A Lovely Sale

I had a lovely sale yesterday. Yes, I'm here in my shop on Sundays. I don't get a lot of customers, but I usually get a bit of work done--complete a special order or two, write my newsletter, photograph some jewelry. Yesterday was really no different, up until about 3:00. This nice young man comes in and says his girlfriend's birthday is coming up, and that she had been in my shop and saw some things she loved and had been raving about them.... All that great stuff that an artisan loves to hear!

He brought me a beautiful piece of lavender sea glass to set into a pendant for her. I was so excited at the prospect of making a $20 sale on a Sunday that I told him I'd be happy to do it on the spot, rather than putting it into my pile of special orders. He seemed pretty impressed about that, and proceeded to ask if I had any chains to go with the pendant, so he could make a complete "presentation" out of it. Well, SURE I've got some chains--another $15!--let me show you....

While I was setting the sea glass, he wandered around the store looking at other stuff. It turns out he had a "budget" amount in mind, and darned if he wasn't going to spend it all! He liked a couple of my larger, fancier neck ring pieces and asked my opinion. I tried on the one that was sort of asymmetrical so he could see how it looked on a real person, but advised him that it was really a piece intended for a night on the town, not so much a wear-with-anything. He quickly decided on the other neck ring--a fantastic green dichroic glass bead set in the center of a gold wire neck ring (pictured above). Fancy, yes, but it will look great with a party dress or a T-shirt, and he loved the fact that it would accent her green eyes.

While I was wrapping that up was when he told me he was still under budget, and grabbed another neck ring off the display by the door. Fifty strands of colored steel wire in black (one of the few things in the store that is not something I personally made, but VERY cool!) with a spoon-shaped blue, black, and silver glass pendant.

He made some excellent choices, and I told him so. All unique, attention-grabbing neck accessories that are going to get his girlfriend noticed every time she wears one. (And isn't that what great jewelry is all about?!) But I also told him that the thing she was going to find equally important was that he paid attention when she was talking about something she had seen that she liked. He was pleased. I'm quite sure SHE is going to be pleased. (And I was over the moon about the size of my lovely Sunday sale!)

I know I titled this post "a lovely sale", but I think the moral of the story should be: great jewelry, and a guy who pays attention! What more could you ask on your birthday? Right, girls?

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A Little Productivity

I'm happy that I finally got inspired enough to make some pendants last week. Sea glass! I've got tons of it, the finished pendants are quite affordable (average about $20), and it's always a great seller because each one is a unique work of art.

The good news is that it only took one afternoon to make all 10 of these pendants. The bad news is that it's taken me 4 days to shoot and edit the photos for them, so they're not all posted yet. My goal is to have them all up in my Etsy shop and/or my Artfire studio by the end of the day. (Feel free to click over and check on my progress!)

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What I Made Yesterday, 11-16-08

My "sea glass ladies" are due to start arriving next month. They are a group of women from all over the country who come to Florida with their husbands and families as "snowbirds" to enjoy the winter months in relative warmth. Some of them arrive in December, others in January, and they stay for 3 or 4 months. They first found me two years ago, and I have become a "hot spot" on their lists of activities to enjoy while they're here!

They tend to clean me out of whatever sea glass jewelry I have made, so I spend the late summer and early fall making as much sea glass stuff as I can. I did these six pendants yesterday.

They also go out walking the beach and find sea glass of their own, which they bring to me to set. And one day last spring they invited me down to their little community center to set up for the day and make and sell sea glass pieces. That was fun--they're a great group of ladies! I already have an invitation for the coming spring, but we haven't yet set a date.

In the meantime, I'll keep whipping up a few sea glass pieces whenever I get a chance! Mostly pendants, but also some bracelets and earrings. You can see some of my available pieces in my Etsy shop.

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What I Made Today, 9/29/2008

Sea glass! I've got so many pieces, in an array of beautiful colors. I made about a dozen mini sculpted pendants today...these are just a few of them. And I'm going to make a few pairs of earrings before the day is done.

Even though I live in Florida, almost all my sea glass comes from Michigan. There's some great sea glass in the Great Lakes! My first batch I got off of eBay, several years ago. My latest batch came earlier this year. I had a lovely older gentleman in my store who bought one of my sea glass pendants for his wife. He commented that he had a whole bucketful of sea glass that he'd picked up over the years along the lake, and that he'd like to see something beautiful done with it, so he was going to send it to me. I thanked him, of course, but didn't really expect any follow-up. Well, lo and behold, about two weeks later a big, heavy box shows up. A layer of foam, a layer of sea glass, another layer of foam, another layer of sea glass, and so on... All told it was about 7 or 8 pounds worth! So I've got plenty to work with for many years to come!

Do you have some sea glass in a drawer or a bowl somewhere? Some lovely pieces you've found while on vacation maybe? I'd be delighted to set them for you! Little pendants like this are only $19-$20, depending on the size of the piece of glass.

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