To Boot or Not to Boot…

I’m going to be much better at blogging.  This time.  Truly!  I’ve got a new resolve and it’s going to be blogging and representing Seadrake better.  So it may be that I keep blending my two careers onto one blog or I may start an independent blog just about jewellery (or if you’re in the US – jewelry).  Not to be traitor to blogspot, but I’ve seen some amazing blogs on Wordpress and WOW.  It acts like their main jeweller’s website and blog with links to their Etsy shops.

 

BTW here is one of my etsy listings: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/111646849/fine-silver-999-with-dichroic-glass?ref=shop_home_feat

 

Here is the main question: do I start selling smaller, less expensive items at the local car boot sale or do I focus on the larger and more expensive markets?  My experiences so far of vintage and craft fairs is that they cost so much (along with the public liability insurance) and it might lead to one or two commissions afterwards and is a lovely place to meet artisans, but there is little to no financial gain at the end of it. 

 

Enter the car boot sale.  It conjures up visions of broken high chairs, rusty old tools, rotting books rejected from a charity shop… but the car boot sale has some amazing finds, stalls, and regulars who, upon chatting to, say how slow the market has been and they only take X amount, which happens to be triple of what I make at a craft stall on a good day (and without the need for public liability insurance AND with about a third of the setting up price).  But the trick is to get the right items out and keep an eye and strong nerve for those who are out for either a freebie (ie 5-finger discount) or extreme haggling (which I’ve never had a problem dealing with).

 

Another bonus about car boot is that you pay on the door on the day.  No pre-booked stalls that don’t get refunded if the weather is too poor for the public to show.  And it’s a good day out with the opportunity to get some amazing bargains on tools (see the photo up top?  That was a £3 car boot find – a rusty old jeweller’s vyse.  It took me only 3 hours to refurbish and now it’s invaluable in my workshop).

 

It will be (my plan at this time anyway) some Roman sterling twisted wire rings, pearl and gemstone earrings, leaves range and a photo album display for people who might want to commission bigger items.  The footfall for car boot is pretty amazing and what a great place to advertise!

 

After the Oyster Fayre I’ll keep an eye out for the right Sunday morn and then, BAM! out I’ll go to the car boot at 6:30 in the morning to get my ideal position before 7am opening and see how things go.

 

I may have just answered my question – To Boot!!!

Digging up the year...

I’ve decided that I should no longer be that manic girl… the one chasing her own tail and running herself into the ground with a million and one different projects on top of the normal everyday duties that life brings.  This year is going to be all about growing.  Not personal growth (although I’m sure a bit of that will happen) but vegetable and herbs. 

I was going to give up the allotment – with my little girl too young to not in danger on the plot (there are a lot of poisonous weeds and stinging nettles), and with moving house, I knew I wouldn’t have any time for it anymore.  I was gutted.  The allotment was, ironically, really the only thing that kept me truly rooted in the UK, even in the winter.  But having thought things through (mostly not wanting to dig up our apple trees and relocate our berry plants) it’s staying. 

Last three seasons were horrible to veg – if anyone grows their own vegetables, they’ll know exactly what I mean.  From drought to floods; frost to heat wave and back again, those little plants have a hard time surviving, let alone producing fruit or tubers (my first earlies crop of potatoes were mini and most of my lates had rotted themselves in the ground after having lain in permanent puddles despite the well draining soil).  But the berries… oh, the berries loved it!  They could handle the dry weather and still bring fruits, the heavy rain just made the produce more.  Even the birds couldn’t get their fill of those amazing blueberries and raspberries.  The strawberries did okay… I’ll work on those too.  But for the next season, the allotment is going to be about raspberry canes and blueberry bushes.  I can never get enough of them anyway and being low maintenance and easy to grow, they’ll keep the allotment producing until my little girl is big enough to go to school. Then maybe this horrible extreme weather would have settled a bit and I can get back on to growing the basics.

The new house has got some amazing potential too for a herb garden in one area, a potted veg patch in the other, and space for a cob nut tree and couple of apples.  There will be… a lot of digging going on in the next few months.

That said, I still have been very busy with writing and jewellery.  I’ve been lucky enough to be asked back as a judge for the Paws n’ Claws competition for children’s fiction stories, I still have to edit and complete my fantasy book, Downtrodden (might even have a chance to upload it before the new year), and of course, writing for knowonder.com.  And sending out to agents… but that’s a given rather like breathing.  And I’ll keep it all low key.  Even now that I’m part of a new publishing group, Springbok Publications, I’m staying low key for a while and asked to only be assistant editor due to time constraints.

As for Seadrake Creations, I’ve got my etsy shop all pretty and will be working on new lines casually and adding them when I’ve got a moment to do so.  This year for Seadrake will be less focus on selling and publicity and more time spent on learning new techniques and skills.  Rather like an extended internship.

So, whew!  Bring on those long days so I can get back to digging over the allotment…

Balancing with Two Inks...

Does anybody remember Robert Pattison pre Twilight?  Aside from being Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter films, he was a talented musician.  If you saw Twilight, you would have heard his song, and his talents as he played (yes, it was him, not dubbed over) the piano.  So what happened to his music career?  It could have developed alongside acting right?  Or no?

My point is that I must be barking mad trying to balance two difficult careers.  My writing is doing very well at the moment and despite my having developed my jewellery making skills and photography (pics for the jewellery) it’s just not going anywhere.  I love it.  I really, really love it.  It also keeps me sane when I’m battling it out with editing.  But it’s not making anything.  Do I keep at it or focus just on writing?  I’ve just registered my maker’s mark with the Assay office – expensive, but a legal requirement for the UK if I’m making larger items of precious metal.  I don’t want it to just be a hobby.  I don’t do hobby-level crafting; it’s usually all or nothing.

So how does Pattison deal with it?  Does he moonlight as a musician under an assumed name, hoarding off the adoring vampiric fans?  Or will he wait until the acting career has fizzled into a comfortable level and then do a bit of band work on the side (thinking of Adrian Edmondson and The Bad Shepherds - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Aulos-NGsk)

Getting paid for my writing today and not for any of the rings I’ve made this month is probably the sign that I’ve been putting off.  The problem is that I can’t STOP.  So… if you’ve read this, thought, hmm… I need to wear some pirate rings to put me in the piratey mood while I read Blood Tide… http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Tide-Promise-Freedom-ebook/dp/B0099POPGW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359111765&sr=8-1 please visit my etsy shop and knock yourself out with a 10% discount (type in NEWCUST10 in the discount code box) http://www.etsy.com/shop/SeadrakeCreations?ref=si_shop

Because balancing the two is what I do best :-)

 

The California visit was lovely; I got to wear short sleeves again and wear sunscreen and sunglasses while playing at the beach in the mornings and having fun with family in the afternoons.  Claudia loved getting her feet splashed by the sea and chasing the waterline as it rushed and receded (well, I did lift her when it rushed at us, but she did the chasing right afterwards).  As always, there just wasn’t enough time to do everything and see everybody, especially as afternoon naptime interrupted the usual routine we’d do during a visit.  Sorry to all my friends I didn’t have a chance to contact.

Writing has slowed to an invisible crawl this month – but will be renewed with a ferocious vigour with the work on my non-fiction book, Three Victorian Women in Asylum.  Well, it may be a booklet, rather than a book.  I want it to have a good impact without being too heavy for general public reading. 

Another rejection from Highlights Magazine.  Apparently, my writing was spot on but my timing was out and they couldn’t use it.  As prompted, I’ll keep trying! 

There is just not enough time to work on all my projects, but after my non-fiction book, this winter will be all about creating new works of art in the form of rings, polymer clay dragons, and other Seadrake Creations.  After talking with a designer in Long Beach who made the most amazing sea-inspired jewellery, I’ve fallen in love with lost wax casting.  I have a few other works to polish off and sell before I can buy any more equipment, but I’ll be posting my new items on the Seadrake Creations etsy shop, so do keep an eye out.  I’ve also obtained a beautiful morganite stone and two small pink diamonds that I’m planning on designing a gold ring around.  I can’t wait!