A Spoonful of Sugar Necklace

No apologies to Mary. This necklace is so sweet, put photos of those darling English children in the locket and wear the necklace as you are whisked away by a spring breeze...

Start by putting a nice hole in the handle of the spoon. I used the Eurotool 1.8 mm punch, but you can use the Two Hole Punch if you wish...the 1.8 mm punch isn't up on the site (technical difficulty!) but we have them to sell, just call us!
When you use ANY hand-powered punch remember that slow and steady is the way to go. Don't try to power through the hole making or you'll end up with bent punches! Grip the punch and s-l-o-w-l-y put pressure on it to make the hole.
The next thing to do is put your message in the spoon. I went for the obvious but sweet 'sugar' in the bowl of the spoon. Big hint; start your word in the center of the space and with the center letter of the word. You'll have instant spacing success! The 1/8 inch punches leave a nice legible message. For a more delicate message, or to be more bold, we have smaller and larger punches.

With your round nose pliers wire wrap a 2" section of 20 gauge wire and thread it through a tulip bead cap. The 10 mm pearl will fit just inside the cap, or you can gently squeeze the petals of the tulip to make it fit. Wire wrap the remaining 20 gauge wire at the top of the bead cap and trim any excess.
Then you can use the fabulous square jump rings to attach the charms to the loop. I love those square jump rings. They are an unexpected shape AND super strong!

Use a square jump ring to attach the chain sections to the top of the dangle.
Use double jump rings to attach both halves of the toggle. I like doubling up the jump rings when I use thinner gauges so that they are extra strong. It also looks a bit more 'finished' to me.

All the supplies for this necklace can be found at  Ornamentea.com.

Copyright, very well put!

We have recently been discussing copyright issues at the stores A LOT. We have a customer who is coming in to the stores and very quietly copying projects from magazines and books and then not buying the books. Her take on it is that the projects are there to copy. Our position is that the projects are there to copy if you buy the book. It's pretty cheeky of her; she has even asked for pen and paper to do this and seems to carefully look for the newest staff members to ask...she's pretty quiet and since we encourage our customers to sit for long stretches at the work tables and look through our books or work on their projects she can sometimes get through most of an article before we notice. We decided to make up some signs to put about the stores to explain this issue better, especially since she does seem to have a reverence for the written word! In researching this, my hubby/business partner found this site with one of the best explanations of copyright I have ever read, with perfect real-life examples of violations. Check it out: http://www.sylvias-studio.com/copyright.htm

And thanks to Sylvia!

(We are trying to avoid calling the police on this customer, but it's getting pretty close!)

Crafting for Money

Are you thinking of selling your work?

This is the time of year when I begin to hear from so many of my customers about selling their jewelry. This year, with the economy and so many folks finding themselves looking for a new career I am getting the questions even more often. How can I price my work? Is my work good enough to sell? Where can I sell my work? For long-distance friends I answer questions via email but if you are in Raleigh (or even within driving distance) we have several classes geared towards designers. In Photographing Your Work you'll learn how to take great photos with any digital camera, how to make an inexpensive light box and even how to do simple photo editing using free software. In Getting Started On Etsy you'll learn how and why to use this great sales platform to promote your work. In my Crafting for Money class we'll discuss how to price your work so you are making a profit and ways to sell your work from craft shows to boutiques.

I teach the Crafting for Money class and one of the things I spend a lot of time talking to folks about is why they might want to sell their work. For many people, it's economic. They can make way more than they can wear and would love to make some extra money to feed their crafty habit. These people don't necessarily want to quit their day jobs and design full time. They want to sell to family and friends on a limited basis. This is a great motivator but sometimes these folks seem to feel like wanting to sell their work part-time or on a small scale makes them less of a designer. It doesn't. A part time designer can still create work that is beautiful and unique and original. A part time designer has some advantages over the person who must pay all their bills with their work; they can take on jobs based on interest and enjoyment, not just the bottom line.

Jane Mormino teaches the Photographing Your Work and Etsy classes and in both classes she draws from personal experience and exhaustive research. Jane is experienced with selling her own work at shows and via Etsy and she can tell you how important good photos are. Jane is also the kind of crafty gal who doesn't spend money unnecessisarily so she will also show off some inexpensive and free ways to make the digital camera you already have take better photos.

So, call and register already, what are you waiting for?