DIY::Salvaged Finds Turned To Jewelry Displays::PART 1

I have always been a Goodwill Stores kind of a gal. Even when I find something there that I don't need but see the $.49 price tag attached, I always seem to be able to justify the purchase. This was no exception when trying to think up new and useful ways to display my jewelry for my upcoming party.


I have spent some of my recent free time getting to know my new neighborhood, which includes the local stores and dives. While rummaging around a Salvation Army store in town, I shopped this little guy: 

I immediately knew what I could do with it, and $.98 later it was mine! So after adding some black paper to it's back to give it less of a meshy look, I looked around my craft room to get some ideas of how to spruce the thing up. I knew just the remedy: paper flowers and brads! 

So a few floral arrangements later... 

And after adding some earrings, too...

We have this:

So, for less than $1 or so, I have a perfectly lovely earring holder. The paper holder also came with a magnet, which I think I will use to label the price for the earrings during the jewelry party. What do you think? 

Next on my list was to find a means to hang some longer necklaces I recently made for the jewelry party.  I remembered that I had some old cork boards we were saving to put up next to our dart board in the basement. Who needs darts when you have lots of jewelry to display? So I pulled them, and some old gift wrap, out of storage...

Turns out the cork boards (which we originally found in a free pile of stuff back in Berkeley) have warped pretty harshly over time, so they needed to be covered STAT!... 

After cutting the paper and taping it's edges down...

I added some torn paper around the border to give it some color, as well as a random flower I found laying the craft room. And VOILA! 

In fact, I used the rest of the torn pink paper to create it's counterpart:

I especially love the floral details: 

Though am not a huge fan of the only interesting push pins I could find in town - where can I get some cute silver matte pins without spending a fortune? 

Up next - how I turned a $.48 find into a necklace and earrings holder, plus a new use for an old lamp! 

*Yelp is for Jewelry Addicts

It's times like these that make you realize how blogging has become so ingrained in your life! I want to apologize for being MIA lately -- I just started a new job (and if this was a personal blog, let me tell ya, I would write a novel about the transition!), my brother just moved in (which has distracted me from creating - in a good way), and LA has been hit with all sorts of rain that has left our roof leaking and our garage flooded. I have been working on a few custom pieces and will post about them soon (one I am particularly thrilled with!) and have been collecting items to include in my Spring Collection. I promise - I have been Beadin' Up - just not online so much! That said, I just wanted to thank you for hanging in there and being patient with me - I am working on re-creating a routine that will allow me to post at least 3-times a week, if not more. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you my recent feature on Yelp! I was nominated to be an "Elite" member early last year and have been a featured Yelper a few times - but this week it was for my series on LA's Jewelry District! If you haven't checked out *Yelp, no matter where you live, I suggest you give it a try - it's addictive and really, really amusing (and free!)

Los Angeles Jewelry District

What's this?

Interact with the map to check out the locations on my featured list! Ciao, bellas!

I Love You, Wednesdays: Numbers and Stars

In light of all the problems we are facing, it's so refreshing - and often sometimes humbling - to be reminded by how little they are in the big scheme of things. Yesterday an earthquake hit the island of Haiti, killing over 100,000. For as hard as I try, I cannot manage to comprehend what that number really means. It's like taking all of my Facebook friends and multiplying them by 100. Or looking around the Superdome and still adding 30,000! In numbers, it's a whole nation, history, and culture of people. Please remember to keep the people of Haiti and those working on local relief in your thoughts and prayers. And if you feel compelled to do so, consider donating to a disaster relief cause, such as Lutheran World Relief.

The magnitude of numbers especially overwhelmed me yesterday when I took yesterday off of work and drove my parents and brother (parents are visiting from Kentucky; brother just moved here) to the Griffith Observatory. I have heard that this place is an LA Must-See, both for it's impressive view of the city, but also for it's equally impressive, newly renovated museum. Oh, and it's home to lots of movies, including Rebel Without A Cause, The Rocketeer, and Yes Man. We drove to the peak of the Los Feliz Mountains and within minutes understood why this is on the top of the list. Breathtaking.

(love my new camera and picnik photo enhancer!)

I'll spare you all the details of the Observatory and it's recent renovation and programs and get to the good part (my husband is good at reminding me to "Get to your point!" when I am telling stories - I am like spaghetti - to me, it's all connected!). Connecting the new and the old wings of the Museum and Observatory (which is celebrating it's 70th birthday this year!) is the "Cosmic Connection." I was BEYOND surprised with the exhibit along the walls of the corridor... I'll let the website's description do the talking: "The Cosmic Connection, the corridor linking the historic building above with the new Gunther Depths of Space below, provides the transition from ground-based and more familiar astronomy to a new realm of cosmic perspective. The main element in this passageway is a 150-foot timeline of the universe whimsically composed of celestial-themed jewelry in the glass case that lines the corridor. At the top end of the corridor, near the Guide Station, visitors pass the Big Bang. At the bottom end, near the Edge of Space mezzanine, all of human history occupies a fraction of an inch. In between, large images illustrate key moments in the evolution of the universe and our cultural connection to the cosmos." That's right - a whole astronomical illustration made of nothing but JEWELRY! It was beyond amazing - 150 feet of star-themed broaches, necklaces, earrings, even some sheriff's badges and studded belts, all lines up to depict the infamy of the history of our universe! According to the Epoch Times, the collection is made up of over 2,200 pieces of jewelry, most of which were from donor Kara Knack's private collection. She started collection celestial broaches when she noticed the conversations they started. As a friend of the Observatory, she offered them to the new wing of the museum and managed to collect over 500 more pieces thanks to friends who worked at Swap Meets. Originally the use of her pieces was discouraged by scientists and astronomers who saw them as "kitchy" and "unscientific" (lame - and perhaps proving the science and art are often like oil and water?!).According to SFGate, "In 2003, Krupp [the director of the observatory] prevailed, insisting that 'a ribbon of jewelry will serve as a time line of the universe.' Just days before the Galactic Gala on Oct. 29, 2006, that marked the reopening, Knack unrolled a 165-foot-long piece of paper in her driveway. She drew a line that she said looked like a giant string snapped like a whip. At the Los Angeles jewelry mart, she bought connectors, pins, nails and needle-nosed pliers. She enlisted 18 volunteers who stationed the jewelry along a display board, earring by bracelet by necklace by pin, with Knack organizing the pieces to appear 'random and chaotic.' Having worn almost every piece to one occasion or another, she knew them well." Working on a crazy timeline, she and the volunteers constructed the entire display within ONE day! The resulting display shows "the universe of over 13.7 billion years, from its beginning to today, a time line marks each billion year interval, and in panels written by Carolyn Collins Petersen, tells what scientists think happened during specific time periods. Clustering many small pieces at the beginning symbolizes the Big Bang, the beginning of our universe, and placing numerous pieces with suns and moons that have human faces toward the end of the line to mark the beginning of human life" (Epoch Times). The pieces really were each stunning, each in their own right, and shined ever so beautifully under the bright display lights. Most astounding of all was the scale of the display: 150 feet represents the 15+/- billion year history of our universe! That means each of the 2,200 pieces of jewelry represents 6,818,181 years of history! That really puts things into perspective! Or, in terms of the recent Haitian disaster, every piece of jewelry represents 45 lives lost. I can comprehend it more clearly now, and am left, for once, speechless.

Two Boutique Showings in less than 30-hours!

Well it's been a crazy busy week and weekend for Bead Up! I am just now getting to posting about the two Christmas shows I did this weekend because, go figure, I got sick as soon as we got in the car after the second show! This seems to be my luck, as it's the third time I have gotten sick after one of my shows... coincidence? Anyway, the weekend began on Friday morning when the Hubs and I got up early to pack the car with all my products, display pieces, and even a few pieces to work on while at a Christmas Boutique at a Catholic high school in the neighborhood. We were the first to arrive and were happy to see that they had given us the table nearest the door in a small-ish conference room near the outdoor cafeteria (only in California!). It was nice to have a whole two hours to take our time setting up and making sure all our ducks were in a row. Turns out the vendor stationed at the table next to us canceled at the last minute, so we were given another 8" table! Sixteen feet of table space near a door and against a wall all to ourselves - perfect! The people traffic started sooner than we had expected when the kids having lunch heard that there were baked goods in the conference room! My first customer, a high school student, bought 4 necklaces right off the bat! Next followed the mother of the gal who threw me the jewelry party back in October (who was also my contact person for this show - I don't know what I would do without her!) bought most of her Christmas presents for her kids - and herself! My kind of lady! Throughout the day we had lots of friendly and familiar visitors, including several of the school's students who are in my church youth group and our youth group mascot, Leslie the Kat, who also acted as a display holder for a necklace ;) Throughout the course of the show we made good friends with the other vendors around us, including a lady who sold Acai berry energy drinks and a woman who sold brittle. There weren't very many other vendors, though that thankfully didn't stop people from coming by to buy a cupcake and see what we had to show. I made the observation that about every person who walked by our table at least had the courtesy to stop and chat with us, and one out of every three people who spoke with us made a purchase. Not bad odds! The show ran from 1-7pm, and add that with the two hours we spent setting up and and hour we spent tearing down, it was a full day! At the end of the day, I made 4x the amount of the deposit I had placed to be in the show a few months ago, which totally exceeded my expectations. PLUS - we had fun doing it and met a lot of really great people. I treated my husband to dinner and a little shopping trip after the show and kept saying to ourselves, "Wow, what a great day!" The next day and Christmas boutique showing, however, was very different. I slept in entirely too long (10:30am - I was pooped!) and woke up freaking out over all the work I had hoped to do before this show - make a custom order that was needed by a customer from the first show by the next day, make some more necklaces to go on my art canvas/easel display, and incorporate some brass charms I have been meaning to use on a few necklaces. I of course first discovered that I was out of spring rings (clasps), which meant an impromptu trip to Michael's and less time at home to create. Before I knew it, it was 1pm and time to make the 45-minute trip to Redondo Bead (near Santa Monica) for our Saturday showing at a Lutheran School. We made good time getting down there, though were surprised with how small the venue was compared to all the rules and regulations I had to sign off on in order to even have a table at the show. Since the organizer of this show found me on Etsy, I didn't know anyone going into this one or even who I should answer to once we had arrived. After being mistaken for a volunteer (must be the pastor's wife look I usually have on my face!), we finally found someone who could answer our questions and show us to our spot. Turns out they had a measly 5 foot table (which I had to pay $20 for!) in the middle of the room surrounded by other tables - no wall to act as a safe place for our stuff, no chairs, no nothing - just wide open table space. This of course made me especially tired just thinking about the 8 hours ahead of us, but thankfully the cold coming in through ALL the open doors in the room were distraction enough (it's been in the 30's here in LA this week - we are all so confused!). We had to hurry up our display since we had to also move our car before we get ticketed for parking in the church lot (?)! A vendor on the right of me set up a 9-foot table of homemade cards and luggage tags; to the left of me a gal set up another jewelry booth, though hers was hand-forged metal pieces. The other vendors were just as impressive - cashmere sweaters and scarves, pearl and Cubic Z jewelry, homemade cookie jars, elegant down covers, even a skateboard vendor. It didn't take long to assess that I had one of the most affordable booths in the whole room - I was going to make a killing! The show started at 4pm. By 5pm we had to yet to make a sale (or even have any real human interaction - much less friendly than the day before!) and was wondering when the show would officially "start" - vendors outside were still setting up their crepe booths, the snow slide, and the Grinch photo booth (yes, they had a guy dress up as the Grinch to take pictures with the kids. They seemed more freaked out than enchanted, to be honest!). By 6pm we had yet to make a sale, even though lots of people had been walking by. As opposed to the show the day before, where most people at least stopped to chat with us, people at this show were just walking past and hardly looking at what we had to offer. It sucked, I am not going to lie. Felt a bit like junior high, or when you are applying for jobs or a school and the institution doesn't even acknowledge your application. Lame. To add to the odd-ity of the whole thing, I had a migraine from hades and the open doors letting in the cold weren't helping (even though I was wearing a sweater and a hat!). We finally folded and bought some food they were selling at the show, which was hardly a condolence to the headache and chill! I finally made my first sale to a gal who was singing in the concert that went along with the boutique, and another to a little girl who insisted that her momma buy her some earrings. The hubs enthusiastially asked, "So how are we doing?" Sixteen dollars and counting, friend. I think one of the main reasons people might have been reluctant to buy was because you had to first get a receipt from me for your purchase, and then go to a "cashier" to pay, who then stamp your receipt and send you back to the vendor, who then checks that you have paid and THEN can give you the item. Though I think it's great that this allowed people to pay with a credit card (which I of couse don't have the capacity to do on my own), I think this may have been a major hurdle in the buying and even shopping process. I still couldn't figure out why I wasn't selling, though. Each mom who walked through the room had a larger engagement ring on than the one before her, and her kids in Hollester and Abercrombie were running around with large bills of their own. It was very Orange County meets LA Beach life. The gal at the jewelry booth next to me shared that she wasn't selling much either, only one $50 sale, in fact! This wasn't looking so good. I was counting down until 9pm when the show was to finally end - my headache and lack of sales was making me want to crawl under my table and hide from the cold. Finally, the other vendors started packing up shop and also checking out other people's booths. As the Hubs started putting the merchandise away, one lady from a booth down the way came by and just started picking out things: "I"ll take this, and this, and this!" She bought 1/4 of my total sales at the end of the day - thank goodness! Since I was going to be paid by check later on in the week by the school for all my sales I had no "Wow!" moment when counting my money, only instead when counting my receipts, and not a "wow" in a good way. After giving 20% of my sale income to the school (which was my vendor fee), we made only half of what we had made the day before - and worked twice as hard! It was especially perplexing since I was the most affordable vendor in a sea of very expensive booths and wealthy shoppers. The gal next to me said she wouldn't be back next year, and I sadly agreed with her. Oh well! (this was the Christmas tree the venue set up for just the event - wow!) So what can we add to our list of "Things Learned" from this one? Overall - there is no science to these things! I for sure thought I would do better at the second show since it was in a very nice neighborhood and I had the most affordable items around. I also originally thought I was taking a crazy gamble on the first show at the Catholic high school because the vendor fee was very high - though at the end of the day I made more sales at that show afterall! I also learned to not go in with any expectations, including expecting your friends to come to these things (I kind of don't blame them!). Oh, and even if you have displays CLEARLY marked (ie, "Items priced as marked on back of each item"), people will STILL ask you where they can find the prices. It never fails! Finally, I must give props to my Hubs, who helped the whole time AND juggled writing his final grad school term papers on the edge of each display table amidst the craziness of each day. I heart him! So, there's the report. In the meantime, I have taken this opportunity to post some items I was saving for shows but want to now share with the Etsy community - they would made some GREAT Christmas gifts - click to see them on Etsy!

My first Church Christmas "Boutique" Show

After the success of my first (and so far only) jewelry party, I was ambitious and ready to take on more events! After being invited to 2 school/church shows for the first week of December, I started to think that perhaps such "craft boutique" shows would be a great way to boost my sales this and next month. While browsing through my church's monthly newsletter, I saw an advertisement for another Lutheran church's upcoming "Christmas Craft Boutique" to be held last weekend. I thought about it for a moment, and figured, what could I lose? I already have all the items, tagged and ready to go. I am not doing anything else the Saturday of the show. It would only cost me 15% of my profits for the day to rent a table, and even that money goes to the church's attempt at building a new roof. Sure, sign me up. Now, to be fair, I had a feeling going into this that it could be a COMPLETE HIT OR MISS. We are talking church craft show here. The first thing that comes to my mind is doilies and Raggedy Ann dolls. Were these ladies ready for Bead Up? The Hubs and I got up early on Saturday morning and loaded up the car with all the jewelry holders, signs, gift wrap, and tags that I had used at the jewelry party a few weeks ago. I told him as we drove to this church in a seedy neighborhood, "We could totally not make a single sale today, you do know that, right?" While I kept that in the back of my head under the mentality "Think negatively and you will be positively surprised," I also said to the Hubs that I would be entirely satisfied if I made $100, since I had just the day before sent in a check for the same amount to one of the two larger Christmas shows I am doing the first week of December (that way I also didn't have to cross contaminate my personal checking account, from which I wrote the check, and my Bead Up PayPal account, which I am using now solely on a black, not red, basis, and plan to keep it that way!). I of course would have liked to have made more than $100, but the way I saw it, even $100 was $100 more than I had when I woke up that morning. (can you see the look of enthusiasm in the Hubs' face?) We arrived at the church to find a small table waiting for me in the corner of a very tired fellowship hall. As I walked in, the coordinator of the event told me she placed me next to someone she thought I would know since she attend the same church as I do... turns out it was the grandparents of several of the kids in my youth group! The wife had several dozen of her (lovely, and very low priced) quilts on display and her husband was there to help him out. Having them next to us turned out to be a blessing in disguise as my poor Hubs needed the company and had really missed seeing this couple around church!

As the Hubs and I set up our table, it became clear that ours was definitely a different kind of craft compared to the other booths in the "boutique." One lady sold her old house plants in white ceramic "Best Mom" mugs. Other tables titled "Collectibles," had nothing more than garage sale items. Others had soccer-printed fleece dog blankets. I approached a little old lady at her table to see that she was also selling jewelry. "This is stuff left over from when I sold Avon jewelry in the 70's!" she said proudly. Next to it were several Mudd and Jordache jeans re-cut into purses with glitter puffy paint around the seams. "Now, don't worry about not being able to fit into those, honey!" she said to me as I began to walk on. "They are one-size-fits-all, cause they are purses! I fooled ya, didn't I?" (my table was a bit too small for all that I had ready to show - reminded me of living in a dorm again!)

Clearly I was in the wrong market. But we kept our spirits high and sat between the wall and our table as we watched lots of women in retirement walk in. And leave. A few friends from church happened to stop by and were a good distraction to the hours that seemed to lurk on and on. One hour, then two hours, then three hours passed with no sales. Elderly women would come by the booth and say how pretty things were and continue on to the kitchen (they also had a big soup-and-cornbread lunch at the event, which seemed to be more of an attraction than the "boutique" itself!), while elderly men wouldn't even both looking at all. Surely some of these people have grandkids, right? (I thought these "Holy Spirit Dove" necklaces with amathyst and garnet would be a bit at the church event. Not so much!) With only an hour left of the show and zero sales to boot, I was in quite the funk. While the Hubs was pretty optimistic at first, even he was beginning to think we should just pack up our things and peace out. A little seven-year-old gal wondered away from her mom and came up to our booth with her eye fixed on a Ballerina necklace and earring set I had made. She loved it and rushed to her mom for money. A few minutes later, this little gal came back with $20 - my first sale of the day! To a seven-year-old! This little gal became my saving grace - she rushed over to her little cousin who loved my emerald colored items and thus begged her mom to buy a few pairs of (very) dangley earrings. The mom then returned and had me sneak her a few more pairs for her daughter for Christmas before the lil' gal was on to her. Then the mom's sister came over to the booth and bought some thing, followed by someone else who haggled for me to reduce a price (which, by that time, I was more than happy to to!). Finally, a fellow crafter bought several items for some of her friends. Next thing I knew, I had made several sales (though none were over $10 with the exception of one $12 necklace... telling?). After 6 hours of this it was finally time to close up shop. With my $100 goal in mind, I added my sales up, subtracted the 15% I had to give to the function, in addition to subtracting the $16 worth of items I donated for the event's raffle. The total income (not considering how much it cost to make the items, just the amount of money I took home)? $101. Hilarious. Lessons learned? Just because I CAN do a show doesn't mean I should. Certain venues and crowds might not be interested in what I have to sell, and that's OK. And just because those around me are selling their items for pennies, I should not by default lesson the prices on my items (peer pressure sucks!). Patience! Oh, and a seven-year-old can be your best source of sales - and advertising! Anyone else have any other craft-shows-gone-weird stories to share? Please? :)

Jewelry Party - A Photo Journal Recap

Two weeks later I finally have a full collection of pictures from the jewelry party! Looking back on the pictures, it's clear that the party was more successful than I had thought during the event - as the smiles on everyone's faces prove it! Here's a photo-journal recap :) Marla, our hostess with the mostess, was prepped with her blender and ice cubes and ready to produce a party! Our featured drink was called "Skip and Go Naked," which is a mix of frozen pink lemonade, vodka, and beer. I KNOW - it sound gross. BUT I swear, the drink didn't even taste of alcohol and was fabulously fruity and fun! The hubs and I got there 3 hours early to make sure everything was in it's right place for the party. He was so helpful in unpacking each and every piece of jewelry (I had over 200), and then packing them back up again at the end of the night! As one person put it, he had the patience of Job! Marla's House was very Halloween-ed out - and we had lots of cupcakes to contend! We even had a whole table of door prizes for our guests, including some Benefit cosmetics and handbags! I love what has become of my packaging - I had 100 Chinese to-go boxes ready with a Bead Up sticker on the front next to lime curled ribbon. Inside guests found a Bead Up magnet next to a business card - word of mouth is the best! My Asian table was perhaps my favorite display of the whole day :) The Hubs and I made this weird white necklace/earring stand out of plate displays we bought at a closing Crate and Barrel for $1 each. We hoisted them up on 1" dowels and secured the dowels on a thick piece of plywood. Add some white paint and you have this (ghetto) display! I made these napkin rings out of bracelet wires... they were originally meant to be bracelets, but when they seemed too tight - I figured napkin rings were the next best step ;) Though I love the tree and all the other displays we made, I couldn't figure out a better way to post the prices on each item. I found these cute little green tags on Etsy, and managed to write both the materials and the price on each tag, though they were a bit of a pain to put on and take off. I am open to other ideas (though at this point I have 300 of these things left over!). I also asked a friend from church, Courtney, to be my photographer for the day. I love some of the shots she took! :) Thanks again for your help, Courtney! I bought this dress form at a local thrift shop for $10. The lady behind me in line was shocked that it was priced so low - she had just previously bought one for $100 on E-bay! I figured I would bring in the cocktail theme, too ;) My grandma (RIP) gave me these little plastic glasses in case I am ever on the road and in need of a drink! I bought this little necklace holder at a lot sale at my workplace for only $3! It still has a $29 tag on the bottom! Cheryl, my co-worker and creator of Cupcakinitup, came ready with over 100 mini-cupcakes to share. She also had several jumbo "couture" cupcakes she had made in a trial run yet didn't know what to do with. I convinced her to sell them, also as a trial ;) She wanted to price them at $.50 each - for a jumbo cupcake! I reminded her that this wasn't a bake sale and that she could do better - so she marked them at $1 and $2. And with the placement of the last few cupcakes, we were ready to party! People started showing up BEFORE 3:30! Thankfully I had a few seconds before to re-do my makeup, though was caught eating lunch in front of a few friends :) A few minutes into the party I got a surprise of my own - my bff from Berkeley had flown down just for the party as a surprise! OMG! Thanks so much for your support, Erin! You can tell by the perfectly colored cups that drinks were a-flowin! This is actually the tree jewelry holder I use for my own jewelry on my dresser. I splurged on it at Urban Outfitters after I got a job last year - a whole $28! Kari is one of my favorite co-workers AND clients. She kept saying, "Woman, you are killing me! I am going to go home broke!" Melissa was ready to spend some serious dough! Before we knew it, the cupcakes were out! AND - Cheryl sold all the jumbo and couture cupcakes she brought - which she originally didn't think would sell! YOU GO, GIRL! By the end of the day, we had at least 60 ladies (and one man!) walk through our doors... a good 40% of them strangers to me! While the Hubs and Cheryl packed our things up, I tallyed up my earnings. Since I was still in the red in terms of profit, I had set a goal for myself that would at least earn me my outstanding balance and maybe make a few pennies. I figured it was a bit of a lofty goal but worth striving for, at least. I literally gasped when I saw my final total - I had made 50% more than my original goal, leaving me with a good bit of a profit! Best of all - Bead Up is no longer in the red! Now I can finally justify that manicure I have been dying to get! Overall, the jewelry party was worth every ounce of effort and time we had put into it. Even Cheryl, who came in exhausted but left exhilirated, agreed. Unfortunately, by the end of the night my throat was on fire and I couldn't stop blowing my nose, and for the next week all the sleep I lost caught up with me with a killer cold! TOTALLY WORTH IT, though! Thanks again to all of you who wished me well and supported me before, during, and after the show :) A special thank you to my hubs (who never once complained - especially when he saw that we didn't lose money on the show!), to Marla, Cheryl, and Courtney for all their help (it WOULD NOT have been the same with out them!), and to my homegirl Erin (and Sonia!) for suprising me with their visit! So, who wants to host the next party? ;)