Jewelry Making
So, I'm unemployed for the summer. I'm hopefully going to start getting EI cheques soon. I'm looking forward to that. I'm enjoying bumming around the house during the day. I get a lot of cleaning and sorting done, plus I do my Wii Fit every day, play with the cats, try to do some writing and editing, working my garden. A few months back, the lead singer of Tony's band was talking about opening up a second hand store. Somehow it came about that I mentioned I make jewelry (I was probably wearing a necklace that I'd made) and she said she'd like to sell some of my stuff in her store. Since Christmas I haven't made a lot of jewelry, mostly just pieces for myself when I feel like it. I've been making a few more lately, trying to build up an inventory so I can give some to her to sell, plus I may be selling some at a women's festival in August.
Sometime in June, one of my friends saw a necklace I was wearing, one of my favourite pieces I've made, and asked if she could buy it from me. I was reluctant to sell it. I really like it, so she asked if I could make one similar. Unfortunately the store where I bought the beads (The Great Canadian Dollar Store) doesn't have them any more. Michael's have some similar beads (made by the same company but way more expensive) but not exactly the same so I'm struggling to find some beads to make one for her. But still, it's cool to have a project that I'll get paid for, even if it's just a few dollars.
Yesterday, Jackie, the band's lead singer, was talking about what she was going to wear for their gig today and mentioned that she wanted to go find a necklace to match. I offered to make one for her. So I started my second "commisioned work". Now, Jackie's got a big personality and a big voice and I wanted to make something that really suited her. She had a look at the stuff I was photographing yesterday (which I haven't been able to upload to my computer yet because I still can't get my computer and camera to talk to each other) and I showed her a few beads I have. She mentioned she liked my floating necklaces. They're very popular right now. I haven't made many of them, mostly because I find crimp beads a little hard to use. They always end up with sharp corners that catch on things, but they do look very pretty. I'm trying to figure out a way to make the edges less sharp. Maybe a metal file? Or I could get some of the fancy pliers that are designed for crimp beads. That might give them better edges.
Anyway, I came with a quick disign that I thought might work. It was a simple necklace with five teardrops coming down in front. She seemed a little less than enthused about it but in a nice way. So I played around with the design after she left. I didn't have a good pendent, anything really bold that I could put at the bottom, so I ended up combining a few beads together to make a pendent at the bottom and then used some other glass beads and metal spacer beads to make a really interesting floating necklace. The metal spacers give it an almost antique look that I really like and is similar to one of my other necklaces that she said she liked. Hopefully she'll like it too.
I think I'm going to have to go around and measure random people's necks. I try on all necklaces myself but I have a small neck so it's hard for me to keep in mind that although a necklace might go halfway down my chest on me, it might be a short necklace on someone else.
Oh, taking pictures of my jewelry yesterday was so much fun. I have a lot of interesting settings on my camera so I played around with lighting, with the flash, with the background. I first tried having a black velvety shirt as a background but my camera was having trouble getting the colours right with black in the background so I switched to a white shirt and that worked much better. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some pics soon so you can see the fruits of my labours.
Sometime in June, one of my friends saw a necklace I was wearing, one of my favourite pieces I've made, and asked if she could buy it from me. I was reluctant to sell it. I really like it, so she asked if I could make one similar. Unfortunately the store where I bought the beads (The Great Canadian Dollar Store) doesn't have them any more. Michael's have some similar beads (made by the same company but way more expensive) but not exactly the same so I'm struggling to find some beads to make one for her. But still, it's cool to have a project that I'll get paid for, even if it's just a few dollars.
Yesterday, Jackie, the band's lead singer, was talking about what she was going to wear for their gig today and mentioned that she wanted to go find a necklace to match. I offered to make one for her. So I started my second "commisioned work". Now, Jackie's got a big personality and a big voice and I wanted to make something that really suited her. She had a look at the stuff I was photographing yesterday (which I haven't been able to upload to my computer yet because I still can't get my computer and camera to talk to each other) and I showed her a few beads I have. She mentioned she liked my floating necklaces. They're very popular right now. I haven't made many of them, mostly because I find crimp beads a little hard to use. They always end up with sharp corners that catch on things, but they do look very pretty. I'm trying to figure out a way to make the edges less sharp. Maybe a metal file? Or I could get some of the fancy pliers that are designed for crimp beads. That might give them better edges.
Anyway, I came with a quick disign that I thought might work. It was a simple necklace with five teardrops coming down in front. She seemed a little less than enthused about it but in a nice way. So I played around with the design after she left. I didn't have a good pendent, anything really bold that I could put at the bottom, so I ended up combining a few beads together to make a pendent at the bottom and then used some other glass beads and metal spacer beads to make a really interesting floating necklace. The metal spacers give it an almost antique look that I really like and is similar to one of my other necklaces that she said she liked. Hopefully she'll like it too.
I think I'm going to have to go around and measure random people's necks. I try on all necklaces myself but I have a small neck so it's hard for me to keep in mind that although a necklace might go halfway down my chest on me, it might be a short necklace on someone else.
Oh, taking pictures of my jewelry yesterday was so much fun. I have a lot of interesting settings on my camera so I played around with lighting, with the flash, with the background. I first tried having a black velvety shirt as a background but my camera was having trouble getting the colours right with black in the background so I switched to a white shirt and that worked much better. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some pics soon so you can see the fruits of my labours.