Geez, I need to stop disappearing because of other projects!

In a few weeks, I’ll be at the Grand Valley Renaissance Festival at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, and I’ll be showing off a new line of Jude’s Chest products which includes new papercrafts and cards as well as some new textile work.  I recently got into papercrafting (about a year ago) and now it’s kind of starting to be a terrible thing for me.  I picked up a Fiskars Fuse last year and have been playing around with it ever since.  I’ve also been having some adventures in cardmaking, which has also been awesome.  I’m loving embossing folders more than I care to admit.

Overskirts have been a thing that I’ve been meaning to experiment with for a very, very long time, and I finally scraped together some time to do it the weekend the littlest Klitzke moved up to CMU a few weeks ago.  My best friend and I had planned a trip to the Michigan Renaissance Festival at Holly the following weekend and I’d been thinking that my garb needed a bit more color.  No pictures right now, unfortunately, but I’ll be sure to post some once I’ve made some for selling and not just for me.  The one I made for myself is a very rich, dark red color out of a textured moleskin fabric that’s very similar to the fabric of my skirt itself.  A trip to the fabric store is in the books within the next week or so, since supplies will be needed so I can be prepared for the festival.

Grand Valley Renaissance Festival is on the campus of Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI.  The festival opens at 10am on Saturday, October 5 and Sunday, October 6 and will close at 7PM on Saturday and 5PM on Sunday.  Come see your favorite renaissance woman (crafter, writer, historian and mild-mannered title clerk) at the faire!

I’ve been quiet of late, but how is that different from usual?

Among my more writerly creative pursuits, I’ve taken up a bit of papercrafting as well, so there’ll be papercrafts popping up in the Etsy shop over the next few days and weeks as I continue experimenting and start photographing.

I will also be doing some inventorying of my jewelry stock and putting up some more listings of that as well.

The site’s been quiet of late, but that’s got a lot to do with my being quite busy the past several months!  Writing has begun to eat up a great deal of what little free time I’ve enjoyed since starting a new (40-hour a week) position, but I’ve found time to make some beautiful new pearl pieces and experiment with some new designs with Swarovski bicones.  Some of the new pearl designs are up in the Etsy shop.

I’ll be doing the Athens Festival Craft Show at Larson Middle School on November 17, 2012 and have applied to do the Crafter’s Clearance at Henry Ford II in February.  No other shows lined up yet, but if you like my work and would love to see me at your local show, drop me a message and I’ll be happy to look into it.  I am limited largely to the Detroit Metro area at this time, though, so keep that in mind!

Commissioned pieces are available; just drop me a line here or on Etsy (Etsy is often the better bet!).

In a few hours, I’ll be setting up a tent (probably in the rain) at the Grand Valley Renaissance Festival for the…fifth time.  I’ve only missed it once since graduation (and that was because I was a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding a few weeks after festival and was threatened with death if I got sick–so I decided not to go.).

I’ll be there with jewelry, garb, bits and pieces of geekery, Miss Jennie and my boyfriend Mike.  A grand time will be had by all!  I’m also introducing a new product (which I unfortunately don’t have pictures of)–gaming tokens.  They’re about a quarter inch thick and the size of a dime with the letters A-J stamped into them, to help GMs keep track of which enemies are attacking whom.  It was something I always wanted to have as a GM…and now I’m passing that little thing on to others.  They’re made of polymer clay and I’ll be selling them for $5/set of 10 in a little organza baggie.

It’ll be Mike’s first experience of actually running a show with me–he’s visited me at one, but he’s never been there for the whole time I’ve run one.  Jen, however, is old hand at this and should be fine.  Despite the nasty Friday weather, the forecasts say that Saturday and Sunday will be beautiful, even if it’ll be a little chilly on Saturday.

As long as it’s not 30 degrees and snowing, it won’t be the nastiest weather I’ve experienced at a festival…and rain on set-up day tends to be good luck, since that generally means that the weather for the weekend is lovely.

Also bringing some writerly things, including booklets containing an excerpt from Awakenings and a business card with my official site as an author and a free download of my novelette, Falling Stars.  We’ll see how many of those wander away from my booth as freebies.

Time to finish packing…hope to see a lot of folks at GVRen!

As of this morning, I’ve posted two new custom orders listings on Etsy.

These custom orders listings can be found here and here, and are for sets of six pairs of earrings in my Azshara and Quel’Danas styles, primarily designed for brides to buy for their bridesmaids as gifts.  The prices are significantly cheaper than they would be to buy the earrings individually, at $40 for a set of six and $35 for a set of six respectively as custom orders.  Regularly on Etsy, you’d be paying about $45 or $40 respectively for these earrings, plus shipping for them.

It’s the first time I’ve listed custom orders specifically as custom, made-to-order pieces that haven’t been pre-commissioned (as in the case of the pair of Lady’s Ransom bracelets I made for a friend, or a single pair of custom-ordered Azshara earrings).  We’ll see how this goes.

It’s been a while since I said anything about anything–my bad, because I’ve been channeling my creativity into writing rather than crafting.  That streak snapped yesterday, when I created this piece (which went up on Etsy today):

I’ll probably poke around with some more jewelry today and list some more items as well. I made a pair of opaline (clear sea glass) bracelets that need to go up on Etsy this morning as well.

I picked up a new mannequin, since a place was getting rid of theirs.  It’s approximately a size 10 or 12, but it’ll work for my purposes.  It also fits on the stand for my dress form, which means I can at least take pictures with the mannequin before I make a dedicated base for it.

As a result, I’ve updated some of my Etsy listings with a few new photos.

Been wandering around the blogosphere today and learning new things about doing business on the internet, especially through Etsy and other electronic media.  I finally (finally!) managed to get a fan page set up for Jude’s Chest on Facebook — it only took about three attempts at different times to get it sorted out, right?  The important thing is that it’s up now and I’m elated.  Now if I can get my Etsy listings to post there as well as to my personal Facebook…

Well.  We’ll see what happens.

Posted two new listings on Etsy today!  Necklaces both.  I also renewed the listing for the first Dragon’s Heart pendant.

There’s also a new like button on the Jude’s Chest main page as well as a shop preview on the main page.  I’ll be looking into advertising opportunities in the next few weeks, in between (hopefully) putting the finishing touches on and then defending my Master’s thesis.  It will be good to get that out of the way.

I’ve posted some new Etsy listings in the past couple days, some of my six-panel dancing skirts, two necklaces, and a bracelet.

Photography continues to be the death of me.

Happy browsing!  These and other pieces can be found, as always, in my Etsy Shop.

Well, I didn’t do as well at the Crafter’s Clearance as I’d hoped — a lot of foot traffic, a lot of folks picking up business cards, but not a lot of sales.  The sales I did make tended to be very small ones.  I made back my investment for the show and not much else.  Kind of depressing to think about, once you get right down to it, because I was counting on this show to be a big one for me.  I was told by one of the crafters near me that the Christmas show hosted at Henry Ford II was an even better show and he did sales like crazy at that show.

I did get invited to a few more shows and I’ll have to consider whether or not they’re worth the investment in time and money before I commit.  This would make three of the four shows that I’ve done barely worth my time to go to them.  Either I’ve been picking the wrong shows, or I need to change my tactics somehow.  I’ve been told it’s not my product that’s the problem (which really is reassuring, believe me).  So we’ll see what happens.  It’s early in the year.  Of course, early in the year means a cash crunch, as always!  I have plenty of inventory on hand, though, and a decent supply of raw materials.  After I’ve escaped thesis-induced hell, I’ll get back to my crafting.  I’ll have time to get back to my crafting!