Tangible Tidbits 2012 #35: Setting The Record Straight

Hi, everyone! Well, I got back from my vacation on Saturday, only to go down the shore on Sunday for a family pool party/BBQ at my aunt's house. Yesterday, I literally did nothing ALL day long...I didn't even change out of my pajamas! :P I finally plugged in my desktop mouse a little while ago and I am now going through copious amounts of emails.

I want to clarify one item from last week, and then I will feature another Focal Piece Flashback from June 2010...this is only the second time this year I've done a flashback, so that's pretty good! ;)

While posting "on location," I mentioned that last week's social media poster quote was also used by another jewelry site on Facebook the day after I posted mine. I did see it had a Facebook time stamp dated that day, but it turns out after some research that the designer had used the same quote with multiple pictures, and it was originally posted on her page at the end of July. I sincerely apologize for the suggestion that she copied me. I may, in fact, have copied her if I saw the quote and saved it for future use. I don't specifically recall if the quote was the result of an internet search, although I assumed it was. 8-|

Incidentally, here's this week's social media poster. I like this one a lot. B-)

I'm almost embarrassed to post this Focal Piece of the Month, as I apparently had some grandiose ideas that never came to fruition. :-/

Flower Gems™

A few months ago, one of my former coworkers asked me to make her some light pink clip earrings. I know she likes big earrings, so I did some searching for materials that I thought would work...but I couldn't come up with any beads that were large enough. As the saying goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention." Since I couldn't find anything large enough, I decided to experiment and make something on my own. What I originally came up with was an approximately one-inch piece of 6mm Dusty Rose WireLace®, "expanded to create lacy waves" as the WireLace® website suggests. Then, I stitched a pink Czech pearlized faceted glass bead into the center using clear illusion cord and strung seed beads (size 11, I believe) in various shades of pink on the cord. I then wrapped the seed beads in spirals around the center bead, using GS Hypo Cement to keep the beads in place. This glue was recommended by the manufacturer of WireLace® for use with this product. My friend liked the concept and the color, but asked if I could make them bigger. I had a feeling that might happen. So, I went back home and decided to add two more pieces of WireLace®, one to each side of the original piece. The end result looked like a flower, which I thought was really cool! And my coworker loved them! She wanted a second pair in yellow, but WireLace® doesn't come in a canary yellow, although it does come in 31 colors. WireLace® is a relatively new product, so they will hopefully expand their color chart in due time. My colleague and I decided to try Marigold WireLace® with yellow beads. The other two options were Pale Gold and Brass, but neither one had a very yellow-ish tint. At least Marigold is in the yellow family! I used lemon yellow pearls in the center this time, along with various yellow seed beads to to brighten up the earrings. I had originally only wrapped the seed beads around twice, as with the pink set. My friend asked if I could make them "more yellow," so I went back and wrapped them around another two times, making it four overall. Personally, I like them better with fewer wraps. The bigger the center, the more it takes away from the overall look, IMHO. I certainly hope WireLace® comes out with a brighter yellow one day!

I tried to think of a name for these WireLace® flowers for a few days, and finally settled on Flower Gems. I made drawings of them in my sketch book for my class at Montclair State University, dated and photocopied them, then mailed them to myself. I had read somewhere that this practice was considered a "poor man's copyright." I recently read it might not hold up in court, though, since there was a case of a man committing fraud in this way by having opened the seal and changing the contents of the envelope. If I had the money, I would go to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and file for a registered trademark (also for my company name and logo), but those costs are prohibitive at this time.

Down the line, I plan to make a full range of products featuring Flower Gems™, possibly using all 31 colors offered by WireLace®. Beyond earrings, pins, necklaces, bracelets, and other forms of jewelry, I can foresee them potentially being applied to hair accessories, purses, flip flops and other shoes, hats, clothing, cell phone and ID badge lariats, bookmarks, etc. and so forth. Time will tell, eh?

Take care and have a great week! B-)

Tangible Tidbits 2011 #32: Thank You For Your Support!

Hey, all! The line "thank you for your support" always reminds me of the two old-timers in the Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler commercials from the 1980s. Do they even make that stuff anymore? ;) :o

I really do want to thank those of you who heeded my mid-week plea to check out Wire-Sculpture.com's 2011 Gold Club "OOAK" (One-Of-A-Kind) Contest and vote for the Popular Choice winner. Although I could not campaign for my piece, a few determined friends did email me to verify their choices were the one I'd created. ;) Most knew my style, although one or two were a bit overwhelmed with the choices. I did not win, which didn't at all surprise me. Most of the entries were well beyond my current wire-wrapping capabilities. That will hopefully change by next year! :) I have to say, some of the pieces were beautiful, but others were too elaborate for my taste. Some of the wire and beadwork overshadowed the one-of-a-kind pieces, which is a bit silly in my opinion. If you have a special stone, why would you want to detract from it with a lot of embellishments? Save that for the plain, ordinary stones! :p

The reason I did not post yesterday -- aside from the fact that I sent out a Special Edition on Tuesday -- was because I had a wave of inspiration/creativity hit me last night, and I thought it best to go with it rather than stop to write my blog post. I struggled most of the day with one particular project, and once I finally completed it, I tackled another three relatively painlessly. ;) Most of them are "on spec," so I may or may not sell them even though they were made by request. I have a hard time estimating projects in advance, simply because I don't know what materials will end up in the final piece until I've completed it. I started out with the intention to create a wire knit chain for a pendant, but after three attempts -- two using different wire gauges and a third switching to WireLace® -- I ended up using a ready-made chain I had in my stash. The first chain was too bulky for my drawplate and I had to fight with it to make it fit through the holes. The second one was too short, and I ran out of one of the three colors of wire I was using. The WireLace® knit chain turned out very nice, but it ended up making the overall piece too expensive for my buyer. So, I looked through everything I have and came up with something that complimented the pendant nicely. However, that was not at all my original plan, so had I given an estimate it would have been inaccurate. :\

In any case, I've completed most of my "promised" pieces...I have two more that were "abandoned" concepts from last year, but I came up with ideas for both during yesterday's burst of creativity. :) I hope to develop them this week, and maybe salvage those potential sales. :)

Second quarter sales weren't much better than the first quarter, but I was not surprised in the least by that. I kind of "burned out" after the December holidays from working full-time as a temp at the office and trying to maintain my business at the same time. Plus, I was devoting a fair amount of time to holiday craft shows/exhibits, so that took up many of my weekends. Accepting a part-time position at the office back in January took the pressure off a bit to generate sales so that I could pay my bills, and I took a physical and mental health break for a few months. Needless to say, that affected the bottom line. In the past month or so, I have gained some of my momentum back, and I will hopefully be able to balance things better from this point forward. Wish me luck with that! LOL ;)

I have a bunch of new photos to post to the Facebook photo album later this week...I will be starting a third one pretty soon, as the second one is approaching the 200-picture limit. :) I still haven't updated the website, but I don't think it gets much traffic, anyway. :o

Moving right along...I have go price out some items for display at my chiropractor's office tomorrow. Have a great week! :D


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Tangible Tidbits 2011 # 30: Experimenting, Private Lessons, & Hiding From The Heat!

Hello, people! :)

I've been doing a lot of playing/experimenting this week. I was attempting to create a piece in time for Wire-Sculpture.com's 2011 Gold Club One-of-a-Kind (OOAK) Contest deadline on July 31. I'm a Gold Club member, meaning that I purchased enough supplies from Wire-Sculpture.com to qualify for this "elite" status. I wanted to submit a copper-wrapped pendant I made last week using a small leftover piece of the Crystal Geode that I beaded as a paperweight, but the contest rules state the OOAK item must be purchased from Wire-Sculpture.com within the past three months, and they will ask for an order number if you move to the next round. Looking at my records, I purchased the Crystal Geodes in November 2010, so that's too long ago. :\ I purchased a new OOAK gemstone cabochon earlier this week, and it arrived on Saturday. I worked on it this morning, and my mother LOVES the final piece! I'm still finding my way with wire-wrapping. I had to use sterling silver wire, which mars easily if you aren't careful. The piece isn't perfect, but it's nice enough to the untrained eye. Unfortunately, the judges will undoubtedly have trained eyes! :o

Anyway, I was playing around with WireLace®, and created a copper knit chain for the Crystal Geode pendant using 1mm WireLace®. I like the way it turned out! For the piece I made for the contest, I didn't have 1mm in the correct color (seafoam) to pick up the shade in the pendant, so I decided to braid together 6mm WireLace® in black, seafoam, and aluminum. The stone is black and green, and the wrapping is silver. I wanted to knit a chain, but I tested that out on 6mm copper, pale silver, and brass WireLace®. I ended up with a bracelet with a focal knit bead in the center, as the three pieces of wider WireLace® made a very bulky weave. Mom likes the bracelet, too...I'm not sure I like it. However, if Mom does...hopefully someone else will, too! ;)

You can read about another experimental piece later this week, when the new Focal Piece of the Month is posted. ;) I REALLY have to start cataloging my newer pieces in the database and pricing them out. I've been posting pictures to Facebook, but I haven't updated the website store in eons!

I forgot to mention last week that I'm testing out a new feature on Facebook: it's a Payvment storefront. A while back, I entered some pieces and prices, but I never activated it. I activated it last week on both the Something Tangible LLC and Something Tangible Virtual Mall pages. If you want to check them out, click on "Shop Now" on the left-hand side menu on either page. :)

I received an exciting email earlier in the week from Suzanne Banfield, who taught the five-hour workshop I attended recently. She wanted to know if I would consider giving private wire jewelry-making lessons to a student who wants extra help! She doesn't offer private lessons herself, but she thought I might enjoy it. I was very flattered she thought of me! :D I've been in touch with the student, and we will hopefully get together later this week. She only wants a couple of 1-1/2 hour sessions, but that's fine by me! Any extra cash is better than none. :)

If you're following weather news lately, you know we're having a major heat wave up and down the East Coast. Man, it is BRUTAL here in New Jersey! I think it was up to 105 degrees mid-week, and "down" to 99 degrees on Friday. I just want to hibernate in the air conditioning until fall.

Have a great week and STAY COOL! :)


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