Workshops, Websites and Worms

Despite several days without sleep due to overdue prescriptions, computer failure due to worms (viruses) and late night ambulance runs, I was able to function enough to teach two workshops over the weekend.

Saturday morning, I had a lot of fun teaching a group of women from around the area how to save money and add value to their handmade jewelry by making their own jump rings, chains, clasps and ear wires.

Most of the women were suprised at how easy these things are to make themselves and how inexpensive, compared to buying them ready made.

Several of the women stayed for the afternoon class (and a few new ones arrived) where I taught basic jewelry design. I was fading fast by this point, so it got a bit dry to start, but I think everyone had fun once we got to the hands-on portion of the workshop and most of them went away with some very nice finished pieces, while others took home several "works-in-progress."

In the midst of all of this, I finally got the go-ahead on my website, so I have spent most of the day trying to build my own website, which is difficult, even with templates. I am NOT the most computer/technology savvy person around, and most of this stuff is Greek to me.

I think I finally have a decent looking home page, but I still have four pages and a shopping cart to go. Yikes!

I like the color scheme I picked out -- burgundy, hunter green and tan. These are the colors I had initially intended to use for the caboose, but budget woes put the cabosh on that.

I started out using a red and black template, but after cruising through the "what color works best for a website" info on the web, I found that black is hard for older eyes (like mine) to read from, red is considered jarring and gray, burgundy and brown are considered soothing, solid and elegant.

I looked at the gray generic templates and just couldn't get excited about them, but then I found this gorgeous one with my favorite colors, and I knew I was home. Think cherry wood, hunter green leather and the rich look of expensive parchment and you will have the colors of this site. It took all day, literally, but I finally have my home page set up. I am sure it could be more high tech, but I'll start small and revamp as I learn more. Wish me luck!

Coming Soon: http://www.dawnebryant.net/!

Tired of the cold, dreary weather, I was dreaming of warm sunny summer afternoons when I designed a neckband out of bronze wire and wrapped hammered bronze droplet components around it for a necklace that reflects the light as the wearer moves. I titled it " A Summer's Afternoon Rain."

It is gently snowing right now, so my hubby could get called out early, therefore, I had better be prepared to get up early to take my daughter to school. Her father usually does that, since our son is a night owl and generally gets to bed late, and therefore, so does Mom.

Good night and happy creating!

Wire Wrapping, Workshops and

Hat Bands, Hearts and the How-tos of Social Networking for Business

I spent the day at a workshop on social networking and how to make it work for your business. I learned a lot -- about how important social networking is, how to make it work for me, and how to do it more efficiently. The workshop was put on by GROW Nebraska, of which I am a member. It was time well spent. Their site can be found at http://www.grownebraska.org/.

I have been working on custom hat bands this past week, as well as diving into the learning of chainmaille techniques. I have also been preparing all my Valetine's themed items to mail to various GROW Nebraska stores, and to have inventory on hand in my studio. I also wrote a tutorial for the wiggly weave chainmaille weave, which can be found on www.jewelrylessons.com/dawnebryant.

The Valentines stuff is heart-shaped of course, from brushed bronze earrings to delicate, feminine spiraly stuff, to pink and white thulite heart shaped stones strung with the ultimate feminine decoration -- pearls.

The hat bands come in all shapes and sizes, including barbed wire, two-tone links and bars, wire wrapped bands and more. I am developing new designs day by day.

I have a few custom orders to finish and get out the door, but this is a slow time of year customer-wise, so I am catching up on things, trying to find someone to build an e-commerce ready website for me at an affordable price, and prepare for the busy season to come in a few months.

I also pray daily that enough sales will come in to keep the lights on.

That said, I had better finish the wiggly chain weave necklace I am working on, finish posting to the GROW Nebraska e-commerce site, work on a new hatband design, and get some sleep so I can work on rings and belt buckles at the studio tomorrow.

Hopefully my young son, who has been coughing and running a low grade temperature, will feel better tomorrow. His sister, thankfully, has only the cough.

Good night, good sleep and happy creating!

Commissions, mourning, crosses and buckles

It's been a while since I've updated this blog, but it has been a very busy, albeit, sad time.

I received a huge commission of 750 Prismacolor pencil paintings pins to be put into the welcome bag for the participants in the Bike Ride Across Nebraska (B.R.A.N.) riders that will stay in our town next June. The pin features a windmill at sunset. I imagine I will be heartily tired of the scene by the time I am finished, but it is a huge honor to get the commission. I have yet to photograph the pin, so it will be posted later.

I was also commissioned to make a triple metal commemorative belt buckle to be raffled off at the same time. It will be made from bronzclay, with a sterling decorative trim and a Sandhills scene done in copprclay. I will post a photo when it is done.

Both are very time consuming projects.

At the same time, I prepared 60 items to go on consignment to a holiday shop in the mall 65 miles from here. Hopefully sales there will be good.

I teach a workshop on my Prismacolor jewelry to 32 high school students next Tuesday -- my first actual "workshop" of the type.

I have been working on several cross designs, with my newest one matching the silver rope bezel wire with gold accents bracelets, rings and earrings I have been making. I already have a commission for a larger version as a Christmas gift.

I received numerous compliments on the sterling and black onyx necklace and earring set I made and wore to the Thedford Area Community Foundation Banquet this Saturday, which was nice to hear. The design is called "Onyx Elegance."

My photography stash is building again, after losing all my photos earlier this year. I was lucky enough to be able to photograph a nice 5x5 mule deer that was near my caboose early last week and I got several nice sunset photos yesterday while helping my husband (unsuccessfully) hunt a buck to fill his deer tag.

This next month will be filled with hunting, making and purchasing gifts and hopefully, lots and lots of sales.

Hopefully it will be happier than this one, as our town has had its share of deaths in the past few weeks. It is time now for the joy of the holiday season and no more sadness, I hope.

Happy creating!

Sales still slow, learning how to work with bronzclay and dealing with children in small spaces

The last two days have been "flu" days at school, and the schools have been closed -- which means that in addition to my 2-year-old son, who enjoys being at the caboose -- I have had my 6-year-old daughter, who does not. The two of them alternated between hitting/poking/jabbing each other and complaining that the other one touched them. Grrrr! Very hard to concentrate and get anything done in that environment. Luckily Dad got off early today and came to get them. Yeah!

I worked on several projects this week -- a two-tone belt buckle made of bronzclay, PMC and sterling silver; two bronzclay pendant and earring sets; and a bronzclay prototype pin for the B.R.A.N. (Bike Ride Across Nebraska) riders that will be coming through town next June. I also made two pin prototypes in my signature colored pencil mini paintings on plastic.

I am working on a wire pendant in sterling and black onyx as well.

The bronzclay gives me fits as it bubbles when fired, and comes out of the kiln with totally unpredictable patinas. I have also found it shrinks more than PMC3, so I have to figure out how big to make a ring so it is the right size after firing. I can't rely on my regular PMC3 ring sizers, apparently, since my size 6-1/2 ring broke the mold, cracked its shank and became a size 3 in the kiln. Arrrggghhh!

I mended the shank and refired it, but it still needed more work and made a return trip to the kiln tonight. I have a leafy pendant and earrings in the kiln as well, and another leafy pendant and earrings drying on my workbench to be fired tomorrow.

The pin prototype needs some tweaking tomorrow and I will let it dry all day then fire it tomorrow night. Bronzeclay takes so long to fire that I just put it in the kiln as I leave the shop at night -- that way it can fire overnight and be just cool enough to remove from the kiln in the morning, plus it helps keep the caboose warm at night!

I miss my syringe clay when working with bronze and copper clay though! I really rely on my syringe for stems, vines, squiggles, pasting, etc...

The stuff is new, so I am pioneering along with the rest of those using the stuff though. I am a self-taught artisan anyway, so why not teach myself on this stuff too!

The buckle is finally finished, after numerous snafoos while soldering. I like the two-tone look and it is very simple, but showy as well.

My needle texture pendant and earrings will be finished up tomorrow.

I mailed out a special order this morning and another earlier in the week. Now, I just need some actual customers to come to the shop and make some purchases. Business is SSSSLLLOOOOWWWW!

Frustrating!

Oh well, Christmas is coming -- hopefully people will buy local. I will be having my Grand Opening sometime soon. I will know by the end of next week, I suppose.

Lots of work to do and I had better get back to it. Happy creating!

Work benches, slow sales and new fun with clay

I have spent the last three weeks carefully tending to my back -- despite injuring my neck somehow in my sleep one night - and I am now back up to snuff, as long as I don't overdo things. Good thing, as I go back on ambulance call tomorrow night for a week.

Business has been extremely slow (only one customer in the door in the whole three weeks) so I have been slowly building up inventory in prepration for Christmas.

I ordered some CopprClay and some BronzClay as they are more affordable than PMC (for me and for my customers) and I played with it a bit this week. I made some beads and a belt buckle from the copper version and then made and fired a buckle blank from the bronze version.

The copper came out great! The bronze, however, had some issues. The buckle came out all bubbly and rough. I called my supplier and they told me that even though it was thin, I should have fired it like a thick piece because it is so big. Okay, back to the drawing board on that one. It did come out with beautiful colors though! I love the patina that gets fired onto it, and if you polish it up, it is the color of spun honey -- gold with a hint of autumn.

I can't wait to make some pieces that combine all three types of clay!

After waiting over four months for my neighbor to build a workbench for me (I have been getting by with a sheet over a plastic folding table -- much to rickety to do much with and I can't bolt anything down) -- I decided to design my own. It was going to cost about $100, so the project was on hold.

Today my hubby and his dad surprised me with a workbench! It is shorter, narrower and far less fancy than the one I designed, but since my father-in-law donated all the materials from stuff stored in his barn, the price is more than right!

The formica may be orange, but it is certainly easier to clean a mess up from than that darned sheet!

I can hammer away and not worry about it collapsing either, and I can finally bolt down my vice. Yea!

Now, if the customers will just come!

Better get to work on some more inventory -- Christmas is just around the corner, I need stuff for a storefront in a mall about an hour away and there is a craft show just about a month away.

I also need to work on my prototype for a colored pencil painting pin to commemorate the Bike Ride Across Nebraska stop in Thedford next year. The pin would be given to each of the riders that stays in Thedford when they stay overnight next June.

So much work and so little time! Happy creating!

Bad backs, horse sales and falling leaves

This past week has been a blur of pain meds, chiropractor appointments and aches and pains mixed in with a frenzy of creation as I have worked feverishly to get ready for my first "show" at a horse sale where the sellers are also holding an "invitation only" vendor show. I was invited and it was of no cost to me, so hey, what was there to lose?

Okay, first the back. Last Saturday I bent over to get something out of my purse and slipped a disc very badly. I saw a chiropractor before attending the funeral of a friend and the chiropractor would barely touch me for fear of making things worse. I could hardly walk. I saw him again two more times last week and now I can walk, but by the end of the day I am still in a lot of pain. Frustrating!

I knew I was going to the horse sale on Sunday, so I spent the week, bad back and all, trying to make as much inventory as I could. I was nearly out of clay so I made what little I had into small earrings, a small leaf pendant and matching earrings, and a new piece for my "In the Garden" series.

I also finished up the grape leaves I have been working on for weeks (painstakingly painting on layer after layer of clay slip to build them up to be heavy enough to wear). I finished the grape leaves just before closing yesterday, and after much prodding from fellow jewelry artists, I tried a patina. For once it came out great! I loved it! The patina came out an awesome coppery color with irridescent blues, greens and purples all through it - - perfect for fall leaves. I had formed "ivy tendrils" with syringe clay and then carried the design through into the bail and ear wires by making them into "tendril" too. I was really happy with how it came out. I planned to run them through the tumbler for a high shine, but didn't have time. I figured I would do that Monday. Not going to happen. They SOLD! So, now I have to get some new grape leaves at my inlaws' house before they freeze so I can make some more of these. I have lots of new ideas for grape leaf jewelry.

Today I worked on a new woven cross, but it is not finished yet. It has a turquoise stone in it and I am making a chain with turquoise stones scattered through it as well.

This next week I need to make two PMC pendant/earring sets for a customer who wants to give them to her granddaughters. I have already made two pendants for another set of granddaughters who don't have pierced ears. I also have a custom order PMC ring to make and about 12 repairs to do.

My PMC cross "In the Garden At Gethsemane" sold yesterday to a teenager who was brought in by her grandfather and told she could pick out "anything in the store." I was surprised (as was the grandfather) when she picked a large showy cross out of all the items in the shop. It only took her two seconds to choose it too. She honed in on it the instant she walked in, so it must have been meant for her.

I am still working on my woven mother's ring design and I had a new design for a woven cross pop into my head today. I also had a design for a very dressy woven necklace begin to take shape, as well as two new PMC necklace ideas. So many designs, so little time!

OOOh, a new PMC cross design just popped in too! A new addition to my "In the Garden" series that is also a "family" piece. OOOh, I can't wait until the PMC order arrives on Tuesday!

I had better close and try to get some sleep despite the design ideas running around in my brain.

Happy creating!