Sunday is Going too Fast!

Today:

I woke up in an Etsy mood! I posted one handmade pair of Valentine inspired earrings and a few vintage finds:

Heart Beads bought at a bead society meeting, from the estate of one of our members. So pretty!

Two JJ pins, probably from the 70's. JJ's are some of the more comical jewelry you'll find.

I also spent quite a while at online traffic school. Yes, I made a right at a red light, not noticing the NO TURN ON RED signs… They were big red signs, no foliage blocking them, no big trucks in the way. If this has taught me anything, it’s that I have to pay more attention and that’s a good thing. Maybe we should all be required to take a traffic school course every 10 years or so as a refresher…

The Husband will be home from work soon. We’ll have a Hawaiian pizza, in anticipation of the healthy eating we’re starting tomorrow. I fell off the healthy eating wagon in December and got hit by every wheel! Now, I’m soooo ready to eat better and for the health of it, not only to lose some weight. For a while we’d been doing a Jack LaLanne DVD and we’re going back to that as well. I tell ya, getting’ old is not for sissies. Just like driving, you really have to be paying attention and taking care of yourself. This isn’t a New Year’s resolution, it’s just a desire to live as long and as well as I can.

Have a good week, everybody!

Do What You Love!

www.bearchick.etsy.com
www.bearchicksundries.etsy.com
www.bearchick.artfire.com

De-Cember is De-Clutter Month

I've been thinking a lot lately about where I want to go with my jewelry and other creative outlets. I've been revising an order to my wholesaler for over a month-yes, it's become an epic struggle to figure out what I want to concentrate on next year. So far, here's what I'm planning:

Teaching is a big one. Half of my wholesale order is materials for kits for classes I'm planning.

Chainmaille is high on my list because I love doing it and I want to do it in more colors and learn new, more intricate patterns.

Sterling Silver, on a small scale. Sterling is sooooo expensive… More earrings, a few charm bracelets and one spectacular necklace is what I'm planning, as a way to ease myself into it.

Upcycling. I love going to yard sales and finding old jewelry to either resell in my vintage shop, Bearchicksundries, or remake into new jewelry.

So, teaching and the three categories of jewelry are what I'm going to concentrate on next year. And I've decided that mixed media is not something I'm working on right now so for the next few weeks, I'm working on De-Cluttering my stash. Some things I've already given away and I've started one bag of donations and another to resell.

In 2011, my plan is to focus more on having fun with my jewelry and not worry so much about "business". What's the point of being creative if the business side stresses you out so much? I work full time, so my expenses are met.

I want to concentrate on learning more and making better jewelry. Sometimes I get sidetracked by wanting to make things that will "sell" and throw myself off track. It's a balancing act--do I want to sell a lot or do I want to sell the best jewelry I can make. I've decided I want to work harder on the better jewelry and make the little things when I have the urge. I still like to do the simple earrings, memory wire bracelets and things like that sometimes. My goal is to make my Etsy shop the better jewelry--chainmaille, sterling, upcycled, Swarovski, lampworked elements-- and the Artfire shop the "sellable" things--Simply Simple earrings, memory wire bracelets.

Bear Chick has been such an adventure. It's interesting to look back and see how far my little business has come. Next year is my tenth anniversary as a Jewelry Composer!

Do What You Love!

www.bearchick.etsy.com
www.bearchicksundries.etsy.com
www.bearchick.artfire.com

Life on Etsy Tuesday

Bear Chick Sundries

Guess what?! I opened yet another shop on Etsy! It’s called Bear Chick Sundries and I’m slowly filling it with vintage items I pick up on my yard saling expeditions and destash from scads of crafting projects I’ve moved on from over the years.

Originally, I envisioned it as fairly bare bones, meaning I wasn’t going to put much money into promotion. But I’ve had pretty good luck advertising on Craftcult.com, a website that tracks your Etsy sales, hearts and other stats and I thought I might do a week of advertising with them once I get a few pages worth of goodies in the shop. Which means I’d need a graphic “button” to have installed on their site. If I was going to have that made, I might as well have a shop banner made, too. So, I zipped over to the Etsy shop where I’ve had my other banners created, Bearcengic, found a banner I liked (see above) and requested a special order of banner and button. Vanessa at Bearcengic had me hooked up within a couple of hours.

So, I’ve got to get moving and start filling up Bear Chick Sundries with more of my supplies that need new homes, plus the rings and scrimshaw my mother gave me recently.

Here’s a peek at what you’ll find at Bear Chick Sundries:

3 strand Rhinestone spacers

Aqua Blue Vintage Earrings

Lily and Rhinestone Pin

Drop by often because as I go to yard sales and clean out my craft room, you never know what I’ll find!

Do What You Love!

www.bearchick.etsy.com
www.bearchickart.etsy.com
www.bearchick.artfire.com

Ode to High Speed Posting!

La la la! Singing the praises of high speed internet! I was able to post 5 new vintage jewelry listings on Etsy tonight. Can you say effortless? For those of you who haven't read any of my travails regarding dial up, let me just say that trying to list 5 things on Etsy a month ago would have taken all night and a year off my life!

I love to buy old jewelry at yard sales and church bazaars. Some go into new jewelry pieces or artwork but some are real finds, either signed (which means the name of the manufacturer is stamped on the back) or not. Here's a couple of things I posted tonight:

Here's a beautiful pair of Richelieu earrings. The pearl is peeling just slightly but otherwise they're in great condition, with all the shiny shiny rhinestones intact.

Are these a blast from the past, or what?! Do you remember sweater guards or clips? I wore them when I was a kid. You clipped each side of the collar of your sweater so it wouldn't fall off when you had the sweater draped over your shoulders. These are classics signed by Judy Lee.

I picked up this apple because I was impressed that all the rhinestones were intact. This little baby really shines! It would make a unique teacher's gift just because of the blue color.

Come on by bearchick.etsy.com to see more vintage and handmade items I've posted in the last few weeks. And remember, domestic and Canadian shipping is free till December 15!

www.bearchick.etsy.com

www.bearchickart.etsy.com

My Name in Cloth Paper Scissors!

Ok, none of my design work got published but my name is mentioned in the Popping the Question section of the new November/December issue. The question was “What’s Your Favorite Art-Related Book”. So I quickly e-mailed my answer a few months ago and there it is on the glossy page! We have to get our thrills where we can, right? For those of you unfamiliar with Cloth Paper Scissors, it’s a cool magazine devoted to collage and mixed media art. And in case you don’t get to see it, my fave art book is “Artist Trading Card Workshop”. I guess that’s not too much of a stretch for me, huh?

In other Bear Chick news, I’ve got most of the art moved over to Bearchickart.etsy.com. I’ve been working on more of what I’m calling the Charm N Bead series of jewelry. Now I need to do some photographs when I get back from grocery shopping and get those on Etsy, along with a piece of vintage jewelry found while saling (yard saling, that is). I have a few pieces to post, by and by. Here’s a pretty Trifari brooch in fairly good condition:

Otherwise, the day job has been busy and the kitties have been mushy, wanting lots of attention, which I try to give since, well, why have pets if you’re gonna ignore ‘em! The Husband has been working both weekend days through October but that ends this weekend, so we’ll have some daylight together again.

Trying to come up with the best deals I can offer on Etsy… Freebies or free shipping domestically… I’m aiming for the Grand Opening next Saturday of Bearchickart.etsy.com to decide what the holiday deal will be.

Laters!

www.bearchick.etsy.com
www.bearchickart.etsy.com

Sneak Peek!

Here’s a sneak peek at one of the little artworks I’ve been creating this weekend. I’m also finishing a bigger collage, with the peace symbol theme again--it’s a real favorite of mine this year--and an ATC.

My girl cat, Raina, “helped” me with the ATC. She likes to get into my lap and inspect what I’m doing. It’s a little nerve wracking having a cat in the room when I work but there wasn’t any glue or paint involved yet, so I thought it would be ok…

One thing I did today was go through all the vintage and wacky jewelry I’ve collected from yard and rummage sales, to categorize them a little bit so I could find things easier. So much of my inspiration comes from the funky things I’ve accumulated and not just jewelry, but ribbons, buttons, paper of all kinds, photos, books, maps… You get the picture!

www.bearchick.etsy.com