Wednesday and its looking good .........

Random earrings - I have made a selection of earrings for the trade show hoping to entice some orders, they are well priced so hopefully I will get orders for a few of these.

I am making up my mini brochure tonight, I only have 70 so I hope it is enough!  I will take extra info but I only have 70 sets of images  .......

Radio 1's Big Weekend is in Carlisle this year so we are going to apply for tickets's which we do every year but have never got any so far, lets hope this year we will be lucky.

Did I waffle a bit yesterday? 

 Feeling positive, getting lots done so time to do a bit of surfing already today ... James Blake is my current favourite singer, here he is at SXSW which I would love to go to one day.

Chill time ................

Why do I do it?

It has been a busy day of getting things ready for BCTF at the weekend.  I only have today and tomorrow as I am working at the Bath House the rest of the week.

I finally received my 700 photographs so I have started to put together my mini info pack to give out to prospective buyers. I have 10 photographs showing each of my ranges,a price list, info on recycled silver and info on me, punched a whole in the corner and tied it all together!  Hope it looks good enough, I think it does and it only cost me approx. £2 per pack so a lot cheaper than getting everything printed.

I decided to do more earrings, just random ones.  I like to keep myself busy!  It helps to have a few lower priced items to get people interested in looking at the rest of the jewellery.  I made 2 more pairs, they need polishing now then they will be ready.

I am still not sure about my display, it is so hard to display jewellery if you want to avoid those naff plastic display stands ........ hope I have done the right thing.  I am making my small 2m x 1m stand look like my studio/workshop!  I have a couple of cupboards, a plant, a mirror, x2 mood boards and a picture frame with jewellery in it.  I have my tools as well which I will place around the area.  Hopefully it will look good.  I will take photo's when I am there then you can judge!

Job Search

This is my problem:

I am very passionate about design and my jewellery.  I don't make a living from it so I have to have a part time job.  Ideally I would just design and make jewellery all day long and get handsomely paid for it.

I currently have a part time job, 3 days a week - 21 hours, working at the Bath House.  It is a mundane job, fun to work there but it pays minimum wage and I travel 30 miles each day round trip.  Financially it is not really worth it so I am looking for something closer to home.  However that poses a problem.  The kind of jobs that I need to do in order to be able to focus on my jewellery are all low paid of course but in this job market now employers can be choosy as they are a lot of people looking for a few jobs.

I am kind of stuck.  I have applied for a few jobs but I don't have the relevant experience, ie restaurant work or bar work. I would be happy to do that part time, I love to meet people and people watch, I even get inspiration in those environments so it would be a great combination but no-one wants me!

I am currently applying for a job that is more hours but better pay and is more local.  The downside is that it means less time for my jewellery.  I think I am just going to have to suck it and see.  Maybe I can fit it all in, maybe I am Super Women!

More images prepared for BCTF Trade show in Harrogate at beginning of April.

Cold sore is still there, annoying me.

Went to Bath House to work today, had a good day and worked hard.
Managed a run after work, had to get out in that sun before it went down.

Back to Bath House tomorrow but will get some more paperwork done at night so I have a tidy desk before next week.

I have developed a coldsore overnight, think its the second one I have ever had.

Dyed my hair, my eyebrows and my lashes this morning.  My eyebrows are the only thing that look different, unfortunately they look a bit caterpillarish!

Anyway, I have another commission to make pendant, its another stone that needs setting so I will get on with that today whilst I am doing my other pieces for the trade show.

I got my photographs done yesterday and sent off to Photobox.  I have done a photo for each range so that I can give these out to prospective buyers rather than a whole brochure.  I think it is more cost effective and definitely less paper stuff so hopefully it will look good.  I will make all my other info the same size as the photo so it fits neatly together.  Might use ribbon to tie it all together...... 

Example of photos for trade show

Progress Report

Everyone left for the day so I went for a run and then got back and started work.

Done my price list, check.
Emotional Design info, check.
Recycled info, check.
Got art work out of attic, check.
Added 2 new pieces to my website and updated homepage. http://www.thejewelleryroom.co.uk/

It feels like I have done far more than that but no that's it.  It doesn't feel bad though, I have achieved a lot.


But anyway back to it ..................