Whatever you do, don't order hard tempered wire

The spiral delight series is one of the creative delights of my line.
It has also made me bleed.
Here I was thinking that it was a great idea to make my jump rings stronger but hard tempered wire is like twisting a golf club into a bow. Ouch!

This is by far my best selling item, and it is also my most time consuming item so I love doing them in batches. Tonight I finished wrapping two 19" necklaces and one bracelet. A spiral delight heap, that will soon turn to this:


That is once all the soldering is done. I firmly believe that all my pieces should be finished to the best of their potential so I hand solder every single one of those little loops. Approximately 46-50 in each necklace. My Mom thinks I'm crazy and I probably am, but I will now be a little less crazy since my hard tempered wire lesson has been learned.

To Coral or not to Coral that is the question

Red is my hands down favorite color (I know I've mentioned that) and I have been so enamored lately with this color combination, turquoise seems to be it's best compliment. When I found these dyed coral beads, they screamed "Take Me Home, Make Me Into Something Fabulous"

As I do with many of my creations, I took this necklace for a test drive today. I like to make sure that my pieces are wearable, that they fit a woman to her best advantage. One of my friends ask what material the beads are...and when I replied Coral, she let out a little gasp. "You CAN'T USE CORAL." Which was quite a shock, apparently the industry is destroying the coral reefs in order to bring us these pretty little baubles. That is something I am definitely going to have to look into.

Through a little googling, I found this interesting article on Coral and where beads come from:
http://estatebeads.com/faq.php

Then I came home and found out that not only am I in love with this color combination but it appears I'm hip! Who knew?

Jewelry.com just posted this article on how Coral has hit the fashion scene:
http://www.jewelry.com/2009-06-fn-coral.shtml

However I might not be quite as eco friendly as I hope to be. I vow to find a different way of expressing my love of red in the next go around. This artist lives and learns....

Home sweet bench

Bench sweet home.

This is where the magic happens, Ta Da!

Oh, I'm probably not suppose to show this to you am I? Is it a bit like seeing behind the curtain of the Wizard of Oz?

I admit, it's a bit plain, and it hasn't reached it's full potential. The life of a metalsmith is like the life of any other, it's full of moves, and changes and moves and moves and more changes. I bought my bench from my current boss secondhand, it's been lugged around all over town.

I hope it has finally found it's home. I hope I have finally found a rhythm of creating. I'm flirting with it's empty drawers...if I fill them, will I stop creating? Will I make it too easy on myself? Will I abandon it to spider webs like so many years before?

I hope not.
I hope Zarily will create baubles for years to come, or at least long enough to invest in a new chair.

Getting the word out there

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Marketing, Marketing, Marketing, why are you such a puzzle?

I have a Facebook fan page that I've been working with for a while now.
I used to get comments on the picture posts, I used to get feedback, mostly from my closest friends, but honestly, my closest friends are burned out. They have supported me, encouraged me and tried to the best of their ability, but there is a point.

This week I signed up for a Facebook ad. Thirteen new people have 'fanned' my page.

I have also sent out an e-mail via Constant Contacts, 67 email address, 26 people have opened my mail. The lovely three pendant leaf picture was the centerpiece of my mailer.

Etsy has also tempted me to sign up for three showcases this month. I have never seen an Etsy bill this size, so I hope some good comes of it. The first was a Pendant Showcase, the two final are Jewelry Showcases. To date, I have only had one sale from someone I didn't personally know and that was waaaay back in December!

Twitter definitely shows my Etsy store the most views, but most of my tweet followers are also Etsians or other Jewelry Artists so it's a true guess as to whether that really helps.

I know we're all looking for the magic marketing campaign, I just keep plugging away!
www.zarily.etsy.com

Colors Colors Everywhere

I know neutrals are easier to sell, but I've been drawn to these amazing bright colors throughout my Zarily journey. I couldn't resist the siren song of red candy jade. I had to have it and then I felt a bit foolish as it sat in my bead box for ages while I tried to find it's compliment. Red is my favorite color, but I can't believe that I paired it with turquoise, because blue...is my least favorite.

My first trunk show inspired this necklace, well actually my Mom inspired this necklace after looking at my all neutral beige outfit for said trunk show, "You need some color!" Turns out I'm just the right girl to supply some, go figure.

My creations are making their way out into the world

This just went home with one of my favorite people.

It's so strange, after years of retail, part of me wants to just lurk in my basement studio, never to see "customers" and then there are days when there is nothing but joy in watching someone put on something that I loved creating.


I know that I wouldn't want to try to sell my things every day, but if I can find a way to showcase my creations in a limited setting, and have that personal interaction, I think that would be ideal. The idea that, after all this time, my creations are making their way out into the world, still amazes me. In a good way!

The creation of a name

Naming your creative enterprise can make a mind spin!

To make a very long story short, Zarily comes from a combination of my middle names.

When I married my Husband, who is from Pakistan, his family wanted to give me a new first name, a family name, something my Mother-in-law could pronounce. (She speaks Punjabi which is a about as far away from English as Pakistan is from America.) Zara, which means 'the light at dawn' became my new family name and became my legal middle name when I changed my last name. Leigh was the middle name I was given by my parents at birth, and became my daughter's middle name when she was born. It seemed fitting that this time in my life I would express my new creativity using the new and the old, hence Zarily.

www.zarily.etsy.com

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