Monday, December 19, 2011

practice makes perfect

With less than two months until my first jewelry show i have been cranking out designs, but haven't spent nearly enough time improving my wire work. It looks easy, but it is a mother trying to get every little loop the same size and shape. This weekend i took some pretty lampwork glass beads and made 45 pairs of earrings for the practice.
Yes, i did say 45.
Yes, that is a heck of a lot of wire work.
I couldn't feel the end of my left thumb and the nail was wrecked, but i feel more confident.
Of course, i now have 45 new pairs of earrings, of which i really would only choose to keep about 5 for myself. So then i thought to myself, Self, you should take those to work and sell them for $5 a pair; they'd make excellent last minute presents.
Indeed.
Then i had to figure out how to transport them and display them. I went with a vintage frame that was in my studio wrapped in fuzzy white fiber so that the hooks wouldn't slip.
Not only did i get practice in wiring, but now i have a good idea about how much time it takes to make certain pieces, a new idea for display and an idea of spacing so i can adjust my stock goals for the show accordingly.
I consider it 24 hours well spent.


ps - if you see anything you like, it's $5 a pair and i'd be happy to mail them to you. ;-) 

6 comments:

Kaaren said...

Purty!

Erin said...

Hey, do you have a Thing-a-ma-jig to help with the jewelry making? The thing that helps with keeping things even? I swear I'm not making it up...see? My friend uses it! it's a real thing!
http://oneartmama.blogspot.com/2011/05/thing-ma-jigs.html

Niki said...

I have a thing-a-ma-jig.
It is really good for keeping things even when you are doing full wire work, but if you're just doing eye hooks or bead loops it is kinda more pain than it is worth.

2 points to Erin, though, for knowing that such a thing even exists!

Douglas said...

I want that one, and that one, and those ones and.....

Niki said...

For $5 a pair you can have as many as you want, baby, but i seem to recall that your ear is pierced at the top, not the lobe.

Douglas said...

Aw, pitts. I fergot...