Tuesday, January 26, 2010

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!