Sailorgirl now had an idea of how to make a seasonal living, craft shows!
In 2004 I dragged my laundry table out of my basement, covered it with a bright blue tablecloth and carefully placed my first pieces of jewelry on display. It was a beautiful sunny day, people loved my jewelry and I loved them and the whole experience. This was the very humble beginning of Sailorgirl Jewelry, (shameless self-promotion here) my company where I make and sell handmade glass jewelry.

My company is a little different in that it is a “lifestyle business”. 8 months a year I make glass beads and jewelry and sell at craft shows and online. The other 4 months I live on my sailboat in Florida/Bahamas. My online business is open year round. I’m a huge believer in creating the life you want and defining your own success.
In a previous life I worked at a software development start up that began as me and my boss in his living room, when I left it was at 80 employees. It was really fun at the beginning, and then it was not. Life is too short to spend time doing things that aren’t fun so I quit that job in 2001 to forge my own path.
With my background in the start up I thought that starting a jewelry business would be easy, after all, I knew about business. I was wrong. What I discovered is that selling work that you have made is far different than selling a product like software. Selling a product is just that, it’s a product. Selling handmade is about selling me, the artist, the creator, I am as much a part of the product as my jewelry is. Selling handmade is about selling a story. Fortunately I have a story, now I just had to communicate it to my people. Communicating what you do is marketing The beginning of Sailorgirl Jewelry was not without challenges. I was learning flamework. I was learning how to design and make jewelry. I was learning how to sail. I was learning how to live on a sailboat. I was learning how to sell my own work. I was learning how to run a microbusiness. There were a lot of sleepless nights and bad words said.
From the beginning I have opted to sell only at shows and online. I briefly flirted with wholesale however I couldn’t reconcile how that would work with my lifestyle. I refuse to do consignment for many reasons. The craft show season dovetails perfectly with my lifestyle. In a typical year I sell at 11 – 15 shows. Most of these are summer shows, outdoors in a tent. I take a bit of a break in the fall and then do a couple of large holiday shows. Then I pack it all up and hit the road.
As I was starting up the world around me was a changing landscape. When I began neither Facebook nor Etsy existed. People were only just beginning to sell online and blogs were few and far between. I coded my first website by learning HTML and using a notepad. People were leery of shopping online. For the first 5 or 6 years I simply hung a “Gone Sailing” sign on my website during the winter.
I have had a website from the beginning, as I already had a website called Sailorgirl where I published my writing about cruising. For the jewelry I added a small section with my craft show list and a few photos. Over the last decade being online has become a necessity for any business to survive. Every single person or business absolutely must have a website, even if it’s only a portfolio and contact information. I tried Etsy, it didn’t work for me, instead I have my own site on Shopify along with a WordPress blog and social media. I admit, I’m not the best at maintaining all of this but at least it’s there.
Technology has made my lifestyle a possibility in ways that I never could have predicted. I have an assistant in Canada who ships my work. I’m able to sit on my boat down south, read my email and forward orders to her. She ships them out, and the money is in my bank account! How awesome is that? I send a monthly newsletter to my list subscribers and do the social media from where ever I am.

While this sounds simple it is anything but. A business like mine requires a LOT of organization. I live by my planner and to do lists. When I finish my last huge craft show on December 1 (11 days, 12 hours a day) all my fellow exhibitors will be heading for their couch for a well deserved rest. I will be heading to the studio the next day to make enough inventory to cover 5 months of online sales. All of this has to be made, tagged and inventoried. There must be new items made and photo’d for next season so that the site remains fresh. Show applications for next season have to be sent in. My shipping process has to be documented so that I can hand it off to my assistant. She has to have enough shipping supplies for the winter, which must be bought. The list can sometimes seem endless.
Many of my non-crafty friends bemoan my lack of free time in the summer here in Canada. I can’t go to their cottage on the weekend because I’m at a show. I can’t go out for dinner during the week because I’m torching as I have a show coming up. I miss a lot of events due to my schedule (as does everyone on the show circuit). However I will be snorkeling for the entire month of March and during the summer I get to spend my days melting glass and making wearable art. How awesome is that?

Once upon a time, in a land far away, in an alternate universe,  I rode a motorcycle across Australia. It was hot, it was dusty and sometimes the distances were unbelievably long and boring. I loved it.

The interior of Australia is raw and harsh and stunning. It’s where I really understood for the first time just how powerful nature is. I also learnt about looking for the small things. Sometimes you can stand there, on a gravelly dusty road and see nothing but a few stunted twisty little shrubby bushes and wonder about how there is nothing out there.

Until you look down.

In the crevices, beneath a rock, under the bush. In the midst of nothingness you’ll find a single flower or a tiny patch of green. From a hole in the ground weird and wonderful creatures emerge, like wombats. Out of nowhere a herd of emus run past and disappear over the horizon. If you walk over a small hill instead of just nothingness you might see a couple of wild camels staring back. And of course there are the mobs of kangaroos bouncing along. At nighttime a whole world emerges in the cool air and cries of the night dwellers fill the sky.

When I began the trip I saw miles and miles of empty roads filled with desert nothingness. When I finished a saw a vibrant, colourful world full of small wonders.

It’s been a long time since that trip and I haven’t had a chance to return to a desert. Coming up I’m heading to New Mexico for 10 days to see what I can see. I’m looking forward to this.

From top left:

97.Damn I love wandering around in a city where all the buildings are just so beautiful. Everything is so impossibly pretty! How could anyone ever be in a bad mood in this city? I love Paris.

98.Happy birthday to me!!!!! I meant to post a photo of cake but I forgot to take a photo! Instead there is my breakfast galette (with smoked salmon, cheese and egg) followed by the spectacular oysters. And oyster man of course sold wine. All this at a fabulous outdoor market. Fine way to celebrate life.

99.So shopping is not really my thing. I get bored and cranky. Shopping today however was a whole new deal. When it involves Nomine-Renard champagne and trying on spectacular jewelry? Oh yeah, sign me up!!! That little ruby and diamond ring on my finger? If you want to buy it for me it’s a mere Euro 350,000. Do you know what a nice boat I could buy for that??? It was fun while it lasted.

100.So on my last day of my 100 happy day project I wandered into a fabulous letterpress atelier on a whim. And there was this card. The universe speaks! So I took the universes’ directions and did every one of these. Because these simple things are what makes me happy. I am pretty proud of myself for finishing this project. Now I am going to repeat #7 but substitute wine for tea.

To see the full size photos, check out my Instagram feed.

We’re sick of sitting around.

We’re selling our boat. I think I might have mentioned it (a lot).

It hasn’t sold yet. I know it’s only been 4 weeks but I’m not one to sit around and wait patiently. To get the boat ready for sale we emptied EVERYTHING out of it. It’s amazing how much stuff you can have on a little boat. Piles of stuff. And the boat is not in the water, it’s sitting on blocks in a boatyard. We climb up the ladder to get into the boat. It doesn’t rock gently. It does sway a bit in the wind but it is not the same thing.

We promised ourselves that we’d sit here until the boat sold. We’ve done a bunch of boat projects, stuff that we’d always meant to do but didn’t because we’d rather go sailing than work on the boat. Seriously, the boat has never looked this spiffy.

And we sit and wait. And wait. And wait.

The waiting is driving us crazy. I have to get out on the water! I have to see dolphins beside the boat, and drift along lazily in a gentle breeze. Or scream along madly in a wild wind. And swim off the boat in the morning. And take pretty pictures for you to see!

MUST GO SAILING!

So the smart thing to do would be to continue sitting here and try to sell the boat. But boats can take years to sell. Life is short, I’m going sailing.

Greetings from the west/grey coast! Sailorgirl Jewelry is on the road, woohoooo! Here’s the convention centre where I’ll be exhibiting next week. 

I came out a couple of days early to hang with friends and family and wander around. Vancouver is such a pretty city. Everyone talks about how grey and rainy it is, well in my past 3 trips here it’s always been sunny and nice. I thought people were just exaggerating. Now I get it. Wow, when it’s grey it’s really grey! The clouds are so low! and the fog is rolling in. Still, the leaves are turning and the red and yellow leaves look gorgeous against all the grey. I love fall, now I have a few days to kick leaves and stare into space. 

Next week I’ll be setting up at the Circle Craft Christmas Market in the Vancouver Convention Centre West. Wednesday Nov 7 – Sunday Nov 11. I’m looking forward to this, it’s a really great show. And seeing all my crafty friends from out west will be so much fun! 

In the meantime, I think we’ll drive through Stanley Park to see some nice big trees. Hopefully the rain will stop and I can walk along the beach.