/1440308861

 how lucky for us she is moving to St Pete and will have her studio ready to teach us....

the party date adjustment will mean a bit of crazyness. Saturday will be hubster's high school yearly reunion party and then Sunday will be client party. we usually have about 80 or so folks hanging out in the back yard for that one.

valentine's day

must share this joke a fellow crafter posted on one of my etsy team threads.......

After she woke up, a woman told her husband, "I just dreamed you gave me a diamond necklace for Valentine’s Day. What do you think it means?"


"You’ll know tonight," he said.

That evening the husband came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Delighted, she opened it--to find a book entitled “The Meaning of Dreams.”

hope you enjoyed the chuckle.
I don't have any diamonds in the shop but check out my other goodies...