Markets.

So I finally tried the markets.
After all this time of talking about it and slowly buying display cabinets etc, I decided to try my local Farmers/Craft markets.


And frankly it was terrible.
But 2 things were against me.
1, it was the wrong time of year. So so wrong.
2, it was a poorly chosen place for me to even try.

But all is not lost, as there have been lessons learned and some valuable experience gathered for my next attempt.

For the new year, I am going to go with a big well known craft market in our main city around April. In the meantime I will refine my display and gather a lot more stock, hopefully add some new techniques and put a lot more into my Etsy store. I truly believe that you get out what you put in and in 2013, I honestly didn't get to put much in, so obviously, I didn't get much out of it. I hope to change this in 2014.

I sold my First enamelled piece on Friday! It was the Fox! So of course I will have to make another :)

And below is a picture of the goodies I made for the market, that will go nicely into my Etsy store for the new year and will help fill it out as it was looking decidedly lame.

Lots of enamelled and a few etched pieces and one new small labradorite ring. So I have lots of listing to do, which is super fun....... I really enjoyed making all of these, as along the way I learned a bit more about enamelling and etching and how far I can take things. I've decided I quite enjoyed etching copper and perhaps will do a bit more of it in the future.

We got our daughter a little pool for the school holidays as it's really starting to warm up here. She enjoys it several times a day. It gives her something to do, helps cool her down and it helps her swimming improve. I haven't gotten in it myself yet, but the rate this heat is going, it won't be long before I do!

Em ♥

The Waiting Game.

I've done it.
I've finally applied to a market.
Now I'm playing the waiting game.
Waiting for them to let me know if I can go. Though I'm not going on my own. I don't have enough goodies. So I am going to be sharing a stall with my Mother In Law, who makes handbags. This market isn't anything out of the ordinary. It's a Farmers/Craft market. But I just wanted to get my work out before Christmas, to test the waters. (And to hopefully sell a few pieces!! of course)

So, I have a whole lot to get organised. First off I have these I want to get finished:

 I am totally loving my disc cutter!! It has made my crafting life that little bit easier. All the other shapes I have sawn and dapped and pierced. The flowers have been waiting a while for me to choose their colours (hence the patinas). They're now going to need a super clean up before I can start. The circles are just going to simple pieces, they will help to plump up my stock. I might even dap some of them to give them a little bit more something. Then I need to make all the ear wires to go with them. Not sure yet what I'll do with the small circles, but I have a few ideas.

Below is the animal I have been working on:

I had a hard time experimenting with bails. I didn't want to just pop on a jump ring and leave it at that. It wasn't going to do him justice and it didn't look right. So the bail in the picture is what I finally came up with and I'm happy with it.

Typically today is really humid and so not much fun at the bench. I'm supposed to be finishing up a custom order, will see how that goes. Will probably get to it late in the afternoon. That now seems to be when I spend time at my bench most, between 4pm and 6pm. Whilst making dinner and feeding the baby and so on. It just seems to be the time that I feel like being there the most. No idea why. Clearly I don't get much done, when I'm doing all those other things. But it's working for me right now.

Most likely I will post again when I hear about the market application. Pretty sure it'll be accepted. But there is no point in working like a mad woman, until I know for sure.

♥ Em ♥

Hello.

Well it's almost 2014.
My baby girl is now 6 months old and my eldest is going to be on school holidays very soon. This year has definitely been one of the fastest. Ever.
I am thinking about my goal list for 2014 as this year I've mainly focused on baby (as you do). Next year she will be crawling and walking and eventually talking, so I do struggle to see how I'm going to find that extra bench time I'll need to fulfill my goals. But I'm sure I will manage somehow.


A couple of weeks ago I tracked down a hardware store with foldable market tables and I got one! And I've even ordered a table cloth for it too. I'm actually on Vistaprint right now looking at banners and posters. I'm serious about the markets. I'm dying to see how the locals receive my kind of work.

The enameling experiments continue.
I'm still enjoying it. My other half even offered to buy me a kiln! Yes, That is how supportive he is of my metalwork. Basically though I want to continue to torch fire, until I see a steady sale of enameled pieces. (none have sold yet) I don't think it would be a wise investment if there was no opportunity of recouping the costs. Do you? Right now, I am still able to do decent sized pieces with my torch. Just. It's hard to keep the whole piece hot enough, when you have a large area to fuse.

Instead of a kiln, I am thinking of a nice bench guillotine. I have my eye on a Pepe one. Their smallest. It will help make some of my work a bit swifter. Not a big fan of sawing out big squares and then sawing out the shape. I just want to get in and saw the shape and be done. Especially if there is piercing involved too. Plus I like the idea of being able to cut my own bezel wire easily. Sawing in a dead straight line tends to send me cross-eyed!

Below are a couple of pairs of enameled earrings:

 

The green ones are in my Etsy store and the crescent shapes I'm still yet to list. 

I have been having a play with drawing on enameled pieces with Graphite pencil. My ideas of 'drawing' would just be patterns mainly as I can't draw to save my life. It's a great addition to the enameling. I have found you can even do it on coloured enamel pieces too. 

I have run into a bit of difficulty. I can't for the life of me pin anything (ball up both ends of wire to secure a bail). I have tried a big bushy flame, a very small hot flame and nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. My wire. Just. Won't. Ball Up. Super frustrated. As I really wanted to pin my enameled earrings and pendants. Someone on Instagram suggested riveting, but I'm not really any good at that either. Guess I will just have to practice that, as I really need a solution to attaching a bail to my pieces.

So that is about all for this post. 

Might go and have a little snack before Poppy wakes up.

Have a great week all.

Em ♥