Thing Always Take Longer Than Anticipated

How long does it take to write down the name, number, description and price of 98 pieces of jewelry? Ten hours, that's how long. I had expected to fill the notebook and a Word spreadsheet yesterday. I also expected to get the dishes done, cook dinner and get to Home Desperate for more lumber. I was so very wrong. On the bright side, I did get to sleep before daybreak, unlike when I was bagging and tagging.

After the spreadsheet, which I expect to take a few hours (which means it'll take a couple of months), I am going to have to change all my prices. The numbers, in the process of being crunched, are not adding up to much of a profit. The days of 5 and 8 dollar earrings will have to go. I feel bad about this. I mean, really bad. Do you know how many times I've looked at a pair of earrings for sale and said "Pffft! You have got to be kidding me! Who pays that much for costume jewelry?" You know who? Everybody, that's who. Even the mass produced, machine made bracelets from China that are sold as impulse buys at 99 cent store counters cost 5 dollars. That's 5 dollars at the 99 cent store!

There, I think I've convinced myself that raising my prices will not condemn me to the fiery pits of Hell. Almost. Now the problem will be-- how do I go about doing this. I am seriously leaning towards deactivating everything in my Etsy at once and slowly re-introducing every thing at it's new price. This way I can re-bag and tag accordingly.


So that means you should hurry and visit the shop. These guys won't be eight dollars for long!

Re-Do!

Everything is bagged and tagged because of the craft show, so now is the perfect time to make an actual inventory list instead of relying on my own memory. Which is a very bad idea. Sometimes I forget my own children's names and I only have two of them. ("Eb. . . Jus. . . you know who you are!" You've done that, right?). Surprisingly, I do remember all my pieces. I remember making them and naming them. I just don't remember exactly how many I have nor how much I'm charging for them.

My pricing system goes something like this: What is the price of the materials in this pair of earrings? I dunno. The Swarovski crystals are pretty expensive but the resin beads are damn cheap. These beads were given to me, so they were free. . . um, $5 dollars worth of material? That sounds good. I'll charge eight bucks for it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that even if I sold every piece I've already made, it would not equal my expenditures (again, the number of pieces is unknown to me. For some reason, this fact bothers me the most. I have no idea how many earrings, bracelets, rings and necklaces I have made. None. I R dum) which are partially collected in a plastic bag. My expenditures, I mean. I have a plastic bag full of receipts. These are, by no means, all of my receipts. Just the ones I remembered to put in the plastic bag.

To top all of this off, I have absolutely no idea how many pieces I've sold and for how much. If the piece was purchased through my Etsy-- come visit, buy something and add to the chaos. Do it now while the prices are dirt cheap!-- I have a record of the sale. If the piece was not purchased through Etsy, I have no record and no idea. And I sold a lot through not-Etsy.

Today is re-do day. I will add to my bag of receipts the purchase of one (1) composition notebook into which I will put each piece of jewelry, what it is made of and how much I am charging for it. I will also add more lumber to my bag of reciepts-- for two more, much smaller, Display Thingies. But that will be a story for a different blog entry.


Today's pic is something slightly different. Instead of Art Nouveau it's Art Decco, Nouveau,s angular, geometric cousin.

Fun, Informative But Not At All Lucrative

This fair was held inside in conjunction with a beer garden. In fact, most of the fair-goers walked in from the beer garden. Many of them had condensation slicked glasses of delicious looking beer. The beer garden had wait service for the vendors at their tables. I love beer. Do you see where this is going?

But let's start at the beginning.
How this fair worked: You ask a thousand questions through e-mail (this is very important as you'll not have another opportunity to ask many questions once the fair starts). You paypal your table fee. You get an e-mail back with your table number. You show up at Bohemian Hall a little early because you are eager and chomping at the bit. You find your table number, which was kinda superfluous as the table has both your number and your name written on a sticky paper. You set up.

After spending two days worrying and planning, the planning part paid off big time. It took less than 20 minutes to set up the table:

A few things I learned about my display. I need a mirror. I should make either another gigantic Display Thingy or two smaller ones to flank it. I need a way to showcase my bracelet/earring combos.


The first sale happened as soon as the doors opened to the public. 2 PM start time, 2:05 first sale. Cha-ching! This is great! This is gonna be the best thing eva! I'm gonna make a mi. . . um. . . hello? Two hours pass with only a few looky-loos going by. But there was entertainment.

An hour in the Cupcake Girls showed up and totally pissed off a vendor to the left of me (vintage jewelry). They sold mini two bite cupcakes for a buck. As if that wasn't enough, they wore micro-mini skirts and an apron-- at that's it. They were at the table directly opposite mine, which made Hubby happy. Very happy. Especially whenever they had to replace sold cupcakes on their display. This is because they had to bend over to delicately place each mini-cupcake on it's display stand. They sold a lot of cupcakes. Hell, I bought two. They were nice girls.

An hour and a half in, me and the hubs broke down and bought a mug of beer. We nursed that beer for an hour. But that seemed to break the ice. The vendors to the right of us (original art) also purchased themselves glasses of beer. A quick look at the beer garden's menu showed how economically stupid buying a mug of beer was. One mug of beer-- $6. One pitcher of beer-- $14. Hubby noticed this pitcher enticement when, one by one, the vendors around us started buying pitchers of beer. After nursing our mugs we bought a pitcher too. And then I asked the original artists, "Have you spent more on beer than you've made?"

"I think that's true for everybody. Except the cupcake girls,"

In the end, we did sell more than what we spent on beer as the last two hours things picked up considerably. But not enough to make up the table cost AND the beer. The other vendors, however, were a treasure trove of good advice. All the jewelry sellers (and there were quite a few of us) told me that I am selling my stuff too cheaply. It wasn't because they thought I was underselling them, I don't think. It was more like I was devaluing everyone's efforts. Here's one conversation I had:

"Wow, did you hand wrap those earrings yourself?"
"Yeah. I don't use machines."
"That took you how long?"
"Oh, I dunno. Two or three hours each, maybe."
"And you're selling them for $8?"
"The sterling silver ones are $25."
"Materials aside, you've got to pay yourself!"

Oh and the reason I got to talk to many of the jewelry sellers, besides there being very few buyers for the first 3 hours, was The Display Thingy. Everyone wanted to know where I got it. When I told them I made it (no, I didn't mention The Boy. Why would I? It's not like they'd care) they all wanted to know if I'd consider selling it. No kidding, I got two serious offers for it. Nope, not for sale. It was like pulling teeth just to get this one. And now I'm thinking of making more-- for me.


I would be remiss if I did not mention my wonderful and talented table partner, Hubby. He has table sat fairs in the past, although usually not selling things (he works for a non-profit and is on the board of two other non-profits that frequently set up information tables at street fairs). He'd smile, say hi to everybody. He offered them cards if they didn't like what was on display. He was everything I was not. I have a problem pretending I want to talk to people that I have absolutely nothing to say to. I find it awkward. "Yeah, hi. So. . . what?"

The beer helped.

Next month, either Hofstra or West Hempstead street fair.

The Display Thingy

Tomorrow I do not think I'll be making a blog entry as I'm sure I'll be running around worrying and in no shape to type. The Boy came home at 2, just to drive me that much more crazy, and finished framing it.

Just now, with the last bit of sunlight, I painted it.

I tried searching around to see how much something like this would cost me to buy already made but I can't seem to find anything like it.


Aaaahhhhh. Now I feel all better.

You Wanna Sell Jewelry? Do NOT Follow My Lead.

Whodathunk a daggone framed piece of chicken wire would take so long to make? The Display Thingy remains undone. This is because I have to rely on someone who is not me to finish it off. I had just about had it and was going to frame the thing without the mitered corners but yesterday The Boy finally got his chop saw out and cut and attached. . . one piece of molding. . . before going off to a block party from which he still has not returned. He assures me over the phone that he will finish it today. Which doesn't make me all that happy because it still has to be painted and I need it done by TOMORROW.

The state of the Display Thingy. Note in the background our former work table, smashed into pieces by that bitch, Irene.










I did go to the only place I know of around here that sells earring displays but they only have tiny little six inch high piece of acrylic that would hold, at most, 5 pairs of earrings and make no visual statement at all. Not what I need. Why do I live with such procrastinators? Why do I constantly want to kill the ones I love?

The answer to at least one of the above questions is: From you, Mom! I learned it from watching you! I've known for a while now that I need better inventory tracking. My system up until now worked like this:

1. If the piece is upstairs in the bedroom, they are unfinished, need repair or refinement.

2. If the piece is in the box on the dining room table, it needs to be photographed.

3. If the piece is in the drawer in the computer table, it's ready to go.

4. Put all pieces in a small zip-lock bag.

5. Put all the zip-lock bags into two bigger zip-lock bags- one for silver and one for gold.

6. ???????

7. PROFIT!


I also have a large zip bag stuffed to the gills with receipts. I have no idea what the total is. I do not know the total "worth" of my inventory and I do not know which one of these two numbers is bigger. I do not know what system will replace the above system. In fact, I have no idea how to keep track of pieces, prices and expenditures. To make matters worse, I have no idea where to find a clue as to how to do it.

So totally not the way to run a business. Perhaps I'll re-name this blog: How NOT To Do Anything.

I'm Too Old To Be Breaking Night

I've always wondered what it took to be invited to a craft show. Was it secret contacts in the shadowy world of tchotchkes or under-the-table exchanges of batter-dipped deep-fried dough? Nope, turns out all you need is some sort of natural disaster which causes many cancellations, a holiday weekend and an Etsy with an address close to where the show will be held. At least that's what I think prompted my invitation to the Astoria Market on the 4th by the very patient Diane.

Now you may wonder why I accepted a table for September 4th when I spent the last few days crying about how I'm behind schedule for a craft show on September 24th. The first and most important reason is because I'm coo-coo for Coco Puffs. The second reason is because I didn't want my first experience to be with a big, giant, expensive, jury-paneled, need-a-license type dealie but it was far too late in the season to find a smaller, less expensive, friendlier option. And now I have a smaller, less expensive and friendlier option.

So I spent all of last night (and I mean ALL. I finally got to sleep at 5:30 am, which explains why this entry is so damned late) tagging, mounting and bagging every earring I had. I figured it would be the perfect time to take an inventory of what was on hand but I lost count. I think I have about one hundred earrings. And six finger rings. I'm sure about the number of finger rings.

I did not think it would take that long to tag and bag my earrings but I would be damned if I was going to go to sleep before I finished. And, to be honest, the original goal was to tag, mount and bag everything, not just the earrings. However, I am kinda stuck on how to present the bracelets and necklace and the fucking sun came up right in my eye. It surprised and blinded me. So I pretended my goal was to just finish the earrings and laid down right on top of my wooden lap desk and went to sleep. Another day I was happy I work in bed.

Tools I've Never Used

The only tools I've ever used making jewelry are my pliers and cutters. I do have two different cutters and 5 different pliers, though. Wait a minute, I may be lying. I also have a plastic mandrel. But that's pretty much it. Although I really could have used a jig for these two earrings.

Back when I made all of my own jump rings (that was before I started incorporating chains in my designs) I would have loved a coil makingabob. And a saw. But I didn't have one and I didn't use one. Now I buy jump rings becau. . .

You know, I can't go on. I can't continue pretending that here isn't a 40 foot tree that's fallen in my backyard and onto my neighbors house that I cannot get rid of. Plus, there's something dead back there. A mole, a cat, a raccoon. . . something very dead and very stinky that I am not about to go investigate. There are grown men who live in this house and they oughta be good for something. And that something is investigating the smell of death coming from behind the construction bags of crap.

I am now going to start another 8 hours of calling landscaping and tree removal companies in hopes that one of them will be able to come here and, at the very, very least, give me an estimate on what it will cost to regain my sanity.


Oh yeah, Don't forget to check out my Etsy. Buy some crap. It'll help me with the cost of tree removal, which I'm sure is gonna be more than a dollar.