Santa's Coming!

Not long now is it?  It's slightly frightening as I'm not sure I've done everything yet - I certainly haven't put the cards into the post that I need to so that's a job for today and I've a couple of gifts to finish.

Other than that I'm still messing around with loading up pictures of things I want to sell through my website rather than through Etsy and I managed to get some more photos done this week.  I'm glad I grabbed the moment on a sunny afternoon as the remainder of this week has been very dark and dull thanks to the usual British winter skies.

I've got lots and lots of these Tibetan repousse pendants to add (amongst other things):

I've either been brave or foolish but I've got provisional bookings at some local craft fairs in 2013, with the first one in just over a months time - hopefully this will spur me into actually making something with my huge stock of stuff that I've been amassing/have collected and as it's be January I'm going to start making some slightly Spring like things....

And I'll let you know if this goes ahead but I recently applied to be a tester/writer for a craft blog - they've accepted me and I'm now just double checking that they realise that I'm in the UK as they'll need to send me things to use and review...

Just to finish up, on the dance front I have a little break now so need to set my thinking cap on about what I shall be offering my belly dance students in 2013.

Supplies and Stuff

So here and there I have bags and boxes and tins and bowls that have stuff in them.  Lots of stuff.  Getting around to digging it all out becomes over-whelming sometimes but I am determined to do it.  I might as well sell some of it instead of having it all hanging around taking up my head-space (and bits of house-space) because I find I feel swamped.  Not having a dedicated work-room is a definite difficulty at times but as the weather has taken a very cold turn I'm glad I'm not ferreted away up in the attic, freezing my bits off.

I have some cool frames that I've been wanting to use to...well, frame my makes and my supplies in the increasingly (I hope) interesting shots I've been playing with.  On Friday I was motivated enough to have a little play with the camera, even though the light wasn't brilliant.  In the end I got the best overall colour by taking pics by the window but with the curtain almost closed.  It filtered the harsh winter light brilliantly and I got some almost warm looking shots that won't need a huge amount of tweaking.

Teeny antique keys

The Art Deco buckle necklace - I want to retake pics of all of the assemblage items I currently have in the shop because their current coldness when I look at them makes me wince....

Buddha amulet - I have a few of these and I shall play with a couple and will sell the others.  These are a kind of two-in-one item to my mind - liberate the Buddha and use him in one piece and then use the box frame for a second item.....

Elytra beetle wings - I love these things, they have such an awesome blue green sheen and to start with I struggled to capture the intensity of them.  The light is so harsh in this house sometimes that it's hard to capture colours so I played around with closing the curtain and shazaam!

This one's a little cool so I shall I have to tweak this one before I post the listing.  But I have heaps of these sew-on stones and they're glass so they're really substantial.  I need to try and take some better shots of these because the light that bounces off of them is awesome and this pics is a little meh.....

Another shot of the keys but this time it's to showcase the beautiful Zeigfried Follies girl in the photo.  She's fabulous - I think I want to be her.

And a pouch necklace shot - as I say, I want to re-shoot all my assemblage jewellery pieces and luckily, with the shop being not as full as it could be this is a good time to do it.  I love the pieces I have and really want them to look their sumptuous best.

I've got lots more shots to sort out, a little warming up here and there, file sizes to decrease etc and then lots and lots more product to take pictures of and I'm going to aim to get it ll done before Christmas.  Hah, wish me luck!

But before I get started with that I'm going to sit down with a brew and have me a mooch around the Handmade Monday blog.

The Age Old Difficulty

First up, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last blogged - very remiss of me.  In fairness though I've been busy with life and the children and have been teaching an extra class a week for the last three weeks now and that does have a surprising impact.  Or maybe I'm just a wuss.

Having been at a couple of craft fairs in the last few weeks and with one more to go before I'm done in the run-up to Christmas my thoughts have turned to the age old difficulty of pricing, or at least getting pricing right.

It can be hard work to make sure that something is fairly priced and that it stays within the parameters of what the market will bear so let's have a think about this for a moment.

On many a hand-made or craft forum I see posts on a weekly basis from people who have a hobby or craft they love and they have been encouraged by their own talents or by those around them to sell their items.  The most frequent question they ask is, "How should I price my items?"

There are many formulas to help with this but they invariably turn out to be wrong for those who are using them and the reason for this is that formulas don't take into account the amount of time you spend on marketing what you do, and engaging with prospective buyers via social media or other online avenues if online sales are your main source of income.  All of this time should be taken into account and formulas can't do that - well they can, but you'll find that the item you are making that you were happy to sell for £5.00 has suddenly gone up to £500.

In all honesty, formulas can help you get a better idea of what you should be charging and then the thing to do is to use the search engine of your choice to find out what other people charge for items just like the one you make ("what the market will bear").  It's likely that you'll need to make an adjustment and it's even more likely that initially your adjustment would be to decrease your asking price.  Don't be tempted to do so, always err on the upside particularly if there are others selling similar items for more than your increased price.  You might not sell so many but you'll get more profit via fewer sales.  And people who appreciate hand-made are willing to pay a little more for a well-made item so don't be shy.

At the very least you should count up what it cost you in materials including the things you might forget about like threads, paints, waxes and varnishes etc, add in a percentage for gas and electricty (unless you didn't have a light on or use any power tools or any heating whilst you were making your lovely item) add on a bit for more luck, double it (that's your wholesale price but unless what you are making is super fast and super cheap and you love love love unrelenting monotonous work then never make to sell wholesale but by all means sell a handful of items wholesale if you get an order you're happy with) and then double it again and that's your retail price.

Then as said before check what other people sell them for and don't be tempted to lower your price just because 50% of people are selling for a lot less than you.  Pretend some confidence if you don't actually have a lot and bump your price around a little but stay at the top end of the range.  If you've put time and love into this then it's worth it and it will be appreciated.

See, isn't that a bit easier now?  Now, get out there and start selling.

Not quite busy enough for my liking....

....but I do try and make the most of my weekends when the children are at their dads.  So.  With two Christmas fairs to attend over the next couple of weeks I figured I ought to actually make some Christmassy items, and then the rest of the stall will be what's left of my stocking-filler priced jewellery and gift items.  I feel a bit out of my depth with Christmas items as I'm....well, I'm just me.....I make things that are somewhat left of centre.  In fact one of the fairs I'm only going to because I was asked to go out and belly dance there as part of the entertainment for the day.  I figured if I was going I might as well go and have a stall.  The second event is one that is connected to my daughter's school so for both events I shall take along my Christmas goodies, all of my more commercial makes and one or two statement pieces just to see what reaction they get from the general UK public.

Anyhow, here's what I came up with and so far I haven't had to buy anything to get any of this made but I am going to have to get some ribbon and I might add some little silver bells....

Domino and chandelier bead Christmas tree decorations, coated in sparkly sealant.  I need to add some ribbon loops to these babies and then think of a way to package them.  The vintage images are ones I found a little while ago and you may see some of the images repeated through my small range.  I've got about 15 of these altogether (all of the pictures are different) and may sell them in sets of 5, or decide on a per piece price and let folk choose the ones they want.

Next up these microscope slide tree decorations.  There are ten of them in all (again all different) and on the back of each I've place a sheet of vellum printed with Silent Night sheet music. Ribbons are required here too and I might add a little bell or two to each of these as well.

Vintage images cut out as tags.  Again, need some ribbon or string to finish these off.

The good thing about all of these things is that if no-one likes 'em I shall use them on my own tree this year.

I've got some decorations made from just chandelier beads and a loop but I forgot I'd made them as I did them a while ago and didn't take a picture.  Silly me...

Twelve Days of Christmas - decorated tags on a canvas box board.  There are three gifts on here - a keyring, a pendant and a vintage brooch.  All of the other items are purely decorative.  I've got another two of these to make - I would have made them yesterday as I got the tags all ready but when I unwrapped the canvases I noticed small marks and flaws in the canvas surface so I'll keep those for painting on and get two new ones and get them made up this week.

The cinnamon sticks make them smell nice and Christmassy.

So, feeling like a happy bunny that I had achieved quite a lot yesterday (as well as popping out to send a card to my parents for their 45th wedding anniversary) I sat down and made three necklaces.  They took longer than I would have liked but I'm happy with them all - although I only manged to get good shots of two of them. I really need to get myself some day-light lamps.  Anyway, here's the necklaces:

 I am loving playing around with things, taking bits off and adding things on and generally just playing.  This is a Turkoman pendant.  The red stone in the centre called out to the huge briolette that I've for aaages and didn't know what to do with.  I seem to have a massive amount of antique keys at the moment so that was a no brainer; the long dangles were on the piece anyway (and the ones I've taken off will be used elsewhere); then I added beads and bits and some Tibetan pendants on the outer edges.  It sits just on the collarbone with a double chain.  I can't decide whether to darken the metals or not.....

This next one, that I've called Dark Night, is a vintage brooch at the top (you can see it better in the next picture) and because the pin was broken it needed to become a necklace.  There were some stones missing so I replaced them and then added some dangles (aha, see one of those Turkoman dangles?) and a set of rosary beads with a clasp so that it sits on the collar-bone.  And then I dunked it all in patina fluid.  I love patina fluid, especially when it works immediately like it did on this piece.  Everything has been treated with paste wax to stabilize the patina and imparts a wonderful scent.

The brooch was so sparkly my camera couldn't handle it, it was like it was blinking, so when I do some proper shots I shall have to set up a background that is not so white.

And that's me done, til tomorrow at least.

On a Happier Note...

I love PicMonkey - it's helped me warm up my recent shots a treat:

Name Change

Wow.  I think I need to change my name from Blackwillow Boho to something else.  This is not just a rebranding whim - I've suddenly realised that I've done something very inappropriate....

To explain a little; Blackwillow is a name I took on when some seven or so years ago I started making costume items for the tribal belly dance community, headdresses and belts and decorated bras and the like.  I'll tell the full story one day but for the moment all you need to know is that it came from events at the time plus a little nod to my gothic image loving past.  I became, for the purposes of my website and business cards, Blackwillow Tribal because I was aiming my wares at the tribal belly dance market.

In the last couple of years that side of things has dropped off - I've sold hundreds of headdresses and a few decorated bras and belts in my time but after my son was born the recession took hold and I discovered that fewer and fewer people were buying, more and more were making their own.  So I decided to close down my (at the time) expensive website and open up an Etsy shop were I could be a little more eclectic - still some headdress, feathery things and such but more jewellery, embroidered cuffs and the like.

I decided to retain the Blackwillow bit and then add a new descriptor to the end, something that would help sum up what prospective buyers might find in my shop...so I settled on Boho (as in Bohemian).

Here's where I begin to find myself feeling really stupid.  As a belly dancer I would never presume to call anything I've done, dance or costume wise, by the word gypsy.  Why?  Because it's an inappropriate racist slur of a word.  This blogger says it so much more clearly than I could. As a belly dancer I know this, have had discussions about and have read many a forum post about this word and how it is used and I understand I should not use it.  So I don't and I totally respect why it should not be misappropriated.

But, when you look up the definition of Bohemian, what do you find?
1. A native or inhabitant of Bohemia.
2. The Czech dialects of Bohemia.
3.a. A Gypsy.
b. An itinerant person; a vagabond.

I'm such a fool....

Expect a rebrand (or at least a name change) very soon....

Sneak Peek

So it's night time and the lights are on and the kids are in bed but moaning about wanting to stay up and so I'm taking (bad) photos....

Take a look if you will......none of it is pretty - it's all for the adventurous soul.......

Afganistan stampings, eletra (bug wings) and tribal fringe bits on Noibium ear-wires (I LOVE Noibium ear-wires - after my second child was born I couldn't wear any of my earrings but Noibium has changed all of that) - and I'll warn you now, I shall be using  lot of my tribal belly dance bits and bobs in the upcoming jewellery selection......

Afghanistan stampings, light metal circles, kyanite shards and steel wire - all very light-weight and all on noibium wires - from now on all earrings are on noibium wires and if they're on sterling silver wires I'll tell ya....

Brass stampings, hammered out, brass wires (sorry - forgot about these ones) and tribal bits and bobs, turquoise stones and quartz crystals held in brass bell bead caps.....

I love these ones most - twisty vintage pearls, inside light-weight brass rings, decorated with brass religious medals and belly dance bits, super small antique keys and faceted vintage beads.....noibium wires like I said before....

I adore this necklace - it has a massive inverted rhinestone crescent, held with antique patinated tin, accented with a vintage thingy (ok, I have no other word for it!) and a large amethyst point wound in annealed steel wire.  It is held as a necklace by vintage lace, wound with more steel and an extender chain finished with a carnelian bead.  

I have a whole heap of these coming up - amulet necklaces - little pouches of vintage fabric where you can secrete something precious to you and only you.....this one is made of vintage sari fabric and is embellished with a blue oyster shard, a tribal belly dance doo dad, kyanite teeth and golden and pink sari decos.  All held with plaited blue silk, antique brass chain and a French religious medal.....

All metal has been oxidised - Indian metal work, altered agates, kyanite shards, metal bits, religious medals and niobium ear-wires......

I love this one - vintage tin outer, silver and amber earring as a rivet, vintage book pages, agate beads, brass chain and silk length wrapped with glistening thread.  Turquoise and tribal bits for deco on the bottom...... absolutely one of a kind......

Gypsy Tribal bangle stacks (tutorial courtesy of Fanciful Devices) and the above ones are in white....

These ones are in pink.......

These are in green......

Apparently I made water-melon tourmaline bangles and so I am happy.

Give me 48 hours and all of this and more will be up in my Etsy shop.....if you want anything before then be quick and we can negotiate a price.....xx

WIP (Works In Progress)

So here's some little glimpses of what's going on here - as much as I would love to take pics of my WIP in a proper workshop setting what you've got is items placed on my knee with the lights on cos it's 10.30pm at night....

An assemblage piece that needs some patina action to pull the metal together (that might be a theme throughout if I'm honest...)

I'm kind of liking the idea of little pouches made of fabric that you could put something small and precious into - or that I could put something small and precious into for you to find.... I'll think about this some more....  Do you see that mini tote pole?  It's gone all verdigris......I wasn't expecting that, two weeks ago it was just black but it's obviously been rotting away whilst I wasn't looking....

I love this one, I think the upside-down crescent is doing something to my brain cos it makes me think of Herne the Hunter....even though it's kind of nothing to do with the woods and the hunt and any of that kind of stuff....

Here's another one of those pouches - this one is almost done but still needs patina action and some lovin' to finish it off...

A close up of some of the battered bits......

Here's another likkle pouch - there's a fair old mixture of dangles here including raw kyanite teeth, a bit of kuchi, an oyster shard and some Indian bling......

Some earrings that looked a bit different before I removed some stuff, bashed them with a hammer and then added new things.....

Here's a mish-mash - you see that piece with the blue lapis in the centre?  I bashed it too hard and have had to take it apart cos it had a scratchy bit - it's in a tin at the moment, asking for me to sort it out but it'll have to be patient, I can't do everything all at once.

And i you're not impressed enough with what I've been doing then spare a thought cos tonight I taught belly dance for an hour at a pub - and this afternoon i watched an old film and cried like a baby when Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracey got blown up by a big old volcano.  I love those old films....