The second batch... part 1

As promised, here they are... more to come... I'm now putting (but not gluing) bails on the pieces to get a better idea how they'll look as jewelry.

More and More Glass!

Hey all, now that the Holidays have past, I'm finally back to getting creative! I realize now that my 3 week hiatus of making jewelry came from sheer overload... I was busy with work, and (thankfully!) busy making lots of holiday presents and custom orders. It was a great problem to have, and I'm so thankful for the people who asked me to make something special for the people in their lives.

I was also busy with shows. But I have to tell you, I was surprised what I saw!

I am used to doing trade shows for my job, have sold my work in street fairs, and have attended a lot of craft shows to view others' work. But the shows I happened to be involved in were really odd. Maybe it's just my area, maybe I just picked the wrong shows... but they included bunches of non-craft vendors! Why would something like Pampered Chef be there? Mary Kay? Silpada? Tastefully Simple? Local Dance Lessons? Tutoring Services? I began to be rather confused as I walked down the aisles... would I find a local auto mechanic next? Why so many multi-level organizations? OK, so they are locally owned business (sort of) ~ and I'd love to support the people who are working hard to build their businesses. But... at a craft show? How does this connect? This really helped me resolve to get a portfolio together and apply to juried shows.


Anyway, rant aside, there were a few other crafters there ~ and I got to meet some great people. I learned a lot about pricing my work appropriately for a venue such as this: less individual pricing based on the work & materials that went into the piece, and more "group" pricing. It makes things more clear for the show attendees. It's easier for me, too... fewer tags, and if I happen to be speaking with another customer I don't keep another waiting.

(Click on this one for detail... the thumbnail looks grainy but the full size shows the way I've been organizing the table)

I also learned that my silver work needs to be displayed a little differently. Right now, everyone is drawn to the glass work right away; the silver is behind it. Since it's smaller and more detailed, I need to have the silver to the side and front ~ easier to look at and get up close to. I'd also like to change the glass display, and get more of it vertical ~ hanging, up on a step up, or individual pieces higher so the customers don't have to lean down to view it. Maybe a light table? A little spotlight? That would be cool!

OK, so back to the new work:

I found a great new source for glass **locally** which is thrilling because I have been buying over the internet without being able to see the sparkle and texture of each piece. It's so hard to capture dichroic glass in a photo; I can't imagine how hard it would be for a company who sells dichroic glass to accurately show it on their website. So going to a place within a half hour of my house - Vijohn Glass in Old Saybrook, CT - was a treat. Amazing selection, and their staff is frankly awesome. They even had coffee and coffeecake!

Most of their glass is COE 96 (and I've been buying COE 90) so I was a bit nervous about buying mixed COEs, and how I would keep it all separate. But after doing some tests, I've found that for this kind of application it appears OK to mix them in a limited way. This gave me a lot more flexibility, and choice!! I bought bunches of variety: ripple dichro in clear and black-based flavors, art glass with streamers and confetti, plain metallic dichro in every color, and lots of clear glass textures. It took a lot of self control to catalog it all when I came home before making new work!

Some of what I've done this weekend is here... this is all from the first firing. I have more to post in a couple days from the second firing, which overall I think was even more successful. I was playing with texture and art glass in the second batch, and creating layered effects.

So... watch out for more very soon!

Oh ~ I've also announced 2 PMC classes and a House Show to be held over the next few months. Check out the Coming Events section of my website: http://www.sulimosdesign.com/Events_Calendar.php