New clasp

Well, Christmas time has come and gone.

Now that I'm done with the presents, I can go back to working on shop inventory. I made everyone one of those rosary-style necklace and earring sets but with a new clasp.

I'm not sure whether I'll offer this instead of or in addition to the current clasp. It's easier to make, and I think it looks a little better, but that's just my preference. I don't want to make the made to order listings too complicated. Once I get started on building inventory, I may just do away with them altogether and list what I've made as I make it. But I like having them there as a visual reminder that you can ask for what you want and I'll make it.

I made a pair of silver and pearl earrings for my brother's wife which will be featured in the shop perhaps next week. I've got enough silver to do that and I'd like some more real silver things in the shop. I'll be ordering my silver metal in a week or so, so I'll have more variety soon, but it still won't be real silver.

Happy holidays to all, and I'm looking forward to 2012.

Howlite in Byzantine

The bracelet has been listed!

I made this bracelet a couple of years ago, back when silver was way more affordable. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back to working in silver. I do have a good amount of 24 gauge wire left, so there'll be earrings and such, but not a lot of my 18 gauge. I have enough for a project or two if I don't have to use a lot. Certainly not enough for chainmaille.

Howlite is a nice stone to use. It's an inexpensive borate mineral - calcium borosilicate hydroxide. It's naturally white, and very pretty. A nice bang for the buck, you might say. Howlite can be dyed very easily, so it is used most often as a turquoise substitute. As you can see, though, it's dyed in a variety of colors. I like the red.

A silver preview

This is an older piece I did that I'll be relisting:

The chain is byzantine and the stone is red howlite. I really like it and it looks great on my wrist, but I'm not a bracelet guy. So someone else can have the pleasure of wearing it.

There will be more silver up on the shop, but for the most part it's too expensive for me to purchase right now. I do have a lot of 24 gauge silver that I'll be making some earrings with. I'll be purchasing a silver metal very soon, but it'll either be silver-plated copper or niobium. Not nickel silver. I think nickel silver is too dull and not white enough.

Anyway, once I change out the clasp to a lobster clasp (which I think is better for bracelets) and get new pictures, the listing will go back up.

Another preview coming later next week.

I'm not great with the blogging, but I thought a status update might be in order.

As you can see from my little Etsy doodad on the right, I've got stuff up on the site now.

The idea here is to have a core of made-to-order stuff while supplementing it with one of a kind or special items that don't get listed until they're made. The whole removable clasp thing is supposed to work in that direction. I've got the chains up there mainly because my focal pendant pieces will be clasps with removable bails. So they can work as focal clasps for my basic chains, or you can put the bail on and use it with any other chain that has a clasp already attached. That's the idea, anyway.

I'm working on Christmas presents at the moment. Can't say what they are, though. Once those are done, I'm going to get back to the big plan.

I need to finish some 20 and 18 gauge chain segments for all the size comparison pictures, as well as the brass segments for the color comparison pictures. After that I'll be adding in more metal colors one at a time. I've also got two more basic chains on my list to learn. And once I get a contrasting metal color (silver is next up, although I'm not sure if it'll be silver-plated or niobium) I've got another neat specialty made-to-order chain to put up. The rosary chain will also be available in all sorts of bead colors. I'll be adding glass beads to the mix and rotating things out as my inventory is used.

I'm also figuring out how to use social media like Facebook and Google Plus pages. So far they seem to be marginally effective, but I'm sure they'll become a valuable networking/marketing tool. Likewise, I want to try out some advertising. Etsy has a program that I might use in conjunction with Project Wonderful.

I haven't seriously thought about craft/vendor shows yet, but once I get the shop in order I think that's a direction I need to explore, if only to give exposure to the Etsy shop.

And then there's the lampworking... I really should get some pictures to put up here. Lampworking is fun.

Sneak Peek

The removable clasp system seems to work pretty well.

I have two copper chains done for pictures, three more to go. I'm going to put up made-to-order listings that will offer a choice of metal for the chains. When ordered, simply tell me which metal you'd like. It'll save me money on listing fees, and I think it's just an easier way of doing it. Of course, if a miracle happens and I get a whole bunch of sales, I may have to reevaluate it, but somehow I think my customer base will be small enough to keep up that way.

My wife took the elfweave chain out for a stroll yesterday to see how it worked practically, and she loves it. The clasp makes its way down to the front because it's heavier than the chain, but I think a pendant would balance that out. She also says that the basic clasp looks nice enough that it works well as a simple focal piece, which is the point. I'm not fond of the S-shape down in front, but she likes it. I'm going to try an M/W shape so it hangs a bit more evenly. But the experiment seems to be a success, so I'm going to go in this direction.

And now, a sneaky peek of the clasp in question:

Coming Back to Etsy

There will be pictures eventually. I still need to set up a photo station, which will probably be outside. I've got a nice little area with lots of indirect sunlight for staging.

I've been refocusing my design work and trying to find an identity for the shop. I can't in good conscience sell anything made of polymer clay, at least not the dragons and magnets I like to make. The clay is too fragile to last. I may attempt to do beads again, but not for a while. I'm experimenting with plastic to make durable magnets and figurines.

In the meantime I'm developing my lamp working skills. I really enjoy messing about with molten glass. I took a beginners' workshop and enjoyed the heck out of it so I bought a hot head torch set. Man it's amazing what difference better tools make! The safety glasses that came with the set supposedly filters out UV light, but it washes out color and actually makes the flare more yellow so I can't see what I'm working with. The torch itself is also much different, but not necessarily inferior. I just have to get used to it. So my few beads so far are a little sloppy, but I'm just working on bead shape at the moment. I'm working on getting a handle on the basics: heat control, flame awareness, basic gestures and motions, bead shape, dotting (adding dots to beads). I'm not getting too complicated with things yet, and I'm keeping my color choices to only a couple of colors. Right now, just black and white.

I do have a couple of beads from the workshop that I really like, though, that I'll be making into focal pieces.

Speaking of focal pieces....

The new focus of the shop is chainmaille and glass. I'd like to be able to make my own focal beads and play around with artistic wire for color and excitement. And because silver is expensive. ;) The focal pieces themselves can also act as clasps for what I hope will be a signature design for Crifmer Creations. It's simple, just some rings at either end and a removable clasp system, but hopefully it'll be nice and distinct enough to identify me.

I've got a checklist of things I want to keep in stock, and I'm working full steam ahead. Hopefully I'll get the store up sooner rather than later. And there will be pictures soon.

Made a new dragon last night. I may or may not put up a sneak preview - depends on how soon I do the scales. I'm trying a new method putting these guys together. I'm doing everything but the scales and then baking the dragon so the body cures, and then I'll put the scales on with a bit of adhesive help from some liquid clay. The theory is it should be easier since I'll have a firm body to work with, and I won't accedentally squish the body out of shape while I'm applying the scales. Also, this way I can experiment more without fear of messing things up too much by mixing the clay if the scales don't come off clean. I can also fix cracks and "moonies" during the scaling step.

That said, I baked the dragon itself last night (it's so cute!). And lo and behold there's a thin crack running along its side. So I'll fix that with some clay and then do scales. I know what color they're going to be, just not what shape.

I've been thinking about ways to do the dragons in stages to better control their construction, and this method may work out.

Meanwhile, I've finished a matching chain for the Marble Ice pendant. I was adjusting the bail this morning, and it broke. But that's okay because the bail sucked anyway. The weave on it was horrible, and now I have a chance to make an all-new bail with a much better weave. I've improved by leaps and bounds since I did this pendant, and I'm glad I get to repair it. The problem is, I'm not entirely sure how yet, but I'm working on an idea which will incorporate a bit of chainmaille into the bail. Preview pictures of that will be forthcoming. Hopefully I can get it finished and on etsy this weekend. I really want more jewelry stuff on there.

Also going to organize the basement a little to get my supplies in order. With all the house stuff we had going on, the basement just sort of became a dumping ground. I've started making it usable again, but it's got a ways to go. At least I can move my stuff off the kitchen table now.

Sedona Pendant Preview

I finished the Sedona pendant last night, more or less. Not quite sure how to finish the bail, but the pendant itself is done.

I'm not as happy with it as I wanted to be. You can't really see the outside wrap around the frame, but I'm not thrilled about it. And I still might scrap the cactus bead on top (it's real cactus). It makes the piece look kind of like a Christmas ornament and it doesn't sit as well as I wanted it to. I used my dremel to put an indentation across the middle so it will sit on top of the frame and cover it, but it's a bit loose.

But overall, I'm not disappointed. This was my first wholly original design, as in it was not an attempt at, or inspired by, a tutorial. And I am very happy with the weave on the right. I think it came out very well.

Not sure if this is going into the shop yet. My fiancee says to list it and see what happens, and if it's sold she'll keep the other one I haven't made yet.

The rock itself is red sandstone from the red rocks are in Sedona. Unfortunately, most of the real red color came off when I cleaned it, but I really didn't want that dust getting everywhere and potentially staining the clothes of whoever wore this piece. I've got other nice rocks from the area, too, and I'll be doing a few more of these.

The burgundy and yellow are inspired by the agave plant. They spend about 40 years growing, flower once to reproduce, and then die. And they're really pretty when they flower.

So that's the first one. I'll post another picture when it's finished.

I think I figured out how to stage the dragons for pictures. Board games!!! My only concern is the pictures are now a little too busy in the thumbnails. That will either turn people off or get them to actually click on the item to see a better view. Not sure which.

That Sedona pendant I started the other night is coming along very nicely. Once I figured out how to do the frame it got easier. Unfortunately, I dropped it and broke one of the glass seed beads so I have to reweave an entire section. Good thing the artistic wire I'm using isn't expensive. It's probably not being listed on Etsy (my fiancee wants it), so I'll put up a picture here when it's done.

Still not sure the showcase was worth the money. Once I get a few more things listed I'm going to try a Project Wonderful ad campaign. But I need a little more variety first in terms of jewelry.

Next up, a dreamcatcher.

Things I have learned...

• You need to have nails for wirework, but you need to NOT have nails for polymer clay.
• Design work involves lots of yelling and cursing.
• I need to do more tutorials to put more "tools in the creative toolbox."
• I am a harsher critic of my work than my fiancee is.
• There are people out there who will actually buy my dragons. I just have to find them.
• I can make some really pretty jewelry.

I sort of let the crafting fall by the wayside a bit while I pursued my full-time-job passion - opening and running a game store (and eventually designing games). I have most of the business plan done, and I made a whole boatload of wonderful contacts, and everything's in place but the money. Ah, money. I've worked hard to repair my credit, and now the only thing that can help me is time. And since I'm in a holding pattern, I can devote some of that time to the crafting hobby.

During the lull, I figured out that I'm pretty good at making little dragons, and have since found the theme for the shop, and my own creative style: whimsy. The non-chainmail jewelry pieces I have done and have planned are all fun and, you guessed it, whimsical. The clay stuff, especially: dragons, face magnets... flowers and plants, eventually, once I get better at canes.

I was trying to design a piece based on my vacation in Sedona, AZ. I brought back a few rocks from the area and I'm trying to turn them into pendants. Apparently the one I'm trying to do now is a little too advanced for me to figure out how to do it. I wasted quite a bit of copper this evening. And as I write this, I think I figured out what I did wrong and how to do it right. Maybe I should blog more often.

In other news, I purchased a Showcase spot in the Dolls & Miniatures section on Etsy. Not sure it was worth the money, but it did drive some traffic to my shop.

Back to work.

I'm trying to solidify some sort of store image. I let all the polymer clay stuff expire, and I'm leaving it all as craft faire fodder. I'll still be working on my magnets and globbers and whatever (plants and dragons, oh my!) but unless I feel the price point can be over 10 or 15 dollars, it's not worth it to list them in the shop. When I get a bit more comfortable with skinner blends and canework, the flowers and dragons will probably hit that price point.

For now, I'm focusing on jewelry. I still have several projects I'd like to finish, so I'm working on all those before going back to the clay. But I really enjoy messing about with clay, so I won't stay away long.

My love for chainmaille has reemerged, so that's what I'm doing at present. Desiging a ring at the moment. The first try is pretty good, but needs work. I'll put up a picture when I finish it. It's almost what I'm going for, but has some pesky details to iron out.

I just wanted to post something to say that I'm still alive and haven't given up on Crifmer Creations.

We're having our bathroom redone at home, so the past month or so has been crazy with preparation, and now the house is five shades of disarray... couple that with limited funds for supplies, and I haven't been doing much crafting.

I need to finish that telephone wire piece I was playing with and figure out a better clasp, and I have a couple of other projects in mind. One of them being a housing for that art glass my mother gave me.

I got a very nice compliment on my style choices for the two marble pieces I did, and it's been in my mind lately. I was going to skip over to some other technique-oriented piece, but I have this luckstone, see... at least, it was called a luckstone. It's green and I can't remember what the real name of it is. But I'm getting an idea to do a cage for it as well. Once I clean up my work area a little and get my equipment in order, I'll start messing around.

Advertising

Now that I've got stuff in the shop, I have to think about selling it.

You can post in the Promotions forum of Etsy until your fingers fall off.. it seems to me that that's really not an effective way to advertise. Yes, people probably go in there looking for new items and deals and such, but it looks like there're far more sellers than buyers frequenting that forum, all trying to promote their product. And most of the promotion threads are firesale threads. Bah.

Really, to promote effectively, you need to first find your market. That's one of my bigger hurdles. I make jewelry..... and anything else that comes to mind. So far I've got a bunch of funny face magnets, some globber figurines (of which I will be making more. I like them.), and some random jewelry. We're talking at least two separate demographics.

So I need two different ad campaigns. One focusing on the humorous polymer clay products, and one focusing on the jewelry. And then perhaps a third "general" campaign that just elicits interest in the shop.

For each campaign, I'll need a button, square, banner, half-banner, etc etc... I think there are about seven different sizes of ads I can have. Generally, we'd want these to be static, but animation has its place - button ads, for example, can convey a lot more information if they're animated.

For the moment, I threw together a quick animated button ad. I then quickly made a LOT of bids on Project Wonderful for $0. Probably kind of cheesy, but what the heck. Most of the sites may never display it. I figured I'd try a shotgun approach and see if anything happened.

I will budget money for advertising eventually. The nice thing about project wonderful is it may not actually cost that much, and you get what you pay for. I like their "infinite auction" system. So when I have all my ads, I'll put together some campaigns and actually pay for advertising. Until then, I'm using this guy to do some free bidding and get the hang of using Project Wonderful.

Introducing the Globbers!

Just a quick note to announce a new section of the shop:

The Globbers!!

That little purple guy I previewed before now has some friends, and they're all live in the shop. I enjoyed making them, and I have ideas for more. We'll see how it goes, though. Right now everything's still running up the flagpole to see who salutes, if you know what I mean.

I also got my silver mica powder and have been trying out a recipe for faux balinese silver. It doesn't really look like silver, but I'm told it definitely resembles metal. Maybe pewter. So I'm on the right track. Still looks good, anyway, and I'll be doing a few quick silver-ish things for the shop. Little silver pots for things.

Have to go finish the marble ice pendant now.

Marble Ice update

I remember saying yesterday that I'd have a preview of the new pendant today.

Our boiler stopped working sometime last night, so I've been home all day waiting for the tech to get here. While the situation is not the best, I did manage to be productive, and I have five globbers getting ready to go live on the site. I like doing the globbers. Maybe this will become my signature "thing." It's certainly easier to market than magnet faces and random jewelry.

Speaking of random jewelry, here's a pic of the new pendant:
As you can see, it's going to be bluish, hence Marble Ice. I thought it would be a nice companion to the other one. Those beads in the middle are the only beads in the piece, and I think they look rather nice. This one's going to be pretty, and I'm really getting the hang of wire weaving. The next pendant or two will be net bezels for my malachite attempt.

A friend of mine suggested I do up a bunch of these kinds of pendants for renaissance faires. This is the sort of thing that appeals to the fantasy/medieval people. I should know, being one of them. I already had the idea of marketing to the live action roleplaying crowd, but for some reason ren faires never occured to me. Naturally, the ren faire stuff wouldn't use colored wire. Beads, yes, but no color wire. You can get away with crystal or glass beads like that, but that sort of colored wire could not have been made back then. But that's in the future, when I'm a little better at this. Right now I'm still experimenting, but I like the results.

Hopefully this piece will go live in less than a week. As I get the practice, I'm getting faster with the weaving, so if I really sit down to do it, it shouldn't take me more than an hour or two to finish.

New items and a preview!

Alexi (that yellow alien I previewed earlier) is finally live in the store, along with the Marble Fire pendant. The companion piece, Marble Ice, is coming along well. I'll preview that one tomorrow.

Today is clay figurines!

The first guy is a failed attempt, but only in that it wasn't what I was trying to make. My brother asked me to do one of the Raving Rabbids (from the Rayman Raving Rabbid series of video games.. if you haven't played it, try it out - they're hysterical) as a keychain. Well, the actual conversation was a suggestion that I do a magnet, and the keychain idea sprang from there. Unfortunately, I got the head all wrong, and he's not Rabbid material. But he IS a pretty funny-looking rabbit, so I'm going to finish him up as an Easter figurine.

The other figurine I managed to finish last night introduces a new section to the store: Globbers! Globbers are blobbish guys made of goo. They can change their shapes a bit, but since they're only mostly solid, they can't hold a definite form for long. I got the idea yesterday, and I like how the first guy came out. This is something I'll be playing with for a while - my "Smurfs," if you will. They also have pets called blobbles, but I haven't made one of those yet. Maybe tonight.

I heart St. Patty's Day!

Okay, so this has nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day, really. I had wanted to make a few things for the day, but didn't think ahead enough.

I am, however, trying to make some Easter stuff, and discovered a very humbling thing: I can't make eggs. For the life of me, I can't seem to make a decent egg shape out of polymer clay. I was trying last night to make egg beads for some earrings, and they all came out looking pretty not good. I used the last of my faux marble mixture and made a couple of egg-esque beads, and those look kinda nice, but they're not quite what I wanted. But after sanding and buffing, they'll do. I'll take some pictures when they're baked. I'm going to keep trying, though. When my mica powder gets here, I'm going to go crazy with the balinese silver, and I want to do some nice silver eggs. Not to mention traditional decorated easter eggs.

So instead of showing you what I'm not doing very well, I'm posting a picture of something that came out very nice. There is a wonderful tutorial by Eni Oken that teaches how to make these delightful woven double heart pendants. I wanted to try it out since I first saw it on her web site, and Valentine's Day was the perfect excuse.

Since I didn't have any fine wire at the time, I decided to go with colored art wire. I like colored art wire, and my girlfriend likes pink, so it works out. The bead in the bail was originally going to be the focal bead, but it's too thick. You need a flat bead to fit between the hearts - although with a little creative design you can use any shape bead. I just hadn't thought that far ahead since I was following a tutorial. It was given to me (along with the two silver beads) by her aunt and I thought she would really like that I put it in the pendant. The actual focal bead I made myself out of clay to match the bead in the pendant.

I want to make more like this for the store, although various other shapes. Not necessarily hearts, and not necessarily pink hearts at that. I have a lot of nice flat beads now that have no project to attach to. I have a lot of other nice beads I'd like to do something with, for that matter. When I get done with the second marble pendant, I'm going to try another double shape pendant. I enjoy weaving and I like the look of woven wire.

I also took the plunge and ordered some sterling silver wire. We'll see what comes out of that.

Marble Fire Preview

I was in New Orleans last week, and came back with a lot of ideas. We'll see if any of them make it to physical form.

I finished the first pendant using those faux marble stones I made.

This became insanely difficult toward the end. First, I made the stone way bigger than the tutorial cabochon, so my wires were all the wrong sizes. Improvising is actually one of my strengths, so it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. However, you can see in a lot of places this meant that I had little room to work with, and weaving in tight spaces is... not fun. But boy did it give me practice!




As I completed the cage, I realized that the top and bottom portions were not connected - which meant that it could pry open very easily and bend all out of shape. So I had to close the huge gap in the middle. I was already planning on incorporating beads into the next pendant, and I didn't really want to do any more beads on this one, not wanting to draw away from the black beads at the bottom. But I needed to do something simple. I already had my frame done, and connecting another piece of guide wire would have been more work than it was worth. So I figured out a small bead pattern and thankfully, it turned out all right.

As you can see, the pictures are not so good. I have to retake them before I put this up in the store. But they're good enough for preview pics, so here they are.

Once again, I find myself wondering about pricing. I'll be cruising etsy today trying to find comparable items to see what other people are asking for. My girlfriend said it should be $35, but she just tossed that number off. I'm not sure, but she insists it should be in that range.

Any thoughts?

Preview time!

Some work in progress pics.

I've been working on the Dance Around the Sun project, and already it's not looking much like the tutorial. My frame wires are too short because the cabochon I'm working with is waaaaaaaay too thick. I made stone-shaped beads rather than flatter oval cabochons. It's coming out nice, though. I think having to improvise is helping me understand the process and the order in which to build the frame. The next one will be better for all the guesswork and trial and error I'm doing now, since I'll be able to better map it out ahead of time. I'm really enjoying making this type of pendant and I can't wait to grab some more art wire this weekend... I'm going to give the marble another try, and I'm attempting malachite this weekend.

So here are the progress pics:
It's weird, that first pic should be flipped so it's horizontal. It's that way in the actual picture, but Blogspot is flipping it. Weird. Like all the preview pics, these are just quick snapshots from my work area, so the quality won't be quite as good as the real display photos. You can't see the bail in these, but the bail's nice. The exposed wire on the bottom will be woven/wrapped in red. I should have this done in a couple days. Don't know if it'll be sale-quality yet, but I'm betting not. The clay cracked a little during backing, and while I'm doing a good job of hiding it with the wire, it still may not pass my quality test. We'll see.

The Best Blog Daily Thinker Award

It's nice to be recognized.

I'm new to both etsy and the crafts I find myself enjoying, and already I'm meeting some very nice people whom I hope to become friends with as my journey continues.

I'll admit I'm a little insecure about all this. Insecure about any talent I may or may not have, and insecure that my shop will fail miserably. Insecurity is based in irrational thought. I enjoy the craft, and I like the things I've been making. My girlfriend likes the things I've been making, and my family and friends seem to think they can sell. So I tell my insecurity to go stuff itself and I keep on creating.

Also admittedly, it's very very helpful to have support from strangers and peers, and that happened for me earlier today. I've been pimping my wares on the Promotions forum, and it's actually kind of fun, but I don't know how successful it will be, ultimately. But I've been receiving some kind words for the magnets, which is nice. And now I'm receiving recognition for my blog. I was surprised and flattered when weeknit sent me a convo this afternoon letting me know. If you haven't visited weeknit's blog, you should go do so. It's a very good blog. And visit her store while you're at it. Her finger puppets are absolutely adorable, and I'm pretty sure they'll be part of my holiday/gift shopping this year.

So here's the award:The Best Blog Daily Thinker Award!!

It works a little like this: Pay it forward. Pass it on to ten or so other blogs you think are deserving of the award.

Unfortunately, I don't read many blogs anymore, so I don't really have ten, but here's a few that I'm following that I really enjoy:

Beadwork By Amanda
Belua Designs
Dorset Hill Beads
Piggy's Little Shop

They're all good blogs, and I kept my list to etsy/craft-related blogs. Go read them, and go read weeknit's blog. Share the love. It's helping keep my insecurities at bay so I can keep crafting.

I'll put up a preview of said crafting tomorrow morning sometime. Going to do some clay work tonight while waiting for Lost (and during the commercial breaks), and I'm in the middle of learning a new pendant style that will regularly appear in the shop.