Friday, June 26, 2009

Big Changes

Hello! Big huge changes going on over here at singleB. I'm getting ready to move somewhere new. The packing hasn't yet started, but the internal preparations are already underway. I've finally settled on a location!

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P-town! PDX! Bridgetown! In the fabulous NW!


I was actually born in a little town near there and grew up there and in Eugene. So it's a move back, really. I lived there before I moved to China in 2006. So, it is familiar to me and it's an awesome town in itself.

On the business side, I'm thinking of renting industrial space. I think it would improve my productivity to not work at home.

There is a little place here that I am interested in:

It would be nice to be around other people, instead of alone all day. And it's not too expensive and the rent would be a business write off.

Man, I can't wait. If I get up there early enough in the summer it will be fantastic river swimming! I'm soooo looking forward to hitting the Laurelthirst and the Goodfoot. Wallowing around in the Kennedy School soaking pool. Riding my bike all over town! It's going to be awesome.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Quick Change Handpiece is Dead

Long live the quick change handpiece!

My Foredom quick change handpiece for my flex shaft recently went kaput on me. One of the little collets that are deep inside in the handle broke and I need a new one. I'm not quite sure where to get it, so I will have to do a little bit of research. I don't want to have to buy a new, they are sort of spendy, but I can't be stuck using the handpiece above because it is a giant pain in the a$$ to have to constantly be using the little chuck key to change burs. Especially since I do a lot if stone setting and that requires lots of bur changing. I'll figure it out though. I am so glad that I bought that handpiece above in addition to the quick change handpiece, because it would have been so terrible to have no handpiece all of a sudden, right in the middle of working on things. I couldn't do jack without that handpiece.

One thing I love about Stuller, besides the high quality of their gemstones and customer service, is that they send dum dums in every package.

It used to just be one or two, now it is a handful!



So recently a customer has been very interested in this ring:
But they are a little bit leery of buying something so expensive without seeing it in person first. I totally understand, it would be hard for me too. So in order to ease their mind I am first making a model in silver and spinel to send to them so they can judge. I'm a little nervous about this. I think I will build a lovely ring, but silver just doesn't have the same feel as gold, and I'm afraid that it will feel too light. We'll see.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Trying for a cohesive style

Man, have I been busy. Not only with work, but in my life too. My sister was out for a visit recently, bringing my tiny adorable niece with her. Then my Grandpa got married (he's almost 80!) and I traveled to go to the wedding. Thank goodness I have this or I would never been able to keep up with things:

Tax write off! But I had no idea how useful it would be in the end. I was a little afraid I would always be on it, but it's been okay. I'm getting the hang of putting it down.

I'm also moving out of California soon! I love the golden state, but there are just a few too many people here and the cost of living is ridiculous. I want to buy a house at some point, and I don't want to spend almost a million dollars for a shack, thank you very much. I'm thinking Oregon (my home state, go Ducks!), Montana (I love cowboys and I just finished Lonesome Dove), Tennessee, Alabama (my family is originally from the south), or Rhode Island. I've never been there, but I have romantic notions about New England. Expensive though! So I'm busy trying to decide where to live and find a cute house to rent. I bought a car too! Crazy.

As I've written in previous posts, I'm very concerned about creating a cohesive style. I don't want my jewelry to look like anyone can make it and I don't want to have my collection look like it's made by a bunch of different people. I do other artwork (I love illustration) and everything I draw seems to be very distinct. It has an identifiable style. I would like to have that for my jewelry. Not just to please myself, but also to grow and protect my business. I want to have so distinct a style that it can't be copied.



I don't know if I'm there yet, but that is the goal. I don't like to look at other goldsmith's work because I like my ideas to be totally my own (I do make an exception for dead people. If they are dead, their stuff is fair game I think!). Plus, I'm uber competitive (one of my worst traits, actually) and it's better for my peace of mind to just ignore what everyone else is doing. I come up with better ideas that way as well. The mind needs peace and boredom to be creative, and constant stimulation gets in the way of that. That's what I think anyway. But I won't have any peace or boredom for a while now...new car, new puppy, new place to live! Excitement! But I have a few new ideas that I hope to get to soon, I feel like my Etsy shop needs a few fresh pieces.

Ok, that is all for now. I have a heap of stuff to take care of this week, wish me luck!