tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59251761329876669202024-03-19T08:01:30.271-05:00The Naiad Necklaces ProjectHard-won lessons in jewelry making and small business runningNaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-18600267537331670272015-11-30T10:22:00.000-06:002015-11-30T10:22:18.682-06:00Limping Past the One Year Mark
Naiad Necklaces and Gift.i.Gami turned 1 in October 2015. Yay me.Photo courtesy F_A. Flickr user January 2011
Well I did it. I managed to outlast more than 95% of all new businesses by staying in business for a full year. But only barely. It's been a year of sobering realizations and frustrations as I juggle full time motherhood/dance mom status, a demanding part-time job, NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-52216227718159273292015-01-01T17:50:00.000-06:002015-01-01T17:50:50.907-06:00Drum Roll Please! Introducing the New Naiad Necklaces Box!Well, it's done. Sort of. After many fits and starts I have a Naiad Necklaces box that I love. Which is a good thing. Each box takes about 5 hours to manufacture from soup to nuts and costs about as much as the boxes I'd hoped to import from China. On the upside, I only need to make as many as I have necklaces on hand. Had I imported, I would have needed to NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-4870301743759403422014-12-01T00:00:00.000-06:002014-12-01T20:03:52.564-06:00No Boat From ChinaFinding a necklace box for my handmade jewelry has been almost as daunting as opening my Etsy business--and probably twice as time consuming. I allotted 7 months to finding and purchasing the necessary boxes, imagining that it would really only take 3 months. However, I wanted a good time cushion in case of unexpected obstacles. There are always NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-10205417348524247402014-11-20T21:34:00.001-06:002015-01-09T23:51:17.280-06:00Gift Tag Template from Gift.i.Gami. Download or Print it From Here!
Download or print the templates below, and start making beautiful gift tags today! There is also a tutorial on my YouTube channel at
http://youtu.be/hl_Di87i7Qc If my YouTube gadget is working, you might even be able to view it from my video bar in this blog's right hand column.
If you have any problems with downloading or printing the template, please NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-73393026452252414102014-11-12T19:07:00.002-06:002014-11-12T19:07:41.445-06:00Coming December 1: No Boat From ChinaVisit me December 1 as I talk about my misadventures in importing jewelry boxes!NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-43044192089247058242014-11-03T00:00:00.000-06:002014-11-03T16:20:56.544-06:00Mistake of the Month Mondays: The Stretched Out NecklaceOne of the first necklaces I ever made for myself, this started out as a vintage 12.5" chocker that was too small for even my scrawny neck. To make it functional, I supplemented the onyx with black glass (an unscrupulous vendor told me it was black onyx and I didn't know the difference) and large contemporary onyx. I hand strung and knotted the beads on double-stranded black silk.&NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-40811793488870176182014-10-28T21:37:00.000-05:002014-10-28T21:37:44.196-05:00What's with the auto likes?
If you visit my Naiad Necklaces Facebook page you may have noticed that from time to time I have "liked" my own posts using my administrator persona. That is not because I am desperate for likes (well, I suppose I am, but that's not the point here). No, the reason I periodically auto-like my own posts is because if I don't, my own business page falls off the feed of NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-2203524576445711722014-10-14T13:19:00.000-05:002014-10-14T13:21:17.152-05:00Naiad Necklaces gets a new logo!It has taken me more than a month of wrangling 4 different software programs just to merge one graphic image to one letter. And all that work has been distilled into one, brief, 23-second video that you can watch here:
The feed is regrettably grainy. I'm not sure why and apologize in advance.
My sister has suggested that the "c" might be a better spot for the fish. Or maybeNaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-18837006417902028182014-10-14T00:00:00.000-05:002014-11-12T20:45:31.867-06:00Tripped up Tuesdays Gets a New Name and a New ScheduleWell, it's open! After approximately 18 months' build up and prep, Naiad Necklaces is ready for business. I had a crazy couple of weeks moving to the finish line that was not helped at all by the fact that my day-job hours tripled during the same time period. I made multiple, multiple mistakes those last 2 weeks--all in the interest of generating fresh material for this column, NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-64834857979957354362014-09-30T17:50:00.000-05:002014-10-05T03:03:21.108-05:00The countdown begins!
Tripped up Tuesdays returns to its regular scheduled programing next week (or maybe even the week after that). This week will be devoted to all the last-minute details of getting my Etsy shop ready for its Grand Opening October 5th! There is still time to enter to win a brand new, mixed media Naiad Necklace--just click on the picture in the side bar. But do it soon.&NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-31227738620755941612014-09-23T00:00:00.000-05:002014-09-23T22:02:03.511-05:00Tripped Up Tuesdays: Feeling Uncentered
A slightly off center lapis stone.
For my first try at bezel setting, this wasn't too bad. However, you can see that the lapis shifted slightly while I was pushing the bezel sides in. By the time I noticed, it was too late to fix.
Although I didn't realize it at the time, part of the problem was my tool:
A bezel roller. Photo courtesy bestjewelrysupply. NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-43312225028675241162014-09-16T00:00:00.000-05:002014-09-16T00:00:07.117-05:00Tripped Up Tuesdays: Counting beads didn't help these uneven ends
There are literally hundreds of tiny silk knots between each seed pearl in this necklace. As I laid out the pattern, I carefully counted each bead to keep the pattern and continuously placed the piece on my beading to tray to confirm the design layout.
If you look closely, you can see that the coral/turquoise stations "match up" on the beading tray and end at the same length on NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-70126150267435297162014-09-09T00:00:00.000-05:002014-09-08T19:12:05.398-05:00Tripped Up Tuesdays: Setting limits in the blogosphere
A depiction of the blogosphere. Courtesy of gephi_org. Flickr user
If you have been visiting this blog, first of all, thank you! I am completely new to social media, and find all of this daunting. And yet, to support my soon-to-be opened Etsy store, I have created a Facebook business page, Hubpages profile, and Tumblr account. The social medial gurus tell me I NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-54489430226131717342014-09-02T08:00:00.000-05:002014-09-02T08:10:49.929-05:00Tripped Up Tuesdays: All Gummed Up with Henrietta's Gum Arabic
I love, love, love Henrietta's Gum Arabic, but all too often, I end up wearing the stuff in my lap. It runs on the spendy side (about $10-$14 per oz) and needs to be mail ordered. One big spill can result in substantial production delays while I wait for the new stuff to come in.
Gum Arabic is a natural gum made from the sap of two Acacia trees: Senegalia NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-23326644646678480392014-08-26T00:00:00.000-05:002014-08-26T20:35:58.917-05:00Tripped Up Tuesdays: Heartbroken!
Although the household baking soda solution and aluminum foil method is one of the safest ways to clean silver jewelry,
things get trickier if there are gemstones involved. Most gemstones do fine in baking soda and
water, but the method should be avoided for jewelry set with corals. For opals and turquoise, there seems to be
some controversy over whether saltwater baths are NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-78443412369909016962014-08-19T00:00:00.000-05:002014-08-26T20:35:15.626-05:00Tripped Up Tuesdays: The Wrong Trousers!
No, it's not because they're my fat pants (well, they are, but that's beside the point).
The problem is here, with the cargo pocket
Not once did Henrietta Virchick mention that cargo pants were a no-go in her classic book on bead stringing. But take it from me, you want a smooth, form-fitting pant when you are beading.
NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-19575233229128347292014-08-12T12:52:00.000-05:002014-08-26T20:34:40.807-05:00Tripped Up Tuesdays: Hacked! "Deal Keeper" is no keeper. Here's how computers work in our house: My husband gets a top-of-the-line gaming computer, uses it until it becomes obsolete (here, "obsolete" means "slower than the other guys' computers"), passes it off to me, and gets a new one. I then use the old computer until he is ready for his next upgrade. This has worked pretty well for many years, until this year, when NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-66273540250767995232014-08-04T23:46:00.000-05:002014-08-26T20:34:09.828-05:00Tripped Up Tuesdays: Count those chain links!I swear, swear, pinky swear that I counted these chain links three times before I cut them. It wasn't until I staged this necklace and took some close ups that I figured out why it was twisting.
See the extra link?
Count twice ( or in my case, four times), and cut once.NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-2986402213100503102014-07-29T00:00:00.000-05:002014-08-26T20:33:36.658-05:00Tripped-Up Tuesdays: Holy Reverse Redox, Batman! How not to use baking soda and aluminum to remove tarnish from silverWith a few exceptions, nothing beats the safety of a bicarbonate/aluminum foil/water bath for removing tarnish from silver. If you aren't careful however, things can go very wrong:
It started innocently enough:
Several objects covered with baking soda, ready for the hot water bath.
But within moments, this happened:
Notice that several of these sterling beads have actually turned NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925176132987666920.post-7900416733180191432014-07-22T00:00:00.001-05:002014-08-26T20:33:07.642-05:00Tripped-Up Tuesday: How not to stage a necklace
Everyone knows that colors side by side on the
colorwheel look less intense than when you pair the same color to its opposite
or against white. However, I once saw an amethyst pendant photographed against
an intense, luminous pinky-purple background, and it looked amazing. I wanted
to replicate that look using a tomato-red coral necklace and reflective acrylic
(one red, one fluorescent pink). NaiadNecklaceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00083666753962956555noreply@blogger.com0