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!

So, I finally heard back from the instrumental music boosters organization at Henry Ford II High School in Sterling Heights, MI, and I’ve been accepted into their Crafter’s Clearance coming up in February.  I’m actually very excited because I’m still sitting on a lot of product from last year’s shows, which were pretty abysmal except for the festival at Grand Valley State.  This show looks like it might have a lot of promise, so I’m guardedly optimistic about my prospects.

As a result of getting into this show, however, I needed to take some work-in-progress and me-at-work photos so I can have them on me (basically to prove that I made what I’ve got with me in case someone challenges me about it).  I, of course, have never bothered taking any pictures like that, and any pictures taken of me while sewing back during my college days are completely lost somewhere in the maelstrom that is my bedroom or in the deepest, darkest depths of the internet.

So, my brother having disappeared from my workspace so I couldn’t corral him into taking the pictures, I found a way to set up my camera to take some shots while I was working.  Let me tell you, it’s wasn’t that easy!  I did get some passable shots, though.

My tools for my sewing are actually really simple.  I’ve got my dressmaker’s shears, my pinking shears, my dress form (rarely used, to be honest), my Kenmore sewing machine, the iron and the ironing board, pins, the actual materials for the garments and not a whole lot else!  A lot of the work is in the actual seaming of the garment: I try to enclose any raw edges that I can with French seams.

These shots are of another skirt in progress (I started the sewing for it this morning, though I’ve had the pieces cut since at least this past September).  I’m in the ironing process here, preparing first seams to be encased.

And then there’s my workspace–not really much to look at, is it?  It mostly does the job, though.  I do a lot of my cutting upstairs becasue there’s ample floor/table space to do it and the lighting is better.  I have some task lighting available in my actual workspace, but for some things, natural light is just better.

Finally got new photos and posted my residual cloaks and capes on Etsy — took me long enough, right?

We got a fresh layer of snow on the ground this morning and I had the perfect storm of opportunity: cloudy day, my sister and her boyfriend at the house, and easy access to both my camera and the garb!  So I asked both of them if they’d be willing to model the cloaks outside for me on the patio against the snow and the evergreens along the back fence.  They were good sports overall and helped me out.

The pictures turned out fairly well, but it was pretty cold so I didn’t ask them for much (if I’d been really ambitious, I’d have had Kendall throw on her noble garb and model for me!).

I love this shot so much. It's very Assassin's Creed.	Danny's got broader shoulders than Kendall, so I had to get at least one shot of him in the gray.	Detail shot on the clasp.
This one's our favorite shot between my mom and I.	I don't know why I'm such a big fan of these Assassin's Creed style shots...	Clasp detail shot for the evergreen cloak - flash was on.

Kendall was worried about how the photos turned out. My mother and I agreed they turned out very well.

Both cloaks are up for sale at Etsy.

Today, I hit another milestone with Etsy: I created my first treasury, Wired whimsy.  I took some of the shops from my favorites and found others as I simply browsed through Etsy, searching for items that fit into the treasury’s theme, which was wire work.

I made the treasury because I’m feeling too lazy to do real work right about now, which is to say cleaning up and starting on the new jewelry line I’ve been musing over for a few weeks.  I made the first couple pieces at the bust of a craft show I did on December 11.

The collection is inspired by the colors and patterns of Imperial Russia.  All are primarily freshwater pearl works.  It’ll be a very neat collection.  I’ll post pictures of the first few pieces soon.