Sunday, 5 June 2011

Sold a bridal set -- and I have my truck back on the road... yay!

Yesterday at the market I was almost packed up when a lady came by and asked if I had anything pink. The earring carousels were still out and I showed her some pink ones, but she wanted a necklace for a gift. All I had was the set I'd made with a wedding in mind, so I dug that out. Of course it was in the last box I opened at the bottom of the bin.

The price for the set was $140. Much dickering ensued, but her budget was $100 and she was sticking to it. On the other hand, I figured it had been sitting on my table for months and $100 of something was better than $140 of nothing. Long story short, I sold it. Meant I had to eat the hours and hours it took to design the flowers and string and restring all the components until I finally found something that pleased me to. Not to mention all the silver headpins I used. Those little glass flowers are expensive suckers, too.

Seed pearls, tanzanite Swarovskis, vintage glass, sterling silver heart clasp & findings SOLD
Better yet, my truck is finally back on the road. Still some repairs to come -- if I don't sell it beforehand -- which means I'll be going nowhere without a jug of water to periodically glug into the radiator overflow. I'm mulling over buying a Ford van to camperise/workshopise with the idea of being able to travel from day market to day market through the summer (and maybe even do some travelling in the winter). Rather than drive back and forth for hours each day to get to a market, which begins to sound more and more like a full time job with concomitant horrendous gas costs and the prospect of zero sales, I could drive to the next venue and, because I'd also have a laptop with an Internet stick, be able to park somewhere and either type or work at jewellery-making while I waited for the next market to start. Bonus is Max could come with me. However, there will be mucho logistics to work out before that ever happens.

After the market, I drove to Brantford to Alexandra's Beads to buy another wire brush so I can continue cleaning fired silver leaves and flowers. I literally wore the bristles down to the wooden handle in about two weeks.

Rene's plans to host(ess) a bridal event some time in August are coming together, with more participants committed, too.

I have to get busy making more wedding jewellery samples. Luckily I bought several strings of different diameter pearls at the wholesaler's a couple of weeks ago. I find it odd how much I love pearls given my taste overall for "tribal" design, rough cut stones and turquoise.

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