Confessions of an Election Junkie

I  have not written a blog for a while...I just don't have time.  I have come to realize that  I am an election junkie ... I spent my extra time that I would usually use to write a blog, cruising the internet.  I have to check Facebook and add my two cents. I have to check the news stations and, of course, the pollsters web sites...there is so much to do with the elections a mere 30 days away.

I really don't understand this facet of my personality...I am a very black and white person and politics is anything but a black/white issue...but I really get into this.  I am better read than at any other time - I will peruse anything that is even remotely connected to the election. At other times in the election cycle, I am fairly apolitical...but let a Presidential election loom close and it really grabs my attention.

I get very angry at people on Facebook who are supporting someone  whom I consider to be the wrong candidate(s).  Although now that I am on a private site of politically like minded people, I am handling some of these things better.  I still  have trouble not rear ending cars that have the "wrong", as far as I am concerned,  bumper stickers,

My sister with whom I do not share political views posted a question as to whom she should vote for on Facebook.  I spent hours answering her - HOURS - not sure if  I go through to her,,, but I haven't heard from her since.

In another month, this will all be over for another four years....I can only say that I hope that my candidate wins.....

What to do with Extra Jewelry Creations

I have been creating jewelry for several years now and have been very fortunate to sell allot of it in both retail stores, on consignment, in my web shop and on my own...however, today, trying to get reorganized after an extended illness, I found allot of pieces that I'm not sure what I want to do with.

Some of these are pieces that I made several years ago and for one reason or another, they didn't sell.   They are not something that I would create today, but I still like them.  Then there are the pieces that I made because of a store owners' suggestion, and they either didn't take it on consignment or they took it and it didn't sell, so it is now back home with me.  Then there are the pieces that I created for this summer season, that I effectively missed, because of illness...they won't sell now, but they might sell next summer.

I have one shop that I deal with that loves my work but it is slightly pricey for her shop, so occassionally, I do take pieces to her that have "failed" elsewhere and I drastically reduce the price, so that I barely recover my expenses...but covering expenses works, sometimes.  There is a woman's shelter nearby that I have donated allot of jewelry to, and I have two schools that have auctions that I donate to twice a year, so I usually have a bag going to them that I work on whenever the right piece turns up.  Unfortunately, I am very prolific, and I make allot of jewelry, when the economy was better, that was okay...it doesn't work today. I don't want a huge inventory, it is too expensive! !  My next project is to go through the inventory that I do have and do some judicious dismemberment.  I have some great stones in pieces that haven't sold, and maybe if they were redone in a newer, more current setting, I could sell them.  The only thing is that I feel like I am tearing apart my children when I attempt to take those pieces apart.

Do any of you have an answer to my problem?  Do you sell every piece that you make, and if you don't what do you do with it?

Optimizing your Blogs

I posted a blog about a week ago and proceeded to announce it in the usual places that one announces these things....especially for someone who is an admitted technotard.  I put it on both my face book pages and I  went to the forums on Artfire where I have my online shop and I posted it there.  Along with some nice comments, I got a response from a computer guru, Jim  Juris , who is on Artfire also, and he told me that I needed to optimize my blog titles so that they would be picked up in Google searches.  So I have just finished changing the titles of a number of my blogs - and I like my original titles much better than the optimized ones...but I must admit that optimizing them makes sense.

I love writing blogs - they're fun - it's fun to transfer my pre-retirement knowledge (professional practice management) to a new venue, making jewelry and the business involved in selling your jewelry.  I love sharing pictures of what I am currently doing and also, what I am currently thinking...which is sometimes scary to see in black and white...but still fun to share.  It makes sense to try to get more people looking at all this....but it's just like putting my jewelry in my shop...I'd love to have some cute name instead of  something that google is going to look at.  So much of what we do is predicated by the rules of the web and I truly wish it were otherwise....but, it isn't.

As I have said many times, I am truly a technotard - I survive in this new technical world but not without allot of blood, sweat, and tears.  I honestly thought that by putting good labels or tags on my blogs that Google would pick them up, but that is rarely the case. I am always amazed that almost 4000 people have read my blogs - but almost 70,000 people have looked at my shop on Artfire in almost the same amount of time...and I have tried very hard to optimize the titles of my jewelry, but not my blogs.  So I definitely feel that old Jim is probably on to something that we all should be aware of.. It's a cold cruel economy and world out there and any little edge that we can get to get more people looking at what we are selling is better than good...it may just be fantastic.

Those are my thoughts for today and I hope that they help...til next time

Returning to my Jewelry Work Bench

I have not made any jewelry to speak of since the middle of  May.  I had a large glitch in my health and am just now, four months later, beginning to feel like myself again.  I really do feel fantastic but I cannot get going at my bench again.  I have some great ideas , especially just as I am falling asleep, but so far I can't translate them into anything concrete.  It is becoming frustrating....but I'm confident that my muse will reappear shortly.  Hope that she didn't get as sick as I did! ! !

The one thing that I have made are with some beads from Kenya, Africa.  They are all hand made and hand painted making them somewhat irregular and I love them because of it.

I think that these are fun and colorful.  The company where they are made is a

"Fair Trade"  company and they figure that their 400 employees provide  a living wage that covers over 1600 people.  So not only can you have a great necklace, but help your fellow man at the same time, an all around winning combination.  If you didn't know, I am an elephant freak and finding good looking pieces that I can use in jewelry is a real prize for me and these are  definitely  good looking and not too heavy to be comfortable to wear.  These are in my Artfire  shop .

The  only other thing that I have made is  with a formed bead of brightly colored agate and resin and I combined them with  colored "O" rings to make a winning combo......

I wear these allot - especially the necklace as above but without the pewter center piece.  Only because I am really a plain Jane when it comes to my jewelry - give me color or bling or both, but keep it simple.  I admire complex, involved, difficult - I just don't want to wear it or make it...because I only make what I  would personally wear.

So that 's the extent of my output since May - rather skimpy and dismal...but I hope to correct that soonest.  My other problem is that my eldest daughter spent a whole day cleaning my studio - she did all that she could without me  and it looked fantastic.  I promised her that I would finish it...and  that is exactly what I have been doing with allot of my creative time...it's not very creative, but I have to refind everything in my studio and I have to fulfill my promise...when I get it done, it will be the best that it's ever been....I even purchased some new storage, but getting there is a real pain.

I hope that you all have a great day and hopefully, I will be returning here soon - One more thing to add to my "to do" soon list - blogging.  I've really missed it.....

It's Good to be Alive

When I first started blogging, I read that you should write about what's going on in your life...so that's what this is about....my life and how close it came to being over last month.

I am a very healthy individual and have lead a relatively healthy life.  My hospital visits have consisted of the three births of my children.Two years ago, I had shingles and had borderline diabetes diagnosed.  Other than the usual childhood diseases and the flues and colds of adulthood, I have rarely been sick.    That all ended in March of this year.  My legs swelled up badly and I had a rash like outbreak on them.  I thought I was getting shingles again, but I finally decided that I needed  to see the doctor.  She felt that I had been spending too much time sitting at my bench making jewelry and not enough time excercising...she was probably right.

I was treated with some antibiotics but the condition worsened.  I had scans for clots and a consult with a heart doctor.  Other than the fact that I was a 55 year smoker and needed to quit, nothing definitive was found, other than my right ventricle was working harder than it should.  I then felt that my stomach was swelling - I felt like I was giving birth to nine pound twins.  Stupidly, I put off going to the doctor's because I needed to have blood drawn for my appointment with her the following week..  I went to see her on a Tuesday, she order a CAT scan for Wednesday and  a follow up with her on Friday.  They were looking for clots again in my torso. When I saw her on Friday she immediately ordered me to the hospital.  I begged to wait til Monday, because I knew nothing gets done in a hospital over the weekend...she refused, but did let me go home and pack a bag. My husband drove me to the hospital as I smoked what was my last cigarrette.

I remember checking into the hospital and being wheel chaired upstairs.  I remember seeing my youngest daughter, which was on Sunday, and my oldest, which was on Tuesday.  I don't remember trying to escape from the hospital - but I guess that I did.  I really have very few memories until Wensday and Thursday.  From what I have since learned, it was touch and go for me over the weekend several times.  I was in the hospital for 10 days and lost almost 60 pounds of  fluids.  They  aspirated 5.5 liters from my lungs alone, and I have no memories of that even occurring.  This is not a good way to diet.

I got out on a Tuesday.  I had oxygen delivered to the house and have been on it ever since.  The hope is that I will eventually only have to use it at night.  I have a weekly visiting nurse. I had 6 physical therapy visits from a great guy.  I had one visit from an occupational therapist.  I am hooked up to the hospital electronically.  Daily they get my weight, blood pressure, percentage of oxygen in my blood and several questions answered...great program.  I'm seeing or have seen more doctors than I want to think about and taking more medicine than I want to - especially for someone who thought twice before taking an aspirin.  I've had an over night test for sleep apnea, which I do not have.

Looks like life is going to be changing again - I am not to spend more 1/2 hour at a time at my jewelry making bench - I used to be there almost all day and night time too.  I am overflowing with ideas and don't have the time to try them out.  Just before this all happened, I was working hard at getting all of my resin pieces on the web site so there are quite a few new pieces in my shop...please take a look.

All being told, I am thankful that this happened...it probably kept me alive.  For one reason or another, which we're hoping to find out.....55 years of smoking caught up with me and I had a type of  carbon dioxide poisining.  It may be COPD , it may not be - but that is my saga for the last month and I can honestly say from the bottom of my heart that it's very good to still be alive....

The Bottom Line in the Jewelry Business

Several years ago when I had barely gotten going on Artfire, I did a blog about time and artisans.  But I think that it is time for another one. No matter who you read or where you read it, there is a continuing theme about artisans and how they either do not value, or they undervalue, their own skills.  Going hand in hand with this is how we as artisans, think that if we get some portion of what we paid for supplies returned to us in sales, that we are doing great. I heartily , do not agree with that.

First of all, we need to review exactly what it takes to produce a piece of jewelry or any hand crafted goods.  We have many overhead expenses...electric, water, gas, heat, taxes, telephone..if your studio is at your home, whatever it takes to keep your home running, is also needed to keep your studio running.  Supplies do not magically appear on our benches to enable us to make what we want. ...wouldn't it be nice if they did.  I don't know about you, but I spend hours on line, first of all, being a very careful shopper, and secondly, trying to find that special piece of something that will help me to make my jewelry special.  Then there are the trips to the shops that carry my jewelry and at the end of a long day, I usually have to go home to some bookwork from the trip and usually make or alter something for one of the shops and that means a return trip.  Now, that makes my car part of my overhead and I keep very careful mileage and money charts for these "road days".  If you are on the show circuit, those days are like my shop days.

I probably spend one day a month, trying to find more boutiques to carry my jewelry.  These are frustrating days - owners are rarely in and managers don't like to come to the phone, nor can they make decisions.  I do not like to do cold calls, so I am always trying to set up appointments and that doesn't always work.  I get lots of information from the internet, and more often than not, the info is out of date or the phone number is wrong.  I have spent whole days without talking to anyone that I really want to talk to  -  so it's slow, frustrating and very time consuming.

Next we come to the computer - beside my Artfire Shop, I try to blog regularly, I need to keep up with my facebook pages, do my email, and show up at a few sites where I am a member.  The shop is the hardest, look at the amount of time that it takes to enter just one piece of jewelry, and that can only be done after the photos are taken.  I think that the forums are important and I wish that I had more time to build some relationships there..  Google tends to ignore you, if you ignore your shop...so you can't afford to let that happen.  I tend to use my web site as my catalogue so I'm not as paranoid about this aspect as I might be.

There are also 2 other time consuming factors to out businesses that vary from year to year, but are usually always there.  The first one is going to shows and taking some continuing ed at the
show and of course, checking out what's new to buy.  The second time consuming nugget is marketing ourselves.  Whether we do it all on the web, or we give a jewelry  party, or we send out emails or postcards to previous buyers, it is another time consuming, sometimes expensive proposition.

Okay...so we have all this stuff to do, and our "real" goal is to make jewelry, which we haven't done yet.  All of the above are part of your business - you cannot pay yourself  $10 or even $20 per hour for making a necklace and expect to cover the costs that you have incurred.  If you cannot cover the costs that have incurred, then you shouldn't be in business.  That is the bottom line, pure and simple.  If that sounds harsh, then I apologize, but you talented people need to take a close look at what you are charging and what you are netting from your talents.  If it's not enough, then raise your prices.

I read a fairly well known artisan who charged $60. /hr for when she was creating jewelry.  She felt that by the time she added everything in to her overhead, she was may be clearing $20.00/hr  for herself.. This was several years ago - she's probably charging $100.00/hr. now, and my feeling is, if she is, then God bless...I hope that it works.  I see women on the forums who have had a wholesale offer and they can't do it.  The wholesaler wants 50% off...the artisan has priced her product so low, that 50% off would break her...she is truly between a rock and a hard place.  Don't get yourself stuck in that same place. Realistically look at what you are charging for your product, and ask yourself what would happen if someone wanted a wholesale order from you...would 50% off leave you high and dry or where you should be????

Marketing Madness for jewelers

In my first life - i.e. before retirement - I was something of a marketing guru.  My husband was a dentist and I was the out of office, office manager.  Along the way, I became a national expert on computer implimentation for the dental office and that entailed allot of marketing.  I was published numerous times in national Dental publications, I lectured and I consulted on Dental Practice Management and Marketing, and I had a book on marketing letters.  I am not bragging here, but I feel I have to establish my ability to write about what I want to address here.

I spend as much time as possible in the forums on Artfire where I have my shop for the jewelry that I make and I am continually amazed by the people who make pleas to have people "like" them on Facebook and they will do the same back to them.  So they get lots of jewelers and other artisans to see everything that they put on facebook.  Maybe I don't fully understand facebook, but that makes no sense to me - I don't want other jewelers to see my work - I want prospective buyers to see my work and hopefully buy it.  If I could figure out how to do it, I'd be advertising on facebook...but it would be to a small, select group of potential purchasers. I really wish that I had the computer skills now that I had in the 80's - but sadly, I don't.

I had two sayings that I flashed on my screen when I was lecturing - the first was - " if you follow the herd, watch where you step" and the other one was - " Marketing materials are like bullpucky( I think you know what I mean, it ryhmes with hit) they do no good unless you spread them around.  In other words, take the less traveled path, do not do what everyone else is doing...and if you are going to invest in marketing materials make sure that they get out to the people  you want to market to and hopefully they'll be in a place where they will share what you are doing with others.  We had a series of letters and gifts that we sent to people who referred a new patient to us and one of them was a bouquet of flowers, but we never sent it to their home....it always went to their place of work where more and different people were apt to see it, ask about it, and then ask why someone's dentist would send them flowers...it worked exceptionally well.

We lived in a severly depressed area and yet we managed to run a practice that was more like practices in much more viable areas than ours.  We worked very hard at it and it paid off. Treating people well and following through did wonders for our bottom line.  Every business has similarities  and I think that all artisan crafters share allot of the same needs - basically finding people who are willing to pay for the gorgeous things that we make.

I wish I had a magic wand and could translate my dental business knowledge to my jewelry business...but I don't ):
But I do think that any artisan has to think long and hard about how they spend their marketing budget - both the money budget and the time budget. Don't spin your wheels marketing to your peers and make sure that whatever you do that it is in good taste, unique and affordable.