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This has been, by far, my most amazing Custom jewelry story to date. A few months ago I made what I called an "& LOVE" brass necklace. I loved them so much that I kept one for myself (a rarity, I usually like to share my jewelry as much as possible!) and put the other on Etsy. It quickly sold to a guy named Rob, who said he was buying it for his girlfriend because "she absolutely loves anything and everything, so I searched for 'ampersand jewelry' and this item came up. It's really a beautiful piece and I know my girlfriend will love it!"
A few weeks later Rob wrote back saying: "My girlfriend absolutely loved her & Love necklace for her birthday. It was her favorite of the five thoughtful presents I got her so that says a lot :) On a separate note, I was wondering if you happen to take requests. I was wondering if you would be able to make some earrings using the same ampersand charm or something similar. Your work is so good that it left me wanting more!" Thankfully I had a few ampersand charms left, and was able to send him these matching earrings in time for Christmas.Rob wrote that his girlfriend "LOVED the earrings. They look absolutely amazing on her. She's been wearing them a lot during the holidays for big get togethers with her family!" He even included this sweet picture of himself and Hannah wearing the new earrings :) 
But wait, it gets better! Rob is quite the romantic. Right after the New Year he wrote the following: "Well, I'm already looking ahead to Valentine's Day, and I have another request. Here goes... When we're in public and want to tell each other we love one another without being all mushy and saying it all the time, we put our index fingers at the top of our heads and wiggle them. 
It's our cute little thing. Well, once, she drew a heart in the frost of my car window and added little antennas to it, matching our little "I love you" motion. Now, that's sort of our mark that we draw on letters, fogged mirrors, etc., so I was hoping to have a piece of jewelry that had our "love logo" on it... My thoughts were that I would love a necklace with this on it. Because you are the creative genius though, I would leave it up to you to decide what piece of jewelry would be best and what style would be best. The only thing I require is that our love logo is the focal part of the piece."
Rob included the above picture of the heart with antenna ears that his girlfriend drew on a fogged up car window. Isn't that super cute?
I told Rob he better start giving tips - he sure knows the way to a woman's heart! I was totally thrilled about the project, and immediately started thinking of ways to incorporate the "logo" in a necklace design. I went to Michael's and, to my amazement, the actually had what I was looking for! After a few more e-mails back and forth to Rob telling him what I planned to do, I got to work with some 26 gauge wire and and a solitary heart charm.My method was to wrap the heart from the bottom and sides up:
And then make an antenna by poking some wire up, then up and down a few times in order to make a thick antenna, then I wire wrapped it like I wrapped the rest, and then continued down the rest of the heart clock-wise:
Of course it took half a dozen tries and two episodes of 24 to finally get the thing to look similar to what I was going for: first I made them too long, then I tried to reuse some wire and failed miserably, then I tried to make the piece abstract on the right side and ended up with a half-@$$ed looking thing. Finally, I had this in my hands:
The trickiest part was getting it on a chain as a necklace. I tried putting a jump ring in between the two antennas to hang from a chain, though the whole necklace just wobbled over to one side and looked thoughtless. Then I tried to look the chain in and out of the hole in the heart - the whole thing turned upside down when trying to wear it. Finally, I did a loop thing in the middle of the heart and got this!
Though I was fairly happy with what I had created, I still needed to get the customer's thumb(s) up. I e-mailed Rob telling him that this is very preliminarily and that I can try other methods. He wrote the following: "I must admit that I had no idea how this was going to look when you told me your plan because I don't know much about jewelry. Let me simply say that I absolutely LOVE what you've done so far! It is so amazing. There's definitely no need to scrap the plans because it is exactly what I am looking for. I could keep going on and on about it."
Whew! Mikey likes it! Rob also said that last time he gave his girlfriend a gift from Bead Up she immediately knew what it was based on the packaging, and therefore asked if I could wrap it differently this time. I sent him this little number: 
Rob wrote: "At the moment, she knows I am going to visit her in March for Spring Break but she has absolutely no idea that I'm going to fly out Valentine's Day weekend and surprise her :) Of course, I will be bringing this gift with me, so it just makes it that much more awesome that you're able to do this for her! I just know she's going to love it." I can't wait to hear how it went - I will of course post an update with Rob's story of Hannah's reaction as soon as I hear back from him!
Though I haven't been actively making new jewelry designs for Etsy since the party, I have been quite busy with some custom orders from the event itself. It was so fun to have people come up to me saying, "I love this, but would like it in another color/size/shape/etc." So far I have made 6 custom pieces, ranging from earrings to match necklaces customers bought at the party to specialty sterling silver and Swarovski pieces. I am also working on a massive Sterling Silver, coral, and turquoise charm bracelet for a co-worker that will incorporate some charms from her "hippie days" and peace beads she has acquired over the years. It will definitely be a test of skill for me since this type of piece is not really in my background!
At the party the best friend of Marla, the hostess, came up to me and said that she was looking for a glasses strap. I told her I have made them before with the little plastic loops at the end that hold the glasses. She said that all her co-workers have necklaces with a loop at the middle that comes down to their chest. I sketched an example and she said, "You make it and I will buy it!" We agreed on "black and silver funky beads" and a silver loop. Here's what I came up with... what do you think?
Meanwhile, one of my best bud's from high school called me a few months ago asking if I could help her make some earring for her wedding day ensemble to go with her grandma's yellow pearl necklace (which her grandma wore on her own wedding day!). Abbey had already made her bridesmaids earrings out of matching yellow pearls and crystal discs between each pearl and wanted to incorporate the look. Abbey sent me tons of pearls, which gave me the chance to make several types of earrings from which she could choose. At the risk of "copying" Abbey's own design, I made a pair just like the earrings Abbey had made for her bridesmaids but added a pearl to either end to make them a bit longer. I figured Abbey wouldn't want to wear this specific design because she could have just made them herself - turns out they were exactly what she had hoped for! Abbey was kind enough to have her photographer take pictures of her jewelry on her special day!
Abbey and Brad were married on October 31st, the same day both her mother and grandmother were married on, all 27 years apart! What an awesome way to continue a very unique tradition! (You can read the Toledo Blade's article about it here).
Lastly, a dear friend from seminary recently found out she is having a baby boy. My hubs was back in Berkeley last week and met with the couple, so of course, since I couldn't be there, I sent a little something special as a congratulations gift: a brass "grow" tag necklace with a heart charm and yellow rose, reminding them to "Grow in Love." What I think was better than the necklace was the packaging that I came up with, thanks to some scrap paper and my Cricut machine!
I just love pink, brown, green, and white ;)
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? ;)
This has been, by far, my most amazing Custom jewelry story to date. A few months ago I made what I called an "& LOVE" brass necklace. I loved them so much that I kept one for myself (a rarity, I usually like to share my jewelry as much as possible!) and put the other on Etsy. It quickly sold to a guy named Rob, who said he was buying it for his girlfriend because "she absolutely loves anything and everything, so I searched for 'ampersand jewelry' and this item came up. It's really a beautiful piece and I know my girlfriend will love it!"
A few weeks later Rob wrote back saying: "My girlfriend absolutely loved her & Love necklace for her birthday. It was her favorite of the five thoughtful presents I got her so that says a lot :) On a separate note, I was wondering if you happen to take requests. I was wondering if you would be able to make some earrings using the same ampersand charm or something similar. Your work is so good that it left me wanting more!" Thankfully I had a few ampersand charms left, and was able to send him these matching earrings in time for Christmas.Rob wrote that his girlfriend "LOVED the earrings. They look absolutely amazing on her. She's been wearing them a lot during the holidays for big get togethers with her family!" He even included this sweet picture of himself and Hannah wearing the new earrings :) 
But wait, it gets better! Rob is quite the romantic. Right after the New Year he wrote the following: "Well, I'm already looking ahead to Valentine's Day, and I have another request. Here goes... When we're in public and want to tell each other we love one another without being all mushy and saying it all the time, we put our index fingers at the top of our heads and wiggle them. 
It's our cute little thing. Well, once, she drew a heart in the frost of my car window and added little antennas to it, matching our little "I love you" motion. Now, that's sort of our mark that we draw on letters, fogged mirrors, etc., so I was hoping to have a piece of jewelry that had our "love logo" on it... My thoughts were that I would love a necklace with this on it. Because you are the creative genius though, I would leave it up to you to decide what piece of jewelry would be best and what style would be best. The only thing I require is that our love logo is the focal part of the piece."
Rob included the above picture of the heart with antenna ears that his girlfriend drew on a fogged up car window. Isn't that super cute?
I told Rob he better start giving tips - he sure knows the way to a woman's heart! I was totally thrilled about the project, and immediately started thinking of ways to incorporate the "logo" in a necklace design. I went to Michael's and, to my amazement, the actually had what I was looking for! After a few more e-mails back and forth to Rob telling him what I planned to do, I got to work with some 26 gauge wire and and a solitary heart charm.My method was to wrap the heart from the bottom and sides up:
And then make an antenna by poking some wire up, then up and down a few times in order to make a thick antenna, then I wire wrapped it like I wrapped the rest, and then continued down the rest of the heart clock-wise:
Of course it took half a dozen tries and two episodes of 24 to finally get the thing to look similar to what I was going for: first I made them too long, then I tried to reuse some wire and failed miserably, then I tried to make the piece abstract on the right side and ended up with a half-@$$ed looking thing. Finally, I had this in my hands:
The trickiest part was getting it on a chain as a necklace. I tried putting a jump ring in between the two antennas to hang from a chain, though the whole necklace just wobbled over to one side and looked thoughtless. Then I tried to look the chain in and out of the hole in the heart - the whole thing turned upside down when trying to wear it. Finally, I did a loop thing in the middle of the heart and got this!
Though I was fairly happy with what I had created, I still needed to get the customer's thumb(s) up. I e-mailed Rob telling him that this is very preliminarily and that I can try other methods. He wrote the following: "I must admit that I had no idea how this was going to look when you told me your plan because I don't know much about jewelry. Let me simply say that I absolutely LOVE what you've done so far! It is so amazing. There's definitely no need to scrap the plans because it is exactly what I am looking for. I could keep going on and on about it."
Whew! Mikey likes it! Rob also said that last time he gave his girlfriend a gift from Bead Up she immediately knew what it was based on the packaging, and therefore asked if I could wrap it differently this time. I sent him this little number: 
Rob wrote: "At the moment, she knows I am going to visit her in March for Spring Break but she has absolutely no idea that I'm going to fly out Valentine's Day weekend and surprise her :) Of course, I will be bringing this gift with me, so it just makes it that much more awesome that you're able to do this for her! I just know she's going to love it." I can't wait to hear how it went - I will of course post an update with Rob's story of Hannah's reaction as soon as I hear back from him!
