End of year fever

Thats a good expression for that end of the year feeling isnt it? That feeling of lots of work and short deadlines. That feeling that life has grabbed the bit between its teeth and is running off with you and you no longer have any control over it. I dont know about any of you , but that is what the last few weeks have been like for me. My uni work has hotted up in a big way as I only have a few  months left to finish. On top of that I have several jewellery deadlines that I cant miss, like wedding jewellery ;).
The last two days have been a flat panic to get my application in for starting my PhD next year. On that note I will be upping sticks next year and moving down to Cape Town to start at the the uni down there (UCT). The reason I am moving is because there is an opportunity to work at the fossil site Langebaanweg, outside of Cape Town. It is a fantastic Miocene (5 million year old) site with lots of extinct mammal remains, that I have long wanted to work at. So I am very excited about the move.
Don't worry Jet's Creations and all my cool jewellery will still be available in the highveld. I will still be visiting often.

The Fat Olive Show on Saturday went well. It is such a peaceful setting in the gardens there with the fountain playing. it really is worth a visit. I think the new stall design is a big improvement that is really working much better, so I am very happy. All that hard work really paid off there.

As you can imagine all this hard work means that there hasnt been very much time for jewellery making  so I am afraid I dont have very much to show you. I have completed a lovely order for a customer and I will take pictures of it as soon as possible.
ok peeps keep well, and dont succumb to the fever!

If it seems too good to be true...

Then it probably is.
I had this experience recently. I woman came  to me and offered me her old beading stock at cost-less as she had no use for it. I went to look at the beads, where she again assured me of a good price. Under this understanding I took a lot of the beads. My mother (and business partner) and I then spent many hours inventorying and counting all these beads, as they were priced individually so as too work out the price of all this stuff. This we did and let me tell you the amount was not small.
Yesterday afternoon we went back there to discuss the final price and to look at the remainder of the beads which had just arrived. First I spend an hour picking what I want from her remaining beads, mostly some crystals and semi-precious stones. Then we sat down to discuss money.
Well, she announces, she will give us the cost price of 50% off but she needs to pay the taxman the VAT so she proceeds to add this to the price. So now she wants us to pay over the cost price when she offered us less! We were not amused, that had not been the deal.
Well a spate of very hard haggling followed. She wanted to charge us no less than cost and she was then going to make us pay full price on the stuff we had looked at that day. We insisted we wanted the cost less 15% that we had been offered originally. We had actually refused and were starting to arrange bringing her stuff back before she relented and gave us our price. She also let us have the remaining beads at cost. So in the end we did well but neither my mother nor I were impressed with her just changing her mind like that when she had offered something else!
I don't know if she had just gotten greedy or if she was feeling pressure from her own business partners but the experience was not cool. - Moral of the story NEVER believe what people say, especially over money dealings.

On a more positive note tomorrow is our next show to be held at the Fat Olive Market in Lammermoor. Please see my website for the address and directions from Johannesburg. This week has seen me frantically busy. After the last show I decided that our show stand really wasn't working, it was all flat and from a distance you really couldn't see what we are selling, so we have made a load of changes that I hope will make things a lot better, hopefully it will translate into sales. But it has resulted in me spending long hours this week over a sewing machine, making new table covers and overlays and throws . The sewing machine was so unused to this heavy workload that I managed to break a needle this morning, but its done, ill take a picture to show y'all next week.

Here is a picture of one of the many designs that will be on display at the market on Saturday

Cheers

A busy week coming in

Wow I am on top of the world
I recently finished a large bead embroidered collar that I have been working on (and off) for some months.



"Drakensberg Necklace"

 This necklace makes me think of the Drakensberg Mountains here in South Africa the lines and dark colours remind me of the spectacular silhouette of those mountains as you appraoch them. Drakensberg means Dragon Mountains. The necklace is made with dark brown agate pieces. I wanted to place the diamonds at odd angles to each other so that they would cradle the base of the neck. Swarovski and plain glass pearls are used in the bands, fringes and in the centre. Along with a lot of Miyuki seed beads . I wanted to keep the colour palette monochromatic so that the shape would do most of the talking. Sorry the agate faces are obscurred I kept getting odd reflections on the stones. But I will keep trying for that perfect shot.

 I was in facts working on this piece while at the Centurion Craft Show a few weeks ago, where several people saw it. Last week I finally got some good pictures of it (ok the pictures are good relative to my previous attempts). I then showed these pics to some people who might be interested and one customer has said that she wants it with matching earrings and bracelet. So I am really happy about that. Been going through a bit of a quiet period sales-wise, my own fault I havn't been working hard enough at it. So this is just the pick-me-up I needed. Especially as this week is shaping up to be quite hectic. I also got a couple new orders on Friday. My sister-in-law's youngest sister is getting married and I'm making some jewellery for the big day! That deadline, along with the fact I'm supposed to be handing in my dissertation sometime in the next few months, (which is nowhere near finished) explains my current stress. But I will manage even if I have to pull a few all nighters!
And in other news: The meeting of the Crafty Ladies Club on Saturday went excellently. The weather played ball and only misbehaved the following day. Everyone had a great time and lots of crafts were represented. A few people had bead weaving projects, there was knitting, crocheting, even quilting. One lady was covering a backing with cutoffs of upholstery material over which she plans to embroider. the final product will be a gorgeous bag. I definitely want to see that when its finished. Everyone enjoyed the quiet, country atmosphere and great progress was made by all in their respective projects. Some projects were even finished!
So here is looking forward to many more such meetings!

The ladies under the thatch roof of the Lapa, hard at work.

Can you smell the concentration?



Ok I need to get back to this dissertation now
Cheers


Later in the afternoon we gave the dogs a bath. This is Charlie, a cocker spaniel puppie. How cute is that face?



Almost three weekends ago I participated in the Centurion Craft Show organised and run by Petro v. Rensburg, a creative ribon embroiderer based in Eldoraigne, Centurion. The show was highly successful and fun, and it was great to network with other crafters in different disciplines. Manie Kriel (Manique) was there selling his bead weaving kits and tutorials. Megan from Tin Soldiers was selling her kits for making teddybears and dolls. She also ran small one hour workshops and tutorials and invited her students to come sew along at her table, ensuring that there was always lots of activity at her stall. The quilters displayed their spectacular wares. There was handmade creative candlecrafts, machine embroidery, mosaicing and pewter art, all fabulous. Johan of Glass and Fire was there showing off his skills by making lampwork glass beads. and lets face it there is nothing as facinating to watch as a glass bead taking form and coming to life in the hands of a craftsman. And of course there were many creative embroidery pictures from Petro and all her students (myself included). Great fun was had by all and Im already looking forward to the next one.


Students sewing at Megan's table

 Dates will be 4 - 6 October 2013 in Eldoraigne, Centurion, South Africa. So for all you local readers, book that date!


The Centurion Craft Show

 I have been busy taking pictures of some of my completed pieces so I can put them on my website and to show you here. Its really not as easy as it sounds to get good pictures! Here is a cameo brooch that a customer ordered at the show.

The cameo is acrilic, which I purchased online from an American company. Embroidered here on Lacy's Stiff stuff, with size 6 and 15 Miyuki seed beads. The backing is done with a patterned ultrasuede.

This saturday is the next meeting of our Crafty Ladies Club where crafty people get together with a project, be it beading, kniting, embroidery - just what ever they are working on, and have a chilled out day in the Magaliesburg making their craft without husbands and kids to distract them. If anyone reading this is interested in joining us please contact me at jetscreationssa@gmail.com or through my website.
Well thats it for now, more next week, hopefully by then I will have a good picture of my new bead embroidered collar to show you.
Cheers

Lotsa new beads!

What a week I have had! last monday afternoon saw me knee deep in boxes and dusty beads.   The beads originate from the lady in Irene I told you about in my last post who offered me a look at her old stock from the bead shop she closed down. Boy there were some real treasures in all those old boxes.There were some gorgeous findings in a variety of metals and finishes and well and ethiopian, indian and bali silver which is not only hard to find in South Africa but expensive too! So I was well chuffed to get some of that. Also some lovely lampwork and Venitian glass beads, even some focals in glass, wood and shell that will be super for bead embroidery. I have taken a tonne of stuff - literally three boxes of beads. Its been quite a job counting them all up! On top of that most of her crystals and gemstone beads will only be coming in a few more weeks so more shopping in the offfing! I am constantly touched but how kind and generous crafty people are. Not only have we bought all these beads at extreme discount but we even got all the boxes in which they were stored free of charge.
I have also spent several evenings trying to catalogue all the beads we got from the House of beads closing down sale. We got tonnes of Miyuki's and a gorgeous selection of Swarovski crystals less 70%!

Arnt they pretty? So I will have to start using these soon, to make something gorgeous!

It took me forever to get the blog site sorted, eventually I did the smart thing and read the help manual. It shows not asking for help is not just a male thing! But things are looking better now so I am happy. I have got some finished pieces that just need photographing then I will put them up here for you to see.
Cheers

The begining

This is my first ever attempt at blogging! I know if I was anymore backwards I would actually be a dinosaur!
So a little background. Im a student in Palaeontology (thats fossils to you and me) in Johannesburg due to be starting my PhD next year. In April I started a  jewellery business selling hand made beaded jewellery. Since starting my business Jet's Creations www.jetscreations.co.za huge new beading vistas have opended to me, so i felt it was time to start blogging some of these ideas to the rest of the world. As Im new to this thing the site may take a while to get set up properly but I will do my best.
In beading news then Im getting in a lot of new beads and stock today. The Original House of Beads shop in Villeria (Pretoria) is closing down  :( and we have made an offer on some of their stock so a load of beads coming my way today. On top of that at the Centurion Craft Show at the beginning of the month (more on that in another post) a women approached me with an offer. She runs a quilting shop in Irene. Some years ago she started a beading shop for her daughter who has since moved. She now has all the old stock from this shop in storage and offered it to me at basically cost price! How cool! So I am going there later today to do some shopping! It shows even if you dont do as well as you  like at a show sometimes the exposure and networking is much more important.

Bead Embroidered cuff called Woodlands

Okay thats a good start I will let you know how it goes.
Cheers