Inspiration Friday - er Saturday

Kids go back to school finally next week - I should be back on track to regular posting soon!

If you would like to participate in our Inspiration Friday posts and get some free publicity...Come on people - free publicity is good!  It really can be anything at all, and not necessarily related to jewelry. Once you've got it made, send us a picture and we'll post it here. Submissions should be sent to info@beadfx.com with the subject line "Inspiration Friday"  There is no timeline, so please don't worry about trying to complete it within a week.  If you have a blog, or an etsy (or similar) site - we'll post a link to your site if you wish.

The last Inspiration pic we posted was this one:



I've had the brilliant red leaves in mind for some time now. Last night, while trying to clean up my desk - I came across a pair of siam Swarovski rivolis. Perfect!

And now for this weeks pic - Go forth and create!

The Business Chat - Marketing Materials

My car is sitting outside, packed to the roof with my booth stuff, I’m off on the road again for another show. It’s the Signatures Christmas show. Yes I said that word, Christmas. It’s October. Yikes!!! As I pulled my booth together over the last few weeks I referred constantly to my handy checklist of booth materials. (I’ll be discussing this next week). On my checklist are all my promotional materials and packaging (which I count as promo stuff).

Promotional materials and packaging are incredibly important for keeping my business alive. They promote my brand, reinforce my message, and keep my business name alive in a customers mind. They communicate my story and my product to my customers, which is what marketing is all about.

Over the past few weeks (or has it been months?) I’ve written posts designed to kick start your marketing campaign so now you’ve got a good start on defining your product. You’re starting to think about your elevator speech and your tag line. You’re working on selling you as much as your work. Now you need to convey all this to the public. This is where marketing materials come into play.

The most important thing about marketing materials is that they are consistent, they must reflect you, your product and your marketing message. If your work is small, delicate and neutral in colouring then don’t use primary colours and a splashy font. Your promotional materials must not only reflect your business, they should reflect you. YOU are the product along with your jewellery. Make sure your materials reflect your creative energy and sincerity.

Marketing dollars are limited and so is your time. It’s important to think long and hard about each piece of collateral that you produce in order not only not to waste time and money, but to avoid sending the wrong message out to the public.

You may decide to design your own materials. You may hire a graphic designer. Or you could take a middle road and commission a basic “design template” that you can apply to each piece as needed. Whatever you decide ask yourself the following questions.

• Does your audience know who you are? Tell the reader something about yourself that is expressed clearly through your work. Use graphics, type, paper or ink colours that reflect your lifestyle and artistic message.
• In what sequence would you like your reader to see your message? A good design leads the eye across a page in the exact sequence you intended. Special folds, flaps and splashes of colour can help. Position the information so that they read what you want in the order you want. For online/social media materials, where do you want a customer to land and experience your site? How do you want them to navigate around?
• What do you want to emphasize. Some things are more important than others. Make sure you know what you want to hit them over the head with and give it more weight. Use colours, large type to convey the key information to the reader.
• Who is your audience? Designing a slick, sophisticated brochure may be appropriate to a high-end gallery but if you’re sending this to your customers in farming country you may lose some by looking too expensive or too sophisticated.
• What is the purpose of the material? Know what you are trying to achieve. Is this piece for informational purposes only? Are you trying to get them to call you, visit your booth, or place an order? SAY what you want them to do.
• Are all your promotional materials consistent in style? Stay with your graphic signature.
• What is your budget? Promotional materials can get pricey. Know your limit and stay within it. Also know the quantities that you need. It may be a really great bargain for those 5,000 postcards, but if you only have 200 people on your mailing list, those people are going to see the same card 20 times before you run out.

Examples of traditional promotional materials are:

• Business cards
• Brochures
• Post cards
• Hang-tags
• Gift cards
• Story/bio cards

Examples of new/social media promotional materials are:

• Web sites
• Blogs
• Facebook pages
• Twitter

Sometimes you have to decide whether it’s worth it to print a piece of marketing materials. What is your R.O.I. (return on investment) for each piece that you produce? How many people are going to see this? With online materials and social media, your cost may not be in actual dollars but in time. Remember time is money. If you spend 40 hours setting up a web site that is 40 hours that you aren’t making jewelry or making money working for someone else. Prioritize your list.

And most importantly, once you have your marketing message, and your spiffy new marketing materials, USE THEM! In a micro business like ours, with a staff of one, if you don’t promote yourself who will?

Oh, and a bit of a rant to end off with. Everything you produce should include your name, the name of your company, and your contact information. Whether you include your business address is up to you. Contact information must include a business telephone number, and email. If they can’t find you they can’t give you money.
“mary smith designs” may be the name of your company, but it doesn’t tell what you do, are you designing earrings or landscaping? If your company name doesn’t tell what you do, include your tag line. If you haven’t worked that out yet, use a brief description of your work – for example “precious gems”, “bridal jewellery”. While not exactly titillating, at least it informs. Think of someone who’s never heard of you finding your business card or looking at your website. Do they know what you do? While it is obvious to you the number of websites I see where I have no clue what they do is astounding. Spell it out.

Wire Wrapping a Briolette

As promised in the inspiration yesterday - I tried to take some pics of the process of wire wrapping a briolette.  I think the following instructions should help out those with some wire wrapping skills - If you have any questions - as usual, feel free to ask away. I'll clarify as much as I can.

A Crafty Weekend

There is quite a bit happening this weekend - those of you leaning towards the crafty side, are probably quite excited to be heading down to the Creativ Festival. Our very own Stephanie Dixon will be there as a Swarovski Ambassador.

We also have Micheal David Sturlin in the house this weekend - Dwyn is just itching to take his classes this weekend - can you tell we're just a little excited?

For those of you attending one or the other - enjoy!  I will apologize in advance for my somewhat lame blog posts tomorrow and Friday - last week I was sick, now I have children home with chicken pox. Sigh - it just never ends :-)  I will try very hard to have something interesting for you though! lol.

Try These

Are you looking for something new to try your hands on? These two classes have a twist, and will get you working on new and unique jewellery.

String Me Coils
Learn to make a necklace with a mix of coils and beads, thanks to the coiling gizmo.

Tues Oct 26th, 6-9PM


Leafy Waterfall Necklace
This necklace mixes sterling silver chain with sterling wire. Learn how to hammer and shape wire into a beautiful pattern as part of a centre piece for a necklace. And of course, add an assortment of beads.

Monday Oct 25 6-9PM


Adios Amigas!

New Toy - Rhinestone Press

You might think that we here at beadFX are just about beads. Well - until you spend more than 30 seconds on the website that is. Then you might think we are all about jewelry.

But - we have our sparkly magpie eyes on other sparkly stuff.

Rhinestones.

Hot Fix Rhinestones on clothing and fabric, as a matter of fact.

We just got a rhinestone press delivered, and so I'm trying to exercise some restraint, but really - right now I'm itching to cover everything in rhinestones.

This press is soooo easy to use, and so fast and painless - don't be surprised if I blind you with rhinestones.

Marg showed me how to use the press - you can see here, she's arranging the t-shirt in the press, with a rhinestone transfer on top. Abby is supervising to make sure everything is done correctly.

Arrange the t-shirt or whatever garment in position - chase out the wrinkles and folds. The decal or prearranged hot fix rhinestones are placed sparkly side up, (the press has a protective layer that will not damage the stones) with the glue side next to the fabric. Decals have a backing layer that needs to be removed from the back first, otherwise - the stones are arranged where they need to be.

A protective layer of teflon is placed inside the garment - to prevent adhesive from bleeding through the fabric and gluing the two sides together.


The press is swung into place, and clamped down. The heat and the pressure are the keys to getting great adhesion. The temperature is set on the front of the press with a dial, and a we have a timer to make sure the pressing is long enough.

Yes - you can do this at home with an iron, but this is way more fun.

Take it out of the press and peel off the plastic layer from the decal, leaving the rhinestones perfectly positioned. Hint - peel slowly, checking that all the stones are properly stuck in place. If some are still on the transfer paper, put it back in position and re-apply the transfer.

And here's the finishing beastie - a lovely dragon. The angle is odd because I'm apparently the only person who knows how to work a camera. Go figure.



We have some transfer paper too - which we'll be experimenting with - the idea is that you can make your own transfers and design your own decals. In fact - if you were really ambitious - you could design decals and have them commercially made - there are minimum order numbers for that, but they aren't too onerous.

We will be carrying rhinestone decals in the store, in addition to the loose hot fix stones. The press will be available for use, most probably free with minimum purchase, or a small fee for a given time.

Woo hoo! Sparklies!

The Joy of Metal Clay - Fast Fire Bronzclay - Part 1

I finally managed to get my hands on some of the Metal Adventures Fast Fire BronzClay! I have heard mixed reviews about this new product. So I created a variety of test pieces and will let you know how it works for me. Today will be Part 1 - How it handles.

What is Fast Fire BronzClay? To update everyone, Metal Adventures is one of the original makers of premixed bronze clay. Their original BronzClay took a long time to fire (5-9 hours, total firing time due to the need to ramp your kiln slowly). This new version, reportedly, takes much less time to fire as you can ramp your kiln at full speed. You can read about the clay directly from the manufacturer's site ( Fast Fire BronzClay) and the following are my thoughts.

First, let's talk about the texture of the clay. The clay has a soft consistency and will dry quickly (but, in my opinion, not as fast as silver clay). One big frustration I found is that it is easy to distort the shape of your piece when you move it. I found that I had to re-roll many of my pieces several times due to this reason. A great solution to this is to place Teflon (or wax paper) under your rolled piece, to cut and dry your piece on. This minimizes the risk of bumping and distorting the piece in transit. Another solution is to use a metal scraper to lift your piece rather than your fingers.

Here is a picture of some pieces being rolled and shaped:

I dryed the pieces I made on a mug warmer. I found that they dried faster than the orignal BronzClay. After they were dried I was able to smooth out any rough edges or imperfections. I found that I could sand or smooth then with a sponge quite easily.

Below are the pieces I made waiting to be fired. I have experimented with a variety of pieces including setting a garnet coloured cz. You will have to wait until next week to see the fired pieces. I will have them fired next week and will report back to you about the firing process.

Finally, one of my other frustrations is with the packaging as does not indicate how much the clay will shrink. (I am not sure if I missed this but I couldn't find it anywhere). I guess I will find out after I fire them all!

The Business Chat - Newsletters Part 2

The main point from last week’s post was that it is not the customer’s job to stay in touch with you - it is your job to stay in touch with the customer. The secondary point was that a newsletter is an excellent way of staying in touch.

Starting a newsletter can be a daunting process especially if you’re not that confident as a writer. Or maybe you have a newsletter that isn’t quite doing its’ job and it needs a bit of sparking up. Today we’ll talk about 10 steps to building a winning newsletter that everyone will be lining up to receive.

1. Set a goal. As with any task you set out to accomplish before you do it you should decide why you’re doing it. What is the purpose? Why are you spending the time to send out a newsletter? Having a goal not only helps you focus on the task it also gives you a benchmark to define if the task is successful. What do you want the newsletter to accomplish, increase sales offline or online, drive traffic to a craft show, drive traffic to your blog or website? The goal for the newsletter can be different every time you send it out so before you write this every time you set your goals.
2. Brand it. Make sure you use the same logo, colours, fonts, photos and icons that you have on your website, facebook page, business card etc. Remember, branding is all about consistency, consistency builds trust.
3. Create a template. Writing a regular newsletter is much easier if you use the same format every time. Decide on sections and create nice banners for these. I use Upcoming Events, New and Exciting, and Eye Candy where I show pretty pictures. I also have an introduction and a sign off paragraph.
4. The subject line. Add your business name to the subject line so that people know right away who the email is from. Make the rest of your subject line something fun so that people want to open it.
5. Your audience. Define who you are writing for. Picture your ideal customer and write directly to her. Give her a name and imagine having a conversation with her, what do you want to tell her?
6. A call to action. What do you want customers to do when they read this? Do they visit your blog? Visit an upcoming show? Buy from your online store? If you’re informing them of a new product ask them to click on a link and look. Tell them what you want them to do.
7. Links. Make sure you include links back to your website, your blog, your online store, your facebook page, anywhere that the customer can bookmark and find you later. If you haven’t yet set up any of these things set up a Flickr site and post pictures.
8. Bring you to the table. Yes your work is fabulous however that’s only part of the reason that a customer wants to receive your email. They want to know what’s going on in your world. People buy handmade for many reasons and a big one is that they want to know the person who made the work. . If a newsletter is nothing more than a listing of shows and a few pictures it is meaningless. If you have a new piece talk a bit about the inspiration behind it. If you don’t have any new work talk about how you create your work, or show a picture of your work bench, or talk about a class you’re taking. Talk about what you did yesterday or talk about your dog. Give them something of you.
9. Make it pretty. Include pictures and use colour and nice fonts. Just don’t get so carried away with stuff that they can’t read the content. It’s always good to have a second set of eyes critique it before you send it out.
10. Test it. Spell check is your friend. Send it to yourself to make sure the images show up and that the links work. Look at it in different browsers. If you’re on a PC send it to a friend on a Mac to make sure it looks good. Nothing is more amateur than receiving a newsletter and then 30 minutes later receiving a follow up saying “oops!”. Make sure what goes out reflects exactly the way you want people to think of you and your company.

Lastly, don’t forget frequency. If you promise a montly newsletter, then come hell or high water, once a month it goes out. As with any other of these business tasks, the first couple of times you do them it’s an ordeal. (The first time I hit the Send button to 800 people I thought I’d throw up, what if there was a huge error and I looked stupid?). It gets easier all the time. Especially when people tell you how much they like it and sales go up!

Maple Keys

I've been working on these maple keys for quite some time now. The girls and I collected a huge bag of them from the soccer field near our house. 

These are made from reclaimed metal clay made into paste. You can certainly buy paste, but if you've been working with metal clay for an extended period of time, you tend to accumulate a lot. Scrap bits of clay, projects that didn't work out as planned, silver dust from working - All of this can be saved up.

To make your own paste, break down your clay into small bits, and use an empty paste jar, or a baby food jar works well too if you have a lot. Add some water, and let it sit for a while, stir it up, add more water. Keep repeating until you have the consistency you want. Be careful when stirring, and try not to incorporate too many bubbles. These are difficult to get rid of.  The smaller your bits of dried clay, the faster this process is!

When painting a leaf, or maple key in this case your first layer of paste should be quite thin. You want to get as much detail from the leaf as possible. If your paste is too thick, the detail will be lost.

I usually make my first two layers thin, and then the remaining layers with very thick paste. After each layer you paint on, let it dry completely before you add the next layer. Your first couple of layers will dry much more quickly.

Another tip - when painting a leaf, be careful to only paint the one side (do not let any paste wrap around to the other side), otherwise, you will have to spend quite a bit of time filing down the sharp rim it creates. You know I speak from experience here :-)

Please excuse the terrible photo above. The wire you see sticking out of the top of the key is a 1 1/2" or so piece of fine silver wire. In the top picture, you can see where I have wrapped the wire to finish it into a pendant.

Not having a lot of luck

Lol! I've just spent the past two hours working on finishing up a project to show you today, and got all of the pictures done.

I sit down to edit the pics, and write the blog post - no card reader. Where did it go? Check my computer in the studio, check hubby's computer - nothing...

sigh - I'll be back later tonight once I get hubby to bring it back from his office.  I made some really awesome silver maple key's with reclaimed metal clay. Always save your scraps!

Where did she go?

I'm still alive :-) Sorry for my lack of posts last week. I've been out of commission with some sort of bug. Hopefully, I'll be back with more posts for you tomorrow.

In the meantime, if you're looking for something to satisfy a sweet tooth - and we're beaders, I know you we all have a sweet tooth. Make a cupcake, Magnolia Bakery style.  Personally, I own a copy of the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook  - and I have to say every single recipe I've tried is fantastic.  The peanut butter cup cookies were by far the favourite so far. :-)

Pan Chang Knot and Chevron Chain

Here are two awesome classes to look forward to next week:

Pan Chang Knot: The Pan Chang Knot is a type of Chinese Knot. Learn to make colourful, unique knotted jewellery with semi-precious beads (or any beads you like) and cords.



Chevron Chain : Create a band of chevron chain with a crystal accent. Create a sleek elegant band or mix up the colours for a more fun and funky look.
Enjoy!

Comparing the New Swarovski Colours

A phrase from a book I read as a kid stuck with me over the years - the main character "dreamed of doing something grand one day, like discovering a new colour, a colour that no one had ever seen before ... "

It struck me as such an unlikely thing to want to do - and as I got older - such an impossible thing. We'd be talking re-engineering human physiology here - it just continued to stay with me. No idea now who wrote it or anything else about the story.

So - notwithstanding that - I'd like introduce to you - the new Swarovski colours. Colours ... well, you surely will have seen before - somewhere - but now you get add them to your design palette.

In fact - the new crystal colour - Sunflower - if you have been outside anywhere in Ontario in the last week - I'm sure you will have seen this colour!

To your left - some of the local colour, and to your right, the new Sunflower.

My first thought, on seeing these new beads was, and maybe yours is too: "How is that different from Light Topaz?"

















Well - here's how it is different - Sunflower falls smack in between Topaz, on the left, and Light Topaz, on the right. Beautifully balanced right between the two, and so obvious you are probably wondering why they didn't have this colour before. I know I am. Now. That is.


In fact - just to elaborate on that a bit more, here is, from left to right, Topaz, Sunflower, Light Topaz, Citrine.


And if you do not think that is an awesome line up of fall colours - check this out.


Or how about with a splash of fuchsia Sumac? So - some Turquoise - adorned with Swarovski crystals? Are the wheels turning yet?


But wait, there's more. A new pearl colour, actually. This is Light Gold.



And if you are wondering where this falls in the pearl spectrum, here you go, with starting on the right this time, Platinum, Classic Cream, Bright Gold, Gold, and the rest are the new Light Gold.

Here is a close up of Light Gold, Gold, and Bright Gold. The Bright Gold is more of a Dark Gold, and Dark and Bright pretty much have opposite meanings, but I can see someone shying away from want to call it Dark Gold. I wouldn't, you understand, but hey!
And, to carry on the fall colours theme - you can definitely see the shades of gold in this autumn field, also shot a few days ago - on Highway 48, headed north from Markham, Ontario.


Both these new colours will be available online and in-store as of Wednesday midnight!

Have a happy Turkey Day - Gobble Gobble - get out and enjoy the colours!

The joy of metal clay: Sculpture

I embrace the ease in which you can create sculptural elements with metal clay. Well OK it may not be EASY but it is much easier than if you wanted to create with traditional metal working techniques.

Here is some of the fun I have had over the years working with metal clay:

Building BUILDINGS:

I love building miniature buildings, homes, apartment buildings, birdhouses and more. I especially like making rounded buildings for some reason. The birdhouse below was inspired by a birdhouse my mother-in-law had in her yard.

"Barb's Birdhouse"

The windmill below was one of my early building attempts. I made it by wrapping clay around a dowel to make the round part of the building. The roof (which you can't see but is similar to the birdhouse roof) was made by creating a cone shape by cutting out a circle then cutting out a pie piece from the circle (size depends on how you want to make your cone) then shaping the cone shape. (BTW - the blades on the windmill spin!)

"Windmill"

Making DANGLING LEGS:

Wacky sculpture with moving parts is one of my passions. Here are two of my favorites. I use fine silver wire to create sturdy moving legs.

"Heron"

"Fine Silver Girl #3"

I have been making variations of a Fine Silver Girl doll pendant for a while now. The first Fine Silver Girl was a flat shape which I had decided was sort of boring and uninspired (my eldest son who is a sentimental 8-year-old still loves it and thinks its the best). Personally, I decided I had to create movement and so I began making them with moving legs. I use fine silver wire that is balled on the end and inserted into the hollow body so that the legs will swing.

CARVING:

Metal clay lends itself to carving as well. This is a great way to add texture to your sculpted piece. This ring is made to look like a branch. It was a rolled and shaped piece of clay that was then carved.

"Dogwood Trio"

Go forth and experiment!

Have a happy Thanksgiving...or Columbus Day!

The Business Chat - Newsletters

“Wow, these are fabulous! I love them!”
Don’t you love hearing this? Except when it’s followed by, “If only I had some money.” “I’ll buy these for my sister’s birthday – in 6 months.” “They’d make great Christmas gifts, where can I find you at Christmas?” or some other similar comments.

So what do you do when you hear this? The most common response is “gee thanks, here’s my business card.” In 6 months time when the customer is looking for Christmas gifts your business card is at the bottom of her purse and there is another artist in her face at a craft show or in her email inbox. You need to stay of people’s radar screens on a regular basis. It is not the customer’s job to stay in touch with you - it is your job to stay in touch with the customer.

One of the best methods of keeping in touch is with a newsletter. A newsletter can by your secret weapon for creating long-term residual sales and building a fan base around your work that sells it for you. They are great for letting people know what craft shows you’ll be at, what new work you have or if you have a new online sales venue. They make it easy for the customer to give you money.

Of course sending out a newsletter means that you have a list to send it to. The obvious place to get people for your list is to ask them. When you’re at a craft show and you hear the inevitable, “gee I love it but I have no money”, rather than getting discouraged (don't be reactive) ask them if they’d like to be on your mailing list (be proactive). Hand them a clipboard with a sign up sheet and get their name and email. Putting a book in your booth and expecting people to sign up is a waste of time, again you’re asking the customer to do your job. And the only ones who will sign up are 4 years old and don’t have money or email. You should also collect names and emails on your web site and blog (you do have a blog don’t you?)

When people sign up for your list, let them know what they’ll be receiving. “Would you like to sign up for my monthly newsletter? I send this out to keep my customers informed of shows I’ll be at and what’s new in my world. I promise, I never sell my list or send junk mail”.

How often you should send a newsletter is up to you. It depends on how good of a writer you are and how much you have to say. Some artists write weekly. Some write a couple of times a year. Personally I send mine out monthly. I find this keeps me in their vision without annoying busy people. Whatever time frame you decide on the most important thing is to be consistent. Remember, branding means consistency. If you promise people it’s a monthly newsletter and then send it every 6 – 9 weeks you’ve broken your promise and broken their trust.

While it’s easy to send out email from any email service you should use an email management service. Never send out email with all the recipients listed as a “CC”, those names are private. Also sending out to a large group will have your email marked as spam by most mail filters. Email management services will integrate your web and blog sign up forms with your list for you, track the number of people who open your emails and the number of clicks your email generates. It will also allow people to unsubscribe should they decide to. Tracking your newsletters shows you what sections of your email generate the most response and what’s actually working.

3 good email management services are:

• constantcontact.com
• icontact.com
• mailchimp.com

For those starting out with a list of less than 500 mailchimp.com is my recommendation. It’s free. Free is good.

Next week we’ll talk about what to put in your newsletter.

The Wonderful Colour Wheel

Sorry I'm late with my posts this week. Yesterday was just one of those days ... :-)

I actually have a few things for you which i'll post in separate posts throughout the day.

The Wonderful Color Wheel is another fascinating read - be sure to check out part 2 as well.

Wednesday Linky Love

I had a chance to peruse a couple blogs this morning. I haven't really had a chance to look at any blogs (other than this one of course) since the kids school started back up. It was my morning ritual to enjoy a coffee or two while the kids watched early morning cartoons, and peruse my blog lists. Now I pretty much get straight to work - as the mornings around here are on the crazy side :-)

I came across some great tutorials for metalsmiths (or metalsmith wannabes!) on the etsy metal blog. Also, be sure to follow along with their challenges, and the charm swap. Absolutely awesome stuff from a very talented group of artists!

Call for Submissions

If you are in the Toronto Area, you may be interested in applying for the Snow Day Holiday Market - more details on their website, but the show runs on Sunday, December 5th from noon - 5pm

Marilyn Gardiner Weekend

Next weekend, Marilyn Gardiner is teaching two classes at beadFX. For those looking for an introductory to beading class/beading 101, this is the class for you: Basic Bead Stringing with Marilyn Gardiner. You'll learn how to string a simple necklace, and how to finish it.


Marilyn is also well known for her beautiful chainmail jewellery. In this class, students will be adding Swarovski crystals to sterling chainmail bracelet. Basic knowledge of chainmail is required for this class.

Also available in copper...

Fixing Epoxy Mistakes: Post Curing

As I have mentioned in several blog entries over the past few weeks - I've been experimenting quite a bit with the DevCon 2 Ton Epoxy that we carry.

I'm particularly impressed with it's clarity, superiour hold, and clear, glassy finish. Ease of use is pretty good too - as it comes in a dual action push tube, you just uncap, squeeze out two matching puddles of resin and hardener, and mix.

But I was gluing some bails onto dragons' eyes a couple of weeks ago, and for one reason or another, the twin streams of hardener and resin did not come out in equal quantities - one being quite a bit smaller than the other. I added some more - but now it worked correctly, and all I got was bigger quantities, not matching quantities. That is the down-side to this style of packaging - if it doesn't get it right, you can't really fix it.

Instead of starting again, which would have been the smart thing to do, I proceeded anyway. I mixed, applied, let it cure. After 24 hours, I noticed that it was still a little sticky - not the hard, glassy finish I had come to expect. I gave it another 24 hours, and it was still just a little yielding to pressure. Hmmm - time to consult an expert.

That expert would be my significant other - who is an expert in epoxy by virtual of building an airplane in the back yard. It is a "composite" construction aircraft - being built primarily of fibreglass and epoxy resin. Yep - the same stuff that I'm gluing bails on to glass dragon eyes. We have similar pastimes. It's just that I like to melt the glass I use, and he likes to glue it. And he mixed his epoxy up by the cup-full. (By the way - I have tried melting the glass-fibre - it goes white and devits and is intensely ugly - in case you are interested.)

Over the years, I'm sure that I have learned far more about epoxy and fiberglass than I ever thought I needed to know, and I'm sure he feels the same way about beads.

Anyway - I showed him my still slightly sticky pendants and explained what had happened, and asked what to do about it.

He told me that epoxies in general that have a 50/50 mix have a 10% margin - so you don't have to be dead-on accurate with your mix, although, obviously - in small batches, it's easier to blow the proportions. And, just as obviously - I had done so.

He suggested that I heat them to about 130° F and hold them there for about 2 hrs, and that should accelerate the cure. This is known as post curing. Otherwise, they would probably cure by themselves if just left for a couple of weeks.

He also pointed out that the epoxy would soften while doing this, so it would be best to prop the bails up, so that they didn't move and lever themselves off. If I didn't want this to happen, I should heat them up slowly. Given that I have a kiln, and can program it for very fine temperature control - I elected to do this. However, if you have the same problem with tacky epoxy, your standard household oven will give you enough heat too.

I programmed the kiln to heat up to 100° F, and hold for 1 hour, then to heat up at the rate of 120° F per hour to 130° F, and hold for 1 hour, and then shut off.

When they came out - they were still warm, and the epoxy was still slightly tacky - but once it had cooled to room temperature, it was fine.

As a control, I did not heat one of them, and just left it. It has hardened on it's own, as promised.

I asked if I could also use heat to remove the epoxy - and the answer was: "Heat it to 150° F and scrape fast." I have not, as yet, had to try this.

But, I'm sure I will at some point. ;-)

As usual - we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes.

The Joy of Metal Clay -Certification: Level One Art Clay Certification

I am teaching a Level One Art Clay Certification at BeadFX at the end of this month (October 29, 30, 31 ). I have been getting quite a few emails inquiring about the course. I welcome the emails but for those of you who are curious or just too shy to email me here is a little bit about what the certification class involves.

First and foremost I must state that the course has a mandatory curriculum (sadly you can't go off willy nilly making your own thing). There are seven projects that have a very specific set of requirements. Although I encourage you to bring your own artistic ideas to the projects sometimes there just isn't enough time over the three days to garner inspiration. The course is more about technique than artistic ability.

The biggest question I get is: What are the projects? ? So here is a brief overview of the seven projects:

• Pasted Leaf Brooch -In this one you to apply paste to a leaf, and make a brooch.

This leaf is both a brooch and a pendant

• Ring 1 - A flat band ring with syringe overlay. The key to this one is to making a seamless join.

Flat Band Ring

• Ring 2 - Rolled band ring with a fine silver prong setting.

Rolled band ring with a prong set ruby

• Pendant 1 - A flat pendant with a hand mirror finish in one portion and the other portion is textured with paste paste. This piece also requires the placement of a post for a pearl to be set after firing and setting of a fireable gemstone.Pendant with mirror finish, it contains a pearl and clear cz

• Pendant 2- Syringe Pendant - this piece requires making a pendant with syringe and setting of a fireable gemstone.

• Pendant 3- Porcelain Cabochon - this piece involves setting a porcelain cabochon in metal clay and then incorporatesa technique called scrafitto, using overlay paste to add a design on top of the porcelain.

• Earring's - Syringe - Syringed earrings over a cork base.

Certification can be a great way to gain the added confidence and skill in metal clay. It is definitely not for beginners and it not for everyone. Personally, certification made me try things I may have done otherwise and gave me great confidence and skill. The instructor can be a factor in your enjoyment to any class. When I teach certification I include a discussion on skills, technique, safety. firing and I always add as many tips as possible throughout the class.

At the end of the certification your pieces are evaluated and successful completion leads to a certificate being issued from Art Clay World USA. This certificate entails the bearer to a 35% discount on silver metal clay through Art Clay World USA, other vendors may or may not honour this discount. BeadFX is one vendor who will honor Art Clay Level One Certification 35% discount for Art Clay silver! Thanks BeadFX!

Feel free to send me questions. Maybe I will see some of you this month in a class!!!

Heather

The Business Chat - Solve a problem, sell a product

Recently when I was reading a marketing book I came across an idea that stopped me dead. One little sentence so mind blowing and yet so obvious that I forgot to finish my cookie. (And if something comes between me and cookies you know it’s a big something). Here it is.

People don’t buy products, they buy solutions.

DOH!!!

They have a problem, they buy something that solves the problem. This means that our job as salespeople is to listen to the customer, work out what their problem is and present our work as the solution.

I hear you muttering away, just as I did at first. “There’s no problem, they just want earrings.” I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if a customer just wanted earrings they’d go to a mall. The customer has sought out (through a craft show or online) HANDMADE earrings.

Time after time in my booth I hear, “wow, there’s so much talent here, I wish I could do something like this.” Are you listening? The customer’s problem is that they think they can’t create, that they aren’t artistic. And they think you are. The customer is looking for a creative story.

You need to sell you as a story. Give them a fully formed real live 3D artist. If you’re selling online presenting you the artist lends your work authenticity and depth. For those at a craft show I can guarantee at least 10 times a day you’ll be asked something along the lines of “how long have you been doing this?” or “where did you learn?”.

It’s hard when you’re starting out and haven’t yet fully claimed the word artist as you. Some people never really know what to say and just hum and fidget. But you, the savvy craftista, will be ready to continue the conversation and communicate your story. For communication is marketing and marketing leads to sales.

To get you started pick up your notebook and spend some time answering these questions on paper. Write several paragraphs on each question. If you feel too self-conscious at first write about yourself in the third person until you get the details down. Learn to spin your story.

1. How did you become an artist?
2. How did you learn your skill?
3. What training have you had? Have you studied with any big names? Taken a course at a well-known school?
4. How long have you been making your current work?
5. What did you make before this?
6. What was your creative path?
7. What is it about your current work/technique that lights your fire? Why do you do it?
8. What new techniques do you want to learn? What’s in your artistic future?
9. What do you love most about being an artist?

Inspiration Friday

Happy Friday all!

If you would like to participate in our Inspiration Friday posts and get some free publicity...Come on people - free publicity is good!  It really can be anything at all, and not necessarily related to jewelry. Once you've got it made, send us a picture and we'll post it here. Submissions should be sent to info@beadfx.com with the subject line "Inspiration Friday"  There is no timeline, so please don't worry about trying to complete it within a week.  If you have a blog, or an etsy (or similar) site - we'll post a link to your site if you wish.


So...I didn't make a single thing from last weeks picture as I got completely sucked into making those pendants from yesterday. I'll have to owe you two for next week...(yeah, right) ;-)

Here's another pic:

I managed to get a few of these added up to my etsy site , and I hope to get the rest up over the weekend at some point.

Here is your pic for next week. I know we have a bunch of really creative people reading this blog. I've seen your work! I hope you'll join us.