Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Back to Business

I need to remember why I'm doing this blog!

Handcrafted jewelry! Yeah, that's what this is all about. These earrings are made out of simple cream-colored "river rock" and brass-colored pewter. River Rock is what the supplier called the stone beads and it works for me. The price works for me too. These earrings will be listed on Etsy for $8. The ear wires are 14k gold-filled. I only use gold-filled or sterling for ear wires because, personally, my ears are bothered by plated and base metals. Because gold-fill has an actual layer of gold around the base, my ears have not had an allergic reaction. If anyone is concerned as to whether gold-fill will react in their sensitive ears, I'm always willing to send them an ear wire to test. I can also switch to solid gold ear wires at cost, which last time I checked was around $9 for one pair of 14k gold french wires.

This handcrafted necklace is all done! I wrote about it here a while back. Loading the rings with the cream-colored glass bugle beads and brass-colored daisy spacers was a time-consuming chore, but I like how it turned out. I've already taken this to some of my local networking meetings where it has attracted a LOT of attention. And the listing price is only $28 so that should attract a LOT of attention, too.

While fall and winter is coming upon us, I love offering what I call "the winter whites." Cream-colored stones and beads paired with gold or brassy metals exudes warmth and works with a lot of business attire for women. This necklace would look great with tweed tailored jackets in camel, cream, even some reds and blues. It's long enough to be doubled for a choker, or worn long to lengthen the torso, depending upon what the wearer's body type requires to look its best.

Here's the detail shot of the double beaded rings. Since most of my photos are prepared for listing on Etsy, they are rather large files. Blogger scales them down for posting on the blog page, but the photos are clickable if you'd like to see a nice, large version.

Sometimes I think the photos show too much detail! I often see flaws after taking the digital photos and detailing them in Photoshop ... flaws I don't catch when either working on the piece, or displaying them. I guess the digital camera sees more than our eyes do. One can let anything slip by. I've taken many a piece back to the design table to be reworked. There's another necklace that goes with this part of my line that had a design flaw I didn't catch until the photos were taken. It may not even be a true "flaw" because the necklace looks fine in person. But exposed to digital scrutiny, it doesn't look right and therefore it wouldn't likely sell.

Handcrafted jewelry! Yeah, those are the keywords. Eat 'em up spider 'bots.

Stumble It!

7 comments:

Waterrose said...

Both of your designs are lovely. I especially like the river rock.

Giftbearer said...

These pieces are a steal!

Hot Rocks said...

Wonderful jewelry..love the necklace and how you did the rings!

Alicia said...

Those earrings on top are really pretty. Just clicked on from an Etsy topic... great blog. =)

Unknown said...

nice earrings, and definitely a steal. I say raise your prices, I'm sure they'll sell quick!

Cindy Garber Iverson said...

Absolutely stunning pieces! Just gorgeous!!!!

Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage & Dusting in Pearls

Sara said...

I love your pieces. They are very "vintage" looking.