Sailorgirl Jewelry » Trivia, Facts and Stuff

Wonder Week is on!

sgirl — Sat, 27 May 2017 22:51:47 +0000

Oh boy! My first day of my first Wonder Week is up!

Every day for one week I will post new jewelry using only beads I currently have on my bench. Some days I’ll make one piece, some days I’ll make 10 pieces. They will be random work, all one of a kind. Priced very attractively. Some of these are ideas that I decided not to pursue further, some will be from collections that are now retired. I wonder what I’ll come up with …

Today I came up with 5 new pieces. All of them are available in my online shop.

a special giveaway

sgirl — Sat, 27 May 2017 02:26:29 +0000

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday dear Canada

Happy birthday to you.

Coming soon, (by June 15), a special limited edition Oh Canada collection to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday! To get started on this party this month I’m giving away a pair of my Oh Canada cluster earrings!

A winner will be drawn at random in early July and will receive a pair of my Oh Canada cluster earrings!

To enter the giveaway: leave a comment below and say hi!

For more chances to win, tweet this giveaway and email me the link to the tweet.
Post this on Facebook and email me the link to the post!
Blog it and email me the link to the post.

the spring giveaway winner is…

sgirl — Sat, 27 May 2017 02:16:22 +0000

Thank you SOOOO much for your feedback on social media last time! I read a lot of business magazines and websites and sometimes I get overwhelmed and think I should be jumping on the next bandwagon. However just because there’s another hot mew platform doesn’t mean I should jump on it. I only have 2 hands. So for now I’ll stick with the few social media platforms that I do use (and that I barely have time to keep up with anyways).

In a totally random draw the winner of a pair of Bahama Blue disk earrings is Rosie Harmon Schwartz!!! Rosie, like almost ALL of you, uses Facebook only. Congrats Rosie!

spring giveaway 2017

sgirl — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 16:46:55 +0000

I have a question for you this month my amigos and I would REALLY appreciate your feedback. What social media platforms do you use on a regular basis? Currently I use Facebook and Instagram, however I’ve been asked a few times recently if I snapchat or tweet. I don’t, do you?

In the spirit of my current state of blue, I am giving away a pair of my Bahama Blue Disk earrings!

To enter the giveaway: Leave a comment below and tell me where you hang out on social media. I’m really curious on this one.

For more chances to win, tweet this giveaway and email me the link to the tweet.
Post this on Facebook and email me the link to the post!
Blog it and email me the link to the post.

Winner! August 2016 giveaway

sgirl — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 01:54:39 +0000

When we chatted last I was sitting in the sweltering heat thinking about where to go and chill out. You know what? It’s September 7 and it is 30 degrees today! This is crazy isn’t it? Looks like we’re going to continue to seek places to chill for a while yet. I think I will follow Nicole’s suggestions. Nicole heads to Balmy Beach with a ice cream. Doesn’t that sound fantastic? Nicole wins one of my Silver Shells (in a totally random draw). Congrats Nicole, hope this helps you cool down!

2016 OOAK diaries – 77 days to go

sgirl — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 21:45:13 +0000

Week 1 – 77 days to go

The reality is setting in, it’s going to happen. There are 77 days until the Christmas One of a Kind show (an 11 day crafts show featuring over 800 artisans from across the country). In order to avoid the late night before the show panic, I’m going to document my prep for the show here in a weekly series. Accountability can work miracles.

Good grief, where do I even start? How do I turn this:

into this?

As always, you start at the beginning.

It was a tough week to get motivated to work. Our ongoing kitchen renovation demanded some time this week with decision making needed. With a brain full of kitchen counters there wasn’t much room left for thinking about Christmas. And it’s been super hot this week, it’s 30 degrees! It’s patio time! At least I’m starting early enough that I can cut myself some slack. The beauty of self employment.

My job this week was to see where I stand. This meant going over ALL my jewelry. Every single piece. See what I have. Also going over all my supplies (I started, this could take a while). What do I have? Same with packaging and marketing materials.

Next task was “make a list week” which also meant start a new notebook week! Boy do I love notebooks, the OOAK prep work deserves it’s own notebook. Choosing the notebook took a while, it’s one of those things where I can get seriously sidetracked. I thought about going notebook shopping however I have a shelf of notebooks so I picked one and that’s it.

Also on my list this week was to do a brain dump. Every single little detail I can think of gets written down. This is a continuous process, I have to remember to go over the notes once a week and see what is important. And I went over last years notebook to see what I wrote and promised myself. I already know I want new photos for the booth. And I’m out of boxes. Write it down. (yay! maybe a new pen?) Write down everything so that it frees up brain cells for new thoughts.

At the same time as all of this I made jewelry. Although I don’t know exactly what I’ll be bringing there are standard items that I know you will want. When I’m not sure what to make I just make the stock items, like my Ocean earrings. So torch time this week (and every week for the next 12) is split between production of stock items and a little experimentation for new work.

Here’s what I accomplished this week.

notebook picked
brain dump started
notes from 2015 gone over
downloaded the exhibitor kit and scheduled in deadlines for parking pass, club one of a kind form, electrical order (we pay for electricity),
inventory started for jewelry
inventory done for packaging
inventory done for marketing materials (like postcards, business cards)
25 pairs of ocean earrings made

For the upcoming week I’m going to work out a production schedule for jewelry. Also work out packaging needs and marketing materials. And work up a giant schedule on the wall with all the deadlines.

77 days to go!

Winner!

sgirl — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 02:06:51 +0000

At the same time as doing a massive studio purge and clean up, I’m doing a home renovation as well! New kitchen! Almost, it’s not quite as fast as we had thought. So for a while I am living with a makeshift kitchen. Fortunately it’s a super summer and we can picnic daily. So for the last giveaway I asked you for fav picnic foods. Thanks people! I’m happy to talk food all day long.

In a random draw the winner for the July giveaway is Jennifer Miller! She wins a pair of my Oh Canada earrings! Yay! Jennifer picnics with German potato salad, like her Oma made. Sounds delicious.

dog days of summer

sgirl — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 01:45:43 +0000

It’s hot.

It’s humid.

It’s sultry, hazy, languid, whatever you want to call it, it’s hot.

These are the “dog days” of summer. I’ve always heard that expression, but then I wondered, why are they called dog days? Theory one (on the internet) is that it’s so hot that dogs lay around on the pavement because it’s too hot to move. Theory two is because dogs go mad in the heat. As Noel Coward wrote, “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun”. Is that it? Well no.

The dog days come from the ancient Greeks and Romans and refer to the dog star, Sirius, and its position in the heavens.

To the Greeks and Romans, the “dog days” occurred around the day when Sirius appeared to rise just before the sun, in late July. They referred to these days as the hottest time of the year, a period that could bring fever, or even catastrophe.

Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. Sirius is the “nose” of Canis Major, the “dog” chasing Lepus the rabbit.

This is the star I always look for wherever I go to orient myself in the world. As a sailor I marvel that people could navigate across oceans just by reading those twinkling lights. As a storyteller I marvel that people read whole volumes into those stars. As a beadmaker I want to tell the story of the stars.

From wondering about the dog days of summer, I moved onto contemplating yet again, the stars. And I created these, my Starry Sky earrings.

october 2015 winner!

sgirl — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 00:38:06 +0000

Back in my last newsletter I told you that I was debating on creating work based on birthstones. And I asked for your opinions. What was your birthstones and did you wear it? Muchas gracias for all your responses, SO enlightening to read! On the whole the idea is a good one, most of you do wear your birthstones. I have put this on my list of “things to make in 2016″. I already do opals and pearls, now for the other 10. I’ll just have to experiment with getting the colours right and what to make…

In a completely random draw Marguerite Setterington wins a pair of fire opal earrings. Lucky Marguerite’s birthstone is emerald, such a fabulous colour!

a guide to chain lengths

sgirl — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 05:21:57 +0000

Customers have been asking for ages for a really long chain, like you see in all the magazines. So I sourced out some really nice 36″ long chains. Wow, 36″ is really long! I found that for me it is too long, mainly because I ride my bike everywhere and 36″ gets in the way. So I picked up some shorter ones, at 30″. I showed a friend, someone who dabbles in making jewelry. When I put on the 30″ length to demonstrate we were surprised to feel like it was much shorter. Then I tried on all the different lengths and had her guess. Turns out we weren’t great at judging lengths. And if we 2, who do this all the time don’t know the length of a chain, I’m thinking that most of you won’t know which chain you might want.

So here is a guide to chain length on a real person, me. I am 5’7″ and a very average build.

If I were to wear a small pendant with a tee-shirt, I would wear a 16″ chain because I like them high. Sometimes I wear an 18″. The most common size chain choice is 18″. For bigger pendants that I want to wear on top of clothing, I wear a 24″. For the longer look (and for all my Bubble pendants) I wear a 30″. I am currently crushing on the 30″ chains, they rock!