Ok, so I totally fell down on the gift guide thing.

December 8, 2015

So, lucky readers (all three of you!) you get a barrage of ideas all at once! These are for the creatives & makers in your life, and they’re all things I’ve used and loved.

First up: to go with the gel pens, you need a good coloring book. I’m partial to anything by Joanna Basford. Get them on Amazon for ~$10.

Coloring not your thing? Got any knitters in your life? May I recommed the Chiaogoo interchangeable needle sets. I have a Twist Red Lace set, and it’s one of my favorite things! On Amazon for ~$150.

Also for your knitters, Madeline Tosh’s Unicorn Tails. They’re 50-yard mini-skeins of Tosh Merino Light, and I love them for doing colorblocked socks and other colorwork. Find them on yarn.com for $5.49.

This one’s a little more self-serving, but every knitter loves stitch markers. We literally can’t get enough (especially if there’s a cat involved who likes to steal them…). I make cute little laser-cut ones that you can find on Etsy for $15.

Does the knitter in your life need a new pattern? How about the Hue Shift Afghan pattern? I’m dying to make this one — it’s so gorgeous! $4.99 on KnitPicks.

Ok, this last one’s a gift you give someone you really, really love and/or want to spend a small fortune on: the Othermill. It’s a desktop CNC mill controlled by an easy-peasy user interface. I use it to cut silver and gold, but it does less precious materials like linoleum block and wax as well. $2,199 at Other Machine Co.

Stay tuned, because next up — gifts for people who love food & beards!

A fun colorful thing: gel pens

December 1, 2015

I thought I’d get in on the gift-guide-making fun this year. I’m going to shoot for two weeks’ worth of things I love that those in your life might love as well.

Today’s fun thing: gel pens! Like so many, I’ve rediscovered the nerdy fun of coloring as a (mostly) grown woman, and there’s something about the fluidity of gel pens that I especially love.

These guys from Target are $11.99 and have 24 different colors. Go nuts!

Digital tools at the workbench

November 11, 2015

I’ve spent my entire adult life working in some form or another on a computer. I make my living as web developer and designer, so it’s only natural for me to look towards digital tools when designing jewelry. (Sometimes. Sometimes a sketchbook is a better tool.)

I use three things, for the most part: Paper by 53, my iPad with 53’s Pencil stylus, and Adobe Illustrator. The workflow usually looks something like this: I start in Paper, sketching. If I’m doing something I want to run through the CNC mill, I push the sketch from Paper to Illustrator, create vector lines and clean it up.

Otherwise, the iPad comes into the studio with me as a point of reference, and I go from there. If I’m not creating a vector, though, the iPad is usually just a place to dump quick ideas before I forget them. Why not a sketchbook? Because then I lose the things and get mad at having lost their contents as well. Using digital paper, everything lives in the cloud and I can get to it even if I do something stupid, like leave my iPad on an airplane.

Silver-clad brass: maybe my new favorite

November 10, 2015

I have a new favorite metal, particularly for engraving with a CNC mill: silver fill, also known as silver-clad brass. It can look like and be used like solid silver, but when cut or engraved, it renders a lovely two-tone look.

Silver fill is exactly what it sounds like: a core of jeweler’s brass, clad in silver. You can buy it with a single side clad in silver, but I’m partial to double-clad.

I like the double-clad — the way I use it, the side of the metal that touches skin is still sterling silver. People are sometimes sensitive to brass, and it can oxidize badly, whereas sterling silver doesn’t usually provoke an allergy or turn your skin funny colors.

What’s in my toolkit

November 9, 2015

When I started renting space at Scintillant Studio, I found myself in a novel situation: for the first time since I’d started silversmithing, I couldn’t rely entirely on using someone else’s tools. Scintillant provides the heavier lifts — the tanks and torches, flex shafts, polishing tools, and a whole range of hammers and mallets. Hand tools, however, are another story: I had to make a quick investment in buffing wheels & polishes, a jewelry saw, sandpaper sticks, solders and flux, specialty pliers…relatively minor things but all things I’d relied on previous studios to provide.

In the time that’s elapsed since, I’ve continued adding to my toolkit — such that the next time I move studios, I should be in pretty good shape from a tools perspective. For the most part, everything lives in plastic boxes in my locker at the studio, but there are some things I carry back and forth — stones and some of my metal, some of my pliers and polishing cloths live in their own portable kit.

Here’s a breakdown of what lives in my kits.

Pliers & Cutters

Half-round
Forming, graduated
Flat-nose
Needle-nose
Round-nose
Diagonal flush cutters
Xuron flush cutters
Crimp pliers
Shears
Drill bits in varying sizes
Cup burs
Jeweler’s saw and blades

For soldering
Cross-lock tweezers
Titanium soldering picks
Small paintbrushes
Handy-flux

Filing & sanding & polishing
Sanding sticks (200, 320 and 400 wet-dry grit)
Swiss hand file
Swiss needle files
Bur-life lubricant (for everything)
Polishing disks (for the flex shaft)
Rouge & tripoli

Stone setting
Beeswax (great for holding stones while I set them)
Burnisher
Steel bezel pusher
Prong-pusher
Loupe
Hart burs
Stone-setting burs

…Everything else.
Alligator tape
Dust masks (the polishers contain all kinds of bad things nobody should have in their lungs)
Ring clamp
Digital caliper
Center punch

On cutting jump rings

November 8, 2015

Jump rings are those tiny little pieces of metal that you generally never notice on jewelry until they break. If you’ve ever had a charm bracelet, you can think of the jump ring as the metal that holds the charm to the chain.

I use them a lot for pendants and earrings. I used to buy them pre-made from the shop I worked at, or cut them one at a time from wire, which takes forever.

I’ve since learned that you can use forming pliers to make a little spring of wire, which you can then cut apart to make lots of jump rings at once. Game-changer! Except.

Holding that little spring to cut the rings is, for me, an exercise in frustration and patience. I’ve tried a whole host of methods (see here, here, and here) with varying degrees of success, but I find that regardless of how I’m holding the coil, the thing either deforms or slips.

It’s the slippage that scares me most — when the coil moves, the saw moves, and I really, really have had enough of cutting myself with that stupid saw! I’ve found that for the most stability, the thing that works for me is coils short enough to hold in the jaws of my pliers, but that’s not exactly efficient.

Which leads me to a thing I covet: a jig to cut these little suckers with. It’s really a matter of finding time and borrowing tools to make one…one day.

The Tumbler: an update

November 7, 2015

A few months back I posted about my new favorite tool, the tumbler. To quickly recap: It’s a thing that vibrates steel shot around jewelry to polish it, and I love it so much.

However, I’ve learned a few things. It turns out that in the jewelry world (as in so many others), people can be wrong. In my case, both the individual at Scintillant and the Internet were wrong (whaaaa? The Internet, wrong? Why, I never.). Mostly the person who taught me to use the tumbler gave me bad info, and the Internet never directly contradicted it.

Here’s what I’ve been doing wrong (at least according to Adam, the owner of the studio and thus the equipment):

• Filling the basin 2/3 of the way with shot is too much. 1/3 or even 1/2 of the way full is more than enough.
• Too much water, and additionally, the wrong solvent. I’d been adding enough water to cover the shot just barely, plus a squirt of dish soap. The solvent (dish soap) is probably a matter of personal choice, but because Adam’s tools = Adam’s rules, I’m now using no water and about 1/4 cup of a solution that smells an awful lot like diluted ammonia. This jives with another jeweler’s advice to use a solution of ammonia, soap, and water to remove polishing compounds by hand.

Both the shot and the water/solution actually speak to a larger issue with vibratory tumblers, especially older ones that see heavy use: it’s about the weight of the thing. The heavier the container, the more the motor works, which could lead to it potentially burning out. I don’t want to be responsible for that.

Plus, it’s working just as well with less shot and a different solvent, so I have no complaints. The only other thing that I could be doing “wrong” is the amount of time I leave the thing running — Adam swears a half-hour should do it, but unless someone’s waiting, I still let it run for about twice as long.

Roundup: packaging and display

November 6, 2015

You may have noticed a theme this week — I’ve been talking a lot about doing indie markets and craft fairs. I figured it’s only fair to include a roundup of my favorite resources for display, packaging and inspiration.

DISPLAY

There’s nothing like Pinterest for inspiration and resources. I have a whole board full of pins, but here are some favorites:

• My favorite ring displays — these guys have been invaluable. I have a 5-finger one and several singles.
• A self-standing earring board — I made a variation on this that’s easy to break down and store flat. The link also includes a tutorial for necklace boards, which might be my next display project.
• Necklace boards — the owner of this shop has it on vacation, but the concept looks DIY-able.

I’d also recommend some signage, since it’s generally a good thing for people to know who you are. My friend Josh at Duo + Graphics helped me design and print the perfect one for me, but I’ve seen plenty of people DIY these as well.

PACKAGING

This is where I battle between the idea of “branding” and the knowledge that most of my customers are one-time buyers — they’re not noticing if my “branding” is consistent as far as packaging is concerned. It gives me the freedom to experiment with printed materials and packing materials.

• Muslin drawstring bags — I buy mine from Amazon because it’s easy, but you can find them all over the Internet.
• Stickers, postcards & business cards — I’m a big fan of Moo, and they just keep on expanding their product offerings. Stickermule also does customs stickers.
• For mailing pieces, I can’t say enough good things about a sturdy padded envelope. I use 6″x10″ bubble mailers, which I buy in packs of 10 from Amazon. Much cheaper than buying singles from the post office, and more convenient as well.

INSPIRATION

I really had no idea where to start when I started doing indie markets. I used to do the windows and cases at the bead shop I worked in through high school and college, but it became clear pretty quickly that the same techniques that work when things aren’t being handled every few minutes don’t work in a booth setting. Pinterest to the rescue again!

• DandyBeads’ necklace display is one I keep coming back to, thinking I’ll emulate the layout.
• I love this card holder from Bella Cornicello on Etsy — it’s more sophisticated than my current “dump them on the table” display method.
• This table setup is gorgeous — I love the different visual levels and how organized everything looks, without feeling sterile or boring.

You’ll notice I didn’t post any pictures of my own setup. That’s because I don’t like it, and also because I don’t have very good pictures!

Best sellers: stacking rings

November 5, 2015

Now that I’ve done a few markets this year, I’ve noticed something that seems to be a trend:

Every show I do, my absolute #1 best sellers are stacking rings. I make them in sterling silver and 14K gold-fill, in a bunch of textures and a bunch of sizes. I set them out in rough size order on a multiple-finger ring display, and encourage people to touch and try them on.

The one thing I don’t do with my stacking rings is put them on sale. They’re priced the same online and in the real world, and I’ve found that even though I sometimes get a disappointed look or a “wow, these are a little expensive” comment (which I don’t think I’m supposed to hear), the rings still sell at my chosen price point.

This is particularly true of the gold-fill ones. I use high-quality metal from a reputable source, so I can confidently say that they gold’s not going to rub off, and it’s not going to turn your skin green or provoke an allergy. Green skin seems to be of particular concern to many, which I understand — a lot of the gold-toned jewelry I see at indie markets and boutiques tends to be a brass alloy, which can react with people’s skin.

I still need to figure out, though, how to best display the rings to continue to encourage people to touch them without creating a traffic jam at my table — but that’s a rather nice challenge to have!

On prepping for shows

November 4, 2015

One of my goals this year was to take part in as many indie markets and craft shows as I could conceivably do. I was shooting for 12 — one a month — and while I’m definitely not going to hit that number, I’ve done about half that. Even better, I tend to sell well at these shows! Not bad, considering this isn’t my full time job.

So I have methods now to get ready for each show, and to decompress afterwards. Later this week I’ll do a roundup of sources of information and inspiration, but for now, here’s my Foolproof Get Ready for Shows checklist:

• Inventory! I’m kind of a mess in terms of organizing inventory, but I’ve gotten good at assessing what I have, what I need to make, and what I can make in the time between getting accepted and the time I show.
• Spent all the hours in the studio. And by “all of them” I mean every weekend day for minimum six hours. It’s like cramming for an exam, only far more fun and full of fire.
• Obsessively double- and triple-check the size of my booth. The smallest space I’ve had is 4’x4′ and the largest was 8’x4′ in a freezing cold warehouse-turned-public space. It doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but it affects the way I lay everything out.
• Unearth the folding table I recently purchased from its hidey-hole in our tiny apartment and then proceed to take over our living room for several days while I do a trial run of the booth. Our cat loves this part, because it means there are lots of new toys for her to play with.
• Design and print show-specific signs, which then get placed in little frames on the table. These are everything from pricing to policy (no checks, please!).
• Finish, clean and price any new inventory, and if I’m especially on fire, load the details into my Square register.
• Pack everything into a rolling cart for transport, usually the night before load-in. I’ve gotten good at this part, and my setup is compact enough to travel easily by Lyft or Sidecar. This part comes with lots of list-checking, as I make sure that I’ve packed my credit card readers (yes, plural), backup batteries, business cards, cashbox, signage, and OH YEAH THE JEWELRY.
• Hide and recharge. Showing takes a lot of energy out of me — I turn my retail brain on and try to engage with everyone who comes by my booth. Since I’m usually flying solo, this means several hours of being ‘on,’ which I’m not naturally good at. So the night before a market, I’m basically in low-power mode.
• After the show, I hide and recharge again. Usually this involves an evening of wrestling and dinner and Gavin and sleeping like the dead at bedtime. Eventually, I unpack my show-cart and put all the pieces of my booth back in their respective homes…but after my last market, it took two weeks to get to that point.

I feel like this checklist is a little like the Draw the Owl meme, in that I’m leaving out a lot of detail, but I do think that show prep is a process that’s relatively unique to each maker.