And I'd give up forever to touch you...

Yesterday was one of those dark and gloomy days that make me want to curl up inside with a blanket over my head. Sadly, today is turning out to also be one of those days. I'm seriously jonesing to get outside and take some more pictures, both of old stock and of new. At least the time spent inside has been productive - I've made several new pieces! Huzzah! Maybe soon I can hit that 30 pieces listed mark. And after that, on to 40!

Today's relisted-with-new-pics piece! I'm very happy with the picture. It actually captures the color of the peach beads.

I got around to taking some pictures of the BJD jewelry I've dabbled with. Dolls are a longstanding hobby of mine, and I figure if I'm making people jewelry, my little people need jewelry too. So to close out this rather short post, here's some DOLLS. I need to get back to the crafting, so alas, no commentary.

Some of them want to use you...

Friday morning, I was approached by my Adecco contact at my Day Job. This was nothing out of the ordinary, of course; there's an Adecco team on-site, as the company hires a lot of temps, and they tend to check in every now and again to see how things are going.

I followed her to a quiet location, and that's where things went completely pear-shaped. My assignment was being ended, she was very sorry for it, and I was to clean out my personal belongings and hightail it out of there as quietly as possible. I didn't ask a lot of questions. I sent a quiet email to the coworkers I feel I've grown closer to, and packed my desk. A few people noticed, but no big deal, everything went smoothly and quietly.

I've spent my weekend wondering how I should feel about this. Should I be upset? Should I be angry? Should I be depressed?  It's a wonder to me that I'm able to be calm right now, considering I lost my source of steady income. I have a car payment that I don't know how I'm going to pay, and insurance and a phone along with that. Not to mention that whole, y'know, RENT thing.

I've realized that there is no correct response. I choose to take this as an opportunity - I can focus on my jewelry now. I can take advantage of natural light and get those stunning photos I really want, the ones that will truly sell my jewelry. I can spend the day snuggled with my cat on the couch, creating and designing.

I know, in my heart of hearts, that though I talked about saving money and building stuff up, that by the time I felt financially ready to leave the Day Job and devote myself to the jewelry full-time, I would have lost the passion to do this. Sometimes, I guess, Life just gives us that little shove we're not willing to give ourselves.

Anyway. So I took some pictures, with the gorgeous sunlight, and here are the results!

Blue and white glass hearts and boxes

I put these up in my Etsy today! They're gorgeous and very calming, but also flirty. They make me happy, so up they go.

Rainbows! :D

These have been up for a while now, but I renewed them with the new pictures. They're almost at 70 views! Holy cow.

Pretty pretty pearly danglies.

Just for comparison. These have had no post-processing done to them, and that is why I love natural lighting! The listing for these is here, and I haven't uploaded the new photos yet.

Flute player, play your flute now...

First off, I'd like to state the obvious: I am terrible at keeping a blog. I never really feel like anything I have to say is witty or interesting enough on a normal day, so I just kind of forget to do it, or put it off until later, and end up with a mess of not updating for weeks at a time. I'm going to fix that, I promise. This blog will not become another failed attempt at putting my life on the internet!

...When I put it that way, suddenly it sounds sinister. Whoops.

My Facebook fan page finally got enough fans for me to get a ~real~ username! Facebook thinks I'm cool now. I am so on the fast track to success. The great part was that 25 seemed to be a magical number -- by the end of the day, it had jumped up to 33 fans. I danced around like an idiot, I will admit. Now if my Twitter could get hopping, I'd be happy. Man, it is so much easier to share new products on Twitter.

In shop news, I had an item reach 50 views! Squeak! No sales yet, but that's still a pretty big milestone.



This item, in fact.

 It's one of my favorite pieces, and I love bringing it in to the Day Job to show off. I don't know, something about the amber glass leaf really sets off the blues. I've toyed with re-working this piece to remove the pearl on the chain, but I don't know. It seems to add just what the piece was missing before.

Ramble ramble ramble.



Rainbows! Everyone loves rainbows.

This is my newest item. I'm a huge fan of rainbows, and already have one pair of rainbow earrings with these beads, but...I couldn't help this one. They're both pretty distinct, I don't feel like I'm copying myself (you go figure out how that works), and I'm happy with 'em. So neener.

I have some exciting news, but I'm waiting for the details to be hammered out to spill them everywhere. Anyone who knows me knows exactly how hard it is for me to keep good news under wraps. This is really, really killing me.

At any rate, I need to get back to my Day Job. Break's almost over. Super sad face.

I guess the change in my pocket wasn't enough...

Oh, to be unemployed again. The free time to make whatever, whenever the inspiration struck. The ability to make it to the PO whenever I needed to, instead of finding someone to take my packages for me or sending out one priority bubble-mailer JUST to get that pickup. Catching the gorgeous sunlight we've been having for pictures instead of having to wait for the weekend.

Alas. Instead, it's off to a daily grind for me. Which is good, in that I don't feel pressured to make money with the jewelery RIGHT AWAY.

Anyway.

I seem to have fallen into a dreaded Creative Slump. Usually I have no problem doing 2-3 pairs of earrings a day, maybe a bracelet, but these days I feel kind of meh about it all. Hopefully I can fix that on Payday, with an infusion of new shinies to play with, but we'll see.

PICTURES! Because no blog is complete without them.

Custom Request - Black glass, glass amethyst, hematite, garnet.

This is a custom bracelet made for a friend as an engagement gift. It's about 7 inches, with a 1-inch adjustable tail. The tail is topped with a small round amethyst that I would wire around to make look pretty. :D I'm pretty happy with it, and I hope the requester is happy, too, 'cause I like having money in my paypal. Wait wut.

Glass, hematite, gold plate.

These are new this morning in my Etsy shop! Pretty rockin', if I do say so myself. I love those beads, though.

Also, these earrings need more love. No views, such a sad day!

I'm thinking, once I reach a certain number of followers on each networking site (Facebook, Twitter, and this blog!), I'll run a giveaway contest. Each site would be different, of course, because of the unique formatting of each. 

And once I get enough followers to this blog, I'll start featuring other sellers, as well. Encouraging small business growth ftw!

And now, to rush off to that dreaded day job. At least today I got to sleep in!

She gon' be rockin' chinchilla coats...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know, I know. There are a lot of people out there who loathe Valentine's. A day for lovers to shove their affection in the face of those among us who are single.

Well boo on that. I was raised to believe Valentine's was about love in all its forms. Familial, friendly, romantic. So you, lovely readers, get to deal with my badly-shaped rainbow-heart.

Cope.

I finally got the store up and running! There's about 14 pieces there right now, and I have several more to begin uploading over time. I need to make and photograph more, get that back stock built up, but the final push for everything completely drained the life out of me today.

I've not much to really talk about. I'm hoping my tax return will be enough to let me make a pretty nice wholesale order, but we'll see how bills and things are first. I'd love to get a bunch of new pretties, though. *_*

I've realized I am kind of a perfectionist when it comes to anything artistic. It's why I don't draw, I think -- I know I have talent, but it frustrates me to no end to be able to see how to create the piece, to see how the lines go, to see myself DRAWING it...only to have it glitch between my brain and my fingers and come out lookin' a hot mess.

I mean, with jewelry, what I see I can create. Sometimes a project falls flat, sometimes I can't do what I want, but mostly....my mind and my fingers place nicely together. Pictures are a different story, but we're getting there. Everyone tells me they're decent, I need to trust that and realize I will get better at this.

Anyway. Stuff I've been working on!

Yellow and black ftw!

These are adorable. I love the little glass beads on the end, and the random paint on the center beads just....so much fun! The wire wrapping took forever, though, but man. Totally worth it. Just LOOK at that!

Flowers, leaves, and hearts, oh my!

I had these adorable blue flower beads, and just had to do SOMETHING with 'em. these are cute and adorable and I wanted to keep them like you don't even KNOW.

PEARLS.

 

I make no secret about it, I love pearls. Pearls pearls pearls! These dangle so nicely, and earned a ton of compliments on the test run. (Don't worry, I sanitize all posts, whether or not I've test-worn them, before packaging 'em up!) The teardrop in the center really sparkles, even in cruddy office light.

And now, off to sort through pictures and decide what to list tonight!

Starting up a blog is harder than you may think. Wicked.

My name is Micchi. Okay, that's not the name my parents gave me. (Hi Mom, Dad!) But it is the name I use often, especially online, so it's the name I'm using here.

I'm a 25 year old high school graduate, no college education. I've got a smart-ass sense of humor, self-taught smarts that are probably just right enough to make me dangerous, medical problems to bore you to tears, and most importantly, a passion.

I discovered this passion by accident. It started wanting to cash in on making jewelery for Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, and from there...well, I learned a lot. Mostly that I needed to go back and start from basics. So I made a few pairs of earrings.

I made a few more.

And I realized...I liked this. I really, truly liked this.

So here we are today. I've applied for a business license and am waiting on the paperwork for that. I've registered an Etsy shop, a Facebook page, and a Twitter. And well, this blog. I've got file folders for my paperwork.

I'm really going to be doing this, and nothing will stop me. It's kind of frightening, on the one hand, and a lot liberating on the other. I have no doubt I can do it. I know my jewelery is unique enough to catch eyes, but not so unique that I'll be stuck with a tiny market.

I should actually show some examples, shouldn't I!

Sterling Silver, Amethyst & Hematite

I made these for a friend recently. I cannot wait to get my hands on more sterling to work with.

Glass amethyst & glass peridot

 This bracelet was a blast to make. It's been shipped off to another dear friend, as a gift to one of her friends. I'm excited to have my designs out in the great wide world.

Freshwater Pearls, Garnet, Glass Leaves

The last one for now. I love working with pearls, and the garnet adds just a little extra touch. These were hard to give up. Really, really hard.

All in all...I'm still stumbling my way through. I've got to work on my stock, get it built up, see where I am from there.

But by god, despite the nay-sayers, I'm doing this and that is all there is to it.