Okay - I Never Claimed To Be Able To Paint...

But I wanted to see what I could do with alcohol inks and a paint brush. This is my 3-second landscape. Yeah, I know - it sucks. But the point of the exercise was to see if I could use paint brushes with alcohol inks.

It can be done! I daubed the background in, and then I put three or four colors on a dauber felt, making sure they didn't blend with one another and a few drops of blending solution on a corner of the felt by itself. I then used a tiny stiff brush and stroked in a few trees and birds and something that appears to be a path but has zero perspective. So sue me. LOL!

The entire point though, was to prove the potential of these inks. The tile below (which will be re-done) is my experiment. It's a lousy photo - too much flash,and the colors just don't show as well as they should - but you get the idea with it. This is my 3-Second Bad Landscape Tile. Yes, my work-space is a wreck, but oh well. :)

Here it is with some blending solution applied and the "path" blended out - see how easy it would be to make a rocky outcrop? I can see that as rocks after I've done a little work with it. :)

And this is with the entire image blended out and a paint brush swirled across it. The blending solution with completely remove the ink if I want to do that:

Alcohol Ink. More Alcohol Ink. Someone Stop Me Before...

Everything in my house is faux-finished with alcohol ink. So I started this table the other day. I'd already done one in browns and golds. It came out lovely. I decided to try for a marbled effect. It worked okay until I started on the apron of the table. I'm going to paint over that with white. I think the table will be lovely with just the top finished. I used Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks in Pitch Black, Rust and Gold.

I used the felt dauber and daubed around the arc of the table, constantly blending with Adirondack Blending Solution. You don't need much of it. Once I had the color on, I "marbled" simply by drizzling the Blending solution randomly across the table. Again, less is more. Do a little and see how it looks. It's very easy to get splotchy with this solution. :)

I like it. Comments are welcome. Remember, I'm painting over the "apron" of the table, which is why that appears unfinished.

Found Items Note Card

I got inspired this morning by a bag of paper birch bark that I'd pulled from a log while staying in the White Mountains of NH a few years ago. The card below is a product of my (rather fertile) imagination this morning. Here's what I did to make it.

1. Cut beige cardstock to size.

2. hand-rubbed Ranger Distress Ink in the color Vintage Photousing a cotton pad and large swirling motions. You don't want the rubbing to look splotchy.

3. I then added a layer of Adirondack Dye Ink in Butterscotch

4. Keeping the cardstock flat, with the edge just barely over my table (make sure your table is protected or that you don't care if it gets marred, because this technique will mar your table!) and used a Diamond-Coated Lapidary Needle File in an upward motion to distress the edges of the cardstock. This can be tricky - you need to apply pressure, but not enough to tear the card - you want to sort of "soften and shred" the edges.

5. I then took my ink pad in Vintage Photo and inked all the way around the distressed edge of the cardstock.

6. I used a scribe to score the area of the card where I was going to place the birch bark "frame" and then using a glue gun, glued the birch bark on top of the scored area.

7. The picture that is framed by the birch bark is a stamping that I hand-colored using Prismacolor Colored Pencils.

8. After coloring the stamping, I used a Tape Runner on the back of the stamping and affixed it to the cardstock in the center of the birchbark frame. You can use any kind of tape-runner, but I've found that you get what you pay for. If you buy a good tape runner, your stuff will stay stuck. If you don't, it'll fall apart. :)

9. I had some 30 ga copper sheet that I'd embossed for a project about a year ago and never used, so I cut it down (it's easily cut with scissors) and just used a glue gun to attach it to the card stock.

I still need to trim the birch bark, which I'll do with nail scissors, but this card is gorgeous in person. The photo, I think, makes it look a bit messy, but up close, holding it in your hand, it's (if I do say so myself) truly a one-of-a-kind and very pretty! Here's the "almost finished" image:

More Note Cards, Less Cold

The cold abated for a bit and my eyes aren't streaming from allergies so I attempted something simple. I totally screwed it up, and any "professional" stamper will see where. (snort!) But It's actually quite pretty, simple, and the design could be altered to be blank note cards. I used a set of acrylic stamps, and Colorbox inks on this one. For the bottom edge, I used Martha Stewart's doily hole punch which takes a bit of getting used to. Once I figured out how to use it it was simple, though.

Got a cold!

More coming folks, once I get over this daggoned cold! Right now I'm drained of energy; I'm sniffling and sneezing so that even my cats don't want to be around me, my sofa has a permanent impression of my hindquarters and my dvd remote control "play" button is wearing thin. It's part cold, part allergies, part driving myself too hard, so I'm taking a bit of a break. Be back in a couple of days!

Maureen aka ArgentSol.

:)

I did, however, manage to create one thing today. I made a note card. It's not quite finished because the center piece needs a border and I'm thinking of adding some thin velvet ribbon.

I used Colorbox inks for the stamping, distressed the edges of it after cutting it out, heavily inked the distressed edges, glued it on, punched a 1//16th" hole at the top for the little filigree butterfly (which had a bend-over top - it's a vintage jewelry finding) and then inked the edges of the card. It's actually a dark burgundy - not the "purple" it appears on my monitor. Here it is:

Free Tutorials (vs Those you Have to Pay for!)

If you look to the right of this post you'll see a list of links to free tutorials. I've been scouring the web for what I consider the best tutorials for all types of things. So far this list is for wire-wrapping, but I'll be adding more tutorials for lots of things as time progresses.

Bookmark or follow this blog so that you'll always be updated when I post a new tutorial.

I've been noticing that people are selling their tutorials now. Well, I can't blame them. It's a rotten economy, but my feeling is that unless the tutorial contains a brand-new technique that they've developed and have patented, then they're not providing anything you can't find for free elsewhere. I'm not buying a tutorial when there are so many on the web that are free.

The tutorials I provide in the link list are usually going to be written ones, with photos. Video tutorials will almost always be posted in the body of my blog.

The link list are links to other people's sites, and I've hand-picked them for you as the best I've seen thus far. They range in skill-level from beginner to advanced. Take a look. Enjoy!

Dreamcatcher Pendant or Suncatcher

I've made similar items before, but only used the designs in my suncatchers. This is a very good tutorial for beginners - and she's got a very good method for closing the gap of the circle of wire you start with. Unless you're willing to solder it shut, her method is excellent. I make mine completely from wire. I make my circle, and I solder it closed and then I wrap the entire circle with wire. She used ribbon, which is a very cost-effective way of making a pretty pendant or suncatcher, depending upon size.

When I make my dreamcatcher suncatchers, I use all kinds of beads, mostly Swarovski, because, after all, they ARE suncatchers. Here's a picture of one that I made recently, and please be aware - when you click on the photo it doesn't open in a new window, you'll have to click the back arrow on your browser to get back here. If you do click the photo, you can then click it again and it will enlarge.

It's not a very good photo, as it was taken as an afterthought and the item is now hanging in the gift shop a block over, for sale. I didn't do a tight weave through the center of the circle at all, I simply did whatever the wire wanted to do. I didn't worry about keeping mine a perfect circle - I rather liked the asymmetrical look, but this is what I mean by taking the basic techniques and applying them in your own way. :)

Have fun and again, please post photos of anything you make.

Here's the vid:

Wire Wrapping A Cabochon - Viking Basket Weave Design

I found this tutorial on You Tube and it's a good one. Given the price of silver these days, I'd say practice first with copper or brass or craft wire, but it's an easy wrap to do, and one that shouldn't take you much time to master at all. It lends a beautiful accent to your cabs without obscuring the beauty of the stone.

It's also a technique upon which you can build with your own creativity as you become more comfortable using it. Thanks to CamilleSharon for posting this tutorial on You Tube. I'm going to share a few more of her tutorials here in the coming days.



Hope you enjoy the tutorial and if you try the technique, upload a photo here so I can see what you've done!

I'm not sure why there's so much space between this post and the one below it but I can't seem to make it go away. Hmmmm.....

Everything's an Embellishment

I started collecting vintage jewelry when I was in my early 20's. By the time I hit my early 40's, I was selling it online. I have tons of it. Don't throw any of it away. Clasps, settings, components - almost all parts of vintage jewelry, particularly if it's ornate, can be used elsewhere. You can do a lot with it to make it new and different. I took a floral component from an old broken vintage necklace, cut the attachment ends off either end - I used a jeweler's saw, because this is soft base metal, but you can use a rotary tool, and sometimes, if it's soft enough, just use your snips.

I filed the edges smooth - I did it by hand, using jeweler's files and sandpaper, but if you have a rotary tool, you could do it in a jiffy by simply grinding the rough edges until they are flush with the piece and then using a finer abrasive to smooth and polish.

Then the fun began! I changed the color of it using Alcohol Ink. The inks I choose to use are Tim Holtz's Adirondack Alcohol Inks and for purposes of simply showing you what it can do, I chose Cranberry, since it would show the complete difference in look.

Below is what the piece originally looked like:

And this is what it looks like after applying Adirondack Alcohol Ink in Cranberry. I just swabbed it on using a felted stamp applicator. It needs another coat and I'll have to use a small wrapped toothpick (or you can wrap the end of a file in felt) to get to the inside edges. This is simply for demonstration purposes, so it's not as neat and tidy as I'd normally do it:

It took about 30 seconds. It's dry, and it's permanent. I'll probably spray it with some Krylon Make it Last! just to give it a nice scratch-proof finish and to seal it, just in case.

Easy peasy. You can do this on any of your metal findings - change the color if you don't like it. If you need something to match beads, or a scrapbook entry, or something pretty for a notecard, recycle! Use found objects, broken jewelry, or anything you might just toss in the trash.

I'll post some more of my color-changes later today.

Distressing Edges of Cards

I was trying to think of a way to create the look of a torn edge on my note cards, and couldn't get the distressed look I wanted from tearing along a straight edge. The cards below are an experiment.

Since I'm a silver smith, I have lots of jeweler's files lying around. I used a diamond grit file for this and just held the card firmly in one hand, with edges together and pushed the file diagonally along the edge of the card in short strokes. I like it so far.

This photo shows two cards, one on top of the other, one with a straight edge (bottom) and the other with a narrow distressed edge. I will probably widen that edge - to do that all you have to do is just keep applying the file, but angle it closer down toward the paper. Experiment on cheap cardstock first until you get the technique down. I think you could probably do it with a nail file or emery board, too - I'm going to try those next.

The photo below is of a card that's been stamped, had a narrow distress applied to the edge and then had the edge inked. I want a wider edge, so I will distress again and then re-ink, as distressing will remove the ink I've put on it.

Give it a try - let me know if you like it!

Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks, Tiles, Tables and Beads

A couple months ago I was given some ugly old ceramic tiles. As an artisan, everything has potential for me, so when I was asked if I wanted them, I naturally said "YES!" They sat around for awhile and I tried different things, but I could get nothing to stick to them. Color just rubbed off. Then I thought about alcohol inks. I knew about them, but I'd never used them. So I went to that place where craft supplies are soooo expensive and I bought every color they had of Adirondack alcohol inks. Tim Holtz is the expert and purveyor of these fabulous inks.

So I started playing with them. The first photo is my first effort with the inks. It's one of the tiles:

It's much prettier than the photo - the colors I used were Ginger, Latte, Caramel, Cranberry and Gold. I made liberal use of the Alcohol Blending Solution.

Then I got carried away. I had an old ugly table that my neighbor gave me, and she'd painted it white. My decor is all earth tones. So I used the same colors and did the table top. This is how it turned out. Next one I'll blend better, you can see the lines where I had to re-ink my felt - but in some ways it looks nice - my friend, Karel, says it looks like tree rings. :)

What's really cool about this treatment to the table top is that just as I was getting ready to seal it I happened to spill a cup of tea on it. HORROR! Guess what? I'm not sure what the chemical properties of those inks are, but the liquid just puddled and beaded up and when I went to wipe it off, gingerly, so I wouldn't take color off the table, no color came off. None. Not even when I wiped it vigorously just to see if I COULD make color come off.

I don't treat the things I make gingerly. They have to be usable and if they can't pass a "break" test, then it's best they break before someone buys them. These inks passed the "break" test.

Now I just have to finish the table. LOL.

This is my latest effort with the alcohol inks. I inked a tile and have laid out wire and beads in a floral pattern. They're not permanently attached yet, because I'm not sure this is the design I want, but it's an idea.

I love these inks. Since I'm a working artisan, (read "starving artisan") these inks, while expensive, may be worth every penny. I sell my items at local gift shops that cater to local artisans, so we'll see how the tiles sell.

Artfire - Winner of the 2011 Reader's Choice Award at About.com

Artfire-Winner of the 2011 Reader's Choice Award for Handmade Items

Being part of the ArtFire community, I'm pretty proud of this award. Artfire is a great artisan community. Friendly folks and lots of cool stuff to buy. I have a shop there, which I'm still stocking with beads, jewelry-making supplies, swarovski crystal beads and prisms, and a few items I've made. I don't have a ton of stuff there yet, but will have soon. I also take custom orders and can fill bulk Swarovski crystal beads and prism orders at an excellent discount to my customers.

Congratulations, ArtFire!

How To Make Ear Wires

This is a fabulous video for making ear wires. You'll save a lot of money on ear wires if you make your own. If you don't have a flex-shaft, a dremel will work, or you can hand-file (but that takes more time).

These are great for your own designs or to sell in your store. Make 'em! Experiment with them, hammer, don't hammer, use copper, gold, silver - wrap part of the stem above the loop, add a bead below the wrap - do what you want. Basic, easy, and very pretty.

No-Heat Spiral Head Pins

This is a very easy way to make a decorative headpin for your earrings or pendants. This is an excellent tutorial, and for those who don't have a torch, you can make lovely head pins this way, and you can make your bottom coil whatever size you want, depending upon what you are using the pin for. She's using 22 ga wire, but I use 24 half-hard for this.

More Head-Pin Making

This is a more advanced method of making a headpin. She's a bit more comfortable with her torch - While I'm fine with holding my torch straight up like that, and putting the entire pin in the flame, you MUST know where the end of the pin is, because that's the ONLY part of the wire you want in the hottest part of the flame. If you leave the wire in too long, it will melt away, and then you'll have something to toss in your broomstick casting pile. A video for that later. :)

Always, always, quench your metal once you've put it in the flame. I'd dump it in pickle after quenching to help remove any fire scale if I were using sterling silver - fire scale is the dark spots that rise to the surface when silver is heated. It's the copper in the silver and if you're making anything bigger than a head pin, you will need to spend a lot of time polishing this out and it's a pain in the butt.

How to Make Head Pins

This is an easy way to make your own head pins. You can use a creme brulee torch for it - or a hand-held torch, but it's easier with a free-standing torch (at least for me). It's a great technique, and she's absolutely right about using fine silver as opposed to sterling. I've done it with sterling silver and it's a bit harder - it takes longer for one - because sterling is an alloy, made with copper. Keep in mind as you do this that you need to hold your pin vertically because as the bead forms in the fire, gravity will cause it to pull downward, thus creating a sphere, instead of a lopsided lump, which is what will happen if you hold your wire any other way. :)

You can leave your head pins with the ball on the end. To flatten them, I simply used a fine drill bit and drilled holes (very fine bit)in a 2X4. The holes have to be small enough so that you can drop the pin down them, but not have the ball go through. Then I just give the top a whack with a hammer. If you are going to polish your pins, go ahead and use your planishing hammer. If not, use a rawhide mallet, as this will not mar the silver.

Wire Weaving Techniques

This is a technique that is very easy and makes gorgeous jewelry. You can use it for making pendants, bracelets, rings, necklaces, etc. She's got a tool kit that she's selling, and if you want to buy it, I believe her website is shown on the vid. However - I've tried this with my bench vise and it works just fine - most silver-workers have the same tools. For those who don't know how to solder, I'll find a video that will teach you how to solder - it's rather simple, but you do need specific tools and supplies for it.

Wire Wrapping a Roman Cuff Bracelet

If you already know what you're doing, you could also put beads along the middle insert of the bracelet. He's working in square sterling, dead soft, 16 ga. Notice he uses an adjustable drill to twist his wire - it's much faster than using a pin vise.

Wire Wrapping an Emerald-Cut or Octagton Shape Stone - Good Techniques!

He's using gold-filled and gold wire. You can use any kind of wire you want. I'd say start with cheap craft wire before using your precious metal wire, though.

Wire Wrapping a Pharaoh's Pendant.

This is an excellent video for learning specific wrap techniques and at the end, you wind up with a lovely pendant. You can use these techniques on any stone and create variations. I'll be posting more like this soon.

Wire Wrapping the Bracelet Below

What you'll need:

28 ga wire, dead soft
22 ga wire, dead soft
two jump rings
clasp and clasp end
round nose pliers
half-round pliers if you have them
chain nose pliers
flush cutters
a lot of 2mm beads
5-7 beads for the body of the bracelet (quantity depends on size and shape of bead)
Flat surface to work on.
Patience

To create this bracelet (which is not yet finished, because life got in the way) I cut 6 strands of 28ga dead soft sterling wire to a length of approximately 16 inches each. I use dead soft because as you wrap, the wire work-hardens, and if you're not using dead-soft, the wire will become brittle and could easily break in the middle of a wrap. That's no fun.

1. Gather the wires in your hand and smooth them out - just hold them together by the ends in one hand and "smooth" them out with your other hand - this will take a little of the coil out of the wire.

2. Make your clasp eye end. I used the wide end of my round nose pliers, but you could use anything that will make it round and the size you want. It should be small since you will add a jump ring to it. Remember this when you're adding beads - as this will add length to the bracelet. Grasp all 6 wires in the pliers and bend, leaving about 1/4 inch at the bottom of the loop. Holding the loop in your pliers, in one hand, use your chain nose pliers to crimp the bottom of the loop together on both sides - this will bring the extra 1/4" of the loop flush with the opposite 6 wires. You will have a double thickness of wires now.

3. Cut a 6" piece of 28ga wire and begin wrapping toward the loop from the bottom of the 1/4 inch extra portion. The cut ends need to be covered, so you will need to start just a hair below. Wrap all the way up to the bottom of the loop and then continue on wrapping the loop itself. You should end on the bottom side of the loop opposite the side where you started.

4. Cut your wrap wire and crimp the end down smoothly with your chain nose pliers. Not: if possible, don't use ANY pliers on metal that have teeth. They will leave marks.

5. Next, lay the entire length of wire out on your work table and find the two middle wires. Bend the other four away from the middle wires, in opposite directions.

6. Thread the bead of your choice on the two middle wires - I used flat MOP disks - they were much easier to work with than round beads, but you can use whatever you want.

7. Push the bead up tight against the other wires. Choose one of the two middle wires and bend it at a right angle away from the bead. this will be your wrap wire.

8. Bring two wires smoothly across the front of the bead and two wires smoothly across the back of the bead.

9. You should now have five wires at the end of the bead - two coming over the top, and two coming up from the bottom and one in the middle. Crimp those wires together - I just use my fingernails and bend the wire as tightly up against the end of the bead as I can.

10. Take the middle wire that you separated out in step 7, and wrap the other wires with it, wrapping tightly and close together 7 times.

Repeat this process until you have the bracelet the size you want it, prior to adding the clasp hook.

11. At the end of the beads, make another loop exactly like the one you made when you started. Remember to make it small, as you will add a small jump ring and a lobster clasp to it.

12. Now cut some 22 ga wire. You will use this to wrap the intervals between each bead that you've already wrapped with the 28 ga wire. Using the 22 ga lends strength and stability to the bracelet. Wrap each interval, making sure to keep it tight, close and to flatten your ends as well as you can. If possible, smooth them with a cup burr before you start wrapping - this will keep the wires from catching or scratching.

13. Cut a 28ga wire twice as long as the bracelet and add 4 inches. This is the bead stringing wire.

14. Start by wrapping the bead stringing wire tightly around the small space between the starter MOP disk and the clasp end. Wrap tightly. String 2mm beads on the wire until they meet the end of the bead, framing the edge of it. Holding the wire tightly at the bottom of the bead, wrap it around the first interval station three times, with your wire feeding in the opposite direction from the first strand of 2mm beads. Start stringing your 2mm beads again and repeat the steps in the preceding sentences.

You'll be doing half of a figure 8 all the way down one side and then when you reach the end of the bracelet, start on your way back up.

15. Once you've finished the 2mm beading, end by wrapping the wire between the clasp end and the end of the first bead and cut the wire, flattening it so the end doesn't pop up.

16. Attach your clasp ends - you can use whatever kind you choose - I chose a lobster because it's easer to clasp than some.

17. Bend the bracelet (which should be fairly strong and well-hardened by this point) until it fits around your wrist, use your pliers if needed to straighten and flatten areas that need it, put it around your wrist and wear with pride!

More photos coming, but I can't promise them tomorrow. :) Post here or contact me if you have questions. I'd make short videos for it but I'm unfortunately not set up to do that. :(

Bracelet By The Seat of My Pants

So I decided to do some wire wrapping tonight. I thought I'd make a bracelet. I started 5 hours ago, with no clue what I was going to do, so I made a clasp end and went from there. It's all sterling and those are mother-of-pearl flat beads. The MOP frames are 2mm sterling beads. This is as far as I've got with it and I'm putting it up for the night.

It just sort of morphed along, taking shape as I watched (listened to) three movies. Such a socialite I am - at home on a Friday night, watching movies and making a wire-wrap bracelet by myself. Snort.

Making Eye pins and Head pins and when you shouldn't work-harden them

...she said sheepishly after making several dozen head and eye pins and hardening them and then attempting to use them to attach crystals to a silver bracelet, first looping and then wrapping. It's the wrapping part that clued me in. Better to use dead-soft silver, make your pins, and set them aside specifically for those beads where you need to loop around a link and then wrap. It's much easier using dead soft because the wrapping hardens the wire.

Duh.

Online Business For Dummies (Okay, you're not a dummy, but I was!)

A few things regarding the starting and running of your online business. Sometimes, in the rush to make money, we all wake up some mornings and leave our common sense on the night stand. Sometimes it stays there a long time. If it's any interest to you at all, here are a few directives I subscribe to, with regard to managing an online business:

Starting an Online Business For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) (this is because I was an online business dummy!)

Just do it. It's very easy to sit around and think about it. If you think it's a great idea; if you're pretty sure you can make money at it, then just do it. Thought without action will net you a big fat zero.

Don't allow your emotions to run your business.

Be realistic. Learn to say NO to the lure of riches. Once you get started and those first sales start rolling in, it will be tempting to jump all over opportunities to make even MORE money and to jump hard. If you're not careful, you'll soon find yourself over-extended. I got myself in that pickle a few years ago and it was a twisty and exhausting effort to meet my commitments.

Be realistic. Oh, did I just say that? Well, I'm saying it again, for another reason. See next paragraph

Do your research. What is it you want to sell? Is it truly marketable? How big is the market for your widget-thing-whatever? Is there anything similar selling? How is yours better or different? Something about what you have to offer MUST be different and better if you want customers. You know what customers are. They're different from window-shoppers. Customers actually BUY.

Do your research. Yup, you're in an echo chamber. Now that you know what you're going to sell, what's the fair-market value for it? How do you do this? You research. You search online shops that sell items similar to what you're going to sell and you find out if the items are selling. Make lists. You want to sell earrings that are made of precious metal components and high-quality beads. You think they're worth at LEAST $50. Okay. Go do your research, find 30 pair of similar earrings THAT HAVE SOLD, write down the prices, throw out the high and the low and average the rest. That's your fair-market value. Don't be surprised if it's not what you thought it should be.

Undercutting your competition won't always get you the sale. Bottom line is Customer Service. Are you willing to take those extra few steps for your customer, regardless the size of their order, and regardless that it's past your bedtime (here in the US) and they are in another country, wide awake and awaiting a reply from you? If you're not, don't even start the business. Are you willing and able to fulfill custom and special orders? It's a good idea to set yourself up to be able to do this, but to also set realistic time-frames for them. Then, MEET the time frame.

Market yourself. If you are using a site like Artfire or Etsy, you can't rely on their tagging system to do all your marketing for you. Put yourself out there. Make noise and lots of it. Prove that you are knowledgeable with regard to your product. How do you do this? We live in an electronic age. There's this thing called the Blogosphere. Use it. Create several blogs. Utilize the tools on each blog to feed your products to it. Make sure the blog name contains a relevant search term for your business. Mine is the sale of jewelry supplies with a focus on Swarovski beads and prisms. While my blog urls don't have Swarovski in them, my blog names DO have it. It's a hugely relevant search term and it's not broad or general. If I'd simply called my blog "Bead Addiction" I wouldn't be getting the click-thru traffic I'm getting right now to my online shops. My blog wouldn't show up in search results. Be product specific. If you want someone to land on your blog, call it something that has some relation to your business. My business name is ArgentSol. It means "bright sun." That's NOT what I'm selling. I'm selling, primarily, Swarovski items, so that's my primary relevant search term.
When blogging, always be aware of google search terms. You want to use as many of them that are relevant to your product as possible. How will you know what words to use? Do Google searches on your type of product using what you think would be the best search words. See what comes up. Then do a Google search on: "what is the best Google search term for (your product).

Google Adsense. If you can get it to work. Right now, mine's not working and I'm not happy. Google is sending me a PIN so I can talk to them about it. Adsense is a Google widget that feeds pay-per-click ads to your blog. You will want them fed to the right hand column of your blog, and if you can do it, beneath posts. Use your footer for it too. You have to have an Adsense account to do it and it costs you nothing. There is a psychology to the placement and color of Adsense ads, and the most successful blog entrepreneurs follow that psychology and rake in scads of money from click-thrus. It's another source of income for you.

Don't get discouraged if you're not seeing sales right out of the starting block. Instead, investigate. On sites like Artfire and Etsy, if you see other sellers with your type of widget, and they are selling like gangbusters, take a look at their sites and see what's different from yours. Email them. Ask them what they did to optimize. I'd warrant they have a website out there someplace that drives traffic to their shop(s). I don't know a successful online seller in a community like Etsy or Artfire who does NOT have a blog and/or a website.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time up front getting it right the first time. Better that than a lot of time down the road fixing a mess. I know, because I've been there.
Take time for yourself. It's too easy to allow this monster you're creating to eat up every spare minute you have. Set a routine. If it is your primary source of income, set a work schedule, if necessary.

Organize. Very easy to say. Very hard to do. I'm a one-woman show, so I have to do it all. Everything. I'm the purchasing department, customer service department, inventory control manager, order fulfillment department, accountant, admin assistant, and tech support guru for my business.

Ship. Posthaste, post-payment. Get it to them FAST. They'll come back for more. One shipping screw up can cost you 20 new customers because it will show in your feedback, if your shop has a feedback section.

Stop worrying about housework. If, like me, you are running an inventory-heavy business, odds are very good that at least one room, if not more, in your house will look like a nuclear warhead loaded with boxes and padded mailers plowed through. Just deal. Tell everyone else to either deal, or do the housework themselves. Once the money comes in you can hire a maid.

Okay - enough for now. I have things to do - like shipping. I could expound on each of these items and time would slip away. What I DO know is that my blog is driving traffic to my store. I know my search words are working. How do I know this? Because I've had 91 sales in the past 2 weeks. Not really a lot, but a decent start. In another month, I expect that number to be much higher.

Silver Bet

Yesterday, the information I got from a wholesaler's feed is that raw Silver was at 37.90. Today it is at 38.06. I spent two days agonizing over whether I should buy a dealer’s last 4 ounces of 26 ga round silver wire at $37.99. Wow. Glad I did. At this rate, it’ll be over $50 a troy ounce by early June. Actually, I bet it hits $50 before then.

I'm curious, though. Every site I've checked - Kitco, Monex, CNN Commodities, Silver Market News Online and a few others - all have silver at around $36.80 this morning, up from yesterday. So I emailed my wholesaler to find out where they are getting their price and if it is actually a silver-to-gold ratio, which is actually around $39 - and would help to make sense of the price they have on their site.

Still, silver is going up, up, up.

Something I found out this morning - you can buy silver wire directly from Kitco with no minimum order. I'm going to get a quote from them - who knows - maybe they're way cheaper than anyone else, since they deal in such huge bulk.

Wire Wrapping Techniques

I've found a video that clearly show how to do a basic wire-wrapped loop for your creations and also provides some good creative inspiration. I've also included a few links for how-to books that you can purchase from Amazon.

Simple Wrapped Loop for Earring, Necklace or Bracelet Component.
In this video, Monica very clearly demonstrates what I've heard some folks find to be rather difficult to do. It's an easy technique, but requires practice. Something she doesn't say is this: Make sure you're using half-hard or dead soft wire. Wire that is already work-hardened is terribly difficult to wrap in any way. This means you may have to buy some wire to create your own eye pins. I'll include a link for that too.



Here's a link for a good basic wire wrapping book:  More Wirewrapping: The Basics and Beyond

This is also a good book with great images:  Wirework: An Illustrated Guide to the Art of Wire Wrapping

And if you need good quality wire in half hard or dead soft you can get it here:  Sterling Silver Wire Half Round Half Hard 22 Gauge 5 Ft   I would actually suggest browsing this individual's items if you're going to be doing more wrapping than just coiling around an eye loop.  She's got good prices on 26 ga wire  which is an excellent gauge to use for wrapping.  28 gauge is great also.  Actually, her price on the 26 ga half hard is better than I've seen anywhere else.  Wonder how she's doing that, since she's only making $2 on this sale.  The price of raw silver closed at just over $35 a troy ounce today and she's offering 1 troy ounce for $37.99.

If you look at this woman's bracelet, it is crafted completely from sterling wire.  She's used chain maille for some of the linkage work. I own this book:  Beaded Chain Mail Jewelry: Timeless Techniques with a Twist (Lark Jewelry Books) and it's an invaluable tool for making Chain Mail (or maille, if you're fancy) jewelry.

Blue Lace Agate Dilemma

So - I've had this agate for years. I've looked at it, fondled it, hidden it, wired it, unwired it, played table football with it. Until tonight. Tonight, while watching the BBC production of "The Way We Live Now" (David Suchet is sooo sleazy in this production!) I hit on what I wanted to do.

So I pulled out my sterling wire, my wonderful Grobet pliers and my wire cutters. That's when I realized I couldn't find my flush cuts. They sucked anyway and the ones I REALLY want are these: Lindstrom Sidecutter,Flush Pliers because they REALLY ARE flush cutters. Most pliers squeeze the wire too much while cutting, leaving you with an angled and very sharp edge that you have to then file down. These don't. How do I know this? Cuz my silver smithing instructor had them at the studio. They're marvelous. But I digress - this isn't a post about pliers.

Anyway, I've got the agate nicely framed, but my dilemma is how to get the frame to stay on the agate. It positively won't act like a bezel and I'm beginning to think I need this: Wire Wrapping: The Basics And Beyond because I'm just NOT coming up with a great idea regarding how to keep this stupid frame/bezel, whatever you want to call it, on the agate.

Here are some photos. I'm thinking I need to criss-cross wire across the back, wrap once around each corner of the frame and then end with little wire spiral "prongs" - one in each corner of the stone. The stone is gorgeous, and I'd like not to have anything on the front of it, but I don't think I can get away from it, not with cold connections.

Here are four photos of what I've done so far. Anyone with ideas, please post comments!

My Pliers Have Callouses

I've been wrapping wire for years using just my pliers. I was a purist. I could do anything a little board with pegs could do, right? Ahem. Wrong. Well, okay not totally wrong,but it takes me hours to create the intricate designs I want to make in wire when I can do them in a fraction of the time with this little gizmo: Wig Jig Delphi Clear Acrylic Jewelry Wire Wrapping Tool. I bought one last night. It's on the way.

For four years I've avoided Wigjig. Why? Because while browsing the Etsy community late at night, which is when I do most of my browsing and surfing, I stumbled upon a post by an artisan who had some truly lovely wire designs in her studio. Then I read her post. For some reason it stuck to me like glue, and that might be because I truly AM a purist. She stated: "MY designs are all HANDMADE with PLIERS. Everyone else is using a Wigjig and saying they're making their own wire wrap designs. They're not. They've got a toy to do it. I do it the RIGHT way."

I'm surprised I can still quote it - but I can, so that's how much of an impact her statement had on me. I knew I was skilled enough to create the same types of intricate designs that she was creating, and I AM skilled enough. I've been doing it for four years, my pliers have callouses and it's just plain narrow-minded to believe that because one uses a TOOL that makes life easier they are doing something the wrong way.

You still have to work at using the jig. It takes practice, and I suggest starting with some cheap brass wire first. Tomorrow you'll be able to find some in both my stores: ArgentSol on Artfire and ArgentSol on Etsy. 40 yard spools of - well, I can't remember what gauge right now - but I'll look it up tomorrow prior to listing - brass wire for $6.50. That's a steal. I haven't seen that quantity on the web, outside of my wholesaler (who requires a tax ID number to order) for less than $8.00. Tack shipping onto that (I don't charge shipping on any order up to 13 ounces)and you've got a mighty expensive spool of wire. But I digress.

I've decided to also buy this book: Making Wire Jewelry: 60 Easy Projects in Silver, Copper & Brass because I've been wrapping by the seat of my pants and I want to learn correct techniques. I also want to learn NEW techniques. I have a gorgeous cobalt blue crystal sphere and I want to create a lacy, filagree-look hanging "basket" for it in sterling silver. I'm going to practice with the cheap brass wire, first though. I'll post photos when I'm successful.

Take a look at the two items I posted here. I think you'll find them invaluable, whether you're a hobbyist artisan or a professional artisan.

'Nuff said. I need to get to bed.

My job is playing with beads all day. What's yours?

2 weeks ago I got laid off from my oh-so-corporate job. After 30 years in the corporate world, I was GLAD. I don't want to go back to corporate America. If I am to succeed and have my old age taken care of, I can't rely on the corporate conveyor belt to help me do those things. There is no such thing as job security. We can allow corporate America to break us or we can MAKE ourselves without the dubious "help" of a Fortune 500 company.

So, when I got my walking papers, I walked out to my car, drove home with the sunroof open, Joao Gilberto and Stan Getz blasting out of my speakers, pulled in my driveway, walked in my door and said (to my cats) FREE AT LAST! The universe is being kind to me.

In the space of two weeks I've set up two online bead shops.

ArgentSol on Artfire

and

ArgentSol on Etsy

I've set up this blog.

I've researched and found some remarkable wholesalers and have been bleeding money ever since. I'm doubly lucky in that I had and have help with this endeavor.

I'm triply lucky because I have a fairy god-sister who keeps sending me care packages full of food, beads, lotions, potions, soap, toothpaste, shampoo and everything a girl needs. You see, my goal is to get these businesses up and running and then settle in to start writing again. My fairy god-sister is also my stand-in editor and when I get to the point where I feel some security, I will start writing again. We both believe this (trilogy, at least!) book endeavor will go to publication and be a raging success, but first I must have the income to keep me solvent and keep me at home, away from the grasping talons of corporate American middle-management. SHUDDER.

BTW, my fairy god-sister is a beading maven. She has her own shop set up. Please click below and visit it. Once you've landed there, please purchase something. It will help keep a starving bead seller in soap ant toothpaste!

Athena Creations

She's just opened her store, so she doesn't have a lot listed, but keep coming back because even though she works full time and is a single mom, she is SUPERWOMAN and spends every bit of her spare time working her poor little fingers to death creating art from natural stone beads. I think her designs have a lovely simple elegance to them and are timeless. She uses exceptionally fine beads and components, so when you buy from Athena Creations you are getting high quality artisan-made jewelry that, if properly cared for, will become family heirlooms and one day wind up on Antiques Roadshow as her great-great granddaughter lovingly pulls out a necklace and earrings set and gently lays it on the table.

The Roadshow jewelry expert's eyes will bug out as far as they can without leaving their sockets and rolling beneath the table, her jaw will hang open and she will look at Miss Great-Great Granddaughter and say: "I have seen only one other piece like this on the Roadshow and it was more than 10 years ago. Do you know what this is?" Great-great Granddaughter will shake her head no and softly announce: "My mom gave them to me - they belonged to her grandmother, I think, or something like that. I'm not really sure." The roadshow expert will grin broadly and proclaim: "Young Lady, what you have here is truly a rare find. Many years ago people did a lot of their shopping from computers. Do you know what a computer is?" Great-great granddaughter will look puzzled, but will nod anyway.

The Roadshow expert will expound: "Computers were high technology back then and there was a thing called the internet. It was the predecessor to the way we buy things now. Back then, many people would open up 'internet shops' where they would sell their wares. There were many many artisans who attempted to make a living this way, but your great-great - was it grandmother? - was one of those who was hugely successful. Her designs were of an elegant simplicity and they were hugely popular, so popular, in fact, that she was able to quit her full-time job and spend the latter half of her life doing the thing she loved most." Great-great granddaughter stifles a yawn.

The Roadshow expert looks smug and says: "Do you know what that was?" Great-great granddaughter tilts her head to the side, looks at the jewelry on the table and says: "um...was it making jewelry?"

The Roadshow expert beamed and smiled so big that the glint from her extra-white teeth eclipsed the perfectly adjusted lighting in the convention center as she exclaimed "Yes, it was! What a truly SMART girl you are! That was her passion, and that set of jewelry made by Athena Creations was the crown jewel of all her collections."

The Roadshow expert tentatively pushed her forefinger along the edge of the necklace until she reached the agate pendant suspended from its ethereally beautiful beaded chain and said: "You must take very good care of this. Wear it, but take care of it. It is worth $125,000 at auction. You should probably tell your mother to add it to her insurance policy for $250,000 at the very least. It is one of a kind, my dear, and is irreplaceable. The world of artisan-crafted jewelry has seen no better since her time."

Great-great granddaughter had to be taken out on a stretcher and driven home in an ambulance where her mother then collapsed to the kitchen floor at the prospect of taking out a $250,000 jewelry rider on their homeowner's insurance policy to insure the "that junky old thing" that her daughter insisted was beautiful and probably had some value.

The moral of this story is: We never know what the future holds, so we MUST do what we love and do it with passion. The End.

Why I have a Bead Blog

Well, I'm a bead seller. :) I sell Swarovski Crystal Elements (beads, rhinestones, buttons, pendants, etc) and prisms. I also have the beading addiction, so I make things.

I was recently laid off from corporate america and surprisingly, I'm thankful for it. I've been bleeding money over the past two weeks, buying stock for my two online stores: www.argentsol.org and www.argentsol.net

I've also been cramming to fill custom earring orders as well as suncatchers that I sell at the local gift shop.

Currently, I'm sitting at a desk with a laptop in front of me. To my left are three bead containers full of Swarovski crystals ranging in color from Lt. peach to Emerald AB. There is a brass gauge that I use for measuring beads and stones, and a cup full of vintage Swarovski crystal beads that still needs to be sorted.

On top of my desk there are 5 strands of lovely rose-pink freshwater pearls - perfect in every way. I almost don't want to sell them. Like most bead addicts, part of the addiction is the ability to fondle the beads whenever we want. Don't ask. Bead addicts will understand.

To my left are some Hill Tribe fine silver beads, another container full of Swarovski beads, beading wire, three jeweler's files, seven pair of jeweler's pliers. Oh - buy good ones. Mine are Grobet, and they cost a bundle of money but they are much MUCH better than the ones you buy at hobby and craft stores.

Directly across from me is a chair. No one can sit in it and I have two cats complaining about that. It's filled with bead containers. On the floor is a container full of lampwork beads. Oops - there's the pair of green millifiori beads I was looking for last night. They're hiding under my note pad.

A little farther to my left, in front of my bookcase and radiator is a lovely oak table with gorgeous curved iron legs and matching chairs. I think it's a dining room table, but it's currently covered in beads, wire, head pins, eye pins, tool caddy, poly bags, and more bins of beads.

On the floor between the table and the chair that my cats want to sit in are 9 bead totes, each containing a dozen sectioned bead holders. They're full.

The antique edwardian bench in front of my fireplace is littered with wire, more beads, planishing hammer, my jeweler's saw and a roll of blades, as well as a lovely indian-red tapestry pillow - and you guessed it. I added beaded fringe to it. snort!

On the floor next to the lovely edwardian bench is a shipping box full of - OMG - how did you know? BEADS! Mostly Swarovski, but some Czech glass and lots of brand new lampwork.

I've pulled my reading chair in front of my sofa so I can sit and watch movies as I fill orders, count beads, 24 to a pack, into poly bags, or, when time permits, get to work on creating finished product to sell at the gift shop.

I'm awaiting an order from Finding King that contains my new torch, a new set of hammers, a jumpring maker because it's just a pain in the butt to coil the wire, go to my bench, sit down, align the coil in my pin, and hold it steady while I saw through the coil. Inevitably the coil slips and I wind up with my floor littered with jump rings and not one of them is the same size as the other. Hence the jump ring maker.

Behind me is a sewing table. Do I sew at it? HAHAHAHAHAH! No. The top has stacking drawer bins for inventory. The drawers of the table are full of tools and beading materials. Underneath it live my 4,000 poly bags, 300 small gold gift boxes, and two cardboard boxes full of beading miscellany that I have yet to sort.

So, now do you know why I have a bead blog? I'm unemployed, I'm an artist, I'm a trained silver smith and it makes no sense for me to go back into corporate america where I'm a seat warmer. I'm going to make my living through my passion: jewelry and the supplies to make it.

So if you're a bead or Swarovski addict, as I am, click on my links, (any link will do because I'll be optimized for adsense here in 48 hours, or so they say, but I'd love for you to look at my shops - I have one on Etsy and one on Artfire. I intend to open my own website soon, as well. Baby steps.

Okay, the kitties are circling me with ravenous intent. I believe this means they are hungry. I'm off to feed the ravening hordes.

Just a Glass Cutter...

Are you a bead addict? Like me, are you addicted to Swarovski, all colors, all shapes, all sizes, styles, ANYTHING Swarovski? Okay, I admit it, my addiction extends to anything sparkly but the first time I saw Swarovski crystal was when I was a vintage jewelry seller on eBay. I'd get box lots in, and in almost every one of them there would be multi-strand necklaces. Some of them, while being spectacular from a distance, weren't all that great up close. I started noticing that all of the signed pieces simply had more sparkle than the unsigned pieces. So I started researching. What I found was that the higher-end costume designers used Swarovski crystal in their creations. The lower-end costume jewelry designers (sometimes from the same design house) would use Czech crystal. Czech crystal is nothing to sneeze at, but it's not Swarovski.

The more I researched, the more entranced I became with Swarovski. Then the unthinkable happened. The sparkle addict met a Swarovski prism dealer. This was 7 years ago. The dealer and I are still fabulous friends, and his sales got rather padded that first year of my Swarovski addiction.

Time passed and I caught the beading bug. I started with cheap beads from China, and beads from vintage necklaces that were broken beyond repair. I figured anyone could bead. Boy was I wrong! I think it took about a year for me to truly establish good techniques. Meanwhile, I was selling some rather poorly crafted jewelry made with cheap components. I don't know; maybe we all start that way.

One day I went searching for better beads. I found a seller who had EVERYTHING. I'd never seen an online store with such SUNSHINE in it! I bought a few things and when my order arrived, there was a little 1" X 1" poly bag with 10 beads of different colors. Samples. And guess what? They were ALL Swarovski. Guess what I did? Yup. That bead seller began to LOVE me.

A few months later I decided to go to my first bead and gem show. I came home with a $400 hole in my bank account. I started creating strictly in Swarovski, Czech glass and hand-made lampwork when I could afford it. I sold a lot to friends and family, but do you know what I liked to do best with my Swarovski beads?

Pour some in my hand and stand in a patch of sunshine. To this day, I love to look at Swarovski in the sunshine.

You're probably asking: "Why did she entitle this post 'Just a Glass Cutter'?" Well, I'll tell you why. Daniel Swarovski was the son of a Bohemian glass cutter. If it hadn't been for that glass cutter, I might not have my addiction. How's THAT for projection?

Daniel Swarovski invented a glass cutting machine that would produce precision-cut crystal glass and he patented it in 1892. 119 years later, Swarovski holds the distinction of being the finest producer of Austrian crystal objects in the world. The trade name and logo has gone through several iterations from a simple Edelweiss flower to S.A.L. and finally to the swan logo with which we addicts are so familiar. As of this writing, the swan logo is being phased out in favor of simply using the name "Swarovski." Well why not? When you're the best, you need not hide behind anything. No abbreviations are necessary, no lovely winged creatures. All you need is your name.

And if it hadn't been for that humble bohemian glass-cutter, I might not have my sparkle addiction. So thank you, Father Swartz (because that was Daniel Swarovski's birth name) for giving us the child who would become the man to change the world of beaded jewelry forever!