Sylviebead Journal

Thursday! Thursday! Thursday!!

It's been a really nice week so far, so I hate to put that in peril by saying it's "stress free Thursday" but so far so good!!! I've got a lot of work-work to do at my REAL job since it's year-end, but I don't feel crazed by it... which is a good thing!

I sat and started cleaning the GAZILLION beads that I've made last night. I simultaneously took beads off mandrels while watching Lost (boy! it's going to be good this season!!!!!) I have a LONG ways to go in the bead-cleaning process just because of the sheer number of these tiny beads.

One thing I noticed is I'm VERY green-heavy in my assortment. I was working down my list of green-pixie dust beads and only strayed to other colors a few times. There is a big variety of beads, but not enough strong contrast. I need to work down the purple and red pages next!

I think the fact that I'm using enamels in addition to the pixie dusts is really making the palette MORE green. I've been using "green apple" thompson enamel and it's a strong green. I like the lighter shade better and don't have any more of it. :(

I think it's time to buy some of the "extras" like that. I waited as long as possible before buying glass. I wanted to really make a dent in the inventory that I had... but there are some colors I use a LOT of... most of the transparents in cool colors I was out of. I took a trip to Flame Tree (flametreeglass.com) the other day and stocked up on all the colors that I was running out of as well as a tiny bit of some new colors I wanted to try.

It was the first time I've bought any REAL quantities of glass in.......... 3 years???? I had bought some fill-in stuff here and there, but no REAL purchases until last weekend. It was scary to spend money on glass when I'm not making money on beads... but as a friend reminded me the other day... you can't MAKE beads to sell if you don't have any glass!!! So, now I'm good on glass, but need to re-stock some of the surface extras that make my colors "mine" and that includes a few key colors of the Thompson enamels. I don't use all of them, but there are about 5 colors that I LOVE... and green-apple isn't one of them!!! After looking at all these beads, I really see that my other color is SO much better.

My color-play is all about shifting the glass slightly into other shades by using either pixie dust or enamel (sometimes both together) and if the enamel color is TOO strong it can really take over and not let the underlying color show through. When using the pink and purple, that's ok... because the glass color never is pink enough or purple enough for me. BUT I like the greens I have available in glass and this apple color is just like poison ivy or kudzu in the way it takes over!!

sorry... I got off on a tangent there.

SO... I need to do a little online shopping this weekend. I need enamels and some silver and gold leaf. I'm going to be GOOD and stay away from all the new and cool color-reactive colors. I really WANT them, and what I've played with of them is really cool.... but it isn't a "stock" Sylvie color and I need to stick with what I know for a while. I know this isn't CREATIVE...sticking with what I know, but right now I'm thinking practical.

I did buy a set of sculpting tools yesterday. I'm really excited to try them, but was really cautious about spending money on them. It took me 3 months (?) to decide to spend $53 on 2 sets.

I was telling someone the other day that it's SO different for me now as far as buying supplies and tools. When I was a full-time career-beadmaker, if I needed glass or wanted to buy a new tool, I just bought it. It was part of the business and made good sense. Now I'm SO cautious about spending money on glass stuff... it's like I'm back in 1996 when I went to the Embellishment show with a whopping $75 to spend on stuff at the show (glass, beads, tools, etc.)

SO... I spent $53 on some tools yesterday and a good bit more than that on glass over the weekend... so if you're making calculations that's..... LESS than zero money made on beads this month.... I need to not think of it this way, but I still do. And for the record, I'm TERRIFIED about spending money on a booth space! Truly. I never would have thought twice about my booth fee at Bead and Button (which grew to a double corner booth...and that should tell you that it wasn't cheap), but even spending on a regular booth is really scary to me right now.

I don't even know if I can GET a booth (although I'm pretty sure I have access to sharing a booth if I want to), but one of my worries is about paying for it and the travel... breaking even at the show is a LOT of sales. What's funny is that in the past, the booth fee wouldn't have even been a consideration. I don't think it's a worry about the economy effecting my sales.... no, it's worse than that. I'm worried that I'll pay the booth fee and go to the show with beautiful inventory and no one will buy my work. Both because it's not as good as the other stuff there.... but also that I'll have lost all name recognition that would have pulled people to my booth in the first place.

I hate this self doubt.

1. It's ok that I spent money on glass.... I'm a glass beadmaker and I needed glass.
2. It's ok that I bought tools.
3. It's not crazy to try to do a bead show and Bead and Button makes sense rather than small ones.
4. It's ok if people DON'T buy my beads... just scary financially and would be sad.... but I can't let this fear paralyze me.

boy... this posting was all over the place. Can you tell I've been thinking about this a lot????


tiny blah blah blah is once again brought to you by some of the members of the FYV class. I've consolidated the gift cards into one, so I'm not sure which of you bought this cup. Thank you guys!!!!

coffee - CDL
music - James Taylor and Jason Mraz mix. Fire and Rain is playing now. love love love my JT