Variety

I still don't have my light tent and its lights set up yet, so it's a little hard to list new items. With that, it's also a little hard to motivate myself to make new items or pump out bracelets and key chains when I know I can't get pictures of them yet. :D

Projects:
But, even if I'm not working on website related stuff, I still have custom neck-tie orders to work on *shudder*, and a few relatively daunting booth projects I need to get done before the convention I go to in May.
Oooo. Maybe I should look into selling at more conventions! What an idea... hmm...

Banner:
It's already been about a year since I started this project with a few months of no progress made at all. But, I know how quickly time can fly so I want to start getting it out of the way sooner than later.

Most recently I added the top halves of "CHA", so now I can finally start knocking out "SNEATH", letter by letter.
I'm partially excited to start working on the banner again, but I also dread it. Most project's have some "instant gratification" to them, like bracelets and key chains, because you can work on it for a few minutes and see noticeable progress that keeps you inspired and pressing on, but with larger projects, you can work on them for hours and only finish a small, hardly noticeable, dent.

That's where the title comes in. Variety.
It's important to create variety in your crafting. Mix it up a bit. Work on something else for a while. Or heck, browse through the work of other artists that you look up to for inspiration. Just don't burn out. I can say that all I want, but I'm the guiltiest of all. :D

So. While I don't have the light tent available I'll be blogging mostly about other related projects.

AWOL

*crickets*

Took an impromptu break just as the new year got going but I should be back to work soon!
All of my chainmaille and light-tent equipment was put away while I painted and reorganized my room. Today I finally finished building by new computer desk enough so I can use it, and other things can finally start filling back into their places.

Too bad school starts up again tomorrow :(

In the Life of Me:
Part of reorganizing my room was giving myself a separate area to do my work, because all of my maille (and packaging) in the past has been done at whatever desk was holding my computer.

See how worn out I look in that cramped messy environment?!
I needed more room to work!

So, here's the beginnings of my new set up.
Same desk. No computer.

Notice the new paint. :D

What do you think?
I'm trying to think of ideas on what to blog about besides just new items or custom orders I'm working on. Would anyone care to see basic chainmaille tutorials?

I really want to make printable tutorials that I can print out so I can sell kits for bracelets, or my caged marbles, so it would be a great learning experience to try to write and take pictures for tutorials.

New Year, New Beginnings

- Prices have been changed! (For the most part)
- I've changed all of my websites to include international shipping.
- I've printed out and started on all the forms I need to make this an actual business (FBN/EIN/etc)
- and I've also started setting up a work schedule and have been waking up earlier to "go to work".

I think my work and craft is worth it, but we'll see how well sales do with the increased prices.

New Items:
A little while ago someone wanted to necklace with marbles in it so I made a way to make a 4-sided gibbet... which was pretty hard. I eventually ended up with this mess of different types, and different ways to connect multiple marbles end to end.


My client hasn't responded yes/no/maybe yet, so I decided to try to make a single marble choker in the meantime.
But, I only got a few units into the chain when I decided I liked it better as a keychain :D



What do you guys think? I've had some people say it would also look great as a bracelet. With that in mind I made a hand-flower in brown with a jade marble... which is for another blog post.


Custom Orders:
Thanks to fieldsde for ordering these :D
UV marbles too. They turned out really well.



New Listings:

Business Overhaul Pending

This is kinda scary to start...

I've been selling for over 3 years, and it's made for a decently profitable hobby and easily pays for itself (which I can't say the same for many other hobbies). But, as a job it takes A LOT of time and I make well below minimum wage.

So, in January I want to start turning this into a more viable occupation.

The first step is to raise prices. There's something called "perceived value" where someone may perceive an item to be lower quality than it actually is if the price is low (and vice versa with a high value item). My chainmaille is worth a lot more than what I've been pricing it at and, in effect, I've shafted my sales because people perceive it to be cheap, low quality workmanship. One quote that has kept reminding me I need to change things was "I only buy earrings that are over $10. Anything lower and they're probably really low-quality. You should raise your prices."

The second is to start shipping internationally! A lot of you will be happy to hear about that. :D
I've been getting a few messages asking if I ship internationally, and so far I've only been able to respond with "I just haven't yet." Now seems like a great time to start...

The third and more time taking step is that I will slowly be changing photos of other items, and listing new varieties of items. I've already been working in some of the new items and pictures over the last couple of months, but now I need to speed up the process to cover EVERYTHING listed. Yeesh...

I've sort of wanted to do this for a while, but I've been a full-time student. Now that I'm done with my degree requirements, I'll only be taking a handful of classes for job skills and "personal enrichment", so I plan on dedicating most of my time to the chainmaille business.

Lots of New Pretties! Part 2

I find it silly how finals and the lack of time to work on chainmaille comes at the time of year when I should be focusing the MOST on my craft. Oh well, I'm through it until January!!

New Items:
OH SNAP!!
Just learned how to use photo-buckets collage tool. We are going to become very close friends.

Earrings:
The design on the left side (Partisan... working title) has already been really popular. I really like them too. I made the first pair of them over a year ago, but my recent supply order included a bunch of the really good colors in the size I needed for them.
I've made the design in the upper right in the past as well (Elytra), but the only larger scales I had were stainless steel. Not that gray is a bad color to work with, but I just wasn't feeling it. :P
The lower right design is called Aerial, cause it reminded me of angels, in a sort of iconic way, but "angel" seemed a little too unoriginal.


I was messing around with the larger scales a bit, and I ended up with possible earrings/pendant sets!
Yea/Nay?


Gibbets:
The rings I was missing for making the Partisan earrings are also one of the kinds I need a lot of for the mantid gibbets. I went nuts with black, but I'll try to make some red/gold/purple ones too, eventually.


Persian Crosses:
More about these under "custom orders"


Custom Items:
I've been slow on getting these up, but credit should go where its due.
Thank you very much Harriju for ordering the celtic star pendants :D
Sometimes I'm afraid to forgo the bright colors and make something plain and elegant. They turned out great!


Thanks to Murdock for asking me about crosses. Persian weave crosses are pretty common in the chainmaille community, but I'm dissatisfied with the way weave holds together (picky artist here). Because of you I found a very stable way of making them. (the arms don't flop down the sides. BIG plus! :P)


and THANK YOU VERY MUCH Malasig!!

*cough*
If you're one of the people getting one of these as a Christmas gift, give this dude a freakin' hug. I know I will when I see him next. :3

New Listings:

Lots of New Pretties! Part 1

I hardly know where to start!
I guess unpacking is the best place.

New Items:
I laid everything out on my bed so I could go through the packing list (ya, I know, I have really cool sheets)


I filled in all the gaps I had in my 18g 1/4" rings since January (FINALLY!!), and doubled the kinds of scales I have. The top two rows are "anodized" metals, and the bottom two rows are "base" metals.


I also got 5 new colors of rubber. They're "glow in the dark", but I'm not as impressed with that as I am the colors. The major down-side of them is they're 5 times more expensive than the normal ones. I didn't order very many of them (the 5 little trays in the picture are 3/4 of my inventory), so I probably will be using them more for highlights or wrapping marbles instead of bracelets.


That's all the new items for "Part 1"
Back to homework.

New Listings:

New Small Marbles Just In Time For The Holidays

Dur! I totally forgot!!

New Materials:
A few weeks ago I got 2181 marbles in the mail. (I counted...)



35 varieties, with ~60-65 of each.



There was a little bit of overlap with marbles I already have, but surprisingly few (only 8 duplicates), which I'm happy about. NEW COLORS!!
The old varieties:

Most of the overlap is in the top row.

New Listings:
I feel a bit silly about going AWOL so close to the holidays, as I haven't really listed anything through all of November. I'm trying to rectify that with a few new stocking stuffers on my artfire. :D




I've also got a 26 lb order of rings and scales (with a bunch of new stuff) coming in in the next few days. I'll keep ya posted.