Bangles, Beads, Bugs and Buddies

Finally, the end of a long, long week and the beginning of a new one. Last week was spent nursing sick kids and mourning the death of good Christian man who died much too soon. The kids are feeling better now, the hubby has gotten over his share of the bug and my buddy has been laid to rest, but the sadness lingers.

To help keep the sadness at bay, I joined in a bracelet challenge -- a cuff challenge to be specific. Since I don't wear bracelets much and NEVER wear cuffs, the challenge is an interesting one. We are all working from the same photo of a cuff made by a friend and doing a similar cuff in our own style. Very interesting and quite tough, actually. One friend works in colored wire and is making a bright, happy colored cuff, the other is working in earth tones and I am working, as usual, in two-tones -- gold and silver.

The other project I worked on was based on some lovely mini tapestries one of the local artists here does -- her name is Roberta Barnes and she does these teeny tiny landscape tapestries, and teeny tiny landscape paintings on ceramics. They are breathtaking. I decided I could do something similar, but using the landscape cabochons I have already been incorporating into my jewelry. So, now I am painting with seed beads! My first one was rather rough, as I was flying blind, but since then I have read up a bit on seed beads and hopefully the second one will be much improved. I really like the first one and it is quite a conversation starter. I also plan to use my miniature colored pencil paintings as the focal point of some of these pendants -- which will be lots of fun!

We also got some new "critters" for the acreage -- kitties! We have a mouse problem in the machine shed (including one that crawled up in the pickup's air conditioning shroud and died --peeyew), so a friend gave us some kittens. I went after two -- one for each kid -- but came home with four! Cute little guys though and one has totally adopted me. We now have one black kitten, one yellow kitten and two calico kittens. They are from three different litters, so all at different stages. The calicos are the youngest and the yellow one is the oldest.

Time to feed the calf and the kittens, then off to work at the art gallery for the day. Guess I will take my newest bead painting project with me to work on.

Happy creating!

Working on the business plan, planning repair prices and choosing paint colors

I've been working on the business plan I have to submit as the next step in the process of getting a loan to open up a jewelry repair/design business.

When my eyes began to cross, I started calling area jewelry stores to find out what they charge for various repairs. Crikeys! Prices have more than doubled in the last 10 years! If I charge prices like that I will be run out of town for sure!

So, now, I have to figure out my costs for repairs and figure out a price that is fair to both my customers and myself. I sure hope I can offer lower prices than my competitors -- wow are they high!

I know for sure that I don't need to charge $10 to change a watch battery -- unless it is a specialty battery. Holy moly! I'm thinking more in the $3-5 range.

I've got more figuring to do on the other things. I'm hoping to be able to do half the price of the most expensive place and at least slightly under the others.

My son loves the caboose I am planning to put the shop in, but my daughter thinks it is "creepy." So, I got her involved with the process by letting her help me choose the paint colors.

We ended up deciding on hunter green for the majority of the caboose and a soft yellow called Colonial Cream for the trim.

I did have to remind her that pink, lavendar and purple (as well as fuschia and magenta) were not necessarily good choices for the outside of a business and that the owner of the caboose doesn't want colors like that either.

Inside I will use the same green on the floor, and the walls will be a light cream color (with warm tones).

Perhaps all a bit country, but I am not too keen on what is currently in style. I watch HGTV and just shake my head that they want to take us back to the ugly colors from the 60s and 70s. Ick!

I have to be able to look around myself as I work and be happy with what I see and I like greens and yellows and "woodsy" tones. I also want my customers to feel serene, not all hyper.

Working on Business Plan

Ugh, not fun, but necessary -- I'm working on my business plan to present to the loan board. Basically, it helps me outline exactly what the business would be and it helps me to see any areas I may have overlooked. So far I hadn't missed much.

The caboose owner is checking into cheaper ways of running electricity and plumbing to the caboose. I sure hope he finds something! Talk about pricey!

Meanwhile, I continue to clean the caboose up (amazing amounts of dust have accumulated in there) in preparation for painting and building.

I researched Burlington Northern cabooses today and found they came in several colors -- hospital green with bright yellow trim, bright green with bright yellow trim, gunmetal gray, and red with yellow trim.

I wish I could paint it burgundy with hunter green trim (or vice-versa) or hunter green with tan trim, but it needs to be bright enough to catch the eye of those driving over the railroad overpass so they can see it before they need to decide which direction to go as they come off the overpass.

So, it may end up being hunter green with bright yellow or butter yellow trim, or red with yellow trim. Inside it will look like an art gallery with cream colored walls and a dark floor. Art and photography will decorate the walls and jewelry will be displayed in cabinets and on shelves.

There will be a flower and rock garden out front and hanging plants on the landings.

I want the place to be noticeable, but very classy.

Mainly, I want it to be functional and full of all the tools I need to repair jewelry and to design and create custom jewelry.

Located at the intersection of highways 2 and 83, anyone passing through the state east/west or north/south will have to pass by this caboose. The possibilities for tourist traffic are high. Cross advertising with the local art gallery will direct people to the "fine arts" offered by a tiny town in the Sandhills of Nebraska and will most likely surprise them immensely.

Okay, enough dreaming, time to finish this business plan!

Got creative and used up supplies

I've been creating, creating, creating lately and I used up all my supplies! There are more on order, but I am sort of at a standstill until they arrive.

I had custom orders for two necklaces last week with handmade chains, which used up a lot of wire (they were originally ordered with satin cords instead of chain, so I hadn't ordered wire).

I have some beautiful mini prismacolor paintings that I would like to wire wrap and make into jewelry, but lack of wire precludes that.

Hmmm, need to make some sales so I can place a BULK wire order -- then I wouldn't have this problem!

I've got lots of gorgeous focal beads that I need to do something with too -- where do I start? Guess I'll throw a load of laundry in until my muse hits me.

Have a good day everyone! :)