lindsey marcella

Hope you had fun!

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the jewelry party/trunk show this weekend! I hope you had a great time. I know I had a lot of fun!  Good food + good company + jewelry = nice afternoon. Congratulations to both Joyce and Terry, who won the gift certificate drawings! And to those who didn't win, I hope you're enjoying your take-away candles!

This was my final party of the year because of my schedule, but if you would like to have one (either at your home or online) next year, you can always e-mail me.

Here's my lovely assistant (sister Katherine) who was a big help. Thank you!

Today I will just be finishing up some special orders, and then I will do an update to the shop. I will only be able to accept orders until this Friday at 6pm to ensure holiday delivery. Once it's updated, I'll do a post, and *maybe* you'll also get a special sale coupon code! You'll have to wait and see...

so long printer

So sad. My printer just died. It will still scan, but the paper feeding device is broken. It was doing so good for me, printing away on cardstock for my tags, sticker paper for labels...a piece of paper got jammed, and I had to yank it out (by following the on-screen instructions of course), and ever since it hasn't worked. I got about 70% of what I needed to print done, but that leaves 30% that will not be finished for Saturday. I don't have the time or the money right now to spring for a new printer, so I guess I'll just keep trying to make this one work!

In the meantime, here are some of the completed projects.

Some tags with Martha twine for a take-away candle.

Hang tags for necklaces and bracelets. These are printed onto tag cardstock, and the thread is from a thrifted thread ball. They're heavy duty, and I was so proud the printer handled them - to a point, of course.

...And new earring cards. By making new tags, I was trying to both get my new site listed on them, and also make them more cohesive. The holders on the right are what I was using previously. They're good for my earring rack, but not when I need to lay the earrings flat on a table. They just kind of got lost.

i agreed to what?

I have never had very much luck doing craft shows. I've gotten no sales (which is embarrassing), shoved in a back room, ignored, etc. I understand that there are some GREAT shows out there, but not in my area, and I haven't been willing to travel to them. After the last one, I swore I would never do it again, but...I am. Just a really small one though, and it's at work. I really like the people running it, and it's only 2 days, 1 hr each day. I have the merchandise, so that's good because I don't want to put any money into it at all. There are a lot of jewelry designers at work though, so I need to start making a few small things to bring as backups out of my stash. What's fast and easy but unique-(at least to non crafters!)- cute little bookmarks.

I figure I'll make a few of these, both plain and patchwork. I'm thinking about making some coaster and potholder sets too, but I need to get some more batting. Oh darn, I said I couldn't buy anything. Well, I have some batting set aside for quilts in progress, so maybe there will be scraps left over.

I made a pillow last week out of a little patchwork I made a LONG time ago. I had the big pillow form already, so I just added some muslin to size in the front, and backed it with some coordinating fabric I also already had. Seriously, completing it took maybe 15 minutes. I love these kinds of projects!

Hot List!

I've been nominated for Cleveland's Hot List! Am I one of the Cleveland area's best businesses? Sure! (Even if I don't have a store front!) I haven't received my login information yet, so I haven't updated my online profile, but you can still vote for me!

-Go to myfoxcleveland.com
-Find the HOTLIST icon (it's in a red box)
-Go to jewelry designers
-Click on Lindsey Marcella
-Once you process your vote, you will receive an e-mail
-Click on the e-mail confirmation, and you're done!

I appreciate everyone's help with this! It's a great honor; I'm not even sure who nominated me!

I've got a few projects to share, but haven't had time for any pictures. And of course one of the bags that I've made has a stain on it...

derek is a smart man

I was making some new hang tags with transfers onto some cute fabric. Derek came to see, so I asked if he wanted me to transfer something onto one of his shirts. He said no, but then he told me I should transfer my blog logo onto one that he'd wear around.

DUH! I'm going to help out at that shop, Simple Expressions tomorrow, and what better thing to wear than a Lindsey Marcella shirt! So I whipped together a little logo, found an old white tank, and...

The color looks better in person, but I did yellow it a little with too much ironing. It's on there though! So hopefully I'll get a little shameless self-promoting in tomorrow.

favorite things

Well, I've been sick, and I haven't done a thing! Crafty I mean. I had to finish a few orders, but that's about it. I even stayed home from work on Monday! I went in on Tuesday, and was fine, but it made me lose my voice.

Since I don't have anything really interesting to show, I thought I would share a few of my favorite things!

:1:

Design your own credit card! I don't know how I found this, but I think it was over the summer. I was looking for a good card with a great rate; what I found was just a bonus!! It's a Visa card, and I got 0% on everything for a year, so what could be better. Check it out, you can get any picture you want on it for free! So this is what my card looks like:

It's baby Cosmo and Mr. Ducky when he was clean!

:2:

Along the same lines...I also have personalized checks. I found out about them at my first ever jewelry party, and ordered up some Cosmo checks that night! Just recently I ordered some new checks for my Linques Design account, which was pretty nice because I could put my jewelry pictures on them. If you don't write a lot of checks, they're a good value. I only use them for bills, so they last awhile for me.

:3:

Need to get anything printed up? You HAVE to check out Vista Print. I found them through Amazon; their flyer was in one of my orders last year. It said free cards, so I went! Get yourself on their email list, and you will get free offers every week. I think the most I've paid for an order has been $17, and that's all for shipping. I've gotten free business cards, brochures, labels, magnets, stamps, postcards, you name it! I usually use their templates, but for $5 you can upload your own design, so if you're handy on the computer you can have your own images printed right up for a great price! I just wish they did catalogs...

Just some of the <many many many> sites I visit frequently!

I spent a lot of the day reading today, trying not to talk. I also started packing for Florida. I usually hate packing, but I am usually packing for the same climate weather. Right now it's about 30* here, and we're looking at the 70's next week in FL, so it's fun getting my summer stuff out again! I'm not sure if we'll be able to have the internet though, so it could be a computer-free week!

don't even ask

This weekend was horrible. Just terrible. I drove from Columbus to Cleveland on Wednesday, with all of my jewelry and Cosmo. Thursday I had a hair appointment, and Friday we went to set up at the first show of the weekend. It was a pretty big show, but we and about 4 other crafters were stuck in this teeny tiny room in the very back.

My display is above. That was before the show, so it was before we knew how bad it was going to be. I usually struggle to get my stuff out on one table, so I was happy with the way it looked. I got those blue square plates from target, and the jewelry cabinets are from Bombay.

I keep saying "we". I should say that my mom was kind enough to help out with everything. (she never will again though!) That's me in the picture. I'm 23. While we were setting up, an older vendor came into our back room. She kept addressing my mom about the table, who had to tell her it was mine. The lady thought I was 15. I get that a lot. She would not believe me when I told her my age.

So...Friday night was the first night of the show, from 5-9pm. We had been afraid that no one was going to find us back there, and we were right. The show itself wasn't very busy, but our room was ignored. We maybe got 30% of the people to come back there. The staff put more signs up. That didn't help. I had $0 sales the whole night, which is crazy! They came in around 8pm and told us they were going to find us a place in the main gym. Prior to that, my mom and I weren't even going to come back for Saturday. But we got a good spot in the gym and set up, and decided to come back for the next day. At this point I'm already down $75, which was the cost of the table, so I really couldn't do any worse.

Saturday the show was from 10am-4pm. It was a cold, rainy day, which either means we'll have a dead show or a very busy one. Guess which we got!? Here's a hint-we left at noon. I started keeping a tally, because out of the few people that came, most didn't even LOOK at my table! I think it ended up being about 25 "no looks" to 6 "looks". Pretty pathetic. Not the kind of crowd well suited for nice jewelry. (Not even expensive jewelry!!!) So we packed up and left. Not a single sale in the 6 hours we were there. There's not even words to express how shocked I was.

So today was a new show. I thought it had to be much better because this was more of a boutique show, and I was the only jewelry vendor. Plus, it was at a church, and a percentage of our sales were to be donated back to them. It was from 9-2, so we got there early to get set up. First of all, they had it in a very dark, cold room. Secondly, there were people, but only in between masses. So we had about 3 bursts of people that maybe each lasted a 1/2 hr, and that was it. I sold $85 worth. All day. ??? What! It's going on again tomorrow from 4-7pm, and I have to work so my mom was going to go back for that. We had decided it would be a waste of her time, but the lady in charge said it would be before a PTO meeting and should be better, so my mom is going.  The only good thing about today's was that I met a really nice woman who owns a shop, and she wants me to come in next weekend because she'd like to carry my jewelry. Plus, I saw a really cute knit purse that I'd like to make! The vendor was an actual shop, not the designer, so I didn't want to take a photo. But it's pretty basic and should be easy. There's was way overpriced, I think ranging from $50-80!

SO that's that. I am NEVER doing another show again! I enjoy jewelry parties so much more. My next party is in December, so I have that to look forward too...

I have had my question posted on whipup about a website program for my shop. I've had a lot of comments on it plus some emails so thank you!!! I really liked the mr. site, but I'm in the US and it doesn't seem to support us. Any other easy to use programs? I'm going to also look into all the designer referrals, but am too exhausted (from my stupid weekend) to do it now, so either tomorrow or Tuesday for that. If anyone else designs websites let me know and I'll look into that as well!!

Hope your weekend was better than mine.

just a hint...

at what I've been working on. Endlessly.

And when I mean endlessly...I mean it! I even took them to work on today at work, in between things. All in the name of "getting it done". Just gotta do it. Anyways, those are new tags. Two made for each piece (a description and price, and a linques tag), cut out, punched. Then 6 sterling chain links cut, then a piece of elastic, and once they're done I have to add them to the correct piece of jewelry. Who knew tags could be so difficult?

Basically I have to get these all done by Wednesday morning because I'm driving to Cleveland that afternoon. That means I won't have the photos from my computer, so these have. to. get. done!

WIP

Sorry no post yesterday! I was a little busy with my new, ambitious work in progress. Next week are 2 of my shows, so I decided I needed new tags. I have a style number for everything and keep a picture of each thing I make so I can track everything. This means making new tags is no small feat! I made them up in Illustrator, which I am still learning, so they're very simple: 2 small rectangles. The top one is for my name and website, the inner one is description and price. I think I'll connect the 2 with a jump ring, and then maybe use elastic to hook it to the jewelry. We're not there yet.

Anyways, getting new tags means I'll have to take the old tags off, right?? Since I'm doing that, I also decided it was time to upgrade my pictures. Now keep in mind this has no effect on the shows. It's for me, and eventually my website. I was lucky because we had some sun today. For the bracelets, I'm taking pictures on a piece of white foam core; just flat. For the necklaces I've rigged up some sort of foam core easel so I can have the necklaces draped. For the earrings, I'm "posing" them on a crystal bowl I stole from my mom. Yikes. It's a lot of work. I've got the tags nearly finished, but with pictures I'm only about halfway there.

That being said, I should've been able to make some more jewelry today but I really need to get these new projects done ASAP. I currently have my jewelry in piles around my studio...and that's not fun. Today with the blinds and shades so wide open Cosmo was having the time of his life, and when I looked at him one time he was laying right on my bracelets because they were in the sunniest part! Of course I let him stay there...

Here are some pictures. I really liked the way they turned out. Now I need to magically learn Dreamweaver or get a better website program because I hate mine!!

There's really no comparison in quality between my old camera and my new one. To see what I mean, check out the pictures on my site and then come back here to see these again. I don't know why I didn't upgrade ages ago. It's not like I need a good camera for everyday, but for jewelry it's a must. Wow.

I also went to the grocery store today. If you remember, I don't like to cook. (Or clean, but that's another story.) Yes, that was from my very first post, in the very first paragraph, where I made it clear I just don't enjoy it! But I went, and I now have a hash brown casserole in the oven. It's good, I've made it once before. I think I just needed a break from being a photographer.

That's also why I'm happy the sun is starting to set. I'll finish up the tags tonight, and then hopefully the pictures tomorrow, and then put everything together!!!

a day in the life...

I don't want to give off any false perceptions that I'm perfect. Far from it. I have a wonderful room that I can work in, what I always wanted. But how do I usually end up beading? Right on the floor, much to the disdain of puppy and probably Derek. I like to dump my beads on the floor. I like to see everything laid out. The floor is the perfect backdrop.

I'm not someone who sketches out my designs first, or even thinks of them. I guess you could say I get inspired by the beads. I buy beads I like, with no plan for them. Of course I already have a huge stock of crystals, but other beads are just bought on whims. I might buy color groupings, but that's about it. When I get home with them, or when the come in the mail, I dump them out on my trusty floor. I usually try to only empty a few packs out at a time. This helps limit designers block, and tries to limit mess. (Not usually though.)

I then just start. No rhyme or reason. I like to design. Sometimes I get stuck, but I can usually just pick a few beads up and come up with a good design or pattern. And when I say "good", it's all objective. I make what I like, and if others like it then wonderful! Sometimes they don't. No big deal. More jewelry for me that way.

I'm really loving citrine, carnelian, and amber right now. Orange is my color. If you've never worked with amber before you should get some. It's amazing. It is so lightweight, it feels like air!

These are cool too. They're emeralds. Uncut, unfinished, unfaceted. Really pretty in person. I usually am not a green person but I wore this necklace all day today.

Here's "planning" gone awry. I was planning on making something using the amethysts, but nothing was coming to me. I just didn't feel like making an all purple necklace. So instead I just improvised and picked up my trusty 4mm crystals. I interlocked 2 circles together which I've never done before. I'll be doing it a lot from now on! I mixed the crystals with some oblong shells for some contrast. Here it is:

I think I might make a tutorial for it tomorrow. As for now, time to clean up the floor!