Terrific Tucson

I am one of the lucky people who lives in Arizona and am about 150 miles from the Gem Show.  I think that the first two weeks of February are nirvanna for jewelry artisans.  I have, so far, spent three days in this gem studded heaven and plan on making one more trip next week.

We went down the first day that the show opened so that I could see the vendor/friend that I met last year while she had all her goodies.  She was at HoJo's where I had allot of luck finding things last year - and this year was even better.  My Tibetan lady and her fantastic pendants were back - she smiled when we walked in and said that she remembered us from last year.  Next year, the smile will be even bigger, because I did allot more damage there than last year...but everything that I made from her supplies has sold.  I found a great vendor with natural colored coral that was reasonable and some nice stones and pearls.  We also found the best burrito I have ever had in the food court.

Our next trip was on Monday - it's nice being retired, you can go when other people can't - and we went to the To Bead True Blue show and I was so dissappointed that we left after only an hour.  It was supposed to be wholesale and retail - but the vendors evidently didn't know what wholesale was.  They all wanted me to buy $300.00 to $500.00 worth of their product and then they would give me 10 to 20% off, I said, "Gee, thanks" , and left for the Grant Inn Show.  That was fantastic.  As we were walking down one aisle, I said to my husband to look around - everyone was on their cell phones and everyone was speaking a different language.  I got ostrich egg shell beads...one of the first things that man used in jewelry making.  I saw a strand of beads that was made before Christ was born.  I found keishi pearls so my daughter can have her Christmas present.  She'd picked out a triple strand of said pearls, and I sold them and I had no more and they've been back ordered for several months.  Very bad mother, but good business woman.

I wore the new necklace that I made after my trip to my friend on Friday and three vendors went bonkers over it...and they see allot of jewelry, so that made me feel really good.  It has a centerpiece of an antique African pewter bead, big, brown, flat nuts, and beads made from fossilized mammoth bone...it is really pretty special and if the sun ever comes out in Arizona again, I will add a picture.  By the time I hit my friends booth again, I thought she was going to make an announcement over the loud speaker about the necklace...but it was fun. I have added the picture - not the best one in the world, but you get the idea.

Tuesday was my downfall.  We went to the Gem Mall and that is composed of two very large tents.  We hit the first tent fairly early and we couldn't have gone more than 50 feet, when I said to my husband, that we had to leave.  For some reason, he wanted to know why, when there was so much that we hadn't seen, and I told him that I had blown my budget and then some.  He tried to give me a lecture on restraint at that point, and I said that I had more than a fair share of restraint, but not when it comes to stones, bones and unique things to put into jewelry.  If I didn't see it - I couldn't buy it.  I tempted him with the promise of another one of those home made burritos - and off we went to HoJo's again so I could check the new shipment of pendants that my Tibetan vendor had gotten.

We are returning one day this week as I have a short list of things that I still need to purchase, hopefully, I will head directly to the booths where they are located and I won't get distracted by something fantastic, either that, or someone will buy 50 necklaces in the next two days, even 10 would do the trick, and I can shop some more, because my cash is gone and my plastic is seriously close to a major meltdown.

Thoughts on Weddings

I am involved in the Artisan Wedding Fair with my shop on Artfire and there is a link on my main page to the blog for the wedding fair that has all the participants...and there are allot of them with beautiful and very useful products.  If you or someone in your close circle is planning a wedding this year, it really would be worth your while to check it out.  We are supposed to blog about weddings, and that is what I am doing here...the only problem is that I don't feel like I have allot to say...but, as usual, I'll give it the old collage try.

My husband, John, and I have been married for almost 46 years - so our wedding is way back where I can hardly remember anymore.  Other than the fact that I was a New England wasp marrying a Slovac Catholic, and all the stress that that created, mostly for my mother, not much is crystal clear.  However, I do remember a few culture clashes - but those should be relegated to the back of my mind where they have been for almost 46 years.

Both of our daughters were married in our back yard in Warren, Ohio.  Warren is a small town with, at that point, no wedding co ordinators.  I have a few points to make to anyone planning a backyard ritual - first of all, think long and hard, because it can and does rain in most parts of this country.  It rained until 5:00 for the 5:30 wedding of one of our daughters, you want to talk about stress...it was ugly. Thank goodness, I was wearing a hat for that one, cuz there was not enough time to dress and do my hair.  Both ceremonies turned out beautifully but they were allot of work.

I decided, when I found out about the first wedding that I needed some help.  I knew with everything being at home that when the inevitable crisis happened on the day of the wedding that I needed someone capable of handling it without involving me.  I asked our decorator to give me a hand, because I had done business with her for years and she was organized and anile - just what I needed.  It worked out fantastically...she got people seated before the ceremony...started the music when it had to start for the bride...got all the wedding party down the aisle...and best of all, helped me plan and do the decorations. This became a great sideline to her decorating business, other than the fact that she wouldn't charge me, I had no complaints.  She helped with the second wedding too - which if anything was even harder, because we had done such a great job on the first wedding that there didn't seem to be any way to do as good a job, but we did manage. Both of our daughters had beautiful, dry, outdoor weddings.

I remember highlights from both of those special days - Lisa had very specific ideas on the table flowers, we had pictures of how she wanted them to look and the flowers to include to give to the florist.  The flowers arrived with bright orange lilies - lovely flowers, but neither the color nor the flower were on Lisa's list - that was a tearful moment that got worse with each delivery.  I just pulled the offending flowers and threw them out and we solved the problem.  Amanda calling me when her dress came in, in tears, that her dress made her look like a pregnant marshmallow.  Amanda's lovely and slighty weird friends from art school, posing around our yard in yoga poses - neither John, nor his sister knew what was going on. The Scottish bridesmade that had to find a chemist - took me a half hour to figure out she needed a drug store.  The cookies I worked weeks on left in the freezer by the caterer.  I could go on and on, but the best memory is of two beautiful brides, who had the wedding that they wanted, in the yard that they wanted to be married in, and they were both married by my sister.  They were both very special days.

I can only wish that you too have a very special day and that your marriage is long, loving, and joyfull....

Musings on Holiday Travel

We just returned from traveling to Pennsylvania for the Christmas season and we had a wonderful time, there is nothing better than a 5 year old on Christmas morning...especially one who sleeps until 8:00 A.M.. Now, is that a good kid or what???Of course, all of my grandchildren are perfect, so I really didn't expect anything less. So, before I get to the meat of this post, I would like to wish each and every one of you who reads this blog, a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2011.

We left lovely Arizona over a week before Christmas, in hopes that we would miss some of the holiday craziness of the airports. Other than the fact that we had to get up some time in the middle of the night to catch our plane, the airport was very empty...either that, or it was so early that my eyes hadn't woken up yet. We landed in Philly to the first snow of the season - oh, lucky us!!! Driving to our destination, which was about a one hour commute, we saw 5 fender benders and one very serious accident, reminded us graphically of why we wanted to leave the snow behind us when we retired. Not only was it white everywhere, IT WAS COLD - I MEAN COOOOOOOOOOLD.  I think I had blanked that mind numbing cold and how much that I hate it out of my memory banks, but it's back again.

Spent Christmas week in a blurry of activity - including making lots of cookies with a 5 year old - she cracks a mean egg, but other than that, her culinary skills are rather limited, except for the infamous cut out Christmas cookies. I think that it took us all day to complete one batch - granted, a large batch - but still one batch.  I'm not sure who won the colored sugar wars - the cookies - the floor - or the cracks in the table.  I am just very grateful that I got the chance to do this and that it wasn't in my kitchen.  We did make a mess - and my daughter may never get the frosting cleaned up - it was spread around a little more that one would normally see.  I must admit that my grandaughter vastly improved my ginger snaps - they are rolled into balls, rolled in sugar and then baked...she had to add red and green sugar to the white that I gave her to roll the balls in, and they ended up looking much more festive than mine have for 45 years.

Had a great time going to school with our granddaughter for her Christmas Party and I got to read to the class - fun!  She has the most incredible teacher and I told my daughter that it's going to be hard to top this one and she's only in kindergarten.  If you ever want to practise your powers of concentration, try reading "The Night Before Christmas" to 25 five year olds on December 23.  There was not allot of focusing being practised in that room, that day, but I did enjoy it.

 I was very glad that I brought my long underwear...I never took it off for 2+ weeks, as I said before, it was COLD. I even wore it to the two parties that we attended, luckily I was wearing a turtleneck so it didn't show, but I would have worn it even with a strapless gown - it was COLD. One good thing about the cold, we were able to make our secret egg nog that has to age for about 5 days and unless you have a walk in refrigerator, that usually takes place outside,so we haven't made it since coming to Arizona.  John couldn't wait to sample it - and did so most nights that we were there, it is good! ! As he was coming in from the patio with his evening glass, our grandaughter looked at him and said, "Poppy, you have an egg nog problem".

We had an uneventful journey home although it was a few days late - Mr. Flu paid a visit, early in the morning that we had planned to leave, so we had to change our plans.  Ended up flying in on New Year's Eve and stopped at In and Out Burgers on the way home for our big night out. So for now, my big green long wool coat is put away as are my gloves and winter hat - sadly though, I needed them when we landed. It was high 40's when we left Philly, it was 37 when we landed in Phoenix, the pilot thought he'd gotten lost, and it was 32 when we arrived home - ugh, at least there was no snow on the ground...Happy New Year All

Redoing the Family Jewels

I have had allot of fun lately redoing and redesigning older and broken jewelry. It is sometimes a challenge and you have to be careful who your clients are, but I feel that it is worthwhile to add "rehabbing" to your studio. You do not want someone who has trouble making up their mind, not do want some one who tends to change their minds allot, but with the right clients, this is something that everyone could add to their business and have fun with as I  have.

Anyone that you do this for, must understand that you have no control over the materials that you are using, because you did not supply them, they did.  Things can and do break, especially if you are totally altering the use of a piece.  Like making a pin into a necklace.  You must remove the usually soldered on pin backing and anything could happen to a stone when you are exerting force into the rehabbing equation.  As long as you inform your clients of this before you start working, rather than after a stone breaks, things should be okay.  If I were working for a total stranger, I would probably use a contract of some sort to cover this eventuality.

It is also hard to give a realistic projection on costs up front because you have no idea how much time might be involved.  Wire wrapping presents, for me, the most trouble, because I'm never sure how the time will work out.  Just restringing and adding some stones is much easier to estimate.  I find that the cost is usually very close to what I would normally charge for say a necklace, because you have all the same time and most of the same materials that you would have if you were starting from scratch.  I charge less per hour for my time on rehabs, a little more for my supplies, and nothing for any consult time or design work.

Here are a few examples of rehabs that I have done recently.

This is what I started with - one garnet earring, one pair of amber earrings, one pair of amber earrings with very bad sterling, 2 single amber earrings, one bracelet of pearls missing clasp.

This is what I sent to the client when I was done.  An amber, pearl, and black obsidean necklace with 3 amber single earrings hanging from a sterling hoop. A freeform garnet and pearl necklace with the single garnet earring hanging from it.  The restrung pearls with a new sterling clasp and some chain to extend the length. 

This is another job that I did. This was all done for the mother of a friend of mine.

These gorgeous quartz faceted beads were my friends great grandmother's! They were knotted on silk and it had finally died.  I cut everything apart, added a central crystal, and used natural, faceted, rhodolite garnets to separate the crystals, added a nice toggle clasp and voila - these are ready for the fifth generation.

My friends' daughter bought this shell and sterling centerpiece as a pin in Mexico when she was a youngster for her grandmother. Now her grandmother has had the piece redone for her granddaughter as a necklace and earrings. I wire wrapped the pin and used natural rose quartz and pearls to make the necklace and it did come out beautifully.

The grandmother's family had a large ranch in California  and this stone and the one from the next picture came from mines on this ranch.  The jasper above was strung on an ugly black cord, and all I did was do a simple necklace of red poppy jasper beads that set the stone off perfectly. The stone is different on each side, but with this simple treatment, it can be worn either way.

This last piece of jasper, dictated that I had to use gold with it because of the colors in it and I then added brown lava stone and white pearls to make a great necklace.

Whatever I cut off, don't use, anything that is left over, is always returned to the client.

I really enjoy doing this and anyone interested in contacting me about doing this for them can contact me at my shop and I will get back to them ASAP.

Accident Waiting To Happen

I know you have all heard that statement - this or that person is an "accident waiting to happen".  I have heard it many times and sometimes in reference to myself.  I never really thought about it allot until the other night...and I have not thought about much else since then.  I really wanted to write about it, but I kept thinking that I was going to look like such a dork, maybe, I shouldn't...but, it is tooooooo funny not to share, so here goes.

Time for bed and I head back to perform my nightly abolutions - and being the good wife of a retired dentist, I filled up my water pick and went to work on my teeth. I'm water flossing away when the pick just sorta slipped in my hand...I do have the excuse that there is allot of water involved here...and most of it is dripping heavily out of your mouth.  So, it slipped, rather forcibly, and ended up, up my nose.  This was embarrassing enough, but it gets worse...I gave myself the worst bloody nose, I think that I have ever had.

Now - the good news here is, not many people can make the claim that they have been injurred by an errant waterpick - maybe the company will want to do a documentary on me, and pay me lots and lots of money. So perhaps, that is a little far fetched, but I bet you don't know anyone else who has been attacked by a water pick and lived to tell about it. Or at least, was stupid enough to tell the whole free world about it. 

Have a great day and if you're looking for some great jewelry, please visit my shop, I do jewelry a whole lot better than I do my teeth! ! !

Never Trust Your Children

Continuing in the same vein that my first two blogs are let me tell you a story that might amuse you. I must admit that I didn't see the humor in this situation for several months, but I guess I do now.  I think that it illustrates perfectly the difference between the techies and the non techies - or those who were raised with computers and those of us who weren't.  I also think that it illustrates how differently these generations think.

I was toying with the idea of a web site of my own and decided to talk to my daughter about it.  She is a photographer( named one of the 20 top wedding photographers in the country last year - sorry, proud mother - her site is Artisan Events) and has had a web site forever.  Does lots of stuff with it and was also in the throws of opening a web based business. So we have this long and involved discussion about the pros and cons of me having my own site, as opposed to opening a (my) shop where there were other artisans selling their wares and I just had to follow the web sites' protocol. We talked about the cost of development and the cost of this being on a server as opposed to the costs of a site like Artfire, where I am, which is a monthly fee...or at a place like 1000 markets, where I was, which charged a % of any sales.  It was a good and involved conversation and when we were heading to the end I asked her, what to me was a perfectly logical question, which was..........."what do I look under in the yellow pages to find someone to write my program????"

I will make a bet that to most anyone over maybe, 55, that this question makes allot of sense.  I will also make a bet that anyone much younger than that is still laughing.  My child, flesh of my flesh, told the whole free world about this - and she didn't just do it verbally, she put it on Facebook so that the 1000's of her friends could have a good laugh too.  I found out about this the next day when my other daughter called me, laughing, of course, and the first words out of her mouth  were - " You didn't really ask Amanda where in the (snicker, snicker) yellow pages you could find someone to write a program for you, did you"

There's not much more to say -

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

Okay, according to my computer guru, the more of these that I can post, the more serious that google will take me.  Does that sound as stupid to all of you as it does to me?  I am actually taking an action, spending a little bit of the little bit of free time that I have to impress something that lives in machine?

As you know from my first post, I am a very non techy person.  In my first life, before retirement, I was, among other things, a dental consultant and fell into being a national expert on dental software implementation...I was on technology's cutting edge.  Unfortunately, that was in the 80's and it is now 2010 and I am so far from the edge that I can't even see it anymore.

After retirement I became a jewelry artisan and have a shop at Artfire. Before that I had a shop at 1000 Markets, and unfortuately they were sold and then I moved to Artfire.  This is where I am now spinning my wheels and trying to cope with the technology of the 2000's with a brain that was trained in the mid 1900's. Let me tell you, it ain't easy. I am dealing with things that I never heard of until last week...caches...SOE (or is it SEO's??) ...links ...and let us not forget, clickable links....they even want me to tweet, and I'm so tone deaf, I can't sing...I will have a kiosk to connect my facebook page to my shop - isn't a kiosk one of those freestanding, small shops in malls???  I just found out that "tabs" and "bookmarks" are the same thing - boy, you could have fooled me, without even trying...

I may be older - but I do love to learn.  So in the back of my mind is a desire to conquer this monster. But...I discovered a connection here that I bet that no one else has seen.  When they stopped printing hard copy documentation for software and hardware...I stopped learning about it.  I upgraded my accounting software in the early 90's and there was no documentation except on the computer...I could either do the computer or read the directions, it was impossible to do both at the same time, and in order to maintain my sanity, I decided that I needed to stop doing this....and I did.  I did not learn one new thing about these machines until I was forced to learn a little for 1000 Markets and now allot for Artfire. It is very hard to relearn the way that you learn...trust me on this.  I have printed out almost 2 inches of instruction from Artfire in less than a month.  I know that I can afford the monthly fee to be on the site, but I am concerned if I will be able to afford the reams of paper that I may need.

That's about it for now - but this may turn into a continuing saga...Have a good one all.