Men's Jewelry

So at the last craft show I did the number one comment I heard was "You really need to offer men's jewelry." Even my dad was complaining that I didn't have any ready made men's items. I've made quite a few custom men's gemstone & sterling bracelets, but I've never felt the inclination to fully commit to an actual ready made series of men's pieces. Well, that is until now.

The designs are fairly basic for now, but if my sketch book is any indication of where my imagination might go with the men's series people can expect some interesting pieces in the future. I'll be adding some of the pieces in the photo to RadianTrace.com within the next day or two.

Where's Ronnie?

After not blogging for so long there's really no way to grab a handle on it and make much sense to anyone but myself. So, I'll just jump back in right here where I am now.

I've been both busy and lacking focus. Busy with making jewelry and fulfilling graphic orders. The lack of focus stems from desparately wanting to advance my skills and yet not having the tools I'll need to help me do this. I'm working on it though....always working on it. Plodding away slowly the way I tend to do.

Born To Be Wild

This little dude Harley stopped by my table for a visit at a recent yard sale. I've never seen a dog so fixated on his owner. Lil bugger wouldn't take his eyes off his Daddy.


Above picture is of the set up I had for the sale. I met lots of really interesting people with lots of amazing stories to tell. I think I like that part of selling in person almost as much as I like the feedback and the money.

Coffee & Other Buzzes

Coffee anyone? I've indulged far too much lately. I've needed it to keep me 'buzzing' enough to handcut 384 business cards. Yeah, you heard me right. Three.hundred.eighty.four.handcut.cards. Ok, so I didn't do it all in one day. I did 24 a day over several days. I find myself not wanting to give any away. They're like gold to me now.

Speaking of buzzing . . . I've been getting myself ready to sell my jewelry at the HoneyBee Centre on August 16/17. There's going to be live bees there. I'm allergic to bee venom, and for the past few days I've been thinking I must be crazy for agreeing to do this. I'm not only wanting to do it, but I'm starting to feel really excited about it. I've been happily making new packaging and jewelry displays. I found some great photo frames that I gray spackle painted and added black wire to for earrings. I also spackled an old cork board gray and painted the frame black. I think I'll pin anklets and bracelets to it.

This week I'm going to refurbished an old cabinet I have into a display case. It has glass doors so I'm going to take out the glass and replace it with black grid wire. It's dark stained wood with a nice glossy finish. I figure I can stand necklace and bracelet card displays on the shelves and hang chain necklaces on hooks on one door....then hang longer hook earrings from the wire on the other door. Of course it will be displayed with the doors open. I recently went garage saling and picked up a pair of large round black metal candle holders with spiral legs. I'm going to place pretty river rocks in the trays and use the stands to feature a couple of my higher priced bracelets.

I plan on reusing the spackled paint can with the wire circle (shown in my previous post) to display pendant style chain necklaces. The HoneyBee festival might be the last time I use it for shows. It's heavy and it takes a long time to add the necklaces. I have some interesting ideas for future necklace displays involving lazy susans. I think people will like being able to turn the displays. Turning things, and rifling through baskets and bins always enhances my browsing experience at craft shows so I figure there must be other people who also enjoy rifling and spinning.

I'll post photos of my displays as soon as I have them ready.

Home Jewelry Parties

I did a home jewelry party on Sunday June 22nd. The photo to the left shows one of the displays my daughter and I set up for the party. It was in a very pretty setting. I have 4 more upcoming home parties, and a two day festival booked for August 16/17. I'll post the festival information soon.