Pricing question and critique needed...

Hi Polly!

That's amazing! It really makes me glad to hear that :-) Would you say eBay is a good venue? I have noticed that people selling art often let art go for very cheaply and start things out at 99 cents, so I don't know if there's a difference between the mediums.

Hee hee..I am trying to finish my first year of art school in at least five years. When I see what I was doing back in 2003, it reminds me of how much better things became. One really can't grow and develop without trying new things. A friend of mine from school took the first year jewellery studio course and made three things - a ring, a bracelet and a necklace. I want to take that one eventually. It was her first time making jewellery and I was really impressed!

Best, Christine

Christine -- by the time you make it to the jewelry class, you will be able to TEACH it!! LOL.

Becki

Christine -- Mavis Smith bought that cow skull necklace from me. When you get to where you can afford the really good lampwork beads, you will buy from her. She is ASTONISHING!!!

Becki

LOL, I probably will Becki! It's going to be a while before I finish this journey, but I'm having plenty of fun along the way :-)

Best, Christine

I made a necklace of Tigereye cubes and bali for my daughter and it came back broken (don't remember what I used the first time). I restrung it with Softflex (19 I think) and it was back a few months later in a baggie! :) She is one of those that puts a necklace on and never takes it off so I think it was the combination of her (non)care and maybe the stones themselves; they were decent but not high quality, possibly had rough drills. Come to think of it... the beads and findings are still here waiting! :) I have some Tigereye bones of much better quality/polish I might use instead to just make her a new necklace.

When I first started making necklaces I obsessed about them breaking and used clamshell bead tips and knotted the ends before and after, on the assumption that the link part of the clamshell would be the weakest link and the breaking point. That turned out to be true a couple of times but I personally never liked the look. Now that I totally trust my crimps I just obsess about jump rings not being closed well enough! ;) Time to start soldering them closed!

j/k... sorta!

LOL, it's so natural to do that though! A couple of weeks after I gave Mom the necklace that I made for her, she called me to say it had fell apart. I pictured having to restring it, but all that had happened was that the loop on the barrel clasp hadn't been closed enough. Soldering doesn't seem so crazy :-D The story you told about your daughter also made me realize that I can't expect people to wear them the same way either.

I have broken a few clamshells...but now that I know they were all base metal, that's probably why :-P

Best, Christine

Becki, my poor little credit card is going to be traumatized if I keep looking at all these links! I love her fairies and the rosebuds. She must be incredibly patient. A truly amazing talent and imagination to go with it!

Best, Christine

My mom broke a necklace I gave her. It had a magnetic clasp and she pulled on the wrong spots to open the clasp. Of course, it was one of my first efforts, so it may not have been crimped properly. Not sure about that because the crimp and some of the beads were missing by the time she gave it to me to fix. Luckily, I still had some of those beads and my crimping technique has improved, lol.

She told me the other day that an earring I'd made for her broke. She tried to describe how, but I can't picture what she's talking about. Frankly, I can't even remember the pair she's talking about! I'll be heading north next month to visit with her for a week, so I'll be bringing my supplies and hopefully will be able to fix it. How do you break an earring?!

Oh man, I could totally see someone doing that by accident. Those magnetic clasps are very cool though.

LOL, now I'm not sure how that could happen either without getting stepped on or your ear caught in something. Hopefully it's easily fixed and that you have a good visit!

Best, Christine

Hi Shirley,

Sorry it took a while to get to your message.

Oh! Is there a picture of it somewhere? I saw all the lovely things on your website, but I only saw the one bracelet. Was that it? The Chinese knotwork looks really intriguging, especially the one at the very bottom. I didn't know rattail was that versatile.

The exotic things for nothing seems to be a common theme. I seem to recall reading an art forum where a feather painter was saying how the imported painted feathers were a problem. It goes back to the other posts here...if the art on your walls comes from a dollar store, that's kind of sad. When something is handmade, it seems more real to me. Did Martin turn out to be OK?

Best, Christine

In message , snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com writes

Yes it is the one on my website the green and pink one.

He is fairly well and waiting for angioplasty, which he was very apprehensive about.

I was able to help calm his fears since I have had a heart bypass, 4 angiograms and angioplasty and 6 stents inserted.

I am hoping he will feel well enough to go back to tutoring next term in September. I told him if I could get over it so could he and he is younger than me. LOL if he does not I shall not go back. Regards Shirley

Some I do and some I don't. These were probably among the first ones I did, so I may have used a jump ring and didn't close it properly. I don't even remember the pair. Hey, maybe they aren't mine! lol

That was my mantra for a very long weekend bead fair. And it worked, I felt more kindly disposed towards the 'HOW MUCH???' crowd and thought to myself 'how sad they value themselves so little'.

Thanks. It made a big difference.

-Su

Drive over it with your car?

That's how I broke one. Well, it wasn't so much broken as smooshed. The bead survived intact though. How's that for annealing!?

I have had the dangle bit come off the shepherd's hook which is an easy repair but not if you can't see close-up well or have the tools to bend the loops back into shape. There's also metal fatigue. I think if a piece gets bent a lot it'll finally give.

- Sandy

yup, been there, done that.

the garnets on mine did too, but the Job's Tears didn't.

And if they're hoops you can get them caught on something (been there, done that too - hoop earrings and underbrush don't go well together and Norman refuses to buy me any because he knows me too well.)

Maren Palms, Etc.: Tropical Plant Seeds - Hand-made Jewelry - Plants & Lilikoi

I spoke to my mom last night. It turns out that it wasn't an earring and it wasn't broken.

She'd found a wirewrapped stone that I'd made for her. It wasn't on a chain and she couldn't figure out the bail, so assumed it was from an earring that had broken.

Gotta love mothers.

Awww... poor Job's Tears!

That reminds me, I still have some I need to get in the ground. :) Maybe soon they'll remove that pile of concrete rubble from my garden so I can plant stuff!