Tangible Tidbits 2010 #7: Short & Sweet...Well, Not That Short!

Sorry I'm a bit late this week, but Mom had her surgery on Tuesday and that kind of took center stage focus since the end of last week. She did well, although it was a long night, since the surgery started and ended later than expected, and we are now waiting to find out when she can be released from the hospital -- in the middle of the third snow storm this month! :p I'm trying to keep up with everything the best I can, but the next 4-6 weeks of her recovery will increase the level of chaos in my life.

I attended the Bead Society of NJ meeting last week. Nice party. Check out the Swarovski(R) Crystal earrings I made for the exchange in the GALLERY section of the Store if you get a chance. ;)

Still working hard on my class at Montclair State. The new Focal Piece of the Month helped me jumpstart my research for the five-minute oral presentation I have to do in a few weeks for the mid-term critique...mid-terms already? :o The new Focal Piece should be up on the site in the next week or so. Sorry, that's a little late, too. **hides**

As always, please feel free to pop in and leave a message or comment for me on the website blog. It would be nice to get some activity going here (or there, if you are reading this via the email newsletter or the Facebook Fan Page). For those of you who know me from my message board days, remember "The Sharing Threads" at MR/ARD/5LYF? I was hoping the blog would evolve into something similar to that, only maybe a little less "heavy." KG is back...tell all your friends! LOL ;)

Until next time, "TTFN...ta ta for now!" (Gotta love Tigger!)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #6: Awards Season Is Upon Us...

The Tonys...The Grammys...The Oscars...and abeadstore.com's Beading Contest? Why not? LOL So, I know I'm new in this business, but I have a lot of PR experience (14 years) and I know nothing buys you the kind of publicity and exposure that participation in these kinds of contests can. Your work and your name gets "out there" in front of a lot of people you would never otherwise reach...people who would never see your work or hear of your name otherwise...people already interested in what you do. So, here I am, entering or planning to enter any contest I come across. ;)

The first such contest is the aforementioned contest sponsored by abeadstore.com. I came across it in an email magazine I receive from BeadStyle, I think. In any case, I've entered in all three categories: Contemporary, Traditional, and Eclectic. I've also entered one necklace, one pair of earrings, and one bracelet, which are the three kinds of items accepted. Voting begins on February 17. Check out the site for details. :)

http://www.abeadstore.com/beading_information_index/Contest-contemporary

http://www.abeadstore.com/beading_information_index/Contest-Traditional

http://www.abeadstore.com/beading_information_index/Contest-eclectic

Wish me luck! ;)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #5: Easy Come...Easy Go...

I originally wanted to post here last night, but when all was said and done, I didn't have the energy for it. I was going to post a message about "Chain maille stress therapy," since I brought my tools and packages of jump rings with me to keep me occupied for a long afternoon. I was in the waiting room of the ER for 6-1/2 hours waiting for my mother, who fell on the ice, fractured her arm and dislocated her shoulder. I used my time productively, making two necklaces, two bracelets, and three pairs of earrings! Someone in the waiting room even admired my work and asked me for my business card! LOL Of course, it didn't hurt that I kept drawing attention to myself by dropping rings on the floor. It wasn't exactly optimal working conditions. And it probably wasn't my best work, as my hands were a bit shaky. Still, the work wasn't too complicated, so it kept my hands busy and my mind somewhat occupied.

Unfortunately, all of that effort went to waste when I LOST it somewhere between the waiting room and my car in the parking garage. :o I realized it when we got home and I didn't have it with my tools and purse in the back seat. I went back to the hospital and retraced my steps. Checked with Security and the Lost & Found. Nothing. All of that time and effort, wasted. At least they were only aluminum jump rings and not more valuable ones like 14K gold fill! :p Que sera, sera!

BTW, Mom has to see an orthopedic this week. Her arm is pretty purple, but she knows she's lucky it wasn't worse. :)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #4: We Were Experiencing Technical Difficulties...

My apologies to anyone who visited our store earlier this week and found it in disarray. As I mentioned in last week's message, we scheduled our monthly update for this week. As promised, the Focal Piece of the Month has been changed and we made some minor tweaks here and there. I've also moved all of the NOT FOR SALE photos from the active Store area to the GALLERY link in the menu on the left-hand side of that page to minimize confusion. Unfortunately, in doing so, I accidentally tripped over some code -- I'm not quite sure how -- and messed up the Store pages for the three active Inventory Items categories. We got things straightened out relatively quickly, but anyone who happened to peek into the Store during that period of time would have found a bit of a mess in there. :o

In any case, now it's all cleaned up and everything is as it should be. :) I've also added a few new items to the "Kits from sb designs" area and one to the Non-gemstone Items" section. With my MSU class heading into full swing and the Adult School class now finished, I won't be adding too many new items to the Inventory very frequently. I'll be working on items ordered by request in whatever free time I have, so I will keep posting items to the GALLERY as I am able, though. And there are a couple of things I want to do for the Valentine's Day Party meeting of BSNJ, so I'll post those as well. :) And we have four major projects for MSU this semester, so those will be very different than anything you've seen from me so far. ;)

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. I can't believe it's already February...where did January go? LOL

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #3: Keeping Busy!

I apologize for the delay in sending out this week's message, but I've had my hands full with taking classes, keeping up with the website, taking and fulfilling orders, plus working an unrelated full-time job to help keep this all going! Who needs sleep, right?

I attended my first meeting of the Bead Society of New Jersey (BSNJ) this past Thursday. I found out about the group at the Innovative Bead Expo last October. They meet monthly about 40-45 minutes south of here, which isn't bad as long as the Parkway isn't backed up. This meeting featured a challenge to create a piece of jewelry in 45 minutes given some chain, connectors, a focal piece and large piece of filigree. I didn't finish mine in time to be judged, but the winners received free merchandise from Kabela Design, hosts of the challenge and the guest vendor for the evening. They specialize in vintage materials -- antiqued gold, copper, etc. I bought some really nice things from them! :D BSNJ has some pretty fun and interesting things planned for the next few meetings from what I can tell, so I think it will be a good activity/organization for me to become involved with, and I met some nice people there.

I've got my final class at the Adult School coming up this Tuesday...and I'm FINALLY going to learn how to make RINGS! I'm pretty excited about that! I've really gotten a lot out of these classes and met some great people. I'm already looking forward to the one-day summer camp hosted by one of the teachers in July or August.

I also attended my first MSU Metalwork & Jewelry class on Friday night. This class is no joke! We have to do an oral presentation for the mid-term critique and submit 10 drawings a week in our sketch books. Luckily, I got a head start on those after I attended one class last fall, so I have 17 already done! :D

I've uploaded all of the sample photos to the GALLERY section of the Store, so the NOT FOR SALE section will be taken down soon. I'll wait until we update the site in the next week or so -- keep an eye out for the new Focal Piece of the Month -- so the intro to the Store will reflect the change and not confuse people. :)

Take care and thanks for your continued interest!

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #2: Something Tangible Makes Its Mark on Facebook

During the week before we launched this website, I launched a Something Tangible Application and Something Tangible LLC Fan Page on Facebook. In the world of social media, that's where I have the largest presence. I have Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, but I actually participate regularly on Facebook and have 411 Friends on my personal page, gathered together and combined from the various phases of my life. Of course, that number also includes some strictly Facebook friends, made playing one Facebook application or another.

Since the week between Christmas and New Year's, the company Fan Page has garnered an impressive 880 fans as of this evening! I will gladly give a large amount of the credit for that to a Facebook sidebar ad I've been running since December 27, but the ad has a limit of something like 88-95 clicks a day. I'm actually paying per click up to a set dollar amount per day. In any case, just because people click on the ad and check out the page, that doesn't automatically mean they will be interested in our message or opt to "Become a Fan" of the company. So, while the ad is driving traffic to the page -- an ad I wrote the copy and selected the photo for, I may add -- it is still the company and its message that is getting their attention and keeping it there. I am very proud of that.

As for the application...to date, we have on record 59 "monthly active users," 28 of which are people on my Friends list. Facebook actually gives me that statistic as the developer of the app. We've also given 686 gifts so far -- again, since the week between Christmas and New Year's. The application only has four fans, including me and three friends, but that's okay. I don't think too many people think about becoming fans of applications or post much on their pages. The gift-giving is the more relevant statistic here. :) For anyone not familiar with Facebook applications, the idea is that users send friends something like "success," accompanied by a photo of one of my jewelry pieces that have gemstones in it with properties that address success. The photo is marked as "Success (Turquoise)." Other traits included so far are truth, sincerity, wisdom, prosperity, love, balance, among others. Basically, I just look up whatever is in a particular piece and select something from the list of properties I find on the internet. I thought it was pretty clever for a marketing scheme. :D

I started my Advanced Wire Jewelry class last night at the Adult School and had my Montclair State University Orientation this past Saturday. That class starts next Friday. I also have my first meeting with the Bead Society of New Jersey (BSNJ) next Thursday. That will be a beading challenge presented by Kabula Designs.

And I should mention that the gurus at LightWork Designs managed to sidestep GoDaddy's standard format and set up a photo gallery in the Store, so I'll be moving the NOT FOR SALE photos there when I get a chance. That will be less confusing. That was what we originally wanted, but GoDaddy's standard format wasn't cooperating. :\

Take care and, as always, feel free to contact me if you have questions regarding any products you see here or if you'd like to request variations on a particular product, either in stock or no longer in stock. I'll do my best to accommodate you.

Thanks for reading!

An Oversight

I have an apology to make...and my only excuse is that when you're putting together a website, you're trying to remember 6,492 details and somehow #4,376 falls through the cracks.

I neglected to list the beaded fringe scarves (a black velvet one in the NOT FOR SALE section and a green shimmer one in the Non-Gemstone Items area) as being kits I obtained from Bead My Love at the Innovative Beads Expo last October. Also, the two pairs of earrings inspired by those scarves should have mentioned Bead My Love in their descriptions. That has been corrected. My sincerest apologies to Meg Fillmore and Moggie Moyer for the oversight. I don't know if Meg has had time to pop in here, but if she noticed, she's been too polite to mention it. :) In any case, I don't like to take credit for other people's work and I certainly wouldn't do it deliberately. Bead My Love was the first link I added to the website at the bottom of the page. However, even if you click on it, it wouldn't be obvious that I got the scarves from them. So, I wanted to set the record straight. Thank you, ladies! :D