handmade resin jewelry by Katherine Swift

Resin jewelry and my new Resin Obsession

2012-01-11T19:20:00.000-05:00

Seriously. I'm not making that up. My new resin obsession is the business, Resin Obsession.

Hmm. Like didn't you have enough to do lady? Why would you want to do this??

I would counter that statement with why wouldn't I want to do this.

I've been making jewelry since 2001 and started making resin jewelry in 2006. I found that working with resin allowed me to take care of my 'color' obsession with jewelry. I no longer had to find stones and minerals with colors I liked, I could make my own. After doing some experimenting, I found a way to make jewelry I liked (and customers liked too).

Along the way, you meet other resin artists. Cindy Carter happened to be one of them. I always enjoyed reading her blog and had bought a few of the Resin Obsession products. She was incredibly helpful and very easy to work with.

As luck would have it, when she posted that she was looking to sell the business, I was ready to do "something else". Now mind you, I didn't have my mind made up that this was the perfect opportunity for me, but it was the perfect opportunity to explore.

I'm a big believer in Karma. (Yes, that's where my cat's name came from) Cindy sent me information and we started talking. It was a good talk. A good, we must have been friends in another life, honest sharing, immediate good feeling talk. Once the business side of me got done analyzing the business and decided it would work, the personal side of me already knew it would. That was mid October 2011.

We started the transfer of the business in mid November. The thing I remember the most was when the 30 or so boxes showed up and I immediately thought, "What was I thinking???? Like seriously, where am I going to put all these resin materials????" (Pause the business for a few days while I tell hubby that we have to move all three boys into one bedroom so I can have the other.)

Trying to reopen a business during my normal busy time (art shows and holiday gifts anyone?) would not have been my first choice, but it's the way it happened. Since there were only so many hours in the day, the blog got put on hold. (Now you know why I didn't post for 6 weeks.)

Things are going well and I am touched by how many people have sent well wishes. Cindy truly built a resin community and I will do everything I can to love and nurture it the way she has.

(And by the way, you can stop and see the newly reopened Resin Obsession at www.resinobsession.com)

Happy Birthday Karma

2012-01-10T15:25:00.000-05:00

Okay, so it's been a while since I've posted (that will get discussed in tomorrow's post), but I wanted to share what I got for Christmas. This year, I put something on my list that I would never buy myself, but thought maybe my Secret Santa would.Luckily, I guessed right.

I wanted a cake pan in the shape of a bread slice.

Uh, really? Like why would you want something like that?

Maybe because my kids have taught me that you can never have too much fun with your food.

Every January 1, we celebrate Kitty Karma's birthday. What better than to use the new cake pan to make a pumpernickel and mayonnaise look alike sandwich?

I completely cheated and used a box cake mix. (and remembered why I quit using them to begin with -- they taste like the box they came in)

The finished cake will come out looking like a slice of bread.

Finished chocolate cake: very poofy in the middle. It also took about twice as long to cook as a regular round or sheet cake pan.

I used a long serrated edge knife to cut off the poof and slice the cake in half.

And here's the best part: the cream cheese icing. (I did make that. My icing beats anything in a can.)

So three little boys sang Kitty Karma 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' and I think she thought she was going to get whacked with a beater. I tried to tell her she had nothing to worry about as long as there was still icing on them. (No little boys were going to waste icing.)

In case you're curious, Karma turned six. She asks that you do not send gifts, but instead make a donation to your favorite charity (or buy some of her mom's jewelry)

Thanksgiving Centerpieces

2011-11-23T13:29:00.000-05:00

*This is post was originally shared in November 2010 and is reposted as a reminder to myself on how to make the table look pretty.*

I was browsing You Tube this week looking for Thanksgiving crafts to do with my kids. In the process, I found this 4 minute video that not only gives you ideas for Thanksgiving centerpieces, but it also shows you how to fold the napkins. Hooray! (However I fully expect I'm going to need to fold the napkins while I'm in front of the computer screen with the video on slow motion.)

What do you usually do for your Thanksgiving table?

Gainesville Art festival pictures

2011-11-17T18:11:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful and busy time last weekend at the Downtown Festival and Art show! I enjoyed talking with so many people and getting the opportunity to help people with their holiday gift giving needs. Here are a few random pictures from the event:

I painted bulletin boards to be used as display pieces for the jewelry. I used those this time because I could load them with jewelry the days before the show then just hang them in my tent once I got there.

This time, I included a table out front for people to easily sign up for my mailing list. I also had a basket of jewelry for people to peruse.

Once again, I went without glass over the jewelry. It felt like I was 'nekkid' as I had used it for so long, but I think customers really enjoyed being able to see the jewelry without waiting for assistance.

This show also marked the debut of the recycled bottle caps with resin. These cute little caps are the perfect refrigerator accessory.

I had more colors of the resin and silver pewter jewelry to show off. I've been going a bit crazy with the colors lately.

While the earrings looked great on the colored flower trees, I displayed the pendants on the table. The displays looked a bit too crowded hanging on the displays.

I'm working on a video of the event too, to give you the 'full effect' of the weekend. Thanks to everyone who stopped and shopped!

P.S. I'll be a Linda Blondheim's loft studio at Paddiwhack this Friday evening, 5:30 PM to 9 PM and Saturday noon to 4 PM. Come and enjoy art, jewelry and Christmas cake!!

From bulletin boards to jewelry displays

2011-11-09T16:05:00.000-05:00

I'm trying something new for my art jewelry booth this weekend at the Downtown Gainesville Festival and Art show. Since I will be doing everything by myself this weekend (no hubby to help), I wanted something that I could easily set up myself. Part of the plan involves repurposing bulletin boards that could become jewelry displays that I could prepare before the show and hang that morning.

I started with buying 4 el-cheapo bulletin boards. These are 36 inches by 24 inches. I bought them online and got all four for under $100.

I got a garden variety off-white paint to coat the corkboard portion. (Notice the small paintbrush in the lower left? It is attached to a hand of a baby T-Rex dinosaur that insisted on helping me.)

This is what the board looked like after the first coat of paint. When I came to check on it in a couple of hours though, the paint had soaked into the corkboard pretty well, so I needed a second coat.

You can see the difference here with a second coat of paint. The lower left quadrant has had its second coat.

Once I let the paint dry, I put painters tape around the inside edge. I sanded the frame so that it would soak up the paint better.

This is the orange frame after the second coat.

Unfortunately, when I removed the tape, it pulled a bit of the corkboard with it on one of the bulletin boards. A little spackling compound and some more paint hopefully will keep anyone from noticing.

This is a finished board. I randomly put some squiggles on the board to give it more artistic interest. The hardware will get applied tomorrow and I will take jewelry up Friday. Then, all I have to do Saturday is to put up the boards. This will save me a lot of time!

Random jewelry making pictures

2011-11-02T19:32:00.000-04:00

It's a little hodge podge of everything going on in the studio right now. I snapped some random pictures yesterday.

These bottle caps have had their magnets glued and are drying. The magnets do look tiny, but these rare earth magnets can hold three pounds of weight.

(Future) resin scrabble tile pendants are drying. I've applied the images and the glue sealant. These are for a wholesale order.

Same wholesale customer, but these are finished pendants.

These resin and pewter earrings and pendants are halfway through sanding. They have three more grits of sandpaper to go.

These are some of the new pendants and earrings made from recycled gift cards. I need to make earwires and jump rings for them.

I'm anxious to see how these do next weekend at the Downtown Festival and Art show. That will be their first time available to the public. (Hope to see you there!)

Twitter, DVR, soap operas and snark

2011-10-28T16:25:00.000-04:00

We all have a guilty little seemingly insignificant pleasure. I am no different. Curious as to what it is?

It involves twitter, my DVR, and the afternoon soap "Bold and the Beautiful".

I have to tell you that I have been a fan of the show since my college days, but since it was in the middle of the day, I didn't get to watch it much. I still don't have time in the middle of the day to watch, but since the invention of the DVR, I can set the machine to automatically record it and watch it later. Now throw in Twitter and some snarky remarks, and the entire combination makes for good entertainment.

Before I can watch a new episode I have to search twitter for the #BoldandBeautiful tag to see what people are saying. People send out tweets describing the episode (and of course their opinions and interpretations). It's like having the cheat sheet version on what to watch out for while I watch the episode. My favorite so far have been the tweets exclaiming the confusion over what the character Ridge was wearing in Wednesday's show this week. It was pure joy, entertainment and guilty pleasure all in of itself. (By the way, what was up with him wearing the purple man scarf???)

Who knew I was that easy to entertain?

Visiting the Florida Aquarium

2011-10-26T15:29:00.000-04:00

Warning! There are going to be LOTS of pictures in this post.

I took a day with my peeps last week to take them to the Florida Aquarium. I had heard it was a super nice aquarium and the family was looking for a good day trip. These are random pictures from the day. (Disclaimer: I didn't take notes on what things were and I'm inept as a photographer. Proceed with caution....)

A nice little 5 foot alligator. (We're looking down on him.)

Blue crab. He was up against the glass and was trying to get us with his pinchers.

A duck. Not really sure what kind. He wasn't the prettiest of the bunch, but was the only one that was cooperative in allowing me to take his picture.

One of the things I loved about the Florida Aquarium was the number of exhibits at "eye level". My kids could get up next to glass and see the fish as you would expect to see them in nature. (And no, these fish didn't have blazing yellow eyes, it's just how I had to capture the picture so the flash didn't reflect on the glass.)

I had super aquarium envy after seeing this salt water fish tank that was made to look like something that could easily go in your living room. (except at my house -- we're out of room -- not kidding)

Big fish, natural habitat. Hubby and I were tall enough to be able to look down over the top of the glass into the water.

I loved how the aquarium went to great lengths to create a natural setting inside a building in downtown Tampa. There were lots of trees and natural light.

I love this goldfish. He looks really smart with that orange brain thingy on his head.

Two lobsters. Is it wrong to share that my first thought was, "Where's the butter?"

Barn owl. I never got a good shot of him looking directly at us, but I wish I had. He had that look on his face like he was trying to figure out which of kids to fly off with.

This little guy greeted us as soon as we got to the aquarium.

Pink bird. (An ibis maybe?? I don't think it's a flamingo.) Couldn't get her to look at the camera either.

Sea horse. This one left my peeps a little disappointed. I think they thought that sea horses were little ponies with scuba gear and lived in a pineapple under the sea.

SHARK! (Upper left quadrant) No visit to a body of water in Florida is ever complete without seeing a shark.

This starfish is actually prettier than the picture shows you.

This was the interactive area where you could actually touch a starfish or anenome. (I don't think I spelled that correctly.) This water was really cold. Kids didn't keep their hands in there long.

This area was meant to look like a beach. The keeper is feeding the sting rays and fish.

White bird. An ibis I think.

One of my favorite parts of the day was getting to touch the stingrays. I couldn't believe how social these girls were (I found out there were all girls in the tank. Apparently they get along better than a group of guy stingrays.) You could touch their wings, but couldn't feed them. The peeps were a little skeptical, but I thought it was cool. (Warning - you will smell like cheap cat food for a few hours after doing this activity.)

My little Chunky Monkey riding a fish. (Not a real one silly. Although he would have liked that too.)

All my peeps riding the surfboard on the playground. (And just for the record, their father got them dressed that morning.)

So when I asked them what their favorite part of the day was, it would be this:

This was a play pirate ship that shot water out of the guns. Too bad I didn't get a picture of them surprising their father and the subsequent midday wet jeans he had to contend with.

We've already made plans to go back sometime next summer. Great way to spend the day with my family.

Recycling gift cards into jewelry

2011-10-24T15:45:00.000-04:00

If you've been following me for a bit, you know earlier this year I asked you to save me your used up gift cards.

I finally had the opportunity to get the collection of gift cards out and being making them into jewelry. I've been saving every and all plastic gift cards that I can find.

My hydraulic press will come in handy for me to make these.

I'm using my disc cutter to get perfect circles out of the cards.

Some cards are better than others when it comes to patterns. The sets will never be "matchy-matchy" (in case you're looking for an exactly perfect match), but they will be complimentary.

This is one of the sets I got from a card. (Ear wires and pendant jump ring have yet to be added.)

Another set, but this one is a bit more colorful. I try not to include anything that identifies the company as to try to avoid copyright and trademark issues.

These will be available for purchase at the Downtown Festival and Art show, November 12 and 13! If you would like a reminder about the show, be sure to sign up for my email list (sign up box on the right side of this page).

Monkeys and chaos

2011-10-20T15:21:00.000-04:00

Sometimes my kids are up and active when I'm trying to make jewelry (as opposed to how I used to do it -- when they were napping -- but those days are seemingly long gone). I do my best to keep them occupied with something productive while also keeping an eagle eye on them. If you're a parent, you know how quickly things can go from perfect to pandemonium in a wee couple of minutes.

In my life, it happens when I'm on the phone.

Meet my youngest child.

A serious flirt.

And mischief maker.

And he eats....A LOT. In fact, if you ask him, he will tell you his name is Chunky Monkey.

His father and I are completely prepared to get the phone call from school one day that he has run his underwear up a flagpole.

(And is using his charm and good looks to get out of having to scrub the entire cafeteria floor as his punishment.)

Why am I worried about such things at such a young and sweet and tender age? Because of what he can do with a couple of markers in just three minutes.

Who knew that in the time it takes to take a phone order from a customer that you can paint your hands with a marker.

And if that wasn't enough, he wanted to show me his artistic talent and could use the complimentary color orange on his arms to set off the color purple on his hands. (If you're trying to calculate a score for this masterpiece, using two colors in under three minutes does increase the difficulty factor by 0.3).

So if you ever call to ask a question, place an order, or just otherwise chit-chat, remind me to check on Chunky Monkey and make sure I have all marking elements (including my collection of 64 different colors of Sharpies) in my possession.

(By the way, I can't wait to get a note from school today asking me to keep my child home until his fungus has resolved.)

An art career in 15 minutes a day

2011-10-18T15:47:00.000-04:00

I follow the art business blog of Alyson B. Stanfield. If you're an artist, regardless of the media, I think you can find value in the information she shares. One of my favorite blog posts to this day, is her post encouraging artists to spend at least 15 minutes a day on their art. Ever since hearing that post as a podcast on my iPod, I make it a point to do just that. I try work on the part of my art daily that energizes me: pouring resin, working with digital art, planning colors, or anything similar. It's a bit crazy in my house so I don't always get it done, but I aim to do something fun with the art daily. It keeps me connected and focused on my art and quite frankly, gives me some sanity in this crazy circus of my house.

I would challenge you (even if you're not artists) to find something that energizes you and do it for 15 minutes every day. (and comment below on what that is. I'm eager to find out what energizes YOU.)

What food means in this house #BAD11 #FoodDay

2011-10-16T15:06:00.000-04:00

Food is more than just food in this house. It's been a way for me to connect with my family. I never would have guessed that 3 little boys would love helping their mom in the kitchen, but they do.... and I have found that I adore having them with me. I knew from when they were just crumb crunchers scooting around on the floor that I wanted them to learn how to cook so that they wouldn't starve when they went off to college, but I didn't know that it was going to be a fun time for us to bond and grow as a family. Who knew that teaching life skills would be just as valuable to me as it is to them. You can catch up with some of my food related posts here:

Brownie Making Day

Breakfast Casserole Recipe

My favorite Malbec wine

Death by Chocolate recipe

Iron Chef and foodporn

My review of Food Network Magazine

My wine indulgence

Resin jewelry making challenges

2011-10-14T17:17:00.000-04:00

I've been working on a new resin project using bottle caps. It appears as though the resin gods though I had forgotten the first rule of working with resin: the resin always wins. It doesn't matter how much I work with resin; I always have something MORE to learn about it.

Last I left you, I had glued artwork into the bottom of recycled bottle caps with the plastic inserts removed. Here's a few of the snags I've encountered:

This is a 'flat' bubble. Why it chose to get squished horizontally is beyond me. The zoom in my camera actually allows me to see that it's a bubble. If I look at it with my 'everyday getting older eyeballs', it looks more like a big piece of glitter reflecting light back.

I also had just the garden variety large bubbles as well. The first time this happened, I thought I hadn't checked the resin very well after pouring, so I triple checked with the next batch. Everything was good, yet when I came back two hours later, two of the bottle caps had bubbles. When I poured a couple of batches today, I decided to use my hot air gun instead of a straw to get the bubbles out. It got the bubbles out, but the force of the air also pushed up bubbles from under the paper. Apparently, I'm trapping air underneath the art which is escaping later.

I've also had a few with a lot of small bubbles. I don't know how this happened either.

So for the few that have turned out well, I have to look for cat hair. Thanks Karma.

To keep these mistakes from happening again, I poured a very thin layer of resin to cover the art. This should allow bubbles to escape easier in case they show up later. (I can always add another layer if I decide I don't like the thinness.) I'll let you know how that works out.

2011-10-10T16:49:00.000-04:00

Our new babysitter (whom we just ADORE) is a recent transplant from Colorado to Florida. She asked the other day if this (picture at left) was an orange tree. I said it was then realized it would be fun to share more pictures of my lovely little tree since it had been awhile since I had shown the green golf balls.

It's a little hard here to get the perspective of the tree. He's probably about 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide. (The top gets lost in the oak tree behind it in this picture).

The oranges are now about the size of tennis balls. They might grow a little bit more, but not much.

The orange tree leaves are shiny on one side and dull on the other. The limbs have some sharp points too. I suppose the word would be thorns wouldn't it?

If this orange was orange and not green, wouldn't it be perfect just to put the straw in and suck it up??

As I was getting pictures, I noticed this orange was bursting with excitement. Literally. I've never opened up an orange this early, but it looks pale orange inside. Not quite appetizing yet.

These should all be ready for juice in February. Yeah!

The jewelry making books in my library

2011-10-07T15:29:00.000-04:00

I've decided we all have something we hoard. I just try to hoard stuff that's worthwhile (at least to me anyway). In looking at my bookcase this week, I decided I am a jewelry book hoarder. I LOVE LOVE LOVE buying jewelry books. Designing jewelry. Making jewelry. Fixing jewelry. History of jewelry. and on and on and on. I love reading about 42 different ways to make the same bezel. I love looking at a piece of jewelry and trying to figure out how the artist made it. I love looking at others designs and wonder how I can make it better. *smile*

I have books on everything. Even stuff I haven't done yet. (but intend to sometime before I die)

You can learn so much just by reading. It's a great way of introducing yourself to techniques and sparking ideas in where you want to go next.

I've even got a few business planning books too. Reading business information is my other obsession.

I have a rule that all my books have to fit in one bookcase. As you can see, I make the most of all the space I can.

Sometimes the books don't even have to be 'how to' books. I love looking at designs from different periods in time and looking at the jewelry art of contemporary artists.

What jewelry books do you have on your shelf?

New resin project

2011-10-04T20:36:00.000-04:00

What happens when you hoard stuff without knowing what you're going to do with it, only to find it years later and have the perfect idea?

Pure. Dumb. Luck.

I found this stash of bottle caps that I have had so long I can't even remember why I started saving them to begin with. Ah, another lovely way to capture resin.

I amaze myself sometimes.

So here they are. A lonely pile of bottle caps. They thought their days of being fun and interesting were over.

So this part was the biggest problem. How to get those little plastic inserts out of the caps? Otherwise, the papers wouldn't lie flat.

The answer: industrial strength acetone. Let it soak for a few minutes, then pull out with tweezers (which I was worried about putting through my hand at some point).

Here they are now -- nice and clean. Some of them got scratched getting the plastic out, but it's no big deal. It will be covered up by the paper.

I put cute paper in the bottle caps and sealed them like I do the scrabble pendants.

So what are these going to be? You'll just have to wait. :) That will be another forthcoming blog post.

My visit to Georgetown Cupcake

2011-09-30T14:59:00.000-04:00

I had to go to Washington, D.C., for the day last week for a non-profit group I'm involved with. I had a couple of hours from the time my flight arrived until I needed to be at the purpose of my visit, so I met a friend for a bit of indulgence (and pre-event carbohydrate loading).

My friend picked me up at the airport and we went to Georgetown Cupcake. In case it looks familiar, this is the cupcake bakery from the TLC show "DC Cupcakes". Kinda neat how it looked just like it does on the show. We were both fortunate that we didn't have to wait in line long at all to place our orders. My only complaint is that there is very limited seating to sit and eat your cupcakes at the bakery. We got ours to go and went to a group of tables around the corner.

My friend got four cupcakes in a cute pink to go box. (She didn't think she could get away with going and not bringing any home to her family.) I had already forewarned mine that there was NO chance that cupcakes would be coming back on a plane.

So what did I get? I got the red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. My take: the cake was good. Not great, but good. The frosting, however, was KILLER. Sweet, tangy, and perfect for the cake. I would definitely do this one again. (but who knows when that will be.)

Have any of you been? What is your favorite cupcake (from here or any of your other favorite bakeries)?

Thornebrook Festival pictures

2011-09-29T15:42:00.002-04:00

I am FINALLY getting around to getting pictures up from the Thornebrook Art Festival this past weekend. What I've been so busy doing the last few days will be in a few future blog posts.

I completely revamped my booth for the festival. While the wooden boxes with the glass were very artsy, I desperately needed something I could easily handle myself. I used two folding tables and covered them with ivory tablecloths. I used risers to bring them up to counter height.

This festival also kicked off my once a year sale. You can see all the sale items in the basket on the right. (By the way, I'm working on getting more sale items on the KMS Designs website). Stay tuned.

The colorful wire flowers made another appearance. The picture doesn't really do them justice. The resin and pewter jewelry looked great on them and they made a nice pop of color on the table.

Isn't if funny how the scrabble tile pendants display nicely on the scrabble game racks?? The flowers and circles are the little foam sticker types that you can get at a craft store. They were a last minute addition to break up the whiteness of the table.

There was Halloween jewelry galore! Get your ghost on and be ready for the holiday.

The funny part for me? Not a single customer said anything about the new display. Here I worry and fuss over the little details and no one said anything. Not that I was expecting people to oogle, but I was a bit concerned that people wouldn't know it was me since I had changed the display. I suppose this also turned out to be an interesting experiment in human behavior. (Although several customers said they were looking for me in this spot. Sounds like location is more important that appearance.)

Overall, I really liked how the booth finished and it was MUCH easier for me to handle by myself. You will see this again at the Downtown Festival and Art show in November, but ramped up a bit more.

Resin jewelry pendant pictures

2011-09-14T15:08:00.000-04:00

I haven't been making new pendants so much this week as I have been attaching the silver bails to the pendants I have made. Here's the assortment that will be at the Thornebrook Art Festival next week.

Birds. Pretty fall colors. My kids love birds. But I don't have cardinal pendants...yet anyway. Those are their favorites (mine too).

Geometric pendants. A neat little way to be funky without people thinking you've lost it.

Wow, almost looks like a tray of cookies. With sprinkles.

Still thinking cookies. Must focus on jewelry. No cookies until September 26.

There were three more batches of these. I hope I will be covered. I never know these things. All I know is that I will run out of one or two patterns and those won't be the same one or two patterns at the next show. (Note to self -- invest in a good crystal ball).

See you next weekend!

Preparing for Thornebrook Art Festival

2011-09-12T15:44:00.000-04:00

My next art event is at the Thornebrook Art Festival, September 24 and 25. I've actually been getting inventory ready for the past month (including Halloween jewelry), so I just need to get my game on and get organized. I probably wouldn't be thinking about this too much at all, but for all intents and purposes, I'm going to be unavailable the week prior to the event. Yeah, I know that doesn't sound like a good idea, but an incredible opportunity with my other line of silver jewelry presented itself and I couldn't pass it up. I'll be out of town selling that jewelry almost the entire week before.

No worries. I'm getting ready this week and next. Here's what I have to do:

Since I'm redoing the booth to make it as easy as possible for one person to set up and decorate, I need two new tables and two tablecloths. I might also go with some organza table covers. Not sure. Still thinking about that one.
Since I have my only sale of the year in conjunction with this show, I need to get that jewelry packaged. It has worked out well to have that jewelry packaged and priced in a basket for people to sift through.
I will also have wireless access in order to process credit card information at the show this year. That will be a big time savings and I don't have to worry about declined credit cards later.
Of course, I need to get focused on having enough finished jewelry. That means that I had to be finished with pouring resin LAST week in order for me to finish it this week. I'm actually doing the best on this one.

Stay tuned for picture updates.

Figs and #foodporn

2011-09-07T14:37:00.000-04:00

With hubby working at the grocery store, I don't go very often. I'm grateful for that and after I stopped in this past Friday, he's probably thankful too. As I was loading up in the produce section, I noticed that fresh figs were in season. Woo hoo! I loaded up and surprised hubby that night with one of my favorite easy appetizers. (Sorry I shot our budget this week sweetie.)

Take fresh figs and cut off the top. Scoop out a bit of the center. Insert a heaping teaspoon or so of your favorite cheese. I personally like something pungent like a stilton or goat cheese. Wrap with a slice of proscuitto (did I spell that right?) and drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil. This also works well with a bit of camembert or brie (still not sure I'm spelling these correctly) and drizzle with honey instead if a pungent cheese isn't your deal.

Super. yummy.

The movie is never as good as the book

2011-09-01T12:47:00.000-04:00

I knew better. Can anyone name me a movie that is as good as its book? (I can only think of one -- Cold Mountain -- that book was ghoulish to read) I was the only one up in my house the other night (working on resin jewelry of course) and I flipped through the tv channels. The movie "Angels and Demons" was just getting ready to start. Suck-er. Yeah, I'm a sucker for the Dan Brown novels. I absolutely LOVE his books and this one was a favorite.

I won't spoil the plot or anything here, but, the movie -- well -- it wasn't nearly as good as the book. So here's my one sentence movie review: "Read the book." Really. It's a fast read and you get more of the story (and it makes more sense).

What other book to big screen movies have disappointed you?

MORE weird adventures in resin jewelry making

2011-08-30T17:00:00.000-04:00

I wrote a post at the beginning of the month how I had this weird resin curing event happen. The resin "cured" on top, but slid off the pendant and oozed goo from the sides. At the time, I thought it was a one time event, so I didn't get to worried about it.

Apparently, I was mistaken.

When it happened a second time (only to one pendant), I thought maybe it was because I was at the end of the bottles of resin and hardener. Resin HATES water, so I thought maybe some condensation had gotten in and messed with something. I started new bottles for the next pour.

It happened again.

The entirely bizarre thing is that it's only happening to one (or this time two) pendants. I do remember that one of the pendants this happened to was one of the last ones to get poured and had more bubbles than the others. As a result, I had to spend a bit more time using the "straw method" to get out the bubbles. (Sorry, won't explain that method as I don't want to be responsible for someone hurting themselves. It can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.) I'm still thinking it could be excess moisture.

Arrgh. I obviously need to show some love to resin gods here soon.

How to Choose the Perfect Engagement Ring

2011-08-26T13:27:00.000-04:00

This great little article came up in my google alerts the other day. Lots of times, these articles are just a big sales pitch, but this one has some very useful information. It's even helpful if your considering ANY jewelry purchase.

Enjoy!

How to Choose the Perfect Engagement Ring

How To Make Bottle Cap Jewelry Using Resin

2011-08-24T11:49:00.000-04:00

I know I have a lot of resin jewelry making enthusiasts who follow my blog, so I'm always on the look out for useful jewelry making articles and videos to share. My google alerts let me know this video got added a couple of days ago and looked like a neat thing to share with blog readers. (Video is below.)

As I started watching it though, I found this video showed some techniques that, in my experience, may not result in success. So if you're going to watch, here are my comments, precautions and recommendations before you get started:

1. I have not personally used ICE resin (as the video shows), but I have heard mixed reviews about it. Research before you try it.

2. Use separate mixing cups when measuring the resin and hardener. That way if you overpour one of the components, you won't have to waste any. Pouring both into the same cup and not being exact means your resin won't harden correctly and you will be left with a gooey mess.

3. I like to pour the hardener (from its own cup) into the resin (in its own cup) in a slow stream while I'm mixing. I think you get a better mix and fewer bubbles that way.

4. I like to use my resin right away, even if there are bubbles. There is only a limited time you can use the resin before it hardens. I can always go back and get bubbles out.

5. I think there are safer ways of getting bubbles out of resin than using a torch. One of my methods involves using a hot air gun.

6. I would caution against drilling holes for findings BEFORE placing the resin the bottle cap. What happens if you change your mind and decide you want it to be a magnet? What happens if you place your art in there wrong and realize later that the hole isn't in the right place?

7. If I did decide to place a hole, I certainly wouldn't put the ring in the hole until after the resin has cured. If you spill some resin on your ring and you don't know it, your resin will cure and your ring may be in an unusable position. At least if you spill resin onto the hole, you can go back and drill it out later.

8. Use extreme care when pouring the resin directly from the cup onto your project. It tends to come out in big globs and will overfill quickly. (at least that's what happens to me)

All this being said, I think this video is a great inspiration for a future project!

Resin jewelry I'm working on now

2011-08-21T14:58:00.001-04:00

Maybe you'll believe me. Maybe you won't, but I'm already working on Halloween jewelry.

Seriously lady? Like the kids haven't even gone back to school yet??

It's all about wholesale and being ready for the Thornebrook Art Festival next month. I like being prepared rather than running around like the proverbial headless chicken (like I used to).

Here's what you'll see next month. They're not available for purchase yet, but email me a request if you see something you like. Enjoy!

Sterling silver filled wire

2011-08-19T18:04:00.000-04:00

I know I have some jewelry making readers of my blog, and I'm curious. Have any of you used the sterling silver filled wire yet? What do you think of it?

Here are my experiences and I'm curious to know if you are having the same:

1. Harder than sterling silver
2. Tarnishes VERY quickly. I couldn't believe how quickly ear wires that have been sitting on my desk indoors (e.g. climate controlled) have gone from a clean, shiny metal to bronze colored. (like two weeks!)
3. Seem to be wearing as nicely as sterling silver.

How about the rest of you?

Coffee Cup Shopping Cart Creator and Designer review

2011-08-18T14:38:00.000-04:00

*Somewhere between Thankful Thursday and the Thursday rant......it's a shopping cart software review.*

If you've been following my blog over the last couple of weeks, you will remember that I've talked about upgrading my shopping cart system. After doing some research and talking to friends, I decided to give the Coffee Cup software system a try.

Full disclosure: I am NOT a paid spokesperson or am an affiliate for sales. This is just my experience on using their product.

First, I should probably say why I wanted to design this shopping cart myself. I talked to a web guy about doing it and well, let's just say it didn't work out. Multiple reasons why it didn't, and I don't want to discredit what he does, but I was disappointed with how long it was taking to get some of the features I wanted and I was going to have to give up more "control" of my website than I was used to. (The control was most important to me for tweeking SEO and such.) So I've been using the Coffee Cart Shopping Cart Creator and Designer (both Pro versions) for about 10 days now. Here's what I can tell you:

Good things about Coffee Cup:

1. You can download a trial of their software. This was a big deal to me. It would have been a lot less likely that I would have bought it if I didn't get to use that trial first.
2. Pretty affordable. Buy what you want (like an a la carte menu) and use it.
3. Their email support is very attentive. When I called their customer support line and they said I would have to pay for an appointment, otherwise I could email for free, I was skeptical. I was pleasantly surprised that I would usually have a response within a few minutes to a couple of hours. Even on the weekend. Pretty cool.
4. I can use the shopping cart system with Paypal Websites Standard (the free version). This one was a huge advantage. Most shopping cart systems charge you $30 a month and up, PLUS you have to pay for a merchant account monthly at $10 per month (or more).
5. You just pay for their software once and get free upgrades. (At least that's what they advertise at the present.) No additional monthly fees.
6. Really useful user forums. The staff and regular users of the product are pretty good at posting useful information in the topics forum.

Bad things about Coffee Cup:

1. I had to call my web hosting provider (Go Daddy) 6 times in a period of 24 hours to get several issues fixed. The issue was in the specifics of the servers my website was running on and the Coffee Cup software not liking those servers. Probably an over simplification of the problem, but basically, it was stuff out of my control and stuff that I had no idea was going to be a problem. Kind of annoying, especially since the last problem was an issue with the Coffee Cup software that Coffee Cup says was not their problem. (Many thanks to Go Daddy for writing me the patch and emailing me the file to upload to the server to get my site up and running without a bunch of errors.)
2. Everything is a la carte. You buy only what you think need, only to find out when you want to do something else, you have to buy the upgrade or a whole new program together. All of a sudden, what looks to be less than a $100 investment can turn into $300 to $400 pretty quickly. (Now of course as I write this, I see they are running a special on a bundle of the best selling Coffee Cup software programs. Isn't that always the case??? Buy something before it goes on sale.)
3. It's kind of a weird system. If you've never done web designing before, I would be concerned that it's over your head (even though it is the WYSIWYG system), but for someone like me who has used HTML editors, Frontpage and Dreamweaver to create websites, it was a bit annoying not being able to adjust everything like I had been used to.

So the bottom line, would I recommend it?

Well, I already started making sales with the new shopping cart, so something must be better from a customer angle or else it's pure dumb luck. (Either way, I'll take it.)

If you're thinking about purchasing it, DEFINITELY download the the trial versions first. I think if you have no experience with web designs, there might be easier systems out there (but maybe they cost more?)

Hen party at studio of Linda Blondheim

2011-08-16T21:40:00.003-04:00

Here's some of my random pictures from my hen party at Linda Blondheim's studio on August 6. Thanks everyone who stopped by!

Scrabble tiles on their itty bitty racks. Just an assortment. (The snowflake pendant in the lower left was some wishful thinking on my part. It was HOT outside!)

Elvis did not leave the building with anyone. Surprising. I always sell an Elvis at every show. (until this one anyways)

In the couple of weeks before the event, I saved my mixing cups. I loved the assortment of bright colors it made. They look wet, but trust me, they're dry. (It's a good way too for me to check to see if the resin is curing okay.)

A close up of one of the cups. If it looks familiar, it's because I use dram medicine mixing cups. (Like the ones you get on top of children's liquid medicine.)

Now, I will show you some pictures from Linda's studio.

This is one of Linda's "mini" paintings. Fits easily on a desktop.

Linda's loft studio gives the feeling of your own living room. Very comfy.

She's got a nice assortment of sizes of paintings.

Linda also has a recipe exchange. Bring one, take one. Lots of good ones in there!

What shopping excursion wouldn't be complete without a bargain bin? Linda's got several paintings in her browse bin. Great way to start collecting her art.

There was also handmade soaps and knitting at the hen party.

More paintings. Lots of beautiful Florida landscapes to choose from.

This is the view as you go up the steps to her studio. It's in the back of the store.

A personal invitation awaits at the bottom of the steps.

And what event wouldn't be complete without some tasty treats!

It made for a perfect afternoon in the loft.

We all loved it so much we're doing it again! Mark your calendars for the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving, except this time there will be cake!

Details forthcoming....

New resin jewelry shopping cart

2011-08-10T14:54:00.000-04:00

I'm think I'm behind a blog post or two, but here's my excuse: I'm working on that new shopping cart I've been talking about for months now. I only have a trial use period of the software, so if I have computer time (which doesn't happen much), I have been working on the cart.

Drumroll please...........

It's ready for its 'soft' launch. Here it is: http://www.kmsdesignsonline.com/shop.

This is YOUR invitation to go over, view, and make comments here on my blog. Any and all thoughtful insights are appreciated. It is a functional shopping cart by the way, so that means if you want to buy something.....you can. AND, if you buy something AND you're in the USA AND you want free shipping, select that as your shipping option at checkout.

I will be adding new resin jewelry pieces throughout the month, but will be making the official announcement on September 1. (Free shipping on all orders going to the USA ends at that time too.)

I'll have pictures up from last weekend's Hen Party at Linda Blondheim's studio later in the week.

Resin jewelry by Katherine Swift - new locations

2011-08-05T20:15:00.000-04:00

Excited to share these new retail locations for my resin jewelry:

Serenity Bookstore, West Palm Beach, Florida
Coastal FX, Stone Harbor, New Jersey
Virginia Handcrafts, Forest, Virginia
Simply Elan, Versailles, Kentucky
Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio

Any by the way, if you're in and around Gainesville tomorrow, stop by the Hen party at the art studio of Linda Blondheim. It promises to be a good time!

Thankful Thursday

2011-08-04T19:34:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Nancy Grossi and her blog Wife of a Dairyman, I am now inspired to write a Thankful Thursday post. While the Thursday rant was cheaper than a therapist, I think I need to go on a different path.

Wait, a minute...I've got one more rant in me.

If you remember back from a few months ago, I lamented like a really old woman about what's going on with this generation. We are once AGAIN looking for another babysitter (maybe my kids aren't as well behaved as I thought), and imagine my surprise when the first girl I interviewed this time was a really, really good fit. She was ready to take the job until I explained I needed a copy of her social security card so that I could file this with the IRS and pay the taxes and such.

"Oh, so this is like a real job. Taxes are a lot of money. I don't think I'm interested."

Yes, this is a real job. Yes, taxes are a lot of money. and by the way, YES, it's the law.

Do you think you can run that by Target or Macy's? "I really want this job, but ya know, paying those taxes is a big burden on me. Can we just not do that?"

Wow, I feel better. Maybe I'll just have to do mix it up a bit with being thankful.

The weird adventures of resin jewelry making

2011-08-03T21:03:00.000-04:00

Resin can be a fussy beast. I thought I had experienced every weird thing that could happen with resin, until I saw this.

I poured a batch of resin, which covers about 30 or so pendants. After the 3 days curing time, I went to take them off the curing tray and noticed this one looked "sticky" around the edges. I touched the top, and it slid off the tile.

The resin had "cured", but didn't stick to the image on the scrabble tile. Don't ask me why; this was the only one that did it. Lump that one into the bizarre adventures in resin jewelry making.

Random thoughts on resin jewelry making

2011-07-31T12:39:00.002-04:00

No, I haven't thought about gnomes, but maybe I should.

A few things have been hopping through my head in the last few days. I won't share them all with you (thank goodness, right?), but a few of note:

I need to have a few days break in between sanding the resin and pewter jewelry pieces. It's killing the thumb on my right hand. Okay, maybe not killing, but I've sanded the end of it off ---- again.

It looks like I'm going to have to upgrade the shopping cart on KMS Designs myself. I learned how to build websites a few years ago, but as online shopping has gotten more complicated, I thought it might be best to have someone else upgrade the shopping cart. The local web geek guy that I hired to do it has failed to deliver on everything that I need in a timely fashion. I've gotten a few suggestions on the software to do it and will be exploring that this week. For those of you who have been so patiently waiting for the upgrade (and all the new jewelry that comes with it), hang in there a bit longer.

I need a grown up artist studio. Either that, or my family needs to quit eating so that I can use the entire kitchen to pour resin.

What's been going on in your week?

Who is doing 45 in the hammer lane?

2011-07-28T15:54:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

Not really my car, but something tells me I would like driving this one.

There's a section of 4 lane highway north of Gainesville that I drive regularly. When I've got my kids with me, I am definitely the high school, driver's ed, my parents are watching me, state cop is behind my car, defensive driver. Very careful. Speed limit. Signals. Both hands at 10 and 2.

When it's just me....

Watch out. I'm a bat out of hell. Running behind. Mashing the accelerator. Burning fossil fuel.

It seems that when I'm in 'bat out of hell' mode, AND on this section of road, I run into someone going 10 miles under the speed limit in the left lane. EVERY time. I don't run into this on other roads or even the interstate. If I didn't know better, I would say I died and this is my eternity now. I'm sure this is a sign to leave the house earlier or get back into old lady sitting on a phone book to see over the steering wheel mode, but I'm not listening.

Good thing I watch NASCAR with my boys. Picked up a few driving tips to deal with this.

My next jewelry design idea

2011-07-27T21:20:00.003-04:00

Thanks to all who have given and sent me their empty gift cards. I can't wait to use them!! This picture shows only a few in the pile so far.

Wondering what I'm going to do with them? Ah...you'll just have to wait to see what kind of jewelry creation is on the sketch book. Trust me, I can't wait to show you. *wink*

What I'm working on now

2011-07-25T19:18:00.001-04:00

I have been working on a plan for what I will be doing with my jewelry making and jewelry business over the next 6 months.

1. Jewelry for holiday sales

Uh, seriously? Like it's 8 million degrees outside. What's the rush?

I have two shows scheduled locally here this fall, the Thornebrook Art Festival, and the Downtown Gainesville Fall Festival and Art Show. I want to make sure I've got enough inventory so that I don't feel rushed, something I hate as I get older.

Having enough inventory is also important since I expect my wholesale customers will start placing orders to stock their store for holidays as early as September.

2. New jewelry designs

Don't you already have new work? Do you ever stop??

Whether it's the resin and sterling silver jewelry or the pewter and resin jewelry, I have to plan ahead to have multiples available. Since both lines involve lost wax casting, I have to add 2 to 3 months time for production, as I rely on outside companies to make them for me. If I want to have new designs for the ACRE Orlando, I need to, at a minimum, get designs in the sketch book now.

3. Booth Design

You obsess about this don't you?

Why yes, I do. I know I only have a few seconds to grab someone's attention enough to get them to stop. I've been playing with a few booth designs and still haven't quite settled on anything, but I think I'm closer. But maybe not.

4. Website upgrade

Haven't we heard about this before? I've been waiting you know.

Yes, you have. The overall look and feel of the KMS Designs website will be the same, but I desperately want a more user friendly shopping cart system (both for me and shoppers). I swear to you I had hoped to have it up by now, but, well...life happens.

5. Package sale jewelry

Ooh sale?! I love a good sale!

I have my one an only sale in conjunction with the Thornebrook Art Festival. I have items nicely packaged, priced and placed in a nice basket. Peel off the sticker and no one will ever know you got a deal. *smile*

So what are you working on?

New resin jewelry pictures

2011-07-23T16:02:00.001-04:00

I'm changing things up a bit. While my new website is under construction (don't worry -- same look, but a better shopping cart), I'm playing around with some new pictures of the scrabble tile jewelry.

What do you think?

I got nothing

2011-07-21T14:20:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

For those of you who are regular to my blog on Thursdays, you know I find something crazy in my life to write about.

Not today. Nothing to rant about. No complaints. Nada.

Things are going pretty good. Really, I don't have any complaints. My kids are good (not perfect, but good). Hubby is a great help. My business is doing well, especially considering the economy.

Yeah, nothing to complain about here.

Not this week anyway. Check back next Thursday. I'm sure there will be some sarcastic banter somewhere in me waiting to get out.

The part of the art business I hate

2011-07-20T14:45:00.000-04:00

I love making art jewelry, even the business part. But. There is one part I don't care for.

Not really my phone, but looks like one I would totally have

Making "unannounced" phone calls.

I've been following up with my new wholesale accounts that I've taken on since the beginning of the year. I've stayed in touch by email, but, as I have been coached by others within the business, nothing beats a phone call.

If you know me, you know I could talk an African violet to death so what's the problem with the phone call?

I hate interrupting people when they're not necessarily expecting me to call. It's just a respect thing. So I try to keep it short, sweet, to the point. All about what I can do to help them and their business.

What about you? What don't you like within your job or business?

Fall art show - Gainesville, Florida

2011-07-18T16:01:00.000-04:00

I happy to announce my official acceptance to the Art Festival at Thornebrook. The art festival is Saturday and Sunday, September 24 and and 25, with a show preview, Friday night, September 23.

(and just a reminder for all my favorite blog readers, I have my one and only sale every year in conjunction with this show!)

See you there!

Sunburst pattern resin jewelry

2011-07-15T17:44:00.000-04:00

I am happy to announce that my scrabble tile resin jewelry will be available at the Akron Art Museum starting next week. As I was pulling their order, I was impressed with the selections the museum made. Most of my wholesale clients get an assortment of several different themes. They just ordered from the one theme: the sunburst pattern. They all looked so good together! I had to take a few pictures to share.

I don't want to speak with someone in middle India!

2011-07-14T14:43:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

When are businesses going to learn that a person with limited English skills from halfway around the world does not make good customer service?!?

I need to freight some materials up north. I won't get into why, but I've been researching freight options since it's too big to go as a typical package. A few of the online websites that I have tried to get quotes from require a customer service representative to call me back.

Ok, fine.

When the phone rang the other day, with one of the "customer service reps", this is what I got:

(From this point forward, it might make more sense if you read this aloud)

"Hell-o. Katureen? I am Mee-Linda from (x company). I want help you sheep your package."

The 45 minute conservation of me trying to explain the three scenarios I wanted prices for eventually came to this response:

"Yes, Katureen. I understand you want to ship package to Pin-sill-vane-e-ah. I can help you with that."

NO YOU'RE NOT! YOU ARE P*SSING ME OFF!

My response?

Click.

When are these companies going to get it? I have been around the block a time or two on these people. They aren't listening at all. (Kind of difficult when you're only reading from a script.) Have you ever tried asking them something they don't have a written script for (like in this case)?

Rest assured that when I finally get my day on QVC selling my jewelry, I will never allow my beloved customers have their phone calls sent to some call center anywhere near India. My promise to you. *smile*

Outdoor festival jewelry booth design

2011-07-13T14:45:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't noticed, I've missed a couple of blog posts in the last few days. If having TWO batches of resin that didn't cure properly (mostly hard, but sticky like scotch tape when you touched them) wasn't bad enough, I've gotten the wild hair to redo my outdoor art festival jewelry booth.

This is my current booth. It is composed of wooden boxes with collapsible glass boxes on top. The boxes themselves don't collapse, but the legs do come off the bottom. I get lots of great comments on it, so why change?

Couple of reasons:

I don't think it fits the resin jewelry style. I think this display is a good match for sterling silver and semi precious stone jewelry, but little too "snooty" for resin jewelry.
It's a bit cumbersome to lug around. For shows like the Downtown Festival and Art show, in Gainesville in November, where I can't set up until Saturday morning, there is no way I can set this up by myself in time for the show.
It's time for a change.

So here's what took me five days to come up with. (Thanks to Google Sketch Up for the help.)

First, let me say, the wall and floor colors are a bit more "intense" than what I would say they will be, but you'll get the idea.

The floor is actually the brick road street downtown. Unfortunately, it isn't as level as the picture shows.

The long table is 2 four foot tables put together. It is draped with ivory tablecloths, with a table runner on top. The table runner matches some jewelry display novelty items I got at Bed, Bath and Beyond a couple of months ago for my wholesale show. The table runner is ivory with a few large flowers on it.

The walls are going to be a sheer drapes in the aqua color. My hope is that they will give enough color without feeling heavy.

The three hanging wall items will be jewelry displayed in a frame at eye level.

So you might be asking, why not go over the top color like what I did with my wholesale art jewelry booth? I did think about out. Really, I did. All I can say is now I understand why fashion designers put out the big over-the-top fashion pieces -- to grab attention. I think the wholesale booth does a great job of drawing business and art gallery owners in and making it crystal clear that my jewelry is about fun and color. I'm a bit concerned that the same "over the top" approach to retail customers may be too much.

What do you think?

Go the F**k to sleep

2011-07-07T14:55:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

Have you heard anything about this book? The first I heard of it was about a month and a half ago when it was mentioned in the American Public Media Marketplace podcast I was listening to that day. Host Kai Ryssdal ended that day's podcast by reading an excerpt of the book.

I SCREAMED laughing. Out loud. Hard. Belly laugh. Like the kind that anyone near you wonders if you're having a seizure and in need of medical attention or if you just blew a pop tart out through your nose.

Does that make me a bad parent? Apparently, there is a subset of the parenting world that thinks so.

A little more background on the book here: it's designed like a children's book -- illustrations, short, rhyming sentences, big print. But of course, it's only meant to be read by the adults. I bought a copy for hubby for Father's Day. We both laughed so hard. Really hard. In fact, he thought it was a great gift.

Have I ever thought those exact words? Does that mean that I would ever say that to them out loud? No is the answer on both counts. But that doesn't mean I haven't thought to myself on more than one occasion, "are you really sure you need to be awake right now???!!!???"

So for those of you parents that think this book is a production of the antichrist, may I congratulate you for being PERFECT. As for me, I'll keep nurturing my warped sense of humor.

Your invitation to a jewelry open house in Gainesville, Florida

2011-07-05T14:40:00.000-04:00

Join me at the loft studio of Florida landscape acrylic painter Linda Blondheim for a HEN PARTY. Her studio is upstairs at Paddiwhack, 4128 NW 16^th Blvd., Gainesville - next to Fresh Market. (Just walk to the back of the store and look for the neon sign.) The event is on Saturday, August 6, and runs from noon to 4 PM. I will be there beginning at 1 PM and will have my scrabble tile jewelry, along with my new resin and pewter jewelry. I'll be there to answer questions, demonstrate some jewelry techniques, and maybe pick up paint brush -- only to look at. I will have small resin jewelry gifts for attendees (until they run out), so get there early! Other artisans will be there sharing their handmade soaps, washcloths and handbags.

Did I mention there would be music by guitarist Bob Brounley from 1 to 3 PM along with light snacks?

RSVP's appreciated, but not required. (By the way, the guys can come too.)

Jewelry making on the 4th of July

2011-07-04T17:10:00.000-04:00

Even though today is a holiday, I've been making more resin jewelry. Why? Because I took a few days off last week, full well knowing that I was going to have to make up for it when I got back. I have two new accounts in Texas that have placed orders for my scrabble tile jewelry pendants. Here's a preview of the "bohemian hearts" pattern assortment that they chose:

This pattern is a little different from what I've done previously in that they will have a horizontal orientation.

What I really like about the pattern is that it's not the "cutesy" pink and purple hearts. It's more artistic and easily wearable throughout the year.

Compaq laptop purchase

2011-07-01T14:08:00.003-04:00

If you remember from a few months ago, I was lamenting over whether or not I should get a new laptop computer or a tablet. I was getting ready to travel and knew I not only needed internet access, but I needed to be able to capture credit card information for jewelry sales. I thought my old Dell laptop (6 or 7 years old) would make it, but everything had gotten so grindingly S L O W, that I knew I needed something pronto. I had done a little research on the websites of the major office supply retailers, but decided I needed to work them in person.

I ended up getting an "el cheapo" (about $300) Compaq laptop. I looked at the Blackberry Playbook and one of the new Samsung tablets, but decided the laptop was a better fit for me because:

Integrated keyboard. While I love the touch screen, sometimes I just need to type REALLY fast (like this blog post).
I needed to print receipts. There wasn't an easy way (that I could tell anyway) to print out documents or receipts.
The laptop is faster. I didn't necessarily figure that out until the salesperson told me.

I think a tablet is still pretty neat additional to my arsenal, but it's going to have to wait until after a new camera.

Since when did you need a bank loan to go to the movies?

2011-06-30T22:04:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

I had the opportunity to visit with family this week. They don't live close, and I wanted to make sure my peeps had the chance to do some fun things with their older cousin. All four of them LOVED the first "Cars" movie. So when my sister found out we were going to be there when "Cars 2" was hitting the theater, she thought it would be a good time to take all of them to see it.

Little did I know that prices had gone up since the last time since I went to the movies.

If you would have told me before I went that I would pay the price of a really nice pair of shoes for two adults and three children for tickets, drinks and popcorn I would have said that you were smoking crack. Apparently crack has gotten expensive. All that came to just under $80.

How is a family of five supposed to do that on a regular basis?? Seriously, Hollywood. While my boys loved the experience, next time, we'll just wait for the DVD.

Wine tasting in northern Virginia

2011-06-29T18:14:00.000-04:00

I'm spending a few days with family in northern Virginia, and my sister (also a wine enthusiast), suggested we do a tasting at one of her local favorites, Sunset Hills Vineyard. I am always up for a good afternoon of wine, so I jumped at the opportunity. We left our peeps with our hubbies and away we went.

This is the view as you head up the driveway. I love seeing local agriculture at work.

The beautiful barn where the tastings are held was Amish built.

They have beautiful patio seating for anywhere from events to just stopping in to enjoy wine and tapas.

This is the view from the inside of the barn tasting room. The picture doesn't do the barn justice. The attention to detail is incredible.

We didn't get to taste this wine, but this is one of my sister's favorite. We had it with dinner a few nights earlier.

The deck from the upper level has the most incredible views! You can see more of the vines that you didn't see when driving in.

Another spectacular view from the balcony.

It was a beautiful way to spend the afternoon and a way to enjoy some local wine.

Gooey chocolate brownie recipe

2011-06-27T14:07:00.000-04:00

Hubby, peeps and I have been spending a couple of days with family. My sister was doing dinner for all of us last night and I happened to walk in while she was making dessert.

I saw this lying there and thought....

Oh, this looks like it could be a good blog post.

Super gooey batter, with chocolate chunks. Looks good enough to eat doesn't cover it. Shouldn't that be a skin conditioning wrap or something?

In the pan it goes. (Don't forget to spray first, but I find the aluminum foil optional -- I use a silicone pan.)

The finished product. (and don't they look even more delish next to the hydrangeas?)

My sister was kind enough to share the recipe. Enjoy!

1/3 c dutch processed cocoa
1 1/2 tsp instant espresso (optional)
1/2 c plus 2 tbsp boiling water
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 c plus 2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 c sugar
1 3/4 c unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 tsp table salt
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1. Adjust over rack to lowest position and heat to 350. Push foil into a baking pan, pushing it into all corners and crevices. Spray with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Whisk cocoa, espresso, and boiling water in a large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until melted. Whisk in melter butter and oil (don't worry if it looks curdled). Add eggs, yolks, and vanilla. Continue to whisk.
3. Whisk in sugar. Add flour and salt and mix with rubber spatula until combined. Fold in chocolate pieces.
4. Scrape batter into pan and bake until inserted toothpick comes out clean (or with a few crumbs). Allow to cool 1 1/2 hours.
5. Use foil to lift brownies out of pan. Allow to cool another 1 hour. Cut into squares and serve.

Pictures of Karma

2011-06-24T14:51:00.000-04:00

Yes, you're reading that correctly. I have pictures of Karma...the cat that is. (She is quite happy one of my blog readers wrote to check in on her. "Eh - hem...that's the only time I get on the blog anymore..")

I had to interrupt bird watching time. She's kinda getting to be a big girl. Karma is declawed, so I think her only hope to get one is to smother it.

"Oh, you would like my picture? Good enough now am I?"

"Let me get comfortable. You're not going to have one of those little rug rats use me as a pillow in this picture, are you?"

(P.S. Any and all fan mail can be sent to my email: kmsdesigns@hotmail.com Put Attn: Karma in the subject line)

I hate grocery shopping

2011-06-23T14:09:00.002-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

I've been asked a time or two just how I get everything done in my day. One thing that helps (that took me a couple of years to realize) is that hubby does all the grocery shopping. Now before you go all, "Aww" on me, it's really not a huge deal for him since he works there. He's a bit of a bargain hound and knows where everything is. This past Sunday was the first time in awhile that I've had to go to the grocery store with more than three items on my list. (It was Father's Day after all, so he deserved that day off.)

Three little boys had to go with me as well.

Crikey.

What would have been a 7 or 8 minute trip for him turned into about to be 45 minutes for me, not to mention that I didn't get everything on the list.

I won't go into everything, but here's a few of my complaints:

Why can't every store be laid out the same? (He works for a chain grocery store and hears this complaint from others as well.)
Why can't all of the same item be in one place? I shouldn't have to look for ready made mashed potatoes in the dairy and meat sections.
There needs to be a big cage on wheels that I can put the peeps in. Is that legal?

What bugs you about shopping?

Green golf balls

2011-06-22T14:45:00.000-04:00

Who would ever guess these are going to be orange fruit in a few months? Right now, they're about the size of golf balls (green ones to be exact).

They're in little clusters like this all over my 8 foot tall orange tree. The tree is pretty healthy and there are a TON of oranges on it this time. (Last season's crop wasn't so great.)

Unfortunately, my grapefruit tree didn't make any fruit this year. ?? Probably something I did....or didn't do.

What do you hate about shopping online?

2011-06-20T15:19:00.000-04:00

I briefly mentioned last week about a few studio projects I'm working on. One of those projects is upgrading KMS Designs. It will, for the most part, look almost exactly the same. Where the big changes come in to play is a better shopping cart system. Which begs the question:

What do you hate about shopping online?

I'm going to add features I think will make the process better, but I don't want to miss anything. Here's a few of the online shopping mistakes that I want to avoid with my new shopping cart:

General glitches and errors. You shouldn't have to be constantly reloading pages.
Requiring as little as information as possible. With all the computer security breaches nowadays, you have to wonder if your information will ever be safe again.
Easily findable information. You shouldn't have to hunt an peck for what you want to know.

So, what's important to you? SERIOUSLY, I want to know. I've been doing this long enough that I'm afraid I'm missing something. Please leave any and all comments in the box below. (If you don't want your ideas made public, just drop me an email to kmsdesigns@hotmail.com.)

Your feedback is helpful and appreciated!

So you want to be my friend?

2011-06-16T14:55:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue and cheek look at my life.*

Ah, don't you love how the social networks like Facebook and Twitter let you find people? And yes, they can find you too. Even when you don't want to be found.

I'm just going to lay it out here: I am more likely to accept a friend request from you on Facebook if I know NOTHING about you. I don't know that you're a stalker or self-obsessed Farmville player or talk drivel on incessantly about nothing. It's the friend requests from people I know that can stay in limbo for awhile. In fact, if I have known you a long time, consider yourself unusual that I am friends with you on Facebook.

Case in point:

I was picked on in school. I was a smart kid from a farm. Curve buster of sorts. And farm kids didn't have the fanciest clothes, shoes, or toys either. I might as well as had a big bullseye on my back with KICK ME in the middle. (Wait, I might have at some point.) So, if you're one of those people that took great pleasure in ruining days of my childhood, you might ought to take pause before you try to friend me...or at least add a really nice note to your request. "Hey, I know it's been awhile, and I was a self-absorbed, b*tch in the making in school and completely lived my life to make every day of third grade hell for you, but I would like to make amends and be your friend now."

Yeah, right. I have waited thirty years for this moment.

IGNORE

Yeah, that was good. (and much cheaper than therapy)

Resin jewelry - what's popular this week

2011-06-15T14:41:00.003-04:00

I learned two things several years ago when I started doing street festivals.

I can never predict what jewelry is going to be popular.
The same jewelry may not be popular for the next art show.

Apparently the wholesale art market isn't any different.

One of my best selling patterns last week was my resin cowgirl jewelry. I don't sell this jewelry on my KMS Designs jewelry website, but on my other endeavor, Cow Art and More. I was replenishing my inventory yesterday and I had hubby grab a few random picture of the pouring process.

Horseshoes and longhorns are in this batch.

There's also a few of the geometric and dottie patterns. These will be ready to ship late Friday afternoon.

Resin jewelry making studio - what's next?

2011-06-13T14:18:00.000-04:00

So now that Las Vegas is done, you might be wondering what I'm doing next? (yeah, me too)

Filling Las Vegas orders!
Working on my new website. It won't look a whole lot different from the one I have now, but there will be a better shopping cart system.
Building up inventory of my new resin and pewter jewelry.
Starting to plan for Christmas orders. Yes, I know it's June and it's super freakin' hot outside, but stores will start their orders for the Christmas season in July.
Finishing up a couple of art show applications.

What's on your agenda this summer?

New retail locations for KMS Designs resin jewelry

2011-06-10T19:27:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to share with you that starting next week, you will find Katherine Swift's resin jewelry at the following locations:

Western Folklife Center, Elko, Nevada
Artspresso, Idyllwild, California
EllenJ Gifts and Jewelry, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Las Vegas - what happens here stays here

2011-06-09T15:11:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

Las Vegas. Wow. Decadence beyond anything I have imagined in a long while. Here's what I learned about Las Vegas:

I'm about 3 kids and 10 years too late making my first trip.
Frank Sinatra will never be dead as long as there is a Las Vegas.
In case you're inspired to be a pole dancer, every shoe store you walk into has a HUGE assortment for you to choose from to wear immediately.
To be sober at 6 PM in the evening is apparently against the rules.
Nothing is free (except maybe the view).

I took a few random cell phone pictures of the trip. Enjoy!

This is Lizardo da Vinci (or some similar name). He was there to greet you at the Orlando airport security check.

Enjoying a gin and tonic before seeing "Le Reve" at the Wynn casino. I don't know what it takes to get free drinks in this town. I couldn't believe that a pre-show cocktail for me and my friend was almost $25. (Seriously!) Apparently they get suckers like me to overpay to keep the free drinks flowing to the high rollers.

The "Le Reve" stage. It was a beautiful show. To sum it up, it was a "Cirque du Soleil" style show involving water.

This is all the closer I will ever get to owning a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes. Too bad the picture doesn't show how sparkly they are.

More casino "bling". This is from the Judith Ripka line of jewelry. Lots of sparkle here too. (No price tags shown. I suppose if you have to ask, you can't afford it.)

The street view of the casino "New York New York". Yeah, easy to see how it gets the name.

Now you get to see some pictures from my favorite dinner while I was there at Roy's Hawaiian fusion.

A lovely pear salad with gouda and fruit meant to be "caviar".

A mango mojito. (The second one I think.)

The view from the monorail station at the Las Vegas convention center.

Our last night there, we had dinner at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. The dinner was just okay, but it was cool having live music while we ate dinner.

Incredibly happy to be home!

Asking for an art donation

2011-06-08T14:35:00.000-04:00

Phew! Glad to be back from my Las Vegas trip. (Home is always a good place to be.) I've got some pictures from the trip to post for tomorrow, but in the meantime, this is an article I wrote while I was away about how to ask an artist for an art donation. I get many requests from worthy charities and non profits for art donations. The requests are usually for pieces for a silent auction, raffle, or door prize. Since I get so many, I cannot say yes to everyone. (Honestly, I don't know another artist that isn't in the same boat.) Whether you are planning on asking me or another artist you know for a donation, these are 10 tips to help you when asking for an art donation. (P.S. Number 8 in this list goes a long way with me.)

1. Approach an artist or gallery you have a good relationship with. This could be that you are a regular customer or regularly interact via social media or live events.

2. Approach someone that has strong feelings about the charity or non profit group you are raising funds for. For example, I feel very strongly about children's charities in my area. I make it a point to regularly donate to them.

3. Know that artists and galleries get MANY requests for donations. This may even be a good way to lead into your request: "You must get lots of requests to donate your beautiful paintings. Our organization would be grateful if you would at least consider making a donation for our annual fundraiser."

4. Write your request to an actual person! Research the gallery and/or artist to find an actual contact person versus sending your request to "To Whom It May Concern".

5. Share what the artist and/or gallery can expect to receive in return for their donation. Are you going to feature the art and/or the artist in a brochure or catalog about the event? Will the artist's work be shown with their name and photograph? Are you asking the artist or a gallery representative to make a personal appearance?

6. A little flattery goes a long way (but be sincere!) Get to know the gallery or artist and their art first before you ask for a donation. It will be much easier for you to talk about their art and why you find it a good fit for your charity event.

7. Consider asking if the artwork is available for purchase at the wholesale price (since you are asking on behalf of a charity). While artists and galleries may balk at giving up art outright, they may consider selling it to the charity at a discount.

8. Don't forget to follow up with a handwritten thank you on a nice card or stationery. Not a postcard. Not an email. Not a "thank you" buried somewhere on your website. A thoughtful, handwritten thank you goes a long way in getting the artist or gallery to make a donation again.

9. Know that some of the artists and galleries are going to say no (and remind yourself this is okay). It might be the artists doesn't have any inventory to spare or can't afford the donation. Regardless, thank him or her for their time and ask if it's okay for you to contact them in the future.

10. Lastly, do not tell the artists what they can or can't do in terms of how this donation relates to their tax situation. Donating art is a tricky situation; recommend the artist or gallery consult their financial adviser for advice on this matter.

Las Vegas show wrap up

2011-06-06T18:27:00.000-04:00

The show is almost over, but I wanted to share with everyone that you will now be able to find more of my resin jewelry west of the Mississippi! KMS Designs jewelry will now be in stores in Texas, California, Nevada and Utah just to name a few. I am anxious to share the new locations with you and will do so when I'm back in the studio later this week!!

Resin jewelry booth at ACRE Las Vegas

2011-06-04T16:01:00.000-04:00

I'm blogging this to you today while I'm at the ACRE Las Vegas show. The last 36 hours have had some good and not so good moments. But I'm here now and things are going.

It started yesterday at 4 AM ET with an alarm clock telling me it was time to get the day started. I REALLY needed about 6 more hours of sleep. I had been burning the midnight oil getting the new resin and pewter jewelry line going, including being up late the night before. A pot of coffee and kisses from my peeps to wish me well, and I left for the Orlando airport. No, the sun was not up yet.

Other than the normal inconveniences of flying (body scans, removing half your clothing, having to give up that bottle of lotion I forgot was in my purse), that part went well. Unfortunately, the lack of sleep and too much caffeine caught up with me. By the time I landed in Vegas, nausea had taken up most of my thought processes and a migraine wasn't too far behind it. Luckily, my friend Maggie was with me and helped tote the luggage from the airport to the hotel and then on to the convention center.

It was only 3 PM local time when we got started setting up the booth, but I was still on east coast time and seriously needed a nap.

This is what the booth looked like when we started. Another 10 foot by 5 foot space with a table and chair.

I had packed everything into three suitcases and one carry on bag. I flew Southwest, so two bags are free. My friend checked one of the others as hers. After the "pain in the keister" factor of lugging around big, heavy bags, I would at least look into having my materials freighted out here ahead of time, especially if I'm doing the show by myself. (You can have items sent here ahead of time and they are at your booth waiting for you. No hernias - no headaches - but there's the cost of the freight - bags are free on Southwest)

I designed by new resin jewelry booth display back in February. Here's my first opportunity to put it to work!

First thing I did was to put up the ivory colored sidewalls over the silvery ones. (The cover of the table in the picture is the silver). I also hung 4 pictures (one you can't see), and I hung the lights.

Next was the pink table cover and the green floor.

This was as far as I got on Friday afternoon. I couldn't decide which was going to happen first: my head exploding or regurgitating my breakfast. I am absolutely embarrassed to say that I was in bed by 5 PM local time. (probably against the law in a party town like Vegas).

The jewelry finally got put out on the table Saturday morning. (Notice Maggie kneeling next to the table.) For this show, I only brought scrabble tile and resin jewelry and my new line of resin and pewter jewelry.

I have 20 different themes of scrabble tile jewelry for display.

A closeup view of the new line of pewter and resin jewelry. I'm happy with how this line has turned out.

My last thing to share with you is the cute little flower jewelry displays I got at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I was in there to get table risers, and found this as a little bonus.

I'll have more updates to share soon!

New resin jewelry in pewter

2011-06-01T14:28:00.000-04:00

I want to share a preview of my new resin earrings and pendants with blog readers. WOO HOO! They will be listed for sale on my "new and improved" website coming soon!

Brief description: earrings are 1/2 inch round or square and hang on sterling silver filled ear wires, earring "doubles" are 1/2 inch wide by 1 inch long and hang on sterling silver filled ear wires, pendants are 7/8 inches round/square and hang on a sterling silver plated snake chain.

Mixing the perfect resin color

2011-05-30T16:39:00.000-04:00

Now that I'm in overdrive getting resin and pewter jewelry pieces finished to take to the ACRE Las Vegas show this week (yes, this week!), I experimented a little with getting some unique colors. I broke out my handy, dandy color wheel and started mixing. Here's what I got:

I got a "baby blue" (far left), lavender (middle left), and "mud" (left). I was trying to get a warm, red undertone, fuschia.

The baby blue isn't bad. I'm not a pastel person, but I think if you're are, you will like the color.

I liked the lavender color. It wasn't next on my list to create, but I went ahead and used it anyway.

This is actually what happened first. MUD. Ugly, mud. I poured it in a couple of pieces before I decided I absolutely hated it.

For some strange reason, I couldn't bear to pour it in the garbage, so I put it in one of my silicone resin molds. Still hate it.

So after three tries of getting the fuschia I wanted, I decided to hit the internet to find something that would help me get the color I wanted.

I love wikipedia.

I found an article on Wiki How on How to Mix Colors. I was skeptical, but decided I couldn't do any worse than I already had done.

Eureka! I have my fuschia! (and while I was on a roll, I went for a nice teal too.)

This is exactly the color I wanted. I was mixing purple, blue and red, when in reality, I had to mix a bright pink with turquoise. Go figure.

The teal came from mixing the turquoise with just an eensy, teensy bit of yellow. Love how this one turned out too.

These colors will be ready to sand tomorrow night and will be heading out West with me!

New resin jewelry

2011-05-27T16:44:00.000-04:00

Exciting news!

I have a new line of silver tone resin jewelry! This has been in the making since January (with a couple of hiccups along the way), but they are looking sooooooooooo good! So here are the details:

These pieces are like what I've been making, with a few exceptions:

They are made of pewter
No open backs
Sterling silver filled ear wires (Read about sterling silver filled wire)

They still have yummy colors and a soft, satin finish.

Here's a few random pictures:

These are a tray of mostly earrings. There are earring singles (round or square) or earrings doubles (double circles or square/circle).

A closeup of a couple of the pewter pendants before they are filled with colored resin.

Why make resin jewelry out of pewter? There are actually a few reasons for this:

Sterling silver prices are obnoxious. (Get precious metals quotes at kitco.com.) I have created these new resin jewelry pendants and earrings to have the same artistic look as my sterling silver resin jewelry, but I can do it for about a third of the price. The other neat thing about pewter is that it is an alloy of tin and copper. (Sometimes it includes lead, but my jewelry does not.) It's not going to tarnish like sterling silver does. I love the silver pieces but with the price of silver now and the economy still on uncertain ground, my retail and wholesale customers have been asking about alternatives. I still have some sterling silver and resin jewelry pieces and will be happy to do the new designs in sterling silver by special order.

A group of the new pewter pieces lined up and ready.

Normally, I only do one color pour a day, but since I need to get samples ready to go to ACRE Las Vegas next week, I've been doing two pours a day: one in the morning and one in the evening. Here, I've done an orange and a purple color pour.

These are the same orange and purple colors in earrings.

After I get done pouring a batch, I have to let it cure for 24 hours before I can do another pour (at least in the same piece). To keep the dust off of the resin jewelry pendants and earrings, I cover them with plastic containers.

Ah, they're starting to come to life! This is after a couple of days. At this point, I've also done a green, pink, and yellow pour. Notice the resin cups and dirty paper towel at the top of the picture? I'm getting the resin all over my kitchen countertops. It almost looks like a birthday cake has exploded.

Another closeup of the future earrings with resin. There are a few mistakes to sand off once they're cured.

More colorful resin pendants.

This picture is the reason why I only do one color then let it cure for 24 hours before pouring the next one. The orange was poured on Tuesday. The turquoise was poured on Thursday. The dark blue was poured today (Friday). Some of the dark blue spilled onto the orange. The orange was completely cured (hardened) so I just had to wipe off the dark blue. If I poured all the colors on the same day, the dark blue would have mixed into the orange if it had still been wet and the piece would have been ICK.

This picture was after today's pour. You can see that in addition to the previous colors, there are some reds, pinks, turquoise and yellow/green.

Don't they look good enough to eat??? I will try to have some finished pictures up next week.

Is it okay to bring uninvited kids to a party?

2011-05-26T14:47:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

Warning, this is another of a "not really a rant" posting. This one is somewhere between an etiquette concern and overreaction to how a party invitation was addressed. Please comment. Seriously.

I took my oldest two peeps to a birthday party this past weekend at a kids recreation center. The birthday invitation came with the oldest two peeps name on it, not my youngest peep. My older two peeps are in the same class in preschool; the invitation was for everyone in the class. I had no expectations that the youngest peep would be on the invitation.

I got a gift to take and the older peeps were excited to go. I lined up a babysitter for the youngest peep.

I was a bit surprised when I got to the party.

Their classmates were there, along with some of their classmates' siblings. Now I don't know the full story; maybe the other siblings were on the invitation. Maybe those families are all good friends and were not. (not crying here -- I'm a big girl.) Personally, I just wasn't going to bring my child to a party he wasn't specifically invited to. I'm sure the family hosting the party had to pay on a per person basis for everyone in attendance and I just didn't think it was appropriate to save me the cost of a babysitter and bring baby peep.

Am I overreacting? Do you ever ask to bring the other child? Do you ask and offer to pay the difference? Or do you just assume it's okay to bring extras?

Checklist for wholesale jewelry show

2011-05-25T14:50:00.001-04:00

I'm heading out to the ACRE Las Vegas wholesale show next week. This is my checklist I'll be going over for the show. (Actually, this is the same checklist from the ACRE Orlando show, with a few changes and improvements. My "lessons learned" are in italics.)

Jewelry. I'll be taking a large sampling of the scrabble tile jewelry and the new pewter and resin jewelry line. After attending my first wholesale show in January of this year, I've got a better idea of how much of each style to bring to give shop and gallery owners and idea of what the work is like.

Large duplicate invoice pads. I need to make sure I have plenty of room to get all the contact information and the specifics of the order. Plus I need to be sure I keep a copy for myself. I brought too many for the Orlando show. I won't bring near as many to Las Vegas (which is especially important since I'm packing to go on a plane.)

Fact sheets about me, KMS Designs, and my jewelry. Knowing that many of the attendees are coming to gather information and (hopefully) place orders, I need to give them pertinent facts that they can review later and place and order. I also overdid this for the Orlando show. I take about a third of what I did before and make more copies later in case I need to.

Mailing list signup. I need a list and method to collect email addresses for vendors to receive contact from me about what's going on within my jewelry business. I had forms for vendors to fill out, but actually found that getting their business card was sufficient.

Laptop computer. This will allow me to coordinate the orders with my account on the ACRE wholesale crafts website. It will also give me the chance to show gallery and boutique owners my Flickr jewelry page, which has pictures of me doing works in progress. (There is wi-fi at the show.) I'm glad I had my computer with me more than I thought I would have. Definitely will be taking this item with me to Las Vegas.

Business cards. I need people to have a way to contact me, whether by phone, email or my twitter and facebook pages. Yep, those were good to have.

Signage about the jewelry prices and a bit of information about how they are made. This might be overkill, but I like people to get information without having to feel "embarassed" to ask. I'm taking it one step further this time and am going to have pictures of my jewelry hanging from the walls of the booth. I need something that people can see from across the aisle to draw them in.

Jewelry display materials. This includes my velvet displays, tablecloths, and risers. I'm also taking some DIY wooden shelves to set up as well. That means I'll need to bring a screwdriver set.

Track lighting, zip ties, and extension cord. Since the show will be indoors, I need to bring extra lighting so people can fully appreciate the jewelry. I'm bringing a portable light system this time along with the ties and extension cords.

Cart and associated bungee cords. It's not going to be a short trip between my booth and my vehicle. No cart and cords this time. All but one of the suitcases has wheels. I'm hoping I don't hate myself in the end for toting all these suitcases around.

A few new items to go on this trip:

Table risers. This will add an extra 6 inches of height to the table. It will be taller than a kitchen table, but not quite counter height.

Bird netting. No, I'm not going bird hunting while I'm out there, but I need something to put across the booth to make it "secure". In Orlando, I draped everything with a sheet, which shuffled everything around daily.

Fishing line. I need it to hang the pictures.

Send me your old gift cards

2011-05-23T14:10:00.000-04:00

Yes, you're reading that correctly. I'm working on some new jewelry designs and need old, used up, gift cards. (Well, I guess they don't have to be used up -- I'm happy to spend what's left.)

Any color or pattern will do. Here's what you can do:

If you're local, email me at kmsdesigns@hotmail.com. I can set up a place for you to drop them off.
If you're not local, when you get about 10 or so, email me at kmsdesigns@hotmail.com and I will be happy to send you a prepaid envelope to put them in.

Either way, I will be sure to show some GRATITUDE.

Art show table covers and fabric walls

2011-05-20T14:54:00.000-04:00

My fireproof fabrics for my jewelry booth at ACRE Las Vegas arrived this week. I'm still happy with my color choices.

This will be the table cover. It can fit a six foot long table, but can adjust to a 4 foot table as well. It was slightly less pink than I was expecting, but still a good fit. I think it's going to go great with the green floor.

The ivory panel walls are nice too. I ordered them with clips and a velcro strip at the top the panels. That way, I can put clips (which also have a velcro side on them) over a bar and velcro the panels to it.

Down to the wire!! I'll be traveling to Las Vegas two weeks from today!!

Don't tell me, ask me how you can help

2011-05-19T15:40:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

While the Thursday posts are meant to be comical, this one is a bit more serious. I consider myself to be of above average intelligence. Not because I'm just naturally that way, but something happened when I hit thirty something: I had enough life experiences, combined with an awakening of critical thinking, that I learned how to learn and listen. That listening part is what makes you smarter (in my opinion). Listening is a very hard skill. Very hard. I constantly have to remind myself to listen and sometimes it goes better than others. I have learned (and tried to learn) things outside of my traditional schooling by listening and realizing others had experiences that I could learn from.

One of the things a former professor used to say was, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Once you're a Roman, build it to suit yourself." That's just a trumped up way of saying the more often thought of, "Seek first to understand, then be understood." That mantra, along with intense listening skills, has in great part gotten me to where I am today.

There really is a point to all this I promise......

I own a couple other businesses. (That's another blog post in of itself, but for another day.) I have been lucky enough to hire a very highly qualified and motivated intern for one of them. I say lucky, because I've been looking for someone who can afford to get paid with experience instead of a fat paycheck, and quite frankly, I've been coming up short (something I have a hard time understanding living in a college town). There have been several projects on the back burner for this other business that I was excited to be able to give to the intern to make her own.

Alas, managing people is never easy.

In our first meeting, where I had already given her a heads up of the first project that I wanted her to work on, she instead spent the first forty-five minutes going over a list of items that three-quarters of:

I had already done and determined it didn't work.
Wasn't a priority and didn't see why anyone else would think it was a priority.
I was already doing (which I would have the expected the intern to have known that if she had done some research on the business)

Now don't get me wrong. I'm very excited to have this intern on board. However, it looks like the first project I should have given her: listening exercises.

So this brings me to the moral that my husband hears me mutter from time to time (and maybe this will be your takeaway message from this blog post).

"I know what needs to be done. I don't need people to tell me. I need to hear people say, 'How can I help you get done what needs to be done?' "

I mean do you think if you're dealing with any other profession or business, they wouldn't want you to take the same approach? How many teachers have had parents ask 'What can I help you with?' I mean really, have you ever heard a teacher say I need LESS parental involvement. I need FEWER people to listen to me when I ask for help! Do you think your physician doesn't want to hear you ask what else you can do to help him or her take care of you? I certainly don't mean from this post that people shouldn't be speaking up with their thoughts and suggestions, I'm just saying that maybe there is a reason we have two ears and one mouth.

Science activities for kids

2011-05-18T15:32:00.000-04:00

My sister called before Easter and asked what my boys wanted for a gift. The first thing out of my mouth was what they didn't need: MORE TOYS! Our house is exploding at the seams and I look for every excuse possible not to bring more things in. My suggestion to her: a butterfly house.

The house came by itself a couple of days later. There was a coupon inside to redeem for caterpillars.

Two cups of caterpillars came with their food inside. Within a couple of days, they formed chrysalids and hung from the lid. (You can see top of them in the picture if you look hard enough)

Once the chrysalids are hanging from the paper, you take the lid off the caterpillar cup and move the paper to the inside of the house. I clipped them in there with a wire.

About three days or so after that, we had beautiful orange and black butterflies. We've been feeding them fruit and the boys have loved watching them (along with the cat). I'm trying to talk them into letting them go. Yeah. Haven't gotten that far yet. The whole process from start to finish has taken about 10 days.

Jewelry pictures for my art show booth

2011-05-16T14:26:00.000-04:00

Last Monday, I showed you pictures of jewelry that would end up hanging in my jewelry booth at the ACRE Las Vegas show. I ordered plastic poster clips from Displays 2 go to hang them with.

If you look at the top of the picture, there is a clear clip. I put the picture in and clip it shut. There is one to go at the bottom as well, although I didn't put it on the picture.

I didn't get them all out to try (I may regret that later), but just went ahead and packed everything away. My fireproof fabric is in transit, so I hope to have pictures to show of that by the end of the week.

Summer family activites

2011-05-13T15:03:00.000-04:00

With summer travel plans being discussed, why not add an art museum to your list? I found Artcyclopedia has a directory of all the art museums in the United States. You can select a state to look at all the museums by cities within that state. The museums are also listed with their website links. Cool.

Find me in a puddle

2011-05-12T08:44:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

Can't stand to write for long folks. See, I'm a bit of a cheap-o. I hate "making donations" to the utility company and don't turn on the air conditioning until I have to. Which was yesterday.

Nothing.

I mean from the a/c unit. No cool air, no fan, no nothing. I am cranky and almost in a puddle.

"I'm melting" (in my best Wicked Witch of the West voice)

An igloo sounds good right about now......

A creative time waster

2011-05-11T14:50:00.001-04:00

What do you get when someone is creative, has some extra time on their hands, and is a little "warped upstairs"? You get the Bent Objects blog. I won't spoil it for you, but let's say it's good time buster some afternoon when you're looking for something to do. (or even if you have plenty to do, it's pretty funny)

Here's a hint: Author Terry Border has this listed as his profile picture.

Photographing resin jewelry

2011-05-09T14:42:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday, I ventured out midday to photograph some of my resin jewelry to be used as a photo enlargement to display on a wall in my art show booth. The idea is that customers and art gallery and boutique owners can see the photographs from a distance and will be at least intrigued to come into my booth.

I made my own light box by cutting out the sides and top of a cardboard box and replacing the cutouts with white computer paper, which serves to diffuse the light. The background is a white to gray to black photogradient paper. This is an industry standard when photographing anything for show entries or magazine advertisements. (Kind of like that brown/gold background when you get elementary school pictures.) I used a piece of aluminum foil to reflect light back onto the piece of resin jewelry.

So here are the finished pictures:

Per some other artist recommendations, I am getting these printed at Costco (in a 12 inch by 18 inch size), and will hang them with poster clips. The Costco price for printing was very affordable, so I'm hoping the pictures will turn out well too.

Wholesale jewelry booth - ACRE Las Vegas

2011-05-06T16:16:00.000-04:00

Wow! It's coming together!

I'm on the downhill slide of my new resin jewelry booth that will be at the ACRE Las Vegas show. Here's the list and here's how it's going:

Floor tiles - here, packed and ready to go
Portable track lighting - also here packed and ready to go

Here's what I ordered today:

Table cover, clips to hang photographs on the walls, ivory colored panels to hang for walls.
Brackets to allow me to make portable risers (pack flat, assemble when I get there)

Here's what's left to do/get:

I need to get table risers to put under the table. This will bring the table up to about 36 inches tall (a bit less than counter height)
I need 4 photographs of more work printed BIG. I hope to get pictures taken tomorrow.

So you may remember that when I first talked about doing the booth, one of the designs had purple pedestals along with the pink table. I still like that design better, but don't want to deal with some of the issues of getting all of the display items across country on a plane. I found some "portable" pedestals that were pretty expensive, so I decided to save my cash and go without. Maybe next year.

Moms can never be off duty EVER

2011-05-05T10:26:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

Let me bring you up to speed: I have 3 boys, all aged four and under. It can get a little crazy here. A big ninety-eight percent of the time, if I'm lucky enough to get ALL of them to take a nap at the same time, I get to work uniterrupted in the studio. I'm either pouring resin, or I'm making phone calls: both things that I don't need little people distractions for. The exception to this is Saturdays. Sometimes I work on Saturdays, sometimes I don't. Mentally for me, it's my day off. I might get caught up on my magazines, see what the DVR has recorded for me this week, or ever so infrequently,

I take a nap.

Last Saturday was one of the those days. Two of the three peeps were already worn out. It was a really, really nice day here -- moderate temperatures and little humidity. It was also really, really quiet.

Yeah, let's go for it.

Peeps one and three were down. Peep two seemed tired, but was playing with his cars. He assured me he was going to nap too, eventually.

So, comfy jammies and a fluffly pillow was all I needed to get started. Sometime a few minutes later, the phone rang. My first thought, "I can't believe I forgot to take the phone off the hook." When I didn't answer, and the caller immediately called back, my next thought was, "Sorry mom, whatever it is, it can wait."

Apparently not.

A few minutes later (not really sure of the exact time here because I was doing everything possible not to open my eyes), there is a BAM BAM BAM at the front door. "Oh, like now what?? I just want some quiet time. In fact I've been really bad today and need a time out."

I put on my fluffy pink robe and head to the door. I open it and stare at the two sheriff's deputies who were wondering why I looked like I was a mom on a mid afternoon bender.

"Ma'am, are you okay?"

With one of the slow blinks (you know, the ones where you take an extra .4 milliseconds to allow you that extra time to think), I answered, "Yes....." I'm looking past them while they're asking, expecting to see one of my neighbor's houses has exploded or is in the middle of a hostage situation.

"Ma'am, someone here called 911 and hung up."

Once again, blank stare, while I'm thinking to myself, thanks kids, I didn't really need that afternoon off.

"Ma'am are you alone?"

"No, I have 3 kids with me."

"Ma'am, did you hear the phone ring? No one answered when we called back, TWICE."

By this time, I'm a little punchy. "Do you answer every phone call that comes to your house??"

Whoops, maybe I shouldn't have said that.

"We need to speak to the child who made the call." Actually, this turned out to be a good thing. Deputies in the their cars with flashing lights can be quite a motivator for a four year old to never call 911 again.

They left, last peep took a nap, and I went back to work in the studio. That will teach me to take a day off.

New resin jewelry

2011-05-04T11:08:00.004-04:00

Just a few pictures today of some new patterns I'm working on. Flowers and birds. Seemed perfect for Spring!

It's a few basic patterns with mostly color changes from pendant to pendant.

The bird of paradises are my favorites of the florals. Love the bright colors!!

By the way, did you notice that I spiffed up the blog? What do you think?

How to Hang Pictures on a Wall

2011-05-02T19:59:00.000-04:00

For any of you doing some home redecorating or you're looking to hang some new art, check out this video. Useful information from Lowes about hanging pictures AND the tools and hardware necessary.

5 biggest blunders men make when buying jewelry for Mother's Day

2011-04-30T15:40:00.000-04:00

*Ladies, since so many of you responded that this article was helpful to your men, I am sharing it again.*

I love it when guys are buying jewelry for their ladies. It's such a sweet and thoughtful notion on their part. I LOVE to help them! Unfortunately, it doesn't always turn out well, so I wanted to share the top five mistakes guys make buying jewelry:

1. Not knowing the details. I have actually had men buy earrings for a gift and not know if the woman had pierced ears. Wow! Major gamble! Find out as much information about your lady as possible. A good start is to find out a ring size, bracelet size, preferred length of necklaces, color preferences, metal preferences and any allergies.

2. Getting her something she doesn't have. This is only a good thing if you have heard her say that she wants a ".....". For example, if she doesn't own any bracelets, there may be a good reason why. Maybe she has a job where it gets in the way or she would have to take it off frequently. Take a quick inventory of her jewelry and get an idea of what she prefers or take notes the next time you are window shopping together.

3. Not considering the "what ifs". Is your jewelry purchase sizable? Can you return or exchange it if she doesn't like it? What if she likes the pendant but wants a different chain? Understand the exchange and return policy on the jewelry BEFORE you purchase it.

4. Buying something that doesn't go with her body type. Believe it or not, how a piece of jewelry is shaped or formed impacts how it looks on a person. For example, round earrings do not look good on a woman with a round face. A small pendant on a short chain isn't particularly flattering to a curvaceous woman with a large bustline. When you're buying the piece, get the person helping you to give suggestions or even the model the jewelry if necessary to help with the decision making process.

5. Buying something that doesn't go with her style. Buy her something she will wear! If she doesn't go to a lot of fancy occasions, she may not get a lot of wear from a big, fancy cocktail ring. Inexpensive earrings may be a better fit for daily wear. If she does a lot of work with her hands, a ring may not hold up to her rough schedule, but a necklace might fit the bill

Mother's Day is coming up and I am happy to help the guys out there get a special gift for the moms in their lives. Contact me at the KMS Designs jewelry website for help getting your special gift.

The Royal Wedding - Did you watch?

2011-04-29T17:39:00.001-04:00

Yes, I was one of the crazy people up at 4 AM ET to watch Prince William and Kate Middleton get married today. Why? Mostly because with all the bad news everywhere, it was nice to focus on something truly happy for a few hours, even if I really should have been sleeping. I could have DVR'ed it, but really?? Do those of you who watch sports want to DVR the Super Bowl to watch it later?

No, I think LIVE was the only way to go with this.

Tea and a tiara. What a better way to celebrate?

So in British style, I broke out the tiara and traded in the coffee for tea this morning. I would have gotten a picture of me in the tiara, but no one else was up that early. (Really, I'm not complaining.)

Best wishes to the happy couple!

What's up with this generation???

2011-04-28T15:04:00.006-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, tongue in cheek look at my life.*

Before I get started, a few disclaimers:

Type A people call me Type B. The vice versa also happens.
I have kids, therefore I am officially "old".
I never do anything half baked, especially when there is money involved.

Now, on with the story.

We are losing our babysitter that we have had for the past year. Any of you with children can relate to the fact that sometimes it's a fine line between leaving your kids with another young adult versus a pack of wolves. When you find a babysitter you like, (at least I) try to do everything to keep her.

Ours is graduating. (Maybe I should go with one that can't pass her classes.)

Ah, I forgot how much fun it is to look for a new one. Here's a few of the recent adventures:

Wow, I got a TXT for an interview. MayB I can watch the kids this way 2!! LOL

Sure, my kids met you at my neighbors house and you hit it off. Yeah, let's try this Thursday. And I don't mind AT ALL if you come 45 minutes late, don't call to let me know, then tell me you have to leave early. I'm only doing this as a favor to you.
Yes, I am looking for a babysitter. No I don't mind sharing with you how much I'm paying and how many hours you can expect if you don't mind showing a little interest in my kids first.
I know you like to text and all, but can you actually answer calls with that phone? I'm running out of character spaces to set up an interview with you.

In trying to find another one, I suppose one can liken it to dating. Find one that's not offensive, no major behavioral issues and can pass a drug test. Wait, I forgot about driving records. Drat.

Jewelry show booth lighting

2011-04-27T14:14:00.001-04:00

Another part of getting ready for ACRE Las Vegas is having lighting for my booth. Ah but yes, you're thinking, didn't I have this for ACRE Orlando? You are correct oh wise one, but this time, it needs to fit in a suitcase.

I decided to go with two foot sections of track with gooseneck lamps. I can focus the goosenecks EXACTLY where I want them to shine light. Quite frankly, I was pretty surprised how bright the lights got and how far the light projected.

These handy dandy little connectors allow me to bring the track together, then disassemble.

I have a total of 3 two foot tracks, six lights, and all the associated connectors and power source.

And the best news is that it all fits in a large suitcase. I'm flying Southwest, which doesn't charge for the first two bags. Awesome!

Resin jewelry making

2011-04-25T14:52:00.000-04:00

In case you're interesting in trying your hand at resin jewelry making, John W. Golden has some great tutorials on his You Tube channel. Here's one here:

Easter brunch breakfast casserole

2011-04-22T14:34:00.000-04:00

For the blog today, I'm linking to my post last year about this same time for my favorite brunch breakfast casserole recipe. Enjoy and Happy Easter!

Oh yeah, it happens in "three's"

2011-04-21T11:20:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.

Thank goodness a new day is a "do-over".

Yesterday didn't go so hot.

Bounced a check. Yeah. Doesn't help to pay stuff online if you don't write it down.

Babysitter didn't show up. Not cool. I wasn't home and hubby had to leave to go to work. Thank goodness I could drive home at 182 MPH and didn't get caught.

Entered a contest to win a Blackberry Playbook (oh yeah, THE Blackberry Playbook) and found out I WON!! That is, until the contest administrator found out I'm from Florida. Not eligible. Must be Flor-i-duh.

I so need a do-over.

What I learned about the art business from going to a Monster Truck Jam

2011-04-20T14:38:00.000-04:00

I had the fun of taking my kids to a Monster Truck Jam this past weekend. I'm not necessarily a fan, but my kids, who came pre-wired to like anything with wheels, are huge fans of the Monster Trucks (and NASCAR too for that matter). Part of the joy of being a parent is taking your kids to do fun things they want to do. It wasn't necessarily my choice for weekend entertainment, but I must say that I liked it better than I thought I would.

Here's what I found intriguing: the drivers of the trucks were genuinely thankful of their fans. I admit, I'm jaded. Whether it's fair or not, the few celebrity entertainers that have behaved badly (Lindsay, Charlie, M. Vick et al) have turned me off to the rest of them. Needless to say, I had to rethink that this weekend.

The Swift family talking with Pablo Huffaker, the driver of Gravedigger

Hubby and I took the peeps ahead of time to the "pit party", which is a meet and greet. Fans can get up close and personal with their favorite drivers and trucks. My boys loved getting to see the trucks. During the live event, the drivers would take a moment in between stunts and races to engage the crowd, either to give thanks, wave to fans, or do a few crowd pleasing acrobatic truck moves. Finally, as we were leaving, the announcer let us know the drivers would once again be meeting with fans and signing autographs.

When was the last time you went to a major sporting event or movie premiere and saw the "players" doing all that to keep the fans happy?

So why am I blogging about this? Going to the Monster Truck rally taught me:

You can never be too big or too important to thank your fans.
Taking time out to speak with fans of your work is always appreciated.
Be sincere. Fans of your work want to learn more and appreciate you taking the time to engage with them.
Be gracious. Fans are the reason you can continue to do what you want to do.

Wow, who knew seeing a bunch of trucks do slap wheelies and big air would make me a better artist.

The "smell" in my house

2011-04-19T15:31:00.000-04:00

I am not in any way a green thumb. In fact, if there was a plants' rights group, I'm sure I would be on the most wanted list. Perhaps this is why this jasmine vine and I get along so well. I LOVE the smell of jasmine. It's blooming now (at least in Florida) and is just heaven. I decided a couple of years ago to get a plant and put it on the corner of my screened-in porch so that the scent would make its way through my house. Thank goodness it can take care of itself.

There are hundreds of these little scented blooms all over the vine. Open up the windows and the porch doors and I have instant scented candle without the fear of my kids starting a fire. (Don't ask...)

Revisiting jewelry designs

2011-04-18T11:09:00.000-04:00

In case you missed my blog post from Friday, my next line of jewelry hit a rather large speed bump on the production highway and to say the least, I wasn't happy about it. I had the weekend to regroup (and enjoy some wine instead of going postal) and decide what needed to happen next in order to get jewelry pieces into production. The good news to share is that the pewter caster is seriously motivated about getting my pieces suitable for jewelry. We're faxing and emailing sketches back and forth and hopefully this all will work out. I'm a bit relieved as they're trying very hard to make these jewelry pieces suitable for my next line of resin jewelry and help me with my deadline of having finished jewelry to go to ACRE Las Vegas.

The other interesting thing about this "incident" is that it made me realize that you need different friends for different situations. In my crankiness, I called a good friend just to vent. This just turned out to be another incident of "I should have know better". This friend is one of the few that I have that will be honest, and brutally so, if necessary. I already knew I had been too stupid and trusting of the others involved in the process and took a risk by not inspecting each step after completion. Yes, you're already thinking it, I got the infamous, completely unhelpful, "I told you so" speech. Yeah, not anywhere close to what I needed at that moment.

So this entire situation begs the question, do you have different friends for different moments?

(Apparently) there is a need to micromanage

2011-04-15T15:55:00.000-04:00

Ordinarily, a post like this would end up in the Thursday rant section, however, this unfortunately isn't a comical rant. Back at the beginning of the year, I decided that it was important for me to delegate more of my jewelry making tasks. Time is a pretty precious commodity in my life, and if I was going to expand my art jewelry business into the wholesale arena, I was going to need help in some areas.

Now, I'm letting the cat out of the bag a bit here, but I'm working on a new line of resin jewelry as an alternative to the increasingly expensive sterling silver variety. Based upon the feedback I got from the ACRE Orlando wholesale show in January, I had my ideas and decided to make a line of resin jewelry based in pewter. (similar look, lower retail price).

Now I will cut to the chase here and just say in gathering my information and doing my research about pewter casting, it was going to be cheaper to have someone make models out of wax, then have those models sent to someone who could do bronze casting. Once they were cast in bronze, they would be on their way to the pewter caster. (All of this versus me making master models, then sending them to the pewter caster.)

I started this process the third week in January with the ultimate goal of having finished pieces for me to work with the resin by May 1. I want to have these ready to show at the ACRE Las Vegas show in early June, not to mention there was interest in customers from the ACRE Orlando show. I only need a few samples for Las Vegas, so as long as I have something to show shops and galleries, I'm good.

What is Murphy's Law again...."If it can go wrong, it will".

(I would type lots of expletives here, but my kids might read this years from now and think their mom has a serious potty mouth.)

I get pieces back from the pewter caster today and there are two major problems. One is not salvageable at all (piece won't hang straight) and the other is hopefully salvageable (chain won't fit through the bail). I need to take responsibility right away and say that I trusted everyone in the process to do their job correctly. All came with recommendations and good samples and I thought this was a job I could completely delegate and expect it to be done properly.

NOT.

Here's what I have learned:

1. I should have had each person mail me their piece work in between each step. I didn't, for the sake of time. Two to three days coming and going would have added 2 to 3 weeks to the overall process time. I'm going to be at that now and an additional $500 in the hole.

2. You can't assume you have anything but drones working on your stuff. I don't mean that people are stupid, but, especially for the the piece that was unbalanced, I have a hard time believing no one noticed it, when I did only after having the piece in my possession for 30 seconds. Did people not look? Didn't notice? Noticed but thought it was part of the design? Maybe they all thought I was a two-headed monster that breathed fire and would vaporize them and their elderly grandmother if they approached me about a "problem".

3. I either need to do things myself, or I need to micromanage. I REALLY hate this one. I have been looking for another assistant (my current one is graduating college at the end of the month and leaving town), but now have put that on hold. I'm trying not to let this situation ruin hiring a new assistant, but it's hard not to.

So, at this point, the unbalanced piece is being reworked by the bronze caster, and the pewter caster is going to try to rework the bails. I'm on my second glass of wine and it's not even 4 PM yet.

Is it tomorrow yet?

Technology - love it or hate it? take it or leave it?

2011-04-14T10:46:00.000-04:00

*This post is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

My rant for this week is that I couldn't write last week's rant because my computer was, well, ... "ill". Apparently all the dust and stuff that flies around my house and studio had piled up on the inside like a Colorado avalanche and had brought things to a almost grinding halt. Add to that my (mostly unintentional) neglect of using an air can to blast it out from time to time, and a trip to the computer care place was needed.

Things break. Things need maintenance. I get it. What I don't like is that I've come to depend on something so much that it wrecks havoc with my business when I don't have it. Like I found a box of checks and bank statements from 19 years ago (yeah, don't even ask me why they had been moved four times and were hiding in my garage) where I had reconciled the account by hand. Seriously? No way I could do that now.

Not really me eating my computer, but apparently shows that you can use it for dental floss in the case that it quits working.

Anyway, the computer is back and functional. It's lightnin' fast...(thanks guys). Phew. Glad to be back in the 21st century.

Picking colors for my new jewelry booth

2011-04-13T09:23:00.001-04:00

In getting ready for the ACRE Las Vegas wholesale show, I've been working on a new jewelry display. I came up with a new jewelry booth design using Google Sketch Up a month and a half ago. After letting the idea "simmer" in my head for a few weeks, I decided I liked how it looked and started buying the display items.

I really liked the lime green floor. It's bright and inviting. I ordered 25 two foot by two foot soft cushion tiles (enough to do a 10 foot by 10 foot booth space). I don't know what I was expecting, but the box they came in was huge.

The tiles lock together with edges similar to a jigsaw puzzle.

They were really pretty easy to put together. (Yes, even a two year old can do it.)

My prior sketch showed an ivory panel backdrop, fuschia hot pink tablecloth and purple pedestals. I had gotten fabric samples from a company that specializes in fireproof trade show fabrics and put them up next to the floor. I still like the colors pretty well and will continue to go in that direction. The only exception is that I'm holding off on the purple pedestals. Not because I don't like the color, but because I'm not sure how I can get them on a plane to go with me to Las Vegas without them getting destroyed or me paying overage charges.

What do you think about the colors?

Thanksgiving Dinner in April

2011-04-11T15:31:00.000-04:00

Yes, you're reading that correctly. Last Thanksgiving, when hubby was buying ingredients for our Thanksgiving Dinner, he stocked up on turkeys. We've been enjoying a turkey about every other month since then. I got one out last week and made a "mini" dinner: turkey, green bean casserole and a bread stuffing with sage, onions and a bit of thyme. Yummy!!!

What's your favorite meal you like to have "out of season"?

Little baby oranges

2011-04-04T15:53:00.000-04:00

Remember when I blogged a couple of weeks ago about orange blossoms? The blossoms are gone, and you can see little eensy-teensy oranges. Yes, I promise you, these will be the oranges that will grow up to make us juice next March. Promise.

They all won't necessarily get there. Some fall off. Some just don't develop. Overall, though, the tree will be loaded with juicy fruit.

Just to give you some perspective, those green "buttons" are about the size of a pea right at the moment. They will be "full grown" in late fall, then will start to turn orange.

(And while I was taking these pictures, my little tree reminded me to fertilize him.)

Going to Ikea? Take some breadcrumbs

2011-03-31T10:28:00.000-04:00

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue and cheek look at my life*

The official Ikea map. Seriously? I need a map??

I had my first visit to Ikea over the weekend. A few of my artist friends have mentioned getting some of the art show booth materials (shelving, fabrics, etc.) there, so while I was in Orlando, Florida for other reasons, I decided to stop by and go on a fact finding mission.

Here's a few of my random thoughts from the experience.

I should have known that it was going to be an exhausting experience when there's a restaurant in the store.
There was a big "START HERE" sign. Kinda like a race. Pace yourself.
Don't get off the path!!! There are all sorts of short cuts. Don't be tempted. You might want to bypass living rooms only to find yourself making circles for hours.
Take breadcrumbs. They will help you find your place and can serve as a food source in the event of the trip taking longer than expected.
The Swedes must be short people. That's the only way I can possibly explain why the majority of their furniture is only 3 inches off the ground.
Just because you can shove a living room, kitchen and two bedrooms into 550 square feet of space doesn't mean that you should. I would kill somebody by the end of the afternoon.

At the end of the day, I found a few baskets that I liked. Everything else was just too much. Can you order online then go pick it up? That might work.