No Boat From China

Finding 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 unexpected obstacles, right?

I was actually hitting my marks.  I found a box I loved, a company in China to make it for a reasonable price, and a super-nice company representative in China to work with.  We were on the verge of production when I learned I had no way to get the finished boxes from there to here.  One cannot, it turns out, simply pop a bunch of boxes in the mail in China and expect them to arrive on one's doorstep here in the US.  Such items come by freight, usually ocean, and they enter specific ports in the US.  One must have agents in both countries to marshal the goods through each country's customs, and one must have other helpers--licensed helpers--get your goods onto some sort of in-country transport once they clear US customs. I was explaining all this to my sister, talking about all the months I had put into this enterprise only to watch it fall apart , when she interjected, "You need a Customs agent!"  And indeed I did.  What bugs me is she knew this within seconds of our conversation, and it took me 7 months to figure this out. 

I did actually find an agent, but as my store's opening was imminent I decided I needed a quicker alternative.  "Quicker" being relative here.  So I bought a Sissix Eclips2.  I'm still working on box designs and  materials, but I should have a one or two ready by Christmas.  Whether that will be this year's Christmas or some future year's Christmas is anyone's guess, however.

This is the box I almost purchased.  It would have been customized with sage green and cream colored paper and custom necklace/earrings insert.  My logo would have been hot foiled on top with silver.

Gift 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 message me on my Facebook page, and I'll get back to you ASAP.  I'm new to this, and I want it to go smoothly for you.  Please leave a comment below if you like the template or tutorial, and consider giving the video a thumbs up.
Thanks for stopping by!

Coming December 1: No Boat From China

Visit me December 1 as I talk about my misadventures in importing jewelry boxes!

Mistake of the Month Mondays: The Stretched Out Necklace

One 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.  I loved the graphic interest introduced by the natural onyx's white quartzile streaks.  Being black, this was a great everyday piece for work.  I wore it a lot--or at least I did until it stretched out.

Textile-strung necklaces do stretch out and periodically need restringing. The heavier the beads, the more frequently the necklace will need restringing.  However, on the production side of jewelry-making, you can reduce the frequency your clients' beads need restringing by: 

1. Using silk.  It has the greatest tensile properties of all the available textiles. FFF-sized silk, for example, has a 15 pound test strength.
2. Giving your silk thread a really good, thorough, strong tug before using it.  This gets rid of its stretch before you start adding beads. 
3. Using the right size thread.  The silk should fully fill the bead hole.  What if the bead hole is huge and even FFF-sized thread won't fill it?  String on chain or add more thread! When given the choice I typically prefer to string on silk to keep my beads from knocking together. Thus, when even double-stranded FFF silk won't do the job, I simply start adding more strands of silk until the hole is filled. Usually I don't need to add more than 1-2 strands, but I am perfectly open to adding more if needed.
4. Make sure your knots are very, very tight.

On the user's end, the need for restringing can be reduced by:

1. Always storing textile-strung necklaces flat, in a box.  Do not hang the necklace from a hook, as I did with this piece.  The heavier the beads, the  more important it is to follow this advice. 
2. Never hang heavy objects from the necklace. Small children count as heavy objects.
3. Keeping the thread dry.  If thread does become wet, lay the necklace flat to dry.  Wait until the silk is completely dry (usually a full day or two) before wearing the necklace again.

What'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 my administrator's page.  When that happens--and it does with some regularity--I then have to conduct a Facebook search for my own business page to pull it up in order to conduct my own administrator-y business.  It's highly annoying.  I get that Facebook wants transparency and wants an accurate name to go with every page, but it sure would be nice if I could, oh say, conduct all my Facebook business from my Facebook business page.  Right now, if I want to tag someone on my business page--to thank them for a like or to call their attention to a post or to share a post--I have to log in as an administrator, hope that the person I want to tag not only likes my business page but also is a friend on my administrator page, and then send the message from the administrator page.  And then people wonder who this Maureen Nelson person is.  I think a lot of people get confused as to which is the correct page to follow as well.  Naiad Necklaces clients probably do not want to get newsfeed about my second cousin's baby's first steps, which has somehow found its way to my administrator page, and my friends don't necessarily want to get every business-related update that I post on Naiad Necklaces. 

In any case, if one doesn't "like" the postings from a page periodically, including one's own pages, Facebook surmises that one isn't terribly interested in that page, and they drop it from one's newsfeed.   Auto-likes keep that from happening. 

Naiad 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 maybe I should add the fish to both the "d" and the "c."  What do you think?  Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Tripped up Tuesdays Gets a New Name and a New Schedule

Well, 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, of course!  The most apparent and painful of my mistakes was vastly underestimating how long it would take to write a single listing.  While I got marginally faster (?sloppier?) as I went along, I averaged 45 minutes for each of my 21 inaugural listings. 

It also became apparent that, even though I have lots and lots of material for this column, I don't have lots and lots of time to write it.  I have therefore decided to rename this column "Mistake of the Month Mondays," with a goal of publishing it on the first Monday of every month. Thanks for stopping by.  I'll see you in a month!