Updated: I am RAW (and need your help to stay that way!)

Back in May I received an interesting message on Etsy.  It was from Josh, the Assistant Director of Milwaukee showcases for RAW: Natural Born Artists, an indie arts organization for artists, by artists.  He went on to compliment me on my jewelry (which is always nice!) and told me a bit about their showcases, which take place in over 60 locations all over the world.  I'm going to use his words here - much better than trying to paraphrase:

We focus on spotlighting underground and emerging talent to the public. Every other month we hand-select and showcase 40 local artists in film, fashion, music, visual art, photography, accessories, performing art, hair & makeup as well as DJs etc.

Our showcases typically are attended by 500-800 people, and we always invite press and media, art galleries, and other art industry professionals to give artists optimum opportunity to expand your client base, sell your work, and get your name out there, as well as network with like minded, passionate artists.

RAW's mission is to provide artists with tools, resources and exposure. We exist to give independent artists a platform and voice!

There was more to the message, but this is the gist of what RAW is and does.  The showcases always have a fashion show, bands, and more.  To say the least, I was very curious.  Anyone who tries to make a living in the arts knows how hard it is to find the right venue, and this one sounded different than anything else I've seen before.

I responded to Josh, and we discussed some particulars about the shows themselves and the next one they were planning in June.  Unfortunately, it was right after the Bead&Button Show, and I knew I would be in no shape to be in that showcase or even to attend it.  (I'm always wiped out for a few weeks after B&B!)

At some point my discussions shifted to Sarah Raeke, the Showcase Director for Boston and Milwaukee.  She answered my very plentiful questions with long and involved answers.  I truly got the feeling that she cares for artists, whether or not they commit to doing a showcase.

I looked at the pictures they posted on flickr for Milwaukee's June showcase.  They all looked so young.  I'm firmly in my mid-40s and possibly getting a little stodgy.  I didn't know if I'd belong.  I expressed this concern to Sarah, and she knocked it down.  I shouldn't worry about it, she said.  They include artists of all ages.

Another hesitation I had is that I would have to sell tickets to the showcase, since it's an event more than an art fair - there's the fashion show I mentioned, music, and other entertainment.  I'm more willing to plunk down my own money than others' money, especially on something I've never been to before.

Sarah came to the rescue again.  She said she'd put my name down on the guest list for August, and I could see it for myself.  August turned out to be almost as busy as June, but I went anyway.

The Milwaukee showcases are held at The Rave Hall, where concerts and other events are held.  It was a little dark, a bit loud, a lot hot, and... FUN.  The atmosphere was kind of electric - art and artists everywhere you look.  If you're interested in seeing pictures of this event, here's the album on flickr, but I'm going to link to a few specific pictures. Up on a stage was a "bird woman" (I hope that term doesn't offend her) in a large birdcage, and on the floor to the right were paintings of her (cage included).  Some near-naked woman was up there, too, getting painted.  It might have been this one, but I'm not sure.  The booths (which you can see starting at this page) had jewelry, art, photography, bags, clothes, and more (like this).

I chatted with a few jewelry vendors and one artist to see what they thought about the show.  The first jewelry vendor was Moonchild Designs (check out her Facebook page).  She was very enthusiastic about the show and told me this was her last one before moving to Colorado.  Her pieces were beautiful, and so was her display.  The second jewelry vendor was Maria of MWstyle (check out her Etsy shop), and she had more than just very pretty jewelry!  I liked her hand-painted bags!  She told me she was doing very well, and I could see that she kept busy.

The artist I talked to was Jo of Joywise Arts (check out her website).  While I loved her art (and bought a card of her Olbrich Spring Blooms print!), I will admit that my primary reason for talking to her was because she was older.  It seemed that everyone was young, and, again, I was nervous I wouldn't fit in.  She assured me that I would.

One of the other things that happens at a RAW showcase is that head shots of the artists are taken.  They're posted on flickr, and the artists can use them in their own promotional materials and such going forward.  Remember the whole old and stodgy thing I mentioned above?  Well, I think I'm even more nervous about the head shots than selling tickets.  Sarah said I could opt out, but when I confessed to Jo that I wasn't keen on getting my picture taken, she assured me that the photographer was excellent and knew just how to pose a person for a good picture.  Considering how her picture turned out, I think I might be okay.  One of the head shots in the flickr album just took my breath away.  Check this one out.  It is just stunning.  I know I won't take as good a picture as that one, but I won't shy away from the photographer.

Sarah said I should look her up during the showcase, but I had no idea what she looked like.  The "ticket taker" in the front gave me a description: colorful dress, long sandy-brown hair, about 5'7"... I said, "Um, okay..." and while she was checking a few people in I took a look around.  "Is that her?" I pointed to someone who matched that description, and she said it was.  Whew!  Fortunately I didn't have to wander around the place staring at all the women until I found her.

I introduced myself, and she gave me her undivided attention for as long as I needed her.  She laughed at my jokes ("Everyone is young and hip, and I'm old and need a new hip." - the arthritis has been really bad lately!), and she answered still more questions I had.  We talked about how hot it was, and I said that I thought colder was better than hot, "because you can always put on clothes but can't really strip ... wait a minute... I did see a naked woman getting painted a little while ago.  Never mind!"  We both said we hoped that it would be cooler in the venue in October.

Sarah was friendly, kind, and warm (and not just because of the temperature).  Now, I'm not just saying all this because I'm sending her a link to the blog.  I'm saying this because it was Sarah who (unknowingly) pushed me off of the fence.  If I hadn't have talked with her, I'd probably still be dithering.

When I apologized for interrupting her conversation when I walked up, she said it was okay, as her artists were the most important thing for her.  For some reason, that made me feel like I belonged.  I don't really see myself as an artist - it seems that most of my time is spent marketing and doing all the business aspects of having a business.  But after grappling with it a few days, I decided I am an artist.  I've flirted with that thought before, but now it has firmly taken hold because I have been handpicked to be among other handpicked artists, and I will showcase my art at the "Merge" showcase on October 15th.

I am RAW

Updated with new start time!

Just writing about my experiences has me excited and ready to go.  I can't wait to see what other artists will be there and what the energy will be like.  I can't wait to meet people (artists and attendees) and perhaps collaborate with them in the future (as it is, I've been staring at the card I bought from Jo, trying to figure out how I could make jewelry to evoke the same feel as her piece).  I just can't wait.  I've been thinking about my space and what I can do with it, especially with the petrified wood chunks I posted about a while ago.  I'm planning what pieces I will bring and what I might want to make beforehand.

Here's where the second part of the blog title comes in.  You were waiting for it, weren't you?

I need your help to meet my commitment of selling 20 tickets at $15 each.  Yes, I know the event is on a Thursday night and starts at 7:00p.  (Moved up from the original time of 8:00p.)  If you're in the Milwaukee area at all, I'd like to encourage you to come, even if it's for just an hour.  If you want to stay longer, well, you should have enough notice to take the next day off of work and have a three-day weekend!  MERGE is sure to be as interesting and exciting as the August showcase, with the extra added benefit of me being there!  What more do you need?  :)

Wait, you may not know me at all, so my being there isn't going to be much of an incentive, is it?  I'm going to be flinging this post far and wide, and I'm hoping that there will be a lot of you who don't know me.  Please check out my RAW artist page to read about me and to see some of my jewelry.  I can't control the picture collage on that page - it does what it wants every time the page is loaded.  You can click on a picture to see the whole image and scroll through the rest of them.

Or... you could visit my webpage and its gallery.  That should give you an idea of what I do and what I might bring.  The home page of my website has a calendar of my events, so you can follow me around like I was the Grateful Dead.  I do finished piece shows, like this RAW showcase, but I also do bead shows where I sell kits and tutorials of my designs.  If you make jewelry, please check me out at those shows, too!  More will be added soon - my calendar is filling up!

So, what about those who do know me but who can't attend the event?  Why would you want to purchase a ticket or three?  You know I have an answer for that.  :)  I need your support.  Keeping a small business afloat is tough.  I am expanding (I'm going to have a table in the Artisan Pavilion at the Bead&Button Show next year!), and I need to earn money so I can pay for table costs, make jewelry and kits, and keep designing (so I can make more jewelry and kits).  The opportunities available through the RAW organization are too good to pass up, and I'm hoping they will lead to more opportunities down the road.

But, near or far, purchasing a ticket will not be one-sided.  To show my appreciation, I would like to give you something for supporting me.  If you buy one ticket, I'll send (or give if you come to the showcase) one of my "SDN15 - Dino-spine" pendants (which goes with the bracelet shown above):

It is double-sided (the other side of this one is purple), so you have options!  I love jewelry with options.  It'll come on a simple chain, around 18-20", depending on what I have available.  If you have a particular hankering for a color, let me know, and I'll see what I have in stock.  Otherwise, please let me choose for you.  It'll be more fun that way!

If you buy two tickets, I'll also send you a pair of earrings to match one of the pendant's sides.  They'll look something like this:

Purchase three tickets, and I'll send along another pair of earrings to match the other side of the pendant.

If I'm mailing your items to you, it may need to wait until after the showcase.  I have another show just four days before this one, and I'm going to be pretty busy getting ready for both shows!

Exciting alternative!  If you'd prefer to make my designs yourself, for each ticket you purchase, I'll e-mail you PDFs of designs you choose that add up to $20 from my Tutorials and Kits shop pages.  Yes, that's right - you'll get more than your money's worth in PDF tutorials for each ticket you buy.  For example, you could learn how to make every piece of jewelry shown in this blog post (bracelet, pendant, and earrings) and still have credit left over for another design or two (see my SDN15 page - the "SDN15 - Basics" PDF tutorial is $6, and the "SDN15 - Dino-spine bracelet and pendant" PDF tutorial is $7.  You could get the "SDN15 - Intertwined Pyramids" PDF tutorial, too!).  On top of all that, you can still attend the showcase!  Do not order through my website - just send me your list after you buy a ticket, and I'll e-mail them to you.

Now that you're interested, how can you buy tickets?  There are a number of ways: through my RAW artist page, through Paypal's Send money to friends and family page, by sending me a check, or by handing me cash.  There is a charge for using a credit card through Paypal on the RAW website, but I believe that there is no charge for using a debit card through that "Send money" link above.

Any of the above ways will get you on the attendees list for the showcase.  If you do it through the RAW website, please forward your receipt to traci@creative-pursuits.biz (after you delete any financial details) so I can add you to my gift list as well.  No matter which method you prefer, include a note about which perk you'd like - jewelry or PDFs (and your list of PDFs).

I've created an event on my Creative Pursuits Facebook page, so if you're going, please join the event here.  If there are any changes or updates to the event, I'll be posting them there.

I need to sell at least 20 tickets at $15 apiece by October 8th.  Well, 18 tickets.  My mom has promised to buy two, and that was even before I said I'd be giving jewelry away.  So... 18 tickets.  That's very doable, isn't it?  Update:  My mother and stepfather bought four tickets, so now I only need to sell 16.  Thanks, Mom and John!  Second update:  I now have sold seven tickets.  That means I need to sell 13 more.  Now that the show is opening an hour earlier (at 7:00p instead of 8:00p), I'm hoping that means that more of you can come.

Thank you all for getting down this far.  I know this has been rather long.  I've been working on it all afternoon, so I feel your pain.  :)  I'd also like to thank you in advance for your support.  If you've read this far, then I hope to be receiving your ticket order soon.  Don't delay so I can sleep well at night!  (No comments from the peanut gallery - I know I don't sleep well, but this might help.  We won't know unless you help me out!  Who knows?  This could be my cure for insomnia!)

Again, thank you.  And for those of you still reading.  I have an extra special treat for you:

A rare picture of Pixel and Clinchfield cuddling, taken by my husband while I was slaving away on this blog post.

Review: Ipow Rechargeable LED Light with Clip

(Disclaimer: There will be affiliate links in this post for the lights I'm reviewing and for a USB charger I found along the way.  Purchasing through those links is convenient for you and helps keep this blog going.  Thanks!)

I'm a vendor at a number of different shows throughout the year.  I sell finished jewelry at some shows, and I sell kits and tutorials of my designs at other shows.  One thing I have struggled with throughout the years is how to present my wares so it's easy for the customer to see what I have that might interest them.  I started out with a beautiful dark purple tablecloth but have recently changed to white to increase visibility.  I bought a few small gridwall displays to better utilize vertical space and to increase visibility.

Before my last show (the Art Glass and Bead Show in Madison, Wisconsin) at the end of March, I tried out something new to increase visibility: LED rechargeable lights.  I thought I was fine without lights because there technically should be enough light to see at any venue I vend at, but a friend of mine uses lights and says it really helps.  She recommended I try it, too.

When I went searching on Amazon (because Amazon has everything), I looked into rechargeable LED lights.  The main reason was that I didn't want cords.  I'm fairly clumsy and have gotten caught in a bag handle one too many times.  I don't need something else to trip over when I'm behind my table.  Another very important reason is that some shows charge extra for electricity.  So I'll be paying more for increasing my chances of needing stitches?  No thank you!

I found what seemed to be a suitable light for a decent price:

I purchased the white one (if you view the item there's an option for choosing the color) and padded the order with a DVD and a book to qualify for the free shipping.

The package came pretty quick, and I plugged the light in for a few hours to charge.  I took it to a beading gathering and asked the girls what they thought.  They all agreed it would work fine and that I should get four more to cover the whole table.  I did that, and my table at the Art Glass and Bead Show went from this:

to this:

Yes, it's very subtle.  Let's take a closer look at one section of the table side-by-side:

 

It's not very clear.  Sorry about that.  You can easily see the lights on the top of the displays, but there's also one lighting the trays sitting on the table.

At first, I didn't think the lights were helpful, but I had so many people ask me about them that I thought I should write about them.

Here's a closer look at one of the lights:

Each head has two LED light bulbs:

I was going to take a picture with one of the lights turned on in this position, but it was just too blinding.  You're welcome.

For each head you click the button at the top once for the first light bulb to come on, again for the second light bulb, and again to turn them both off.  So the amount of light is quite variable based on what you need:  one bulb - reading in bed in the dark, two bulbs in one head - inspecting a difficult knot in your beading thread, one bulb in each head - you and your husband reading separate books while cuddling in the dark... you get the idea.

Here's the light with all four light bulbs turned on:

As you can see a few pictures up, the necks on each of the lights are extremely flexible.  We were bending them this way and that, and my husband even clipped the light to the back of his collar and made antennas out of the lights.  He refused to let me take a picture of that.  What a party pooper.

Here's another look with the lights spread apart:

When the lights are bent down close to the object you're trying to illuminate they get really bright.

One thing I really like about these lights is that the light is really focused.  I'm sensitive to bright lights, especially with my peripheral vision, but I haven't had any problems with these.  The necks are so flexible that if any light is peeking out I can bend the head down just a little more, and that takes care of it.

The base is weighted enough to sit on the table as shown, but it also has a nice clip:

The non-slip clip opens to almost 2" wide and has a little pivoting thing to help it grasp onto thinner surfaces.  We had them clipped to the gridwall displays and another thin display and didn't have any problems with a light sagging or falling off.

Each light comes with a USB cord:

Before I bought the first light, I read a lot of reviews on Amazon.  One thing that people complained about was the proprietary plug (the end that goes into the light).  They said that the plug should be a standard USB plug so any cable can be used.  I don't think it's a big deal.  I keep all the cords for all the lights together in one of the boxes the lights came in (I'm storing the lights in a bag so I don't have to fold each of them down to fit back in the box), so I'm only screwed if I lose that box.  I'm keeping it with all my business admin stuff (cash box, receipts, business cards...), and if that bag gets lost, I'm more screwed than losing a few charging cables.

The reviews also stated that the plug doesn't go all the way in.  That is true.  It sticks out by a few millimeters.  It still charges, so that's not a big deal, either.

What I would really like is a charging light.  If it's not completely charged, the light is red.  Once a full charge has been reached, the charging light either turns off or turns green.  That would be nifty.  I couldn't find anything that says how long you need to charge the light, just "Fully Charged For Four Hours."  I don't know if that means it keeps a full charge for four hours or it is fully charged in four hours.  To play it safe, I typically charge the lights at least four hours.  I figure it can't hurt to overcharge them.

The first day of the show was seven hours long, so I tested one of the lights for seven hours.  I turned on the lights right at 10:00, and they were still going at 5:00.  They were dimmer, but they weren't too dim to be of help.  I was very happy with the results of my test.  I would have had to rotate lights throughout the day or be more judicious with how many bulbs were turned on if they ended up dimming faster.  I'm glad I don't have to worry about that.  I just need to make sure I remember to charge the lights before a show and at night for multi-day shows.

Speaking of charging... what's with that USB plug?  It doesn't come with an adapter, so you either have to plug it into your computer or use one of these:

The square adapters are easily available, even if you don't have a phone or device that comes with one.  We scrounged up a few of them, so in the hotel after the first night of the show we played "Rotating Devices."  The first part of the night the lights were charging: two of them plugged into Steve's computer and three of them in various outlets.  When we were ready to go to bed, the lights were put away, and the phones and my iPad got plugged in.

Having five lights, I think it would be nice to have a dedicated power strip where they can all be plugged in.  When the lights are charged, the cords can be wrapped around the strip for storage.  But I'd need five of those square adapters.  I just did a quick search on Amazon, and lookie what I found:

That's too cool.  I've just added it to my wishlist.  This USB charger has 4.5 stars out of over 3,000 reviews, so I'm sure it's a good product.

Let's go back to the hotel, shall we?  The first shift of devices (the lights) have been charging all evening, and we got them all put away to go back to the show the next day.  I plugged my iPad in one of the outlets by the sink, and it wasn't charging.  I thought it was just the way the cable was stretched so the Pad could sit on a chair.  I plugged it in somewhere else and plugged my phone in.  I didn't think about it or check it and just went to sleep.  I was pretty tired and loopy after a very busy day.

In the morning, I discovered that my phone wasn't charged.  *$!%!  (Insert your favorite swear word there - I won't tell you what I actually said.)  Not only was my phone (which I needed to process credit card sales) not charged, that meant that at least one of the lights wasn't charged, either.  We determined that neither of the outlets were working, so I had two lights not charged.  (Repeat swear word, please.)

It was easy enough to determine which lights weren't charged, so those got plugged into Steve's computer, and my phone got plugged into a different outlet while we got ready and had breakfast (about an hour).  I crossed my fingers that everything would be charged enough.  Steve marked the lights with twist ties so we could put them in less critical areas and so we could keep an eye on them.

The second day of the show was only six hours, and they lasted just fine.  There was some dimming on all the lights, but, again, it wasn't enough to be irritating.  Whew!

The one good thing about this whole charging fiasco was that I can show you a comparison:

The light on the left is fully charged, and the one on the right is one of the "twist-tie" lights after being on at the show for six hours.  (In case you're wondering, the necklace is the one I talked about in this blog post.)  You can tell that there's considerable dimming, but it does still give some illumination.

For a more stark comparison let's turn off the lights:

All in all, I'm very happy with the Ipow rechargeable LED lights.  They have a variety of uses outside of craft and bead shows, including reading, putting on a music stand, and giving a little extra light when beading or crafting.  At less than $15 (as of this writing), they're a good value, too.

Check them out!  Here's that link again so you don't have to scroll all the way up there to get it:

 

And here's that USB charger again, in case you're interested:

 

Thanks for reading all the way through this!  I tend to write a lot when I'm excited about something.  If you get one (or five) of these lights for your shows, let me know how it goes in the comments of this post or at traci@creative-pursuits.biz.

I don't know if I can completely give credit to the lights, but I had my best show this year at the Art Glass and Bead Show, but I'm sure they helped.  I can't wait until next year's Show - April 23-24, 2016 - mark your calendars!

Trying a new sample organization method

With every jewelry design I develop I have to make samples.  Sometimes there's just one or two, but for some designs there are many samples when I'm playing with color, size, and types of beads.  Some samples I put out for sale at craft/art shows, some of them I wear, and most of them go out at bead shows (such as the Milwaukee Bead Show that's coming up on October 5th).  Some of them never go out, but I want to keep them separate from other jewelry in case I need them.  Over the last few years, I've amassed quite a number of pieces of jewelry that I have to keep track of!

Here is what I've been keeping the samples in:

This box was supposed to be for samples that shouldn't be sold.  This next picture shows a stackable box of samples that could be sold:

And stamped dominoes were stored in a plastic bag:

As you can see, it's a jumbled mess.  That's not even all of it, either, because I had some pieces on my desk and in baggies fresh from Bead&Button Show class jurying.

A few months ago, Michaels had a 50% off scrapbook storage sale, and I picked up another handy-dandy tote with sixteen photo boxes:

Yesterday I finally sat down with this box, my samples, some blank address labels, and a pen and got everything sorted:

Some boxes have just one design, but some house more than one.  Here's a closer look at some of the boxes:

My handwriting isn't the best, so if it works out, then I'll type up labels to make it look prettier.

Here's one of the boxes close up:

There's a lot in this one.  Others have just a few pieces.

The downside to this system is that it's a lot bulkier than the old "system".  It has to be carried separately instead of tossed into a bin or something.  I also can't have anyone but Steve help me put things away, and I'll have to work to maintain it.  However, I think it'll be so much easier for me to find things as I'm putting them out on the table (or looking for something to wear).  I do need to go through and tag items that should have a tag but don't, but this is a good start.

If you have a lot of jewelry to sell and want to keep the designs separate, keep this system in mind.  Even if you don't sell, if you have a lot of jewelry that you've made for yourself, I could see using a box like this to separate colors or types.

Meet the Teachers Reception

Hi, all!  I'm home from the Meet the Teachers Reception at the Bead&Button Show.  It was a lot of fun, and it was great seeing old friends and chatting with new people.  I sold a number of kits for the Stitched Saucer bracelet that's in the current BeadStyle Magazine (July 2014) as well as a few of the newest designs, Hera's Seduction earrings and SDN15.  Keys and my holiday designs were also very popular.  I need to finish up that shop page, I think!

I'm pretty tired and about to fall into bed, but I wanted to share a few pictures with you first.

Here's a look out over the back half of the room:

You can see a bit of the front half in the upper right of that picture.  There was lots more than that.  When the room was full of shoppers, there was quite a buzz!

Here I am:

One of the people I love running into at the B&B Show is Christi Friesen.  I've talked about her before (most recently in my Polymer clay happy accidents post).  I was able to get a few pictures with her.  One was a selfie that was deleted instantly.   Here is the nicest of the bunch:

One made her daughter giggle, and I promised to e-mail it.  The other was in Christi's favorite pose with tongues sticking out, but I seem to be deficient at that and will not post it.  Sorry, Christi.  If you're at the Show, stop by her booth.  She always has fun things going on, and if you can catch her, you'll love her.

Here is Jan Falk, a felting artist who has three classes at the Show:

She's a fellow Loose Bead Society member, and her pieces are so gorgeous.  Funny thing - at a sale we had with the LBS a few years ago, without us realizing it until later, I bought a piece of hers, and she bought a piece of mine!  Good luck in your classes, Jan!

My final picture is of my "next door neighbor" at the reception, Reenie Oliveto from Designs by Reenie.  She sells the Easy Knotter and now the Bracelet Valet, both neat products.  You'll be seeing more from her on this blog, as I shot a few videos of her demonstrating her products.  If you're at the Show, go say hi - when you walk in, she'll be on the right side against the wall.

Her husband is a Rangers fan, and he sacrificed watching last night's game so he could help his wife.  What a great husband!

Speaking of great husbands, I couldn't have done this at all without Steve.  Thank you, honey.  You mean the world to me!

Now I'm off to bed.  I'm going to change up the schedule a bit that I posted yesterday, so stay tuned!

The packing begins!

I recently realized that I've been working hard for weeks for essentially one night: the Meet the Teachers Reception.  It's a huge night, though, and I want to have as much done as possible so I have a table full of different kinds of designs and kits.

Today I started packing.  I went through my kit bin and made sure my inventory program matched what I had in stock (and made adjustments where there were differences - I don't know how that happens).  I packed the bin more efficiently than I had in the past, so we won't need to bring the small box that held the big keys and the tools.  It's filled to the brim:

I kept the kits for my class (Cobblestone Path) out so I don't have to go digging on Friday.  I'm happy to have three kinds of Xuron tools for sale: Fireline scissors, 4 in 1 Crimpers, and Split Ring Pliers.

I'm glad I had a few sample frames already made that I could use for Hera's Seduction and SDN15:

They still need labels, but that won't take very long.  I'm really glad I won't have to make another sample frame.  I seem to always do that at the last minute.

Other things that need to be packed I've been putting on top of my show rolling cabinet:

It looks like Frisco wants in on the action.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning my desk (the kit-making clutter been driving me crazy) and writing the SDN15 Basics and Earrings tutorial.  I think I can finish it tonight, and tomorrow I can write the add-on tutorials for SDN15 - Captive Crystal earrings and SDN15 - Dino-spine bracelet and reversible pendant.  Those shouldn't take very long because the Basics tutorial covers all of the, uh, basics.  :)

The last of the kits before B&B

I'm sorry I don't have anything exciting to show you today.  I've spent all day working on kits.  These will be the last ones I'm making before the Bead&Button Show Meet the Teachers Reception on Wednesday night.

I got up early, and right after breakfast, Steve and I tackled the keys.  I wanted to have a good selection, so we packaged up seven of each style and each color:

I store the keys by color, but I'm always digging to get a particular style of key out.  While I had everything out and organized, I put the extras of each style in separate bags:

That will make my life a lot easier.

After lunch, I made kits for the Hera's Seduction earrings - six each of the two colorways:

After that, I napped.  :)

I woke up in time for dinner, and tonight I've been working on bracelet only kits for Simple Stitched Saucer, since the article should be out now.

I'm making four each of six different colorways.  I'm at the point now where I can put the packages together, so I should be done tonight.  Yay!

That gives me three days to write the last tutorials and to get everything ready to go.  No problem.  (I hope!)

Riding the Waves simple earrings

It took me three days, but I finally finished writing the tutorial for Riding the Waves.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Steve read it and gave me an A+.

The tutorial covers stitching a spiral, adjusting the length of the core for longer beads, organizing a large number of different kinds of beads, and adding a clasp.  It also shows how to use the One Step Looper to make a pair of simple matching earrings, which I made today:

I did a few other behind-the-scenes today, along with finishing my shop page for this design.  You can check it out here if you're interested.

That's it for me today.  I have two more tutorials I want to write before next Wednesday's Meet the Teachers Reception at the Bead&Button Show.  It'll be tight, but I might be able to get them done.

Key cheat sheet

Happy Memorial Day, everyone (although since it's 10p, you're probably reading this on Tuesday)!  I hope you had a good weekend and sent a thought or two up for those who fell in battle.  I was lucky that my father made it home from the Vietnam war.  If he hadn't, you'd be reading someone else's blog now.  :)  Here's a picture of him and my mother when he was stationed in Hawaii:

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I don't have a lot to share with you on the crafts front today.  I tried working outside on my computer, but the glare was so bad that I got a really bad headache.  I was able to complete the Hera's Seduction earrings tutorial, once I took a nap to clear out the rest of that headache.

I also made up an insert with stitching suggestions to put in with my key kits.  Here's a screenshot of part of that insert:

I feel that will give added value to the kits, and if someone wants to know where to get more, I have that information in there, too.

Did you make anything neat this weekend?  Send pictures to traci@creative-pursuits.biz, and I'll post them here!

My shop is live!

Very soon I'll have pictures from a new stitcher.  I've seen her progress so far, and she's doing a wonderful job!

Today (after we saw X-Men: Days of Future Past) I spent a lot of time working on my website's shop.  I'm going to show you a screenshot of one of the pages, and I'm going to provide a link to it if you'd like to check it out, but in general I'm not going to talk about the shop.  If I make something that happens to be one of my designs, I'll put a link to the shop page, but that will be it.  I want the main focus of this blog to be sharing my processes and projects with you.  I know it seems like most of my posts lately have been about my business, but that's because I'm in heavy show mode.

When I posted about my new website, I mentioned that after a few false starts I went with WordPress.  I was able to find a WordPress online shopping cart that processes payments through PayPal and is pretty easy to implement.  I did have to create a page for each of my designs and place all the buttons (including item name and pricing information), and there were a few other hoops to jump through, but once I did one page, all the other pages were easy.

As of today, I am about 90% finished.  I still need to add kit information and "Add to Cart" buttons for some of the designs, but every page now has PDF and printed tutorial purchase options.  Well, the Tubed Key, or Not Tubed Key page still needs all of the holiday patterns and a few other things, but the rest of the pages with kit options are nearly finished.  The ones where there aren't any kits are finished.  Yay!

Here's what the shop looks like for my "Dainty Flower Earrings" design:

I know it's small, but at the top you can see the menu now has "Shop Creative Pursuits" as an option.  Under that is "Tutorials and Kits", where you can see all of my available designs.  Down the right side is a brief shopping cart and a list of all shop pages, including the Important Information page that has, well, all the important information for my shop.

The main part of the page has at least one picture of the design, a description, links to similar designs if appropriate, a Tutorials section, and a Kits section.

Apart from using PayPal, the thing I really wanted in a shopping cart was the capability to handle digital downloads for my PDF tutorials.  There's no sense for someone to wait for me to e-mail them the PDF if they can access it right after purchase.  How it works is that the customer will get an e-mail with a link to where they can download the PDF.

There is a hiccup for some domains like att.net, though.  Our personal e-mails are with AT&T, and while testing from Steve's e-mail address we found that he didn't receive the e-mail from the shopping cart.  He received the PayPal e-mail but not the one generated from the cart that included the PDF link.  After a few phone calls and a number of tests, GoDaddy told me that AT&T sometimes just deletes "form" e-mails without delivering them.  They don't go into spam boxes - they just. get. deleted.  I'm going to keep an eye out for any digital download sales from att.net and send the link to the PDF over myself just to be sure it gets there.  There's a note in the thank you page letting customers know that if they don't receive the PDF e-mail to let me know.

Except for that little problem, I'm very pleased with how the shop looks and works!  It's clean and simple, and that new stitcher I mentioned before said it's easy to use.  If you'd like to create a shop like this on your own site, e-mail me at traci@creative-pursuits.biz, and I'll fill you in on what plugin I'm using and how the basics work.

If you'd like to take a look at my shop, click here.  I will still maintain my Etsy shop, but that won't have all my designs like this one does.

Keys, keys, and more keys!

When I was deciding what kits to bring to the Meet the Teachers Reception at the Bead&Button Show, I knew I wanted to include the "Tubed Key" kits, which consist of one ~2" key and two ~0.75" keys.  I didn't have many silver keys left (I used an awful lot of them for the wire wrapped keys for the Art Glass and Bead Show Make & Take event), and I was on the fence about ordering more or even making more kits with the black and brass ones I had.

I finally got around to tallying up what sold at the Art Glass and Bead Show, and I had quite the change of heart.  I sold a lot of those, along with my "Tubed Key, or Not Tubed Key?" tutorials and holiday patterns.  I placed an order and was very glad that none of the keys were backordered.  That's been a problem in the past, but this time I was lucky!

Today was spent doing catch-up bookkeeping and adding things to my website, so I didn't get anything new done on kit-making or tutorial-writing.  Tonight while we watched X-Men (we're going to watch all of the ones we have before seeing Days of Future Past), I opened and sorted through keys from the order as well as the ones I still had in stock.

Here are some of the black ones:

some of the antique brass ones:

and some of the antique silver ones:

As you can see, there are three styles, so it can get a little complicated, especially since the shaft on each of the styles is just a little bit different.  The holiday keys are designed for a specific style of key, so I need to have a fair amount of each style in each color handy.

Now that they're all separated, my next task is to package them to look like this:

It's not hard, but it's a bit time-consuming.  Steve will cut the cardstock for the background, and I'll stuff and sticker.

The other thing I worked on today was my website's shop page for the keys.  I'm going to have to have separate buttons for each of the holiday pattern PDFs, so it will take me a little while.

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I'm afraid that's all I have today.  If you've been working on a project and would like to share with the class, I'd be happy to post about it!  Send them (along with explanations of what it is, any challenges you've faced, or whatever you'd like to talk about) to traci@creative-pursuits.biz.  It would be nice to have something different for my readers while I'm mired in show prep.  :)

Making kits with my cousin

Shortly after I wrote my Anatomy of a Kit post, my cousin Dawn offered to help me make kits.  She knew I was feeling overwhelmed, and we haven't spent any alone time together in ages.  I said, "Did you read that post I wrote?  There's an awful lot that goes into making kits!"  She insisted she'd "love" to help me, so I said yes.  Who am I to turn down free help?  :)

She came over this afternoon and left around 8.  I didn't take any pictures of her making kits, unfortunately.  We were much too busy!  We took over the kitchen and had boxes and bags and cutters and whatever all over everything.

We started with some of the simpler kits and banged out 9 Divine Vine kits, 2 Cobblestone Path kits, 2 It's Got Legs kits, and 7 Quadrille kits!

We also made a big dent in the Riding the Waves kits.  There are 24 different types of beads in that kit, and I only have 10 left to do.

This tray is holding five of the kits.  There are three more kits in their own containers.

At one point Dawn bemoaned that she was going too slowly.  I countered that everything she did was something I didn't have to do, and that if she wasn't there, I'd likely be napping, so we were getting a lot done.  :)

Thanks for helping me out, Dawn!  I won't feel quite so overwhelmed anymore, at least until I start the tutorials I need to write.

Very short mini shop announcement

The BeadStyle Magazine for July 2014 is starting to circulate.  A few days ago I wrote about the article I have in it.  Since then I've been working on an online shop.  Today I have a few things done and wanted to show you the page for the Simple Stitched Saucer kits and tutorials, which include necklace and earring instructions.

If you go here, there is a fully functional shopping page.  As far as I know, everything works!

The Tutorials and Kits page is also done, and the links go to pages for each of the designs.  Unfortunately, only two of them are finished.  I'm too sleepy to finish tonight, so I'll work on it later.  I was falling asleep watching TV after dinner.

I did stitch something today - a very small sample of the Hot pink/pink kit colorway for the Simple Stitched Saucer design.  Here are all six colorways:

I'm going to go to bed now.  Tomorrow my cousin is coming over, and we'll be making kits all day.

Let me know what you think of my shop!

New website!

In April I moved my website to GoDaddy.com after a conversation with a friend where she said she absolutely loved it, and the prices were good.  I looked into it and got a great deal where I paid for three years for just over the cost of two years with my old provider.  My renewal with that provider was coming up, so it was perfect timing to move.

I was able to get my current site (written by hand in XHTML) up relatively quickly.  Here's how that looked:

 
It worked well, but I wasn't happy with the mobile site.  The CSS that handled the graphics behind the scenes wasn't working too well, but I didn't want to dig into why because I knew I wanted to change to the "fancy" way of writing websites using a content management system (CMS).  Basically, what that means is that other people have done all the heavy lifting, and all I'd have to do is write words, pick pictures, and link things to menus.  I also want to add an online store, and I couldn't easily do that with my current site.

There are a number of those out there, and today I tried three of them before settling on WordPress.  It's not just for blogs anymore!  I had a lot of problems with the other two systems I tried - Drupal was too complicated for me, and Joomla had an odd error with adding menus.  I called GoDaddy for help with the menu error, and she convinced me to go to WordPress.

Even though it's simpler than writing the code myself, there is an awful lot of work to be done.  I had some problems, but so far I've been able to fix them all myself.

Right now I have all the functionality I had before, plus some extra things like a drop-down menu and links to most of my social networking.  It also looks a lot better on my phone, although it isn't ideal.

Here's how my website looks right now at 10:07p Central time on May 13, 2014:

(I gave the date and time stamp because I could modify it at any time)

Yes, I'm keeping the flowers.  I think they're cute, and I spent a ton of time making the graphic so the tiling works!

You can see on the top right all the little squares.  Those link to my social networking, and you can e-mail me.  Everything else is self-explanatory.  I'm not positive the contact form from the Contact menu works yet.  Steve and I sent messages through it, but I haven't received them yet.

Next up is an online store!

Click here to take a look at the whole thing.  Leave me a comment and tell me what you think, please!