Slow and Steady wins the Race

click for more detail ©Barbe Saint John/Saints and Sinners®

This little lot is some of the pieces I finished this week. I have a number of components and half done pieces as well. Not as many as I wanted, but the Muse has her own time table and can not be rushed. The seahorse pendants I did months ago, but only the past couple of days came together. As much as I try, I just can't rush my productivity.

Also, I got so many new things to play with I don't know where to begin. Laughable I know, but I feel like a kid at Christmas who wants to play with everything and ends up playing with the empty boxes. Sometimes too much choice is a bad thing if you aren't ready for it. I'm grateful for the abundance, I just need to grow into it a but more.

I got another load of wonderful bezels from Patera I can't wait to create with. I'm in the middle of planning a Saints and Sinners necklace that I'll be using them for. A lot of people asked for one at the gift fair, and it was "on the list" so I decided I needed to DO it rather than just think about it. I also got a box of goodies from Kristin at Retro Art Cafe, that I am dying to dive into. On her blog I read that she just added some exclusive Coffin shrine kits, I think they would be perfect for some demented jewelry! Tomorrow though, I need to take a ton of photos and edit/upload... one of my least favorite tasks.

For some more inspiration, check out this weeks Bead Bloggers!

The writing and art of Andrew thornton. Beadfest Philadelphia was packed with talented artisans and bead-makers. See what Andrew picked out!

Jewelry & Beading Looking ahead to the fall, Cyndi shows how to make a new necklace called "Autumn Arbor".

Katie's Beading Blog Katie's mixing metals and a fun peyote bail with a giant crystal disk.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Lorelei is hosting a Necklace Round Robin, but you have to leave a comment to be entered to win a spot!

Earthenwood Studio Chronices Melanie shows off some fun experiments that she has seen coming out of her studio, mixing copper and pewter

A Bead A Day Have you ever used sterling silver curly-Q tubes in your jewelry designs?? Lisa is searching for cool ideas for these adorable tubes.

Art Bead Scene Art Bead Scene expands the editorial staff and welcomes Lorelei Eurto!

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva Cindy unveils a new series of Art Nouveau inspired beads. In French it's known as "Stile Floreal" and in English it's the "Floral Style."

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi uses shrink plastic to make a neat little bracelet.

About.com Jewelry Making Do you use blogging to promote your jewelry business? Tammy has some thoughts for you on this.

Wire cutters & Hole Punchers Talk & Rock the Vote

I wanted to share my recent tool purchase with you all. My fabulou Swanstom wire cutters with big plush handles and super sharp blades. AAAHHHHHH heaven!!!

I was going to order these from a jewelry supply company when someone said "hey check ebay first". These I got from a wonderful seller on ebay and you can too right here. If you are looking for some, buy from him, you won't be sorry. These cutters are for larger gauge soft wire, and are a dream to use. I was using pre owned/beat up Lindstrom and Swanstrom cutters for smaller gauge wire. I needed to get new ones since they were already beat up when I bought them at a garage sale 4 yrs ago. They are too damaged to get repaired (tips missing, gouges, etc...) so I'll throw them into a box to use in an assemblage someday. I still use the hardware store ones for the steel wire though since steel will dull cutters quick.

My crazy super hero "plier breaking skills" resurfaced again. A couple of weeks ago I managed to break my expensive Swanstrom hole punching pliers! urrrggghhhh!!!

I broke the little post RIGHT off while trying to get a piece of metal off it. So upset at myself and I don't think that can be repaired. I love using these so I decided to get a pair of cheaper version pliers. I did so with a bit of hesitation, because I was sure since they wouldn't be as good as the Swanstrom pliers.

And I'm happy to say I was dead wrong about the cheaper ones, they work BETTER than my expensive ones did! You can get them at Objects and Elements or your local jewelry supply. I have the 1.8mm ones but am going to get the 1.25 ones as well.

Also, speaking of Objects and Elements I want to remind you all that voting has started on the Objects and Elements Summer Color Reader Challenge. Check it out because there are some really fantastic pieces of jewelry up! I had a really tough time picking just ONE to vote on because frankly they are all winners! Please go over and rock the vote!

Oops, I did it again

Papillon Vert ©Barbe Saint John

I created a blog post and it sat in the draft folder instead of auto-publishing! ACK! Well, the info about going to the Urban Stitch show yesterday is now invalid, so I'm creating a whole new entry.

This past week has been full of getting new supplies, tools and making stuff. FUN FUN FUN! I bought some new wire cutters finally and they are HEAVEN! My others are so beat up and dull, these brand new ones cut wire like buttah! I also got a little beehive kiln, since I have been missing my big kiln. It seems to be less hot than the big kiln and I need to get back into my enameling groove but its great to have.

On Wed, I went over to Addison Endpapers in Oakland and loaded up on all kinds of jewelry goodies. I absolutely love Julie, Geneva and Marina, I told them they are the family I should have been born into. They are having a studio sale THIS weekend that you do not want to miss! Aug 28-30th. Three days of all kinds of vintage and antique goodies.

Yesterday I went over to the Urban Stitch show at Roe Bar. It was a gorgeous place with some great vendors but almost no traffic. I hope the organizers do alot more in the way of advertising for the next one, because they did an amazing job of selecting vendors and location. My friend Vanina was there selling her crafty apron tool belts, tshirts and hand painted scarves. I also went over to buy from one vendor in particular that I read about on the Urban Stitch blog - ROCO Modern Fabric Barrettes.

Morgan takes vintage fabrics and creates these super chic, modern, origami style barretes, clips and headbands. Her work is unlike any I have seen before. I snatched up a gorgeous hot pink, gold and green creation that I must post a pic of. She does custom work so I am digging thru my fabrics so I can get more made. I think these would be great for bridal wear too, she could make them to match the dress fabric! Anyway, these hair accessories are simply gorgeous and a STEAL at these prices. Go grab some before she becomes famous and they triple in price!

This week I am going to do nothing but CREATE! Well, thats the goal anyway, I also need to photograph, edit photos, list on the website, etc...all the not so fun stuff, but I'm focusing on the creating!

I also need to post some pics of the adorable Grateful Dogs Rescue dog we are babysiting for 2 weeks, Penny Lane. She was born with a deformed left leg and had surgery on her right patella, so she walks on her front two legs. It's amazing how animals adapt to physical limitations. She is starting to use her right leg again, so she'll be able to walk normal soon. Penny has the cutest little nutty face, and is so sweet. I know the right people are going to fall in love with her and adopt her very soon.

And now some jewelry reading!!!

A Bead A Day Creating a "tiara" for your wrist is easy using Jill MacKay beading components and bicone crystals.

About.com Jewelry Making Check out my beautifully organized list of mixed-media book reviews and find the perfect book to help you mix up your jewelry making.

Art Bead Scene Art Bead Scene gets green findings at the local re-use store.

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi has a short demo on how she came up with a contest entry.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva What do bronze and rawhide have in common? Cindy explains how she uses both in her studio.

Earthenwood Studio Chronices Melanie contemplates taking risks, making changes, and creative experimentation to prevent art burnout

Jean Campbell Jean's whipped up a free vintage button brooch project for you to try.

Jewelry & Beading Cyndi wants to know, what's the best thing you've made so far this summer?

Katie's Beading Blog Katie's project is a free, featured download on Beading Daily.
Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Take a peek into Lorelei's studio and see some cool bead storage solutions!

Strands of Beads Melissa reveals her Use the Muse II Entry, "Briar Rose"

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton Come join the fun in Philadelphia this weekend at Beadfest! Stop by the Green Girl Studios booth to say hello to Andrew and check out all the great new things available!!!

Dealing with Credit Cards online and onsite

When I thought about taking credit cards for the SFIGF, I was a bit nervous. I really fret about getting a wireless signal in the basement of Moscone to call process cards. So I bought and iPhone and did a little research about credit card processing apps.

After looking at a few of them I finally narrowed it down. I opened an Authorize.net merchant account and got the iPhone credit card processor app thru Inner Fence. It's the one you see on the iPhone commercials. I wanted to use it to process credit cards both on my website as well as at art fairs or trunk shows. It's a much better rate then the Paypal I have on the website and the Propay I used for shows in the past. We had no problems getting a signal and it worked like a dream. I am so glad I got it because it was SO handy to have at the gift show. It's really easy to use, and you can set it up to take the customers email if you want and it will email them a receipt of the purchase! I'm still super slow at typing on it, but I definately plan to implement that at the next show I do.

If you have an iPhone, and want an instaneous way to process cards at a show-get this app! You won't be sorry. If you are thinking about getting a merchant account (with or without an iPhone), I highly recommend going thru Inner Fence for the Authorize.net account and they gave me a referral link to pass out too.

Since I had the merchant account, I wanted to integrate it into the website. I '"thought" it would be easy...not so much! At first I couldn't get it to work on Zencart, then Rob tried to help and he couldn't get it to work either. He did some googling and found out you had to have a SSL certificate on the site before it would work. So we got that, then he spent all of Friday(his day off) doing all that messy computer work for me. I would NEVER have been able to figure it out on my own. Thank you SO much honey! Now my website has 2 options to pay either with a credit card or with Paypal.

I am so pleased thats all done and my customers are more secure. And eventually, I'll tackle the dang Quickbooks and the major goals for the year will have been accomplished LOL.

Today, I spent way too much time on ebay trying to find supplies. Good grief its a time sucker, and there is alot less stuff on there than there use to be. I also spent a ton of money online the last couple of days buying new tools, and bulk clasps, jumprings, bezels, etc....I can't wait until the new goodies arrive! I also took some photos of jewelry today, and will resize them tomorrow.

Now, without further adieu there's lots of great jewelry reading thru the Bead Bloggers!

A Bead A Day A Crystallized "Square Ring"! If you have never seen a "square ring", stop by A Bead A Day to see how it has been incorporated into a bracelet.

About.com Jewelry Making Too Much Jewelry Business Success? Is it really possible? And if so, what do you do about it?

Art Bead Scene Art Bead Scene announces the August monthly challenge theme - a beautiful woodcut print.

Beading Arts The simple spiral square stitch can add pizazz to your projects. Learn this easy stitch with an easy-to-follow tutorial!

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi explains how she made her glue gun leather brooch.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva Looking to create a pendant from one of her antique button treasures, Cindy tries her hand at mold making.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie shares her new Shino glaze tests, and ponders about new work.

Jean Campbell Jean helped deliver two babies this week: a new nephew and a new bracelet design

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio There are a couple of new bead and blog books on the shelves at Barnes & Noble! Lorelei's got the scoop!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton The BIG REVEAL is here! Check out Andrew's submission to the Use the Muse II contest!

They like me, they really really like me!!!

The SF International Gift Show has come and gone. It ended on Tuesday but I was so spent from the 4 days of LONG days that I gave myself the entire week off. Only today do I not feel exhausted and beat up! The photo above was taken by one of the amazing people in my section Ms. Jamie Lau. I am sporting as absolutely fabulous feather fascinator by Miss Ruby Sue designer Lori, who was across the aisle from me. I LOVE IT! It's bright purple with pink and red, what's not to love?I think this was day 2? and I am barely awake in the photo LOL.

Don't get me wrong, I had a fantastic time just my body doesn't like getting up at 6am and going until 11+pm for 4 days in a row. It was an amazing experience on so many levels. I'm happy I put aside my fears of worrying about if one of a kind would do ok at a wholesale show.

Another shot of the displays. I learned ALOT about what to do and not to do at these things. I was pretty happy withe the display, although you always seem to be tweeking them after every show. I need something better for the earrings so that is next on my to do list. Pricing everything wholesale was KEY, easier on the buyers and myself. I'll write up some things I learned on a different post.

I had such terrific & positive response to my work that it has really motivated me to do more of these shows. Women were almost fighting over stuff, and I could have sold twice as much if I had it. I came home with about 1/4 of what I took. I would come home each night eat dinner and make a couple pieces of jewelry to take the next day. I even took stuff I had set aside for Artist Xchange, and things I made for myself and as gifts!!! It was crazy and I loved it.

Another huge thing that made this show so great was the camaraderie of the other artists in our little "Haight" section of the show. EVERYONE was really wonderful, we all helped each other with setting up or moving things around. Everyone looked after others booths when people need potty or food breaks, and everyone was super supportive. Even though we had some disasters in our area like as an another sections display crashed onto one of our groups booths and broke her displays, and then when some jerk came thru our section stealing jewelry=everyone was lending a hand to fix, help, hug and lend support. I truly have never done any other show where everyone was so caring about the people around them. Cindy (Hamburger Panda), and Jamie were next to each other and cracking us all up the entire time. Jenny & Jimbob were delightful and I adored their hand decorated matchbox shrines they make for each charm they handcast. Across from me was the cheerleader and beacon of sunshine in our section, Spring of Blac Gurlz Ink. I loved her energy and I know we'll be seeing each other again soon.

Honestly, everyone was fantastic, and I could write a book on them all but I'll save your eyes. The other wonderful people in our little section were: Humble, Squishy Sushi, Beyond Wonderland, Tim Snyder Photography, Tish & Co., Amanda K Lockrow, Beyond Wonderland, Floor Art Works, Funky Chicken Design, Live Your Dream Designs, Meghan Patrice Riley, Mixlexic Press (amazing modern day Illustrated Manuscript art books!), myfriendroze, Rosy Renaissance, UP N' ATOM brand SOAPS. Sorry I dont' have the energy to look up every link, you'll have to google them. I'm gonna get on the soapbox and asking you all - Please, Support your local (and long distance!) artists and spread the love around.

On that happy note I'm off to bed to dream of happy times and jewelry.

Taking a break from tagging & pricing

Aren't we the cutest twins ever? Twins with different mothers & fathers, but the same birthdate.

On Tuesday I got to hang out with Kecia and her adorable son Dillon. We went to dinner and talked and talked and talked. If she didn't have to leave the next morning I know we could have stayed up ALL NIGHT talking! We also did a necklace trade, you can sort of see them in the pic. I tried to take a pic yesterday, but it came out blurry.

Not cleaning the bathroom mirror for a good 2 weeks in a very dusty apt will do that! Anyway, I absolutely LOVE it and you can learn how to make a similar in her class at Art & Soul this Oct. I have been secretly hoping she'd make one for me!

Specimen Necklaces ©Barbe Saint John/Saints & Sinners 2009

I have been busting my tail getting ready for the show this weekend. And having PMS on top of it all has not been helpful. I 've had some display malfunctions and it seems like I'm having to run errands every day to get something to replace something that messed up or isn't working right. URRRRRGGHH! LOL. But I have to set up tomorrow to this is it=what I have, I have to make do with. I've spent HOURS re-tagging the jewelry and putting on seperate tags with the wholesale price. I had most things tagged but had retail prices (in pen of course!) on them, but after talking to a few people that do a number of wholesale shows I was told its best to make it as EASY as possible on the buyers and re tag everything. People are frazzled walking a huge show and don't want to have to do math calculations in their head to buy merchandise.

So I sit for HOURS tagging jewelry, I'm now down to just necklaces. I swear the box is bottomless though. I must have 60 tagged with just as many that need tags. It takes so dang long to do.

I also need to print off my little lookbook/brochures tomorrow (late on that too). I won't be handing them to just anyone so I dont' need to make that many. I can start with 30 for Sat and see how it goes. I MAY also do some one page handouts as well. Yeah, I know thats a pipe dream at this stage in the game but I can dream can't I?

Objects and Elements Reader Challenge

©2009 Barbe Saint John/Saints and Sinners®

Even though I'm in my "evil" time of the month (PMS) and busting my tail for the show this weekend, I wanted to let you all know about something fun.

How do you like this teaser pic?? To find out what it is come join in the fun with the next Reader Challenge over at Objects and Elements! This challenge is all about using color in your handmade jewelry creations. The complete details are on the blog. Can't wait to see what you all come up with! The last one had some AMAZING work!

Busy Busy Bee

Lots and lots to do, with the upcoming SF International Gift Fair. If you are going, I'll be in the Haight Section, booth 2107. Right now, I'm gonna crawl into bed with the laptop and read this weeks beadbloggers!


A Bead A Day Swarovski Crystal Volcano! Are you ready to see sparks of red, yellow and orange?
About.com Jewelry Making Tammy's going bananas over bamboo beads!
Art Bead Scene Learn how to make your own bezel with Art Bead Scene!
Beading Arts Fishing is a fun summertime activity, but even more fun when it results in something to wear!
Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi places some vintage lace/tatting between glass for this lovely pendant idea.
Cindy Gimbrone Want to add charm to your jewelry? Cindy Gimbrone shows you how to make glass nugget charms.
Jean Campbell Jean gives the inside scoop on Rachel Nelson-Smith's upcoming book, Seed Bead Fusion.
Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Lorelei is helping to promote Cynthia Thornton's new book release by offering the 1st of 8 giveaways!
Strands of Beads Melissa discusses her experiences with metal clay safety issues The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton With Swarovski crystals from Artbeads.com, Andrew creates a wire-wrapped dangle bracelet inspired by a fuzzy caterpillar.