Calla Lily Hair Sticks, A Handmade Polymer Clay Tutorial

For this tutorial you will need the following;

• Green, orange, and white polymer clay (Fimo, Sculpey, Primo…It’s your choice… I just use what’s cheapest)
• Water based polyurethane
• A blade
• A small paint brush
• A rolling pin of some kind

How to:

Using the white polymer clay, work a small piece of clay in your hands to condition it (roll it out like a snake and then roll it into a ball…then a snake…then a ball…you get the idea). This gets the clay warm and then it will move more easily under the roller.
Once it’s conditioned, roll out the white to about 1/8” thickness and cut out the calla shape. Set it aside for later.
Condition the green and orange clay just like you did with the white.
Roll the green into a 4”long stick that has a diameter of between ¼” and 1/2″. Taper the end making the length 5”. Roll the orange into a 3/4” long stick with a ¼” to 1/2″ diameter (same as the green) and taper it at one end making it 1” long.

Attach the large end of the orange stick to the larger end of the green stick by smooshing them together and then gently rolling out that section until smooth.

Lay the orange end of the now 6” stick on top of the white calla cut out making sure that the cut out comes below the orange line.

Wrap the cut out around the stick and using your fingers, pinch along the edge of the cut out all the way around. This will give them a more delicate and realistic look. Next, pinch the tip and curl the end. And lastly, use your finger to smooth the bottom of the cut out into the green stick surface.
Using the instructions on the polymer clay package, bake the finished hair sticks making sure that they’re really straight. Once they’re cooled give them two or three coats of polyurethane and let them dry.

Aren’t they sweet?

I say detergents even though you’ll find it in your “soap,” body wash, shampoo, toothpaste, lotions, and creams, because so-called “soaps” and shampoos made with SLS or SLES cannot rightly be called soap. Real soap, according to the FDA, is based on saponified lye, or lye that has reacted with oils, not SLS or SLES. The FDA classifies those detergents as drugs and/or cosmetics to be regulated by the Administration, unlike soap, which is not so classified.

Ingestion of SLS through the mouth or skin has been found during government testing to be harmful over time. It’s one of the primary reasons we’re warned not to swallow too much toothpaste, as it is toxic when ingested orally. And it causes skin and eye irritation; the Australian government says that it should be fine when used on the surface of the skin for a short time and then immediately rinsed. Well, what of lotions, which we rub into our skin and leave there? What of conditioners, which we leave at least for several minutes? What of repeated, daily use? I know I shower every day at least once a day and wash my hair every time I shower. I’m almost 42 years old. Anyone want to count how many times I’ve used this stuff, at a minimum?

Interesting thing: SLS is used in labs AS a skin irritant on test animals, so researchers can then test the efficacy of healing agents. Hmmm…

SLES causes skin and eye irritation too. Worse, depending on manufacturing process, SLES may be contaminated with carcinogens ad chemicals which can harm the human nervous system and which have been classified as a possible developmental toxicant that interferes with human development by the California EPA. In addition, these chemicals don’t easily degrade, and can remain in the environment long after you wash them down the drain. Now, not all SLES contains these chemicals, but there’s no way for consumers to tell which ones have undergone an additional process to make them uncontaminated.

On top of all that? SLS & SLES may cause hair loss by attacking the follicle. And it cleans by corrosion, drying out skin and hair… and forcing you to use conditioners and lotions! Think about all those shampoo ads for promotion of healthy hair. Then read the ingredients on the back of the bottle and think about the fact that those very ingredients may be making your hair fall out. Interesting, yes?

In fact, I can give you my own anecdotal experience. I have long hair. A lot of long hair. I shed, it’s bound to happen. But I lose less hair in the shower when I use Reef Botanicals bar shampoo, which contains no sulfates. I just do. Better yet, I get my hair dyed about every 6 weeks or so. I get it done to just about my natural color, a nice dark brown. Over the course of the 6 weeks, the color will fade and change, and go more red. You can see it as my roots grow in; they’re much darker than the rest of my hair. Well, once I started using our handmade all-natural shampoo bars, there was no more fading and color change. Honestly, I was shocked myself, but my roots and the rest of my hair stayed the same color!

So why do they use it? It’s cheap! There are other ways to get soaps to foam, they just cost more. However, due to the increased education of the public and increased concern, you’ll notice that a lot of the commercial detergent manufacturers have started advertising “no-poo” or “sulfate free” shampoos.  That’s terrific.  But it’s not everything.

At Reef Botanicals we use various combinations of safe, natural oils like olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, almond oil, grapeseed oil, and castor oil to get all of our soaps and shampoos to lather the way we want them to, without having to use harmful chemicals to do it.

  By Larissa of Reef Botanicals

You got that email/letter/phone call, and WHOO-HOO, you’ve been accepted to that perfect-fit show! And then panic sets in…

Not to worry! You should have some time between now and then to get organized. You’ll need to remodel your business into a whole new venue. A good place to start is to take a mental tour of your inventory. What is it that you sell and how do you display it in person?  In cyberspace, your ‘display’ is single-item photos. In person, everything you own will be visible all at once. Does everything you have go together in one category? Or is your inventory in several different-but-similar categories?  How does what you have group together?  Do you have hundreds of items or just a few?  Are your items all the same relative size, or does it vary?  Do your items have height or do they lay flat?  Close your eyes and visualize everything you have as if it were sitting on a table and you’re standing 15 feet away…  What do you see?

If your immediate answer was, “What a mess!” – relax – you’re not alone.  Let’s consider displays one step at a time.

Take a selection of your items and put them on a flat surface.  To see your things, do you need to be standing next to the flat surface looking down?  If that’s the case, you definitely need to add some height or lift to you items.  Here’s an example…

I’m a customer walking by in the aisle about ten feet from the front of all the booths.  When I walk past your booth, this is what I see…Not very enticing.  And with lots of booths, not likely to attract enough attention to get anyone to stop.  But if my display looks like this……  at least I can see all the colors and shapes.  Maybe I’m not interested in knitted anything, but at least I can see what’s there.  One more example.  This……or this

The major difference between the examples is height.  It’s so important that you get you items vertical so that strolling patrons can get an idea of what your booth offers from a distance.  But you don’t need to be a carpenter to achieve this.  Here’s a picture of what I used to add height to the above displays…

All it is is two chunks of 4×4 and a 1×8″ piece of pine, covered with forest green fabric!  My lumber came from the scrap bin at my local home improvement store and was less than $10!

In addition to adding height in the examples, I also tried to demonstrate use of space.  In the dolls example, the first photo shows them all bunched together on a flat surface.  You can’t really see any of them.  The second photo brings in the height component and spreads them out so that each one is visible.  In a live setting, less can be more.  You want your customers to be able to see each item.  If you have too many items to give each one it’s own unique space, that’s okay.  You can always restock when you make a sale!

Your table or tables should be covered with a consistent, inocuous color…  something that will not detract from your items.  I’m partial to a darker color, but there’s nothing wrong with white.  This is a preference issue, and makes your displays look finished.

If this is your first show, or it’s been a while since you’ve done a show, it’s a good idea to set up your entire display.  Think of this as dress rehearsal.  Once you’ve done that, make a list!  I can’t emphasize how important this is.  What is in your dress-rehearsal booth?  Product, risers, tables, table covers, canopy of course.  But what else is in your booth?  There has to be something to package all those purchases for your customers (bags or boxes).  Are you a math wizard?  There should be a calculator somewhere in this booth.  You certainly don’t want to stand all day, so you need some kind of chair.  Are your promotional materials somewhere (business cards and/or flyers)?  Are you fasting while you sit in this booth (cooler with food and beverages).  Do you do custom orders and are your forms in this booth for taking a one?  What are you doing with the money you take in exchange for your items?  Write all of these things down… you’ll be so happy you did!

Your dress-rehearsal booth will give you a wonderful idea of how to pack all your things to move them from where they are to the show.  If at all possible, put the things on the bottom of your displays on the top of your boxes!  That way, on show day, you won’t be unpacking all of your product to get to the table covers in the bottom of a box.

When you take your dress-rehearsal booth apart, try to store everything you’re going to need near each other.  I purchased a $30 shelf unit at a big box store and it could be the best $30 I’ve spent in a long time.  An added bonus is that it makes filling online orders a breeze… everything I own is together in one place!

Cash Only or Cash/Credit?

The first couple of years I was doing shows, I took cash only.  Occasionally, I’d run the risk of taking a check.  I wasn’t willing to pay the monthly service charge to sign up with a company to take a credit card.  It simply isn’t cost effective when you’re only going to need the service a few times a year.  Lots of people will tell you that taking credit cards will double your sales at live shows.  It was such a quandary.

I can say that I lost sales because I couldn’t take the customer’s plastic.  But I still couldn’t justify the monthly expense of a credit card service.  Then a friend of mine introduced me to Square.The tiny card reader (the white square) plugs into the headphone jack in your android or i-phone and turns the whole thing into a credit card terminal.  You can list the total sale or individual items.  The customer signs with their finger, and you can email or text them the receipt.  The charge clears immediately, too.  Many of my customer’s have received their text receipt before they’ve left my booth!  Charges are transferred to your bank account on the next business day, minus the 2.75% fee Square charges you.  There are no monthly fees, no time commitments and the reader is free!  This market is expanding, too.  Intuit has introduced their own service which is very similar.  For more details on Square, visit their website at https://squareup.com/.  For more information on Intuit’s product, visit gopayment.com.

And finally…

If you can have a wide price range of items in your booth, do it!  The day of your show, you may see nothing but low-end buyers.  It’s much better to sell lots of inexpensive things than nothing at all.

Do you have the ability to recreate a sold item on the spot?  If so, take your tools and supplies with you.  There are several advantages to this.  First, it will give you something to do during slow times.  Second, people visiting arts and crafts shows love to watch artisans ‘doing their thing’ and it doesn’t matter what your ‘thing’ is.  Third, a patron who sees you creating may want something altered slightly to suit their own personal taste or style, netting you a sale that would have walked past had they not seen you working.

Last, and certainly not least, have fun at the show.  Your enthusiasm will draw people into your booth and generate sales.  Talk to everyone who pauses at your site.

By iKnitQuiltSew

I joined the Western South Carolina Gem and Mineral Society, Inc. which provided me with more motivation and a workshop for lapidary and jewelry making.  This began the second phase of my education in further work with gemstones.  I began lapidary, cutting cabochons and faceted stones (bought my own flat lap).  Once you have the stones, what do you do with them?  So, I started making jewelry, this started my venture into that venue and silversmithing.  About this time, my wife got interested in producing beaded pieces.  This is a perfect venue for her.  She is disabled and can design and make beaded necklaces, bracelets, etc. while sitting in her bed.

As the size of our inventory exceeded what we could send to family as presents; we established out shop online.  Handmade Artists presented the best investment.  After trying two other online shop sites, we settled on only having one shop.  We have had more contacts and sales through HA than any other venue.  You can find our shop here:  Rasmussen Gems and Jewelry LLC

We continue our exploration into the artistry of displaying our loves and passions through jewelry.  Designing pieces takes some time.  Each of our pieces is genuinely one of a kind.  We don’t use tutorials to duplicate someone else designs.  That is where we are now, we will continue to expand our knowledge and techniques.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your first show being “tiny.” For your first venture out of cyberspace with your wares, staying local is a wonderful idea.  And maybe an actual ‘arts festival’ isn’t the best thing for you to do for your first show. Is there a church, community center, youth center in your town/city that has a bizarre? The fee is probably small (or even non-existent); you’d be dealing with ‘locals,’ and you won’t have to travel far.  Sometimes, just stepping out of the box a little bit is a big enough first step. You’ll gain the experience of dealing with live customers; you’ll be able to see what kind of attention you get with your craft; you can experiment with how you display your pieces.  A plus with this kind of event is that many of them are indoors – meaning you don’t need a canopy.  Another plus – most of these types of events are shorter… an afternoon or one short day. These events typically are not juried (anyone willing to pay the fee or simply show up is allowed to participate/display).

If you’ve determined that the demographics of your target market would not include the people in your backyard, and you’re ready to reach out and take the plunge into an actual arts & crafts festival, how do you find one? Word of mouth is an invaluable reference. If someone tells you, “you should do xxxx show; you’d do well there,” at least check out that show!

If you’re looking for a show cold, my personal opinion is that Festival Network Online is the “go to” website.  It’s incredibly easy to navigate.  You can click on their handy map and and off you go!  Or you can click the”Find Events” button and narrow your search to a specific city/state or by distance from your zip code.  But before you go searching, a terminology lesson is in order.

What Does “Juried” Mean?

This is a term that gets caught by every spell-checker, so it’s not in the dictionary.  But it’s incredibly important in the Arts & Crafts Show world.  A juried show means that not everyone who applies will be automatically accepted.  Each juried show will have different criteria to determine who gets in and who does not.  Perhaps the show is limited to specific types of pieces, say Fine Art.  Other shows jury to assure quality to their prospective patrons.  Most shows jury to limit the number of artisans in each acceptable category.  Many shows jury for a combination of these reasons, and each show is different.  Shows will explain in their description what their unique criteria is.

A non-juried show is one that anyone who pays can attend.  The show organizer is not controlling the mix or the quality of items which will be displayed; they are simply trying to fill up space.  This is not necessarily bad, but you need to be aware of it before you send in your fee.  Especially in popular categories (jewelry, pottery, etc.), if you choose a non-juried show, be prepared for lots of competition in your medium.  But if this non-juried show is in a neighborhood where you believe your target market is, it could be a perfect fit.

The Next Step

Are you ready?

Then search away!  Doing a first show is an overwhelming experience.  So picking a show that’s a week-long event 400 miles away probably isn’t the best plan.  You’ll probably be surprised how many shows there are within a 50-miles radius of your zip code.

Before You Send In Your Fee

Most shows will link to their own website where you can do additional research on the upcoming show and past shows.  Many of these events are “annual,” and historic photos/descriptions are valuable to you in getting the feel of the show.

If you’re convinced that ‘this is the one,’ restrain yourself from filling out the application form and writing that check.  Contact the organizer first.  Ask any question you can think of that’s not answered by their listings/website…  examples:  Is there cell service or wi-fi available at your event location?  Is there a campground near the event?  What are the demographics of show visitors?  Any question.  Why?  Because this will give you an opportunity to interact with the show organizers before they have your money.  Did you get a timely response?  Did your question get answered?  Was the response cryptic or conversational?  Did the answer have the feel to it that you were bothering them?

It’s been my experience that a well run show will have organizers who love what they’re doing.  You’ll get a quick response and encouragement to engage in further contact if you have more questions.  I am very leery of shows that can’t answer a simple question in a timely manner… a lesson I’ve learned from experience.  It’s just a small indication of how the rest of the show is being handled.

Before you drop that application in the mail, be sure that you have followed all of the directions.  Each show will have specific items they want with the application form.  Failure to include everything requested makes your application incomplete and not considered for inclusion in their show.  Some organizers may contact you to supply the missing items, but others will simply return it.  Don’t disqualify yourself.

CAUTION!

Just because you’ve done your homework, you’ve searched for and found the perfect fit show, and you’ve been accepted, there are no guarantees that you’ll make even one sale.  Getting people to open their wallets in person or online, many times, is completely out of your control.  You took a chance opening a shop online.  Doing a show in person is a business risk that could pay huge dividends or be a colossal flop.  But you’ll never know until you try!

Next in this series:  You’ve Been Accepted – Now What?

By iKnitQuiltSew

The weather’s turning nicer all the time; summer is coming! You think, “I’ve been to all these arts and crafts festivals and everyone seems to do so well. I should do an arts and crafts show – after all, my things are just as good – no, better – than those other people. I’ll make a killing!”

Whoa!!! There are lots of things to consider before your send in that first check for your very first street show.  To get the most return on your investment in yourself (your booth fee), here are some things to consider:

1.  What’s your inventory worth?  Seriously!  At your asking price, if you have a complete sell out, how much money would be in your pocket?  A couple hundred dollars?  A couple thousand?  This figure is going to have a huge impact on what you’re willing to pay for a booth.  If your total inventory is worth $500, you’re not going to want to pay a $475 booth fee.  There’s no guarantee that you’ll sell anything at an arts and crafts festival.  I’ve found a good rule of thumb is 10% of what I have on hand is the maximum you want to pay for a booth.

2.  What are the demographics of your target market?  You could spend boatloads of time and/or huge amounts of money doing market research to determine that your buyers are going to be 25 -50 year old single adults with a median income of $150,000 a year.  But you’re an artist, not a demographer!  You should have a really good idea of who wants your products.  Here’s your starting point…  who are you?  I would hope what you’re making appeals to you!  You’re a certain age/gender/income.  Your product probably appeals to other people in that same group or one very similar.  Maybe you’re the right age and gender, but honestly, you couldn’t afford to buy your pieces.  Consider how that group might expand to the general population.  Just by thinking about your creations objectively, you can get a pretty good idea of the demographics of your prospective buyers.

3.  Do you already  own or can you afford to acquire tables, displays and a canopy?  There are lots of shows that don’t require a canopy, but exhibiting without one leaves you completely vulnerable to the elements (wind, rain, blistering heat).  If you don’t own them, could you borrow or rent them?  Shows typically do not supply any of these items and you certainly don’t want to throw a blanket on the lawn and call it good!

4.  Do you have a way to move all of your items and equipment from where it is now to the show location?  All of those beautiful stained glass lamps you make may not fit in your Mini Cooper!

5.  Are you physically able to put in one or more incredibly long days by yourself?  Each show’s hours of operation will be different.  For conversation sake, let’s say you want to do a two-day show that’s open 9 AM – 7 PM daily.  You’ll need to arrive at the location at least 2 hours early on the first day to set up your booth, so your first day will actually be 7AM – 7PM or twelve hours.  Day 2, you’ll be able to arrive later, but at 7PM you will need to pack all your remaining items, collapse all your displays, and travel home.  In a total of 36 hours time, you will work at least 24 of those hours.

Fused Glass artist Robert McLeod at the 2011 Cedar City Summer Arts Festival

6.  Do you have some expense money available to purchase supplies such as bags and business cards?

Are you completely discouraged?  I really hope not!  By the time you get through this list, you will know what your ceiling is on the booth fee, what your target market looks like, how you’re going to display your items, how you’re going to transport them, and how much of a show you’d like to try.  Maybe you’ve even recruited a friend to take on this adventure with you!

My next article will discuss taking all this information and picking a show just right for you.

By iKnitQuiltSew

What is Article Marketing?

It is the process of using short articles, usually between 400 – 700 words, for publication and distribution by other websites and off-line publishers, typically free of charge.

How Can Article Marketing Help Your Handmade Business?

1. Develops Your Expert Position – Article marketing can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field whether it be jewelry making, crocheting, or metal art. As you share your knowledge with your audience they will come to know you as the ‘go to’ person when they have a question.
2. Exposure – The more places your ideal market can find you, the more paths to your shop or blog, the higher your traffic will be. Each article you write creates a separate trail someone can follow back to you – and become your customer. Think of it as a spider web. Your shop is the heart of the web and the various paths to the center are your marketing efforts – article marketing being one.
3. Approval – When you publish your article on someones site this serves as validation or an introduction to that person’s audience, making them more receptive to your message.

Article Marketing Tips:

• Spell check your work. Even if you’ve read it forwards and backwards use the spell checker. After you do that, read your work once again and if possible get someone else to read your work.
• Be sure your article is between 400 – 700 words.
• Take time to do some keyword research before you write your article.
• Add a keyword to your title and in the first sentence or paragraph of your article.
• Check the sites terms on in-article links to see if links to your shop or blog are allowed.
• Use white-space. Reading online is different so short paragraphs with 2-3 sentences are ideal.
• Using numbered or bulleted lists makes it easier to skim the article.

Article Marketing Tools:

• Squidoo.com – an easy to use Web 2.0 article submission site. I’ve been using this platform since 2007 and the traffic to my blog from my articles is consistent. It is a fairly easy system to learn, using modules that you drag and drop into your page. It also has a very good community of authors and mentors. Last week they launched a new magazine called So Crafty where they highlight craft articles. Coming soon they will be offering artist spotlights where they highlight the art of a featured author.
• Hubpages.com – similar to the previous article submission site plus many who write on Squidoo write here as well. I’ve only submitted one article to this site but I’ve heard positive things about fellow writers article marketing efforts.
• Wizzley.com – this site was made by a number of authors who have used the previous two sites and so the platform is very similar. Their writing standards are superb and I highly respect the owners of the site. They are always willing to help new writers.

Article marketing is for any business owner who wants to drive more traffic to their site, establish themselves as experts, and gain access to new audiences. Your potential customers are out there looking for the next hot crafty skill; make sure you show up in the right place at the right time by creating great articles and sprinkling them throughout the web.

Sara Duggan is an avid blogger of all things crochet. She is known as Momwithahook on Squidoo where she shares her patterns,   book reviews, and other crafty knowledge. Visit her at http://momwithahook.blogspot.com or http://saraduggan.com sign up for her monthly newsletter and ask her how you can build your own Squidoo page for your small business or blog.

The US Government doesn’t see that stuffed animal, that dress, that blanket/quilt, that hat as ‘art.’ They see it as a manufactured product which must be labeled. Their stance is that the ultimate consumer must know who to contact in the event of a product failure. They also require labeling sufficient for the manufacturer (artist) to identify which of their products may be involved in a recall.

Some of the things that are required on the label are the manufacturer’s name, location and date of manufacture, contents and care instructions.

When I first started out, I thought, “What a COLOSSAL pain!” And, in fact, all these labeling requirements forced many, many people out of business when they took effect. But you may already know how stubborn I can be…..

Labeling has evolved over my time in business; both the process and the mind-set. I’ve worked really hard to market my shop and my brand. I’ve labored to have the name, iKnitQuiltSew, mean quality, durability, style and value. All of a sudden, my label may be the most important element of any piece I produce. How does the buyer care for this item? Who made it? Where can I get more of these? What’s it made of? All of these questions are answered on my label.

My labels started out on off-white blanket binding. It worked, but it was so big and the edges frayed so easily. The latter required a lot of finishing. The whole process was such a chore and I needed to streamline and simplify. I’ve finally gotten it down to professional looking and manageable. So here’s how you can do it too!

You will need an iron and ironing board, scissors, computer/printer/scanner, iron-on transfer paper, photo software, light colored satin ribbon (I use white 5/8″ wide) and a sewing machine or needle & thread. The first thing to do is compose the contents of your label, remembering that there’s a front and a back. The front of my label has my shop name (with the copyright symbol), my zip code (location of manufacture), USA, the month/year of completion, and my shop website address. The back of my label has care instructions and item material content. There’s nothing preventing you from using interesting fonts and colors, but don’t get too carried away – you’re working in a really small space.

If you lay your file out in columns, you should be able to get three or four labels across, and the column structure will make them all the same size. Type the front of the label first, skip one line, then type the back. This will give you ample room for cutting later.

Once you’re happy with your text, print your label(s) on bright white paper (that way the background won’t scan) at a good resolution (I change my printer to the “text with photo” setting). Once it’s printed, scan it to turn it into a .jpg. Open the .jpg with your photo software and flip it horizontally. It needs to be backwards on the transfer paper so that it will print frontward on your label. Then, open a new text document and place the picture in it. Set the margins as narrow as you can to cut down on wasting transfer paper, then resize the image to fit your ribbon. The rulers on the side and top of the screen are a huge help when doing this! When your happy, print this on transfer paper. You should have something that looks like this:

Now cut out each front and back label so that you’re left with lots of little pieces.

Place the labels face down on your ribbon about 1″ from the end. Make sure they’re straight! The transfer paper I use requires a hot iron with no steam. Be sure to follow the directions on your transfer paper for good adhesion. My transfer paper requires heat for 20 seconds, and I’ve never had a problem scorching the ribbon during this step. Here’s what the label looks like after ironing and peeling off the backing.

Once the label has cooled, fold it in half. Turn the cut edges together toward the back twice (this gets the unfinished edge inside), then stitch it in place with a sewing machine or by hand.

Now all that’s left to do is to sew it into your item, making it truly finished!

Preciosa Ornela is part of the Preciosa Group, which is one of the worldp’s most significant producer of glass products. Its tradition reaches into 16th century. The boom of glass industry in Northern Bohemia is dated in the second half of the 19th century, when Czech glass became well known and established as first class quality product. Preciosa Ornela has been established in 2009 and produces mainly beads and pearls.

The exclusive Czech two-holed Twin seed bead is oval shaped with dimensions of 2.5 x 5 mm and it is available in two glass materials: crystal and black. The wide range of currently available color finishes on the two-holed Twin beads will inspire you to make infinite color combinations like the ones shown in this article, or at photogalleries on Flickr – just click the images.

With the new Twin bead from Preciosa Ornela it is possible to create unique spatial shapes, original structures, lacy designs or even costume jewellery. If you like to, you can become a fan of Preciosa Ornela on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/PreciosaOrnela where you can get some very interesting news.

By Beverley Start, Polymer Clay Artist

October 5 2011

Sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a project and look up to see that my usable clay pile has been gobbled up by my scrap clay pile. With a little creativity and a lot of nece$$ity I found a few solutions. Here are a few of my ideas on how to turn scrap back into usable clay.

1. Roll it out and use it! – Scrap from any project can be turned into a brand new masterpiece just by putting it through the pasta machine a few times making sure to keep the lines of color in the same direction every time. What this will give you is a beautifully colored striped sheet of clay that can then be cookie cutter-ed, sliced, rolled, or molded in to new pieces. Check out some examples here.

2. Make grey. – Hunks of all-colored clay can be run through the pasta maker or food processor until it becomes a uniform shade of grey. Use it to make a sculpture which can then be cured and painted. Click here for an example.

3. Make black. – Old or leftover clay can be blended using powered black pigment (purchased from any craft store) and clay softener in a food processor. I just put little bits of each in until it’s the consistency and shade I need.

4. Use it as filler. – When making something that requires strength try using some old clay as filler. For example if I were making a picture frame I might make it from filler clay and then cover it with decorative clay. No one will see the inside.

5. Make tags or gift cards. – Sometimes when I roll a piece of scrap through the pasta maker I notice patches of beautifully swirled color and I’ll cookie cutter it out to use as a tag for a special gift. Click here for examples

I’m sure there are tons more ways to use up left over clay but these five are my staples.

Code of Federal Regulations

Title 16: Commercial Practices, Part 23 – Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals and Pewter Industries

This discussion will briefly discuss part of the above regulations, the entire Part 23 can be found online as the e-CFR™. This will not be the entire regulations, but a summary of the pertinent parts. For this particular discussion, I will limit the discussion to only those parts regarding metals. Future discussion will focus on gemstones and pearls.

These regulations are applicable to anyone who produces a product that is …”fabricated from precious metals (gold, silver and platinum group metals), precious metal alloys and their imitations.” Thus these can be construed to also include the precious metal clays or any plated or filled metals.

Gold must only be used to describe items that products that are composed throughout of an alloy of gold of at least 10 karat fineness. The gold regulations include definitions of what is Gold Plate, Gold Filled, Gold Electroplate and several other terms. The real cruxt is that the Artisan can not use the word Gold to describe the product made, unless it is composed of at least 10 karat gold content. The fineness of the Gold must also be included, the fineness can only refer to any component of least fineness. Thus a product made of two different finenesses must be called the least fine.

The term “Sterling Silver” is restricted to describe an industry product that is at least 925 parts per thousand silver. The alloying metal is not restricted to copper. The term “Coin Silver” can be used to describe a product that is at least 900 parts per thousand silver.

Platinum Group Metals include platinum, iridium, paladium, ruthenium, rhodium abn osmium. Platinum must be at least 950 parts per thousand platinum to be called platinum. This applies to all of the group metals.

Simply put, if your product does not entirely meet the minimum quality to be called gold, silver and/or platinum you can not use that term in any part of your name or description of the product. There are no exceptions for these regulations based on size or type of the jewelry producer. Those of us in the Artisan jewelry industry must follow these regulations.

Before I made the cabochons (today), I had finished my commissioned ring for a geologist who works for an oil company that has many wells in Indonesia.  This man got some rough diamonds from a mine there.  I made him a bracelet featuring 7 of his diamonds.  This is a ring with another of the rough diamonds in a bezel setting on top of a map of the area where the diamonds are found.  The diamond actually is on top of the mine location.  The colored map is visible through clear resin that holds the bezel in place.

John

We try to promote as many of the posts and listings as we can on various groups around facebook to help get the maximum exposure for each product, but sometimes time gets away from us and we miss a few. So our developers created a recent products tab on the HAFshop

If that wasn’t enough he added a featured vendors tab as well! Every time you refresh this page a new set of vendors pop up from our lovely list of artists.

With the competition out there you need every advantage you can get to exp0ose your work to the world. That is the great thing about automation, now you can be assured that every product you list will end up on our facebook page for our almost 4000 friends. If you haven’t taken the time to like our page please do as every bit helps.

We have taken automated promotion to the next level as well, every listing is automatically submitted to StumbleUpon and Digg. Every listing is also tweeted to our over 110,000 followers on our various twitter accounts. This type of promotion is needed in this day and age to keep up with the fast pace of social media.

The Handmade Artists’ Forum has been supporting handmade artists now for over two years by promotion and by encouragement, one thing that we have tried to do is listen. Saying that, we believe that the big two, I’ll call them, still have not listened or learned from their mistakes especially the big E. There are resellers, vintage, and massed produced supplies on both sites. That moves the site from a handmade venue to flea market in my opinion, handmade is handmade. It is not your grandmothers scarf that you found in a box and resell. There are actually antiques on Etsy, do you believe this? Sorry steps off soapbox. LOL

Anyway when we decided to launch the Handmade Artists’ Shop we took all these things and more into consideration. First Handmade only. No resellers, no un-altered vintage, and no non-handmade supplies. Simple right. Then we said this will be a sales site, not a social network. Yes we have a forum, but it is on a different domain and is a completely different site. No circles, no hearts, no this no that, just a sales site for handmade simple. These are some of the things that set us apart from the Big two. One other thing is the shear amount of competition, Etsy to my knowledge has well over 400k sellers, Artifre has admitted to having over 100k, sorry guys but in my book it is just too much.  Granted if you would get rid of the resellers, vintage, and massed produced the numbers would come down and the competition would be on an equal playing field. Our goal on the Handmade Artists’ Shop is 10k-20k vendors not hundreds of thousands, honestly I think that is too big. When we hit the magic number, and our overhead will determine that, we will cut off open registration and turn the site into invitation only with a waiting list. At least this is our ultimate goal and will do whatever we need to meet it.

With all that said is $9.95 a month too much to pay for a pro account on Artfire, I don’t know, that is for you to determine. At the HAFshop we have chosen to keep our fees reasonable at $5.00 a month that’s it. The only difference between us  and artfire is that we will not get rich LOL. But we want our vendors to make the money, that is why we do not charge any listing fees or commissions either. So to all our forum members with basic artfire accounts ,we are sorry that you are getting inconvenienced by artfires decision but we have to agree with them to a point. They are providing a service and should be paid for it. As for the decision to where to sell handmade online, we are biased here obviously, but we believe that the Handmade Artists’ Shop will a contender to the big two one day, not in quantity but in quality.

I am new to Handmade Artists Shop and the Forum blog.   So I though I would give all of  you  a short blog to start off by, providing my links to where I sell and what forums I belong to:

Handmade Artists’ Shop:  http://handmadeartists.com/shop/MyriadDesign

Etsy:http://www.etsy.com/people/Myriaddesignjewelry?ref=si_pr

Blogspot: http://myriaddesignblog.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Myriad_Design-Artisan-Crafted-Jewelry-and-more/211888015504463

Artisan Jewelry Designers: http://artisanjewelrydesigners.ning.com/profile/LindaEkblad

Twitter: http://twitter.com/myriad_design

Check these sites out to find out a little more about me, what I sell and my interests.  I am glad to be a part of another Artists’ forum.

Myriad Design Jewelry

Knitting Daily is a magazine app to help serious knitting fans keep on top of all that’s new in the world of wool-crafts. You’ll find it in the App Store as the most popular free knitting application for iPhone and it has a cute logo with ball of duck egg blue wool with criss-crossed needles.

Basically, this has everything you need for those in-between moments, not enough time to pull out your latest project and work on a few rows, but long enough to check out the three tabs worth of content. The first, latest updates from knitting blogs; the second, video how-tos and tutorials; and the third, an extensive glossary for jogging your memory on those more out of the ordinary techniques. There is also the option to sign up to the Knitting Daily mailing list to receive all this to your inbox, but with it handy on your phone for bus journeys and coffee shop queues, you’ll probably find that this is all you need.

2. Knit Counter Lite/StitchMinder

Counter style apps have been long available in Apple and Android App stores and do the job quite nicely, thank you. However, there are two specific free apps aimed at knitters that you can take a look at and try. Obviously, you’re unlikely to need both, but there are a few handy extras that may swing your attention to one or the other.

Knit Counter Lite is the most popular in terms of number of downloads and although it looks quite simple, it does its job very well. Inside the app, you can create numerous personalised and custom counters to suit your projects, each with specific information that you can keep handy for reference, such as which yarn and needles you’re using. You have the option to link two counters together and the ‘frog’ button help you to get back to where you want to be if you find yourself having to go back to correct an error.

StitchMinder may have a more elaborate design scheme, but actually appears to do less than its competitor, with only four counters available for customisation. Nonetheless, you can still keep a good track of your projects using this app and the user ratings are very positive.

3. Lion Brand Yarn

The Lion Brand Yarn app allows you to search specific criteria to find the right pattern for your project. Once you find the right pattern you can bookmark it, make notes and even use the handy map to see your nearest Lion Brand stockist to get what you need.

4. KnitMinder Lite

My personal favourite app on the list and one that I’ve found myself using at home, KnitMinder Lite allows knitting hoarders like me to audit and organise all of their equipment, patterns and ‘part-way through until I got frustrated and threw it under the bed/on top of the wardrobe’ projects.

Inside the app are four tabs: projects (subdivided into planned, in-progress, finished and on-hold categories), patterns, yarn (arranged by weight, colour or brand) and needles (types and size). This app really helps you to see which projects you can manage with the equipment you’ve got, when you could do with stocking up and when you need to stop starting new projects and finish what you’ve started!

5. Knitted Cam Lite

This is just a fun little app for anyone who enjoys crafts. You’ll find it with the cool retro camera on the logo and once you’ve downloaded it you can have lots of fun turning your photos into images worthy of a Christmas jumper! Just tap the bottom-right corner of the screen when you open the app and choose a picture from your albums, take one or go for a demo shot. Then, the app will manage to transform the image into a knitted swatch while you can tamper with the colour ways to make it look perfect. It’s sometimes a bit hit-and-miss, and pictures that are too light or dark can be tricky to perfect, but this app definitely survived the delete-list just for kitsch value!

About the Author: Victoria Crowdell writes articles on family, home & garden and crafting – her passion is decorative candles.

I make three different collections of jewelry; the bold and beautiful, vintage inspired, and chainmaille. All my jewelry is made by hand with pliers, wire, chain, beads, and stones. I don’t solder anything, it is all securely wrapped in wire. I sit at the work table and look over all my beads, and there are many, and just let the inspiration strike. I start dreaming up the jewelry and before you know it, I have a beautiful necklace, bracelet, or one of many other beautiful creations. I love to do custom work.
I spend my time making and selling jewelry on Etsy, writing about jewelry matters at my blog.
You can also follow me on Twitter, and my Facebook Fan Page.

Community defined,

 a unified body of individuals:  b : the people with common interests 

 Since the advent of the Internet, the concept of Community no longer has geographical limitations, as people can now virtually gather in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location.

Handmade artist forum http://handmadeartists.com/forum/index.php is an ever growing community of individuals getting together to support, inspire, teach and learn from other handmade artist.  The community has grown and spread to include: an etsy team, facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/HAFteam/411011475367?ref=ts, artfire guild, this blog, the handmade artist shop www.handmadeartistshop.com and a few others.

The forum is a community to exchange hints,links, helps and also features a weekly chat for real time communications.  Members come from all over the world to join together in this community.  The group is open to anyone that creates handcrafted works or those that appreciate handcrafted.  Many different types of work are represented in a multitude of mediums from; textiles, glass, metal, crystals the list goes on. 

I believe Sheran Simo sums it up well,

http://www.facebook.com/smsimo#/pages/Indianapolis-IN/Sheran-M-Simo-Co/86434976361? 

“I am so impressed with the way Handmade Artists Forum members support and encourage each other! Over and over I see people going the extra step to explain something they’ve done, and encourage the use of their ideas! I often see artists trying something new, just because the person doing the original work is so willing to present it in a way that is easy to understand, or photographed in a way that it’s easy to determine how it was done, and then willing for others to “copy” it. I can say, that up to this point there seems to be an equal balance of those posting and those learning and I cannot see evidence that the forum is being abused. What a wonderful environment to be a part of!!! “

The oldest known jewelry was made from 100,000 year old shell beads.

Wearing jewelry sets humanity apart from the rest of the animal world. And beads have been used for jewelry throughout history.

Whether as decoration, to express individual and class identity (Star of David), to show social status (wedding rings), to store wealth (wampum), as magical amulets, or just to pin your clothes together, jewelry says a lot about who you are.

3,000 – 5,000 years ago
India has the longest continuous legacy of jewelry making anywhere. Beads were important in their jewelry trade even before metals were widely used.

The Egyptians liked gold, and wore it to signal wealth, but preferred colors of glass to those of gemstones.

Chinese designs were oriented to religion then, as now. To this day you will find Buddhist symbols carved into bone and stone beads. Both men and women wore jewelry to show nobility and wealth.

In the Americas, the Mayans made beads from bone and stone before they used metals. Aztec nobility wore gold to show rank, power and wealth. They also used jewelry in sacrifices to appease the gods.

4,000 years ago
In ancient Assyria, men and women both wore extensive amounts of jewelry, including amulets, ankle bracelets, heavy multistrand necklaces, and cylinder seals. In Mesopotamia, jewelry was created both for human use and to adorn statues.

2,400 years ago
Ancient Greeks used jewelry mostly on special occasions and for public appearances. Women wore it to show wealth, social status and beauty. The Greeks believed jewelry protected the wearer from the “evil eye” and gave its owner supernatural powers.

1,300 years ago
Jeweled weaponry and signet rings were common for men; other jewelry was most used by women.

Ornately beaded and jeweled imperial glove made in Palermo before the year 1200 (photo by Michal Mañas, courtesy Widipedia)

400 years ago
Increasing exploration and trade led to the availability of more types of materials and exposure to the arts of varied cultures.

200-120 years ago
Napoleon revived the style and grandeur of jewelry as fashion in France. This period saw the early stages of costume jewelry. Changing social conditions led to the growth of a middle class that wanted jewelry and the industrial revolution provided techniques and materials to produce it more cheaply. To set themselves apart from the masses, the wealthy patronized goldsmiths such as Françoise Désire Fromment Meurice and Pierre Cartier in France, Charles Lewis Tiffany in the United States, Bulgari in Italy and Peter Carl Fabergé in Russia.

Today
Jewelry has never been as diverse as it is today. The development of new materials, including plastics and synthetic gemstones, along with communication advances allowing design influence from many cultures, have combined with manufacturing technology to put jewelry within the economic grasp of a much larger segment of the population. The melding of cultural influences is one of the more significant features of jewelry today. Artisan jewelry is growing both as a hobby and as a profession. Popular because of its uniqueness, it is available in just about any price range.

Article courtesy of Joan at LTD Beads
http://www.etsy.com/shop/LTDBeads

(picture credit: C. Henshilwood & F. d’Errico, courtesy National Science Foundation, United States)

Your number one goal when you begin your search should be to locate professional designers whose work reflects your style. The easiest form of custom design is to find something very close to your idea and have it modified, but even when you’re having something made from scratch, knowing they share your tastes is a big step in developing a piece of jewelry you will treasure forever. Jewelry is a personal experience and the time and effort that goes into it means that you will always associate it with the person who created it. Avoid bad situations and don’t risk hating the piece, by choosing someone whose work you admire and whose personality you are comfortable with.

Ask for referrals from friends, do a search for custom jewelry online, read testimonials and create a list of candidates. Choose a designer with lots of experience in custom work – they’ll have a better time understanding your requests, will be less likely to take on projects above their skill level, and will be able to make suggestions about your design without fear of losing a customer. Listen to their ideas and give honest feedback; never say yes because you’re confused or assume they know what you want better than you do, but be aware that they may have experience with the way your intended design will look or feel that you may not realize.

If you’re creating your custom design with a jeweler over the internet your designer should have clear pictures on their website or blog. There’s no use having them make a necklace if you can’t tell from the picture what it actually looks like. No one likes receiving a new necklace in the mail only to find it looks nothing like the website. If something is unclear, ask for alternative views or further descriptions of the mockups.

Once you’ve found the right person there are plenty of things you can do to make the process go smoothly. Be up front about your budget, the date you need the piece by, and any other expectations or concerns. A designer can’t put you at ease if you don’t ask questions, and it’s hard on everyone when your jewelry designer creates a predesign that’s way outside your budget simply because you didn’t voice it. Discussing your budget early will also give your jeweler an opportunity to tell you whether it’s a realistic goal for the work. If you’ve done your homework about the designer you’ll be able to tell the difference between honest feedback and upselling techniques. Unless you have set an absolute maximum to your budget there will likely be unforseen costs at the end of the process – materials may change from the original plan, the design may take longer than initially estimated, and don’t forget extras like tax and shipping.

Don’t be surprised if the designer asks for a design deposit. Many jewelers will do it for free but if your design is going to be complicated or take lots of hours to create they may want to ensure that you’re serious about buying. Make sure you ask them about their policies in case you change your mind, want to move the design in a new direction, or simply don’t like what you’re sent at the end of the process.

Knowing what to expect and choosing the right designer will make the end piece all the better.With the right approach and lots of research, having custom jewelry created can be a rewarding experience and leave you with a one-of-a-kind treasure you will be proud to wear.

Elena Adams

Article courtesy of Elena Adams at http://www.elena-adams.com/

Elena Adams is a jewelry designer based in the Bay Area. With nearly
a decade of experience, she offers a range of handmade, sterling
silver jewelry at www.elena-adams.com. She is passionate about
updating the look of classical chain maille for the refined woman, and
teaches jewelry technique and photography classes around San
Francisco.

Inspiration is all around us, from the view out the window, a movie, a friend, a blog, other artists. The inspirations are many and are unique to each artist and their emotions at the time. Art is way of expressing emotion, the more successful an artist the more they involve others with their emotion and inspiration.

No matter the medium I believe the goal of every artists at some level is to inspire others, to evoke emotions. Inspiration is a way to capture memories, some happy, some sad, some funny, some serious. Finding inspiration often involves self introspection, finding something within yourself that you may not have known existed. “Art is a way of expressing the soul”

On those days where inspiration seems to elude you, slow down, take a deep breath and enjoy the moment, take a walk, take a bath, enjoy meditation, observe your surroundings and other artists work, take inspiration through the struggles and successes of others, but most important keep moving forward. (c)DRD

I thank Taogem  http://gemstone.smfforfree4.com  for the use of this article.

Handcrafted as defined by wictionary: English[edit] Adjective handcrafted (not comparable)
Made by hand or using the hands, as opposed to by mass production or using machinery. Why is that important? It’s important to realize the time, skill and effort that goes into handcrafted items. No two are ever alike even when they may look similar. The artist’s mindset always plays a role in the final piece as does the reaction of the medium they are working with at the time. What is Art? Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities. It is the deliberate arrangment that makes a handcrafted item Art. An artist goal is to appeal to the senses and create emotions and memories with a piece.

One other note, I have noticed that many sites are advertising items as handmade, please read the details carefully as I have found that many items are actuallly mass produced or using mass produced items and are being sold as handcrafted. I find it helpful to read the artist bio/profile as it may give details to the originality and origin of the piece.  The Handmade Artist Shop screens sellers to insure that all pieces are indeed handcrafted, created by the artisan seller and are truly “one of a kind’ (OOAK)

Submitted by CalcedoniaDesign.

Knitting is not my specialty-my mom can knit up a storm-I would rather crochet. Knitting patterns were a little difficult to read and no matter how hard I tried (sigh) the item always came out wider, then long enough. So it was always rip and redo. When my son was born (many moons ago) I decided to knit him a sweater. I think about it now and still I laugh my head off-you’d have to see this picture in your mind to understand. When my son was young I always had to buy him Sears ‘super super slim’  shirts and pants. The sweater I knitted him turned out to be a midriff, which could have fit a baby elephant. Now I leave the knitted items to my mom who has just turned 86.

Here are some interesting links about how knitting originated, taken from Wikipedia:

• 1 Early origins of knitting
• 2 Early European Knitting
• 3 Importance in Scottish history
• 4 Industrial revolution
• 5 1920s: the Russian Civil Wars and China
• 6 1939-1945: Knitting for Victory
• 7 1950s and 60s: Haute Couture
• 8 1980s: A Decline
• 9 Early 21st Century Revival
• 10 References
• 11 Notes
• 12 See also
• 13 External links

Then you take that beautiful necklace or the wonderful pieced quilt outside and take a few pictures, and then you start muttering a few unmentionable words under your breath all because those blue beads aren’t blue, they’re more green, and that perfect match of material turns out to be less than perfect, and you think, How did that happen?

There are a variety of reasons, besides being color blind that is.  We all know that as we age, we may not see as well, but even our younger eyes can get tired from looking at a computer all day or working under fluoresent lights.  And, another reason – that “white” compact fluorescent or incandescent bulb isn’t so white after all!

Now, I don’t normally go around promoting just one brand, or company, and there may be other companies out there that do make something just like these, but I have to tell you these Ott Lites are amazing!

I treated myself to two of them in the past couple of days.   I have been trying so hard to take pictures of my ornaments to look as good as they really are, and after much trial and tribulation, I thought, I’m going to try these.  (They happen to be on sale for 50% off at JoAnns)

This is a picture from the Ott Lite website

Ott Lite Picture

but then I thought, it might be fun to test this myself

With Compact Fluorescent

ABOVE: This is a white piece of material – I took the picture directly under the compact fluorescent bulb – I haven’t done anything to the picture except auto correct the exposure.

With Ott Lite

ABOVE taken with a 9wt Ott Lite – untouched photo except auto exposure correction.

With Compact Fluorescent

With Ott Lite

HUGE difference wouldn’t you say?

I was absolutely amazed at the difference when I first turned on this light.   They also sell light bulbs that you can screw into a normal light fixture – Joann’s does carry a 20wt one, along with some of their lamps and Lowes also carries the Ott Lite brand.   What each store carries, may be different.

However, you can also order from Ott Lite – and they are having a sale right now.

So, if you find yourself mixing beads or material that don’t really match, or getting tired of doing all those color corrections on your photos that you’ve taken inside with your regular lights – you might want to consider one of these lights.

Have a beautiful and bright day.