Gearing up

Time passes so quickly and so slowly at the same time. Back in November, April seemed a world away, but here it is.  Spring is sprung, and I am getting ready to go back to work.  I've finally found a nanny who will work part time.  I only intend on working 20 hours a week, which seems like plenty.  My little squids will be 4 months old at the middle of the month and it seems like I was pregnant last week.  They are getting nice and rolly polly, so I know that the time is passing quickly, but each day seems like a small forever.  I'm not sure how long this strange time distortion will last (until they have kids of their own?  And then I will sound like every parent everywhere when I say it feels like they were babies just yesterday?).

I will be opening to orders the first week of April, but I probably won't have all of my listings up in the shop for another week or two.  I need to go through and makes some changes and also add new things that I made last year and would like to have in the shop.  Sorting through my iphoto seems like a monumental task right now, so that will probably have to come last.

I'm right in the middle of carving a new eternity style ring,  maybe seven diamonds across the top half of the band.  I have a smaller diamond solitaire carved already, I'm going to call it the Itty Bitty.  The diamond will be around 3.5mm.  I think it will be sparkly and sweet and suited for people who don't want a giant rock.  I have a new matching set in mind, but I haven't started it yet.  It will be smoother and more rounded than my other things.  Maybe with a few flush set stones in the wedding band.  I am also planning on a pair of diamond/moissanite studs, and I want to bring back the Raw Circle studs as well, in palladium with moissanite.

Pricing earring is always hard though, since they take a lot more work than a ring, but people can't/don't want to pay as much for earrings.  Does that make sense?  You have to make two of something, for the price of one.  So I haven't offered many earring styles since I find it a bit boring to make two of the same thing, but I'm going to try to streamline their production and see if I can make it work.  I might have the people who do my casting also do the rough finishing, so I'm not stuck at the bench for hours at a time getting all grubby doing the grunt work of heaving polishing (which I despise!).  I have carved designs for at least four pairs of earrings, with molds made and everything, but for some reason I have avoided finishing them.  I would also like to make a couple of necklaces again, maybe this and a raw circle pendant?:

Anyhow, a lot of things on my mind.  Still not sure how this work thing will work out with two tiny sweet babies.  Having a nanny come 20 hours a week is great, but even now I can see how much I will miss them.  They're so sweet and just starting to become little tiny baby people rather than larval humans.  :-)