Blink! Where does the week go?

One reason I am doing this weekly diary is because it is forcing me to acknowledge just how much there is to do and that time is ticking. It is really hard to focus on working for the holiday season when it is super nice and summery outside. Every day when I hop on my bike to come to the studio there is the temptation to maybe go a longer route to get there. Or to go and meet a friend for coffee on a patio, because it is SO nice outside and you know it won’t be nice forever. However as of today there are 68 days until the One of a Kind show and I have to get moving.

So what did I get done this past week?

3 days of the past week were spent at the Cabbagetown Arts and Craft show. Although I’m focused on the OOAK coming up there is still stuff that happens between now and then. Speaking of which, although it is 68 days to the OOAK it is only 51 days until I leave for Vancouver and the Circle Craft Christmas Market. Yeah, that timeline just got a lot closer.

One good thing about doing a show is that you can see all your work displayed nicely. I took the time at Cabbagetown to think about what I’m showing at the OOAK this year. I tend to make a LOT of work and there just isn’t space to put it all out. And sometimes work that has been doing really well will all of a sudden just stop selling. There is no reason for it, it just happens. So I thought about which lines I’m showing this season and if I should retire some older stuff. I also went through every little bit of jewelry I have and noted it down.

There were some glaring holes, like I only had 1 pair of my Marvellous Horizon earrings. Huh? Those ALWAYS sell! They are the sort of thing that I make 10 pairs of and then all of a sudden they’re gone. The one pair that I had was gone within an hour of Cabbagetown opening. So this week I made 20 pairs. This is production work. It is very satisfying to make a big pile of something. And I made 20 pairs of Fading Sky earrings. And 10 mini pendants in each design. It is so nice to see the inventory bins start to fill up.

I also experimented with some new pieces. I was so so so happy to make a couple of XL Snow Queen necklaces! Keeping the snow queen beads crystal clear and white (and not burning them) in the XL size is something that has eluded me in the past. I made 4 and they were perfect! I sold 3 at Cabbagetown (yay! I knew they were awesome!) so this week I went to make more. That’s when I made the discovery that I was out of the special glass I use for these. And no one in Canada has it. I have called every glass supplier around. I have tracked some down in Oregon, now there is the issue of shipping it here. And there’s some other great glass that I ran out of however it’s only available in Arizona. Good thing I am discovering this with still 68 days to go!

Since I was making XL pendants I played with some other colours and am very happy with the results. The question is, do customers want the XL size? Should I make all the colours I can or just a few? What if I make 2 of every colour but people only like 1 colour? This is where it can be a bit of a crap shoot. Just as soon as I have cleaned out the beads and made them into jewelry I’ll put them on Instagram and Facebook and try to get some reactions. I’d love to make all the colours however that takes time and a lot of booth space to display them all. Right now I’m happy to have them made, new work is good. I can deal with the quantity issue in a couple of weeks.

I experimented with a few other new colours and shapes. My studies in grey continue, admittedly with not the success that I’m hoping for. Of course I know the best work and most brilliant ideas will appear in about 63 days.

I also used the show to take inventory of all my packaging. I need more of everything. Ordering packaging has gone onto the schedule for Oct 15. Lot of time.

Even though it felt like I wasn’t in the studio much, I have to say it was a very productive week. Coming up is more studio clean up, production table organization, production bead work and continued experimentation. No deadlines this week!!!

68 days to go.