March 2013 Denver Bead Show

I love the March bead show in Denver, but it always goes by way too quickly.  This year the wholesale area was definitely the place to be, with the most bargains.  I was a little bit disappointed that there seemed to be more finished jewelry vendors and less bead vendors.  However I still managed to score quite a haul.  My favorite vendors this year were May's Beads and China Mountain Gems.  The photos below show the strands that I purchase, except for the Indonesian glass strands, which are still tucked away.  I also picked up some nice silver plated Bali beads and other assorted metal.  I love everything I found, but I have to say some of my favorites were some strands I picked up in salmon and pale orange colors... colors that I've had a hard time finding in the past.

Just Days Until Denver

I'm so excited, in just a few days time I'll be leaving for Denver for the bead show.  It is absolutely one of the highlights of my year, and what is even better is that I get to share the fun with two of my sisters. 

Last year's show was a blast, and I've got so many ideas of what I want to buy at this one.  However, I do accept the truth that the minute I walk through the doors to the show, that will all be out the window as I'm drawn to the tables full of wonderful beads.

I've always found that new beads are a great way to get inspired to make new pieces, and I have to admit, I need that right now.  Work has been very much consuming for the last while, and a much-needed break and some fun new beads should be just the medicine I need!

Bead show bounty

My trip to the Denver bead show was a blast! The photo below shows my purchases from the first day.

Bead Show Bound

The last couple years I have been making an annual trip to go and visit my sister Lori in Denver for the March bead show that is held there.  I'm very excited, as my sister Cindy and I will be leaving on Thursday to again embark on this journey!  I can't wait to see all the wonderful beads that the countless vendors will have to offer, and share the fun of a bead buying adventure with my sisters.

Last year I went with the intention of looking for certain beads, but that all went out the window the minute I stepped into the show - I was pulled this way and that way by strands of colorful gemstones that made my heart rate quicken.

Although I haven't been too faithful about posting to my blog, I vow to post some pictures of my finds!

Getting Published

I'm so excited, I just found out that one of my designs is going to be featured in the May 2012 issue of Bead Trends Magazine.  I've never had one of my designs published in print before, and I'm extremely honored to be featured in a magazine that features so many talented artists.  I'm not allowed to have my design online until the magazine is published, otherwise I would put a picture of it along with my post.

What I Wish I Had Known

BE, that is Before Etsy, I sold my jewelry exclusively through home parties.  I was very excitied once I finally started selling on Etsy to have another avenue to sell my jewelry through.  However, I did encounter one problem:  what was the best way to keep track of what sold at home parties so that I could take that inventory off of my Etsy store.  My first attempt was simple to take the item off using my iPhone while I was doing the sale.  Not only did this slow down the whole checkout process at parties, but in the excitement of a party, it just added to the stress.  My next attempt was to take photos of everything as it sold, so that I could take it off Etsy immediately after the party.  I found that in the excitement, I often forgot to snap a photo, and when I did, they weren't that great of photos due to the environment.  I knew I needed a better system.  I knew I needed an inventory system.  Oh, how I wish I had implemented one AS I was listing stuff on Etsy, rather than 200+ items afterwards.  This is how I went about creating my inventory system:

1. I downloaded a list of my items currently for sale on Etsy.  The link to download the file is located by clicking on the "Your Shop" link, then clicking on "Options", then selecting "Download Data".  This allowed me to download a CSV file which contained a lot of the data I needed for my inventory system.  If you are not familiar with CSV files, they are "Comma Separated Value" files that can be opened as a regular spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel or any other standard spreadsheet program.  I downed loaded the file and saved it as an Excel spreadsheet.
2. I hid the columns I was not going to use (I decided I'd keep the Title, Description, Price, Qty, and Image columns). 
3. I then added 4 columns before the first column.  In the first column, I pasted the thumbnail image of the item from the page that comes up when you click on the "Your Shop" link.  This is handy because the link to the item's Etsy page also is copied over - so if you ever need to deactivate or deleted the listing, you can just click on the image in your spreadsheet and it opens the right page in your web browser!  The second column was a numerical ID number.  I started with a 1 for the first item, 2, for the second, and had excel automatically fill in the number for all the items in the list.  The third column I added was a alphabetically distinguisher that would help me be able to sort my inventory list by item type.  For example, all my bracelets have "BR" in that column, all my necklaces have "N" in that column, and all my earrings have "EA".  The forth column has the complete ID number, which is the alphabetical distinguisher combined with the numeric ID number (ie., BR27, EA13, etc.).  The complete ID number is what I write on the price tags of my items.

Now, when I have a jewelry party, in the notebook where I total the order sales, I also write down the complete ID number of every item sold.  I then can go and load up my spreadsheet after a party, click on the picture of the item with the corresponding ID number, and deactivate the item.  I just tried the system out for the first time this weekend, and it worked perfectly.

Better Photos of my Patina and Polymer Pendants

I was able to get some better pictures of my patina and polymer pendants: