Second Saturday show a success!

Yesterday was our second try at setting up at The White Elephant and, again, we did pretty well!  We're combining my jewelry with some household rummage sale stuff we need to get rid of, but either way it's gone well both times.  This is what my table looked like at the start of the day, but it got a little windy so the necklaces ended up on the table instead of on their velvet cards.  That turned out to be okay actually, people were more willing to pick the pieces up than when they were on the cards, so I may do that more often.  Maybe just set up one standing display so you can see from a distance that there are necklaces there, but have the rest on the table?  Also, on the right is my earring display board.  I make my earring cards out of card stock and Dad built the display board for me, so I think it looks pretty nice but my earrings don't sell nearly as well as my necklaces do.  Any thoughts? 

Next in line is to bump up my marketing.  I need to get the unsold pieces listed on Etsy so I hope to do that today, then start working on brochures for custom orders to hand out around town.  My parents' personal banker suggested that and I think it's a fantastic idea!  Certainly couldn't hurt to try.

Happy Mother's Day to all the lovely mothers out there!  Hope you all have a glorious day. :)

Fresh From the Desk: Time for a change?

Purple glass donut pendant on off-white and
matte blue daisy chain, with rose quartz chips

Carved resin pendant on knotted hemp,
with wood and bone beads

Resin pendant on brown and off-white bead chain,
with brown shell and peace jade

I finished that purple necklace tonight, as well as two more! :) The pictures are bad.  Yeah.  Sorry, I'm in a hurry.  After this weekend I'll take some better photos of what I have left.  Actually, that brings me to my first bit of news.  Someone at our bank is interested in her own piece, which is easy enough, but she suggested that I bring in catalogs or something to distribute when people ask about it.  Hmmmm, that sounds like a great idea!  I don't know if I can pull together a full catalog in any kind of decent time, but I can work on a tri-fold brochure or something with examples of what I can do and options for your own custom piece.  Thoughts on this?  Have an example of hemp, daisy chain, and straight beaded, with options of length, color, and whether there's a pendant?  I think it may be worth a try.  It certainly can't hurt to print off a stack for her, she sees lots of people every day.  This means I need to start scheduling in dedicated time to my marketing.  I have also had a few order/requests from friends this week, which unfortunately will have to wait until I can get up to Rapid to shop again, but all these are signs that things are picking up for some reason. 

I'm also starting to teach violin lessons next week.  I'm not a violinist, and I never said I was, but I have taken the classes, I do play cello, I know the Suzuki method, and the student is only 6 years old.  This one I may be able to handle for a little while.  I'm nervous about it since I don't play violin, and haven't since that one half-semester in 2002 or something when I took the class.  I'm debating advertising for my lessons and setting aside a day each week for them, but I'm nervous about getting lots of requests for instruments I don't play, like the violin.  Piano or guitar, those I can pawn off on someone else in town...those I can't even pretend to play well enough to teach lol!  Also, I don't have a good centralized location for them.  My books, instruments, and tools are at my house, obviously, but it's not quite ready for company yet, it's not really set up for it anyway, and parking will be an issue if I have several in a row.  Maybe once I get the island finished, baseboards in, latch on the bathroom door, and the huge wood box out of the living room...but I digress.  My house isn't a good place right now.  I could use my parents' house, but it's their house so I'm not comfortable taking it over for a whole day every week and the students might be nervous with extra people wandering around.  I know I would be.  For just a few students I could go to their houses, but that means I don't have access to all of my supplies that are at home and are impractical to lug around everywhere.  Can't afford to rent anywhere, and the room at the State Home is way too big just for lessons and people wander in and out all the time.  Haven't figured out the plan for this yet, obviously I'm still a bit anxious about it and finding excuses not to really develop it yet.  Maybe after the lessons have been going for a while I'll have a little more confidence. 

In order to shift my focus to jewelry and music, I need to cut down elsewhere.  My regular job is fine, no problems there, it's a regular part-time schedule with minimal stress.  It may go full-time eventually, but it's not yet.  I have a once-a-month 20-minute job at the VA for $10, which is barely worth the trouble to get there but it's a jewelry vendor contact that I need to stay on top of.  Not like it takes much time anyway.  Symphony is done for the season, so that won't be in the picture again until the fall.  I have lots of gardening, landscaping, and general housework to do, which hasn't been getting done these past few weeks.  I'm on Weight Watchers now which requires more careful meal planning, which also hasn't been getting done very well.  There's occasional things like groceries, bead shopping, and having to hold a large cat that is currently draped around my neck because I've been gone so much the last week. 

Then, the major dilemma, I'm working an extra insurance day up in Rapid, every other week for 6 hours.  It was originally 3 hours once a week, on the same day as Symphony, which after gas and a meal just broke even with itself, but it was alright since I had to be up there anyway.  Now, we changed it to every other week so it takes less gas and therefore yields a little profit, but it still ends up being a whole day up there.  I'm torn in that I can't decide whether that extra $60-80 a month (after gas) is worth losing a day.  I really can't decide.  I guess the question is whether shifting my focus will yield more return, though I do need to go up there every week or two anyway for various reasons.  I really don't know.  My schedule at my regular job has been screwy the last few weeks, so that plus starting WW plus getting ready for spring/working on the house again plus (heaven forbid!) taking a weekend trip to see some friends, I feel like I'm stretched way too thin, like silly putty.  And, the little holes are growing the thinner I stretch.  As it is, no project can get the attention it deserves, and as such nothing is yielding what it should.  So, do I drop the extra day and use it elsewhere, or not?  I just went yesterday and I'm not scheduled to go back until Monday after next so I have some time to decide.  I keep going back and forth on it.  I'm torn!  Help!

Saturday Show Number Two!

Just by way of a quick announcement, I'll be at The White Elephant again this coming Saturday, May 7th from 8am until Mom and I wear out.  This time we'll be better prepared with shade and food than last time and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

If you're in the neighborhood, The White Elephant is a consignment shop at the corner of River St and University Ave, at the bottom of the viaduct, in Hot Springs, SD.  I'm beading like a madwoman this week to prepare, since most of my necklaces sold last time, but here's a sneak peek of tonight's project.  The pendant is purple glass, flanked by rose quartz chips and the rest of the chain is bone white and matte purple-blue stitched into a daisy chain.  If you can't make it of course, feel free to contact me here, on Facebook,  or on sarahdecker.com for your own custom piece.  :)

Happy belated May Day to all and I hope the budding spring is treating you well!

Spring Fever: Landscape planning

This is the front of my trailer.  Isn't it epic?  The inside is much nicer, trust me, and at some point the siding will be redone to match/complement the skirting.  However, first in line is to take care of the pile of slime that my hill turns into when we get any moisture at all.  If you can't tell, I'm on a bit of an incline here.  It's basically flat where the house is but slopes down from there and on the back where the deck is the hill gets a touch steeper.  When we had a contractor here to build the skirting and deck, one of his helpers had a little tractor to flatten the spot for the deck and, without asking anybody (or billing us later), he dug up the whole front side too.  It's not as lumpy as it was and we would've needed to do some of that too, but he did it right before winter so I've been stuck with slimy mud every time it rains or snow melts.  I put down some landscape fabric, a little sand, and a few bricks to walk on to get through the winter without going too insane.  We still don't know who did it exactly, who said he should, and why we never got a bill for it.  It was one of a string of strange things that happened with that contractor so we're done working with him.  All that dirt work and there's still big gaps under the skirting that caused several days of frozen pipes this winter...if there was one thing I would've wanted done it would've been that.

Well, enough whining, what's done is done.  What I did yesterday was measured and flagged where my front entryway room, stairs, and garden terrace will go.  The sun beats on this side of the house in the summer and the wind whips around in the winter, so the front door needs a little extra protection from the elements.  We'll build on a little front room with a bench, coat hooks, a boot mat, and two cat doors (one from the living room and one outside, so the weather doesn't leak into the house), and a landing with stairs.  Those little metal stairs are hard to maneuver on and there's no place to set stuff down to open the door.

For the garden terrace, we'll add topsoil to make it level with the top and build a little brick retaining wall so there's a flat terrace from the edge of the skirting to just above where the propane tank sits.  I'm thinking below that in a semicircle between the new trees we'll build a little rain garden, fix the gutters, and set up the downspouts to drain into it.  Sounds like a lot of work.  At least I have it flagged out now.  Bedtime!

Fresh from the desk: Playing with hemp

Concert week always wipes me out.  Period.  It might be easier if I didn't have to drive an hour to get to rehearsals and such, but I wouldn't want to stop playing and I'm used to it, but I need to forgive myself for getting nothing else done those weeks.

So, with that said, welcome back!  Yesterday I got started on rebuilding my inventory after the last sale and at the suggestion of a friend I decided to try some hemp with simple macrame knots.  I may try more complicated macrame at some point, but not today.  I wasn't sure what to do with the large green aventurine donut pendant, but a fiber necklace seemed to be just the right approach.  It's a large statement stone, but "felt" more like an informal one.  After reading a bit about the stone and its traditional ties to creativity, stress relief, luck, and healing, my intuition there was confirmed.  It's perfectly at home on a string of hemp between wooden and carved soapstone beads and looks great with a t-shirt.  I attached the donut with a lark's head knot in the center of the two strands and tied an overhand knot between each bead to keep it all secure.  I did the same (minus the lark's head knot) with the little turtle that I found at our Earth Goods store in town.  We've been going to that store more and more lately and I enjoy supporting local businesses the only way I can.  On each side of the turtle is a bone disc bead, silver spacers, and round pink and black leopard jasper beads.  Because of the size of the holes, one hemp strand has to go around each of the jasper and bone beads, but I like the effect.  Both necklaces are about 24" long and can be tied to any length the wearer desires.  Fiber is a great way to expand my metal-free capabilities so I should experiment with it more.  I bet my cousin would like the little turtle...hehe!

I also made an anklet for myself just for fun.  I haven't had an anklet in a while so since I needed to use up a shorter length of hemp I figured I may as well do it for myself.  I normally don't make jewelry for myself; I tend to keep the "duds" and try to sell the good designs so I have very little of my own to wear.  Maybe I should get over that, I might be my own best billboard so maybe I should try.  This isn't a great picture, it's too dark and not staged at all and you can see the beads better in the other picture, but I like it. :)  I used 4 wood beads and 3 soapstone beads, the center one being a dark-ish pink and the sides being a pale green.  They came in the same package so they're carved the same but there's a good amount of color variation between beads so it keeps things interesting. 

I might be able to get one more necklace out of that package of hemp, but I'm not sure what else to do with it.  Most of my other beads that would work on it are too small to fit on it, even if I improvise like I did with the jasper.  I do have another wooden donut I could use.  Maybe I should work on something else for a bit, or maybe take it easy for the rest of the evening.  I'm getting a little sleepy.

According to Niche magazine online, the 2011 color of the year is honeysuckle.  It's not a color I would wear, ever, because it would simply look horrid on me in all kinds of ways, but if I were to try to use it what should I do with it?  What kind of beads should I look for?

*Edit 5/11/11* The aventurine hemp necklace is now available on Etsy for $15!

Saturday show a success!

The White Elephant is a consignment shop on the corner by the viaduct in downtown Hot Springs so it has a prime location for drive-by traffic, plus they started doing Saturday events last summer where people could bring in their own garage sale-type items to set up in the parking lot and make a multi-family event where people could leave their unsold items at the store for consignment.  He did this to increase foot traffic and increase and broaden his consignment inventory and it has worked pretty well for him.  He wants to change the feel of his shop to include more furnishings and fewer doo-dads so he's hoping this will work for him this year too.

Well, I'm rather proud of us. We brought my jewelry setup, our old stereo (with components, big speakers, and cabinet), a band saw, belt sander, jigsaw, VCR, various tools and electronics that were only collecting dust and we got rid of a good chunk of it.  All the tools went first, and we made $55 in the first hour thanks to that!  It wasn't much of a jewelry crowd, but I did get some cards handed out and one of Mom's friends came by and bought most of my necklaces, followed shortly by a friend of one of my friends who took another, so overall it was a good day.  We were only there for about 4 hours (that's about as long as Mom can stand it, and I would've needed a lunch break if we had stayed longer) but considering it wasn't an advertised event, it was a little chilly, and there were only 2 other vendors there, I'm very pleased with it.  So, now I need to go work on my inventory again - my Kambaba jasper necklace sold, as well as the wooden flower necklace, and the soapstone heart, one of my layering necklaces (with 2 orders in the works), and my flowery beaded choker (which is easy to duplicate so I'll leave my Etsy listing up on that one and just update the pictures).  We left the stereo and a handful of my old earring designs for consignment and the VCR will be going to the Salvation Army next time we go to Rapid City.

There was no booth fee so we felt no guilt whatsoever in spending the day on a street corner, especially since the band saw and belt sander sold immediately.  We just need to convince Dad to clean out some more tools and I need to get to beading!

Fresh from the desk: Everyday layering necklaces

Do you like them?  My boyfriend's mom wanted one like this, in all silver (like the one on the far left) and after doing that and getting set up for the day at The White Elephant tomorrow, I thought these would be a cute way to boost my impulse buys as well as use up some beads that were sitting around.

From the left, since the colors are a little weird on my phone camera, they are: Silver/silver, white/pink, white/gold, brown/gold, white/blue, purple/pink, green/ble, pink/green, pink/red, teal/matte white, matte blue-ish/yellow.

I'll end up wearing one tomorrow to demonstrate and I think the matte blue-ish/yellow one is my favorite, but what do you think?  Those bugle beads are a wonderful color, they're a little iridescent blue/purple but the matte finish gives them a very unique look that I thought would be nicely offset by the pale pearly yellow of the seed beads. 

The silver/silver, brown/gold (which is also the colors for University of Wyoming where I got my undergrad...didn't realize that until halfway through hehe), and white/gold are meant to be neutrals, with the white/pink, pink/green, and blue/yellow a step above that, with the green/blue, purple/pink, and teal/white being more showy.  They're 15 inches long with a 2 inch extender chain and spring clasp, made quickly using surplus beads so I can offer them at $10 each (or less, if someone wants more than one) without hurting at all.  How would you wear them?  Would you do wear one at a time or a few in complementary colors?  What other color combinations would you want?  Maybe I'll wear three to show the possibilities.  Hmmm.  I should go make sure all my display stuff is packed and signs are correct, need to get to bed so I can get up bright and early!

*Edit 5/11/11* These are now available on Etsy for $10 each!