Gem Show: Thriving on sparkles, beads and birthstones.

I went to the gem show this past weekend! It was intense, full of eye candy (understatement) time consuming (understatement #2), inspiring and made me wish I could just lay in a bed of pink sapphires. This first photo is what I really went to seek out:

Birthstone gems. I have them all now! I had to fill in some of the blanks (months) with glass beads or natural stones instead of gemstones. It's now a really pretty collection.
Apparently emeralds. are. very. expensive. And rubies come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and prices but the really pretty ones are very. expensive. I opted out of cheap rubies. I learned about gems this weekend. I wish my sister was with me, shes been a jeweler for about 25 years. She could probably smell a stone and tell me what it was. I actually think she could rub it on her face or tooth to really find out. She's done that before.
That's one way to know if a pearl is a pearl or glass.
Did you just learn something?

Below is a photo of just a few things I saw there - edit - a few million of the beads I saw there:

(click photo to enlarge)
I love how all the suppliers displayed them on triangular postal boxes. Good idea.

I was actually really glad I don't string beads because I think I would've gotten more overwhelmed than I already was. The top left photo is JUST glass lampworked beads that are in the shapes of full animals. ANIMALS! Crazy. CRAZY! The bottom three photos are gems I WISH I could have just to look at all day- this photo represents thousands and thousands of dollars of stone.


Held at 'the Big E' in W.Springfield- there's going to be one in Oct 2012 also, if you feel like planning:) These are held all over the country in civic centers etc, just google it. You'll be in heaven.


Below are some of the other goodies I picked out.
Moonstone and pink quarts (basic stones, and so girly and springtime and feminine).

You can see garnet, amethyst, aquamarine, citrine, pearls, sapphire to name a few.

These are for a collaboration with a new company that I may (or may not) work with soon. It's all in the planning stages right now. We'll see what happens soon.

Labradorite connectors and beads to compliment my butterfly jewelry line.

So, deep exhale, I'm ready to start my summer collection!

Sneak Peak! NEW butterfly wing jewelry!

What's next? I am finally going to have small, round, blue butterfly jewelry for everyone thats been asking me for 3 years. Yes. Finally. Finally! Im so very excited, because 1. I will be able to give you what you want, 2. I will be making something new, and this change is well beyond needed 3. they are really really pretty. I am also in love with that giant teardrop that I put on a wicked long 24" chain. Feels luxurious.

I am planning the pre-debut in the shop around Jan 15th, along with a scrumptious newsletter on Monday (sign up on the left for the deals!). But- I still have to price the new pendants. I really want them to be affordable, but now that I am actually making them, I see how much work they are. I am making every single component of them MYSELF, cutting the glass, grinding, soldering etc. Im still enjoying it now since its all new to me. Maybe once I get a good formula for sizes and shapes and colors, I can streamline my production.
Enjoy the sneak peak!

How To : Remove tarnish from your silver jewelry, with chemical free, eco-friendly kitchen ingredients.

Tarnished silver jewelry. FIX IT! How? Grab a few kitchen ingredients and you are on your way to shiny and new looking silver!
Sterling silver is mostly pure, but it also has other metals in it. It is usually stamped with the .925 symbol indicating sterling. This means that it is .925% silver, and .075% something else, another metal. Basically, when silver comes in contact with the elements it can tarnish (oxidize) and turn a myriad of colors. For example, when I go to the beach for a length of days, I notice my silver gets raggedy looking sooner than when I am in my dry home. Keeping your metals in a ziplock baggie will prevent the elements from doing this for a little longer as well. Jewelers also offer special bags or even acid free tissue to store your goodies in. If you notice, some of your silver will tarnish at different rates as well, but theres no way for us regular ol' people to know what that extra metal in our silver is. So when you Do happen across a tarnish-happy item, this is a great way to solve it in an eco-friendly way.

Here's a great way to make a chemical free potion that will instantly ZAP the tarnish off your silver. I love this method because my polishing cloth cant reach into the crevaces of chain links, and this can.

What you need:
boiled water
ceramic or glass bowl (not metal)
aluminum foil (a few inches, not that much)
baking soda


1.First, boil a few cups of water.

2.Prepare your bowl. Put the foil into the bottom of the bowl, in a little square, just so you can lay your jewelry on top of it.

3. Put a few teaspoons of baking soda onto the foil. I don't measure, and probably use waaay too much. The ratios here have never affected my outcome.
(see how brown, reddish the chain is? yuk!)

4. Put your jewelry on top of the baking soda (or near it as you can see in the photo).

5. Pour the hot water over the whole thang.

(under steaming hot water)

6. KABLAM! Instant, and I mean, INSTANTLY the silver should look silver again.

The tarnish should disappear. If its still a little discolored, you can wiggle the bowl a little to work it in. Dont rub the baking soda on your items though since it can scratch it if its not dissolved.

7. Wash your jewelry with clean water. The baking soda leaves it a little slimy.

(drying on a paper towel)

DONE!

note: dont try this on metals you are unsure of. dont try this if there are components you are unsure of i.e. wood, stones, etc. okay, just had to say that. i bet if you google this, someone else will answer all the q's I havent answered here.

edit/addition:
Look at this AWESOME comment I received about this post!

Blogger Lisa B said...

Thanks to you, I've now cleaned 22 necklaces, 6 bracelets and 10 pairs of earrings this evening. Who knew a few simple ingredients would clean some of the items that have been making me crazy trying to detarnish? You're a genius. Or at least a good passer-alonger. ;)
HURRAH! Thanks LisaB

Monarch butterfly rings, photo styling

monarch butterfly rings
Originally uploaded by PoPkO!

New Props! I'm trying out a new look for the shop, I just need props that will work all year round. These autumn leaves are pretty now, but wont last very long. What do you think?

New jewelry TAGS I'm so excited!

Oh I'm thrilled today! I just finished a long looong process of making individual jewelry tags for my butterfly line.


It only took so long because I don't think I have the super deluxe program to create these sorts of things. I'm not going to blame my savvy, I'm blaming the computer program, like that?

Anyways, I've always included a description tag with each necklace order I send. It says what it is, origin of the wing (since that's one of the most frequent q's), and how to care for it (this covers me when someone says hey I left it in my swimming pool and now it looks different).
They were little slips I would put into the baggie, and I was never satisfied with the look, because I know there is always a way to make it more professional looking. I always hoped people were reading them and not losing them in the box. But now they are attached!

These new tags have a hole punched into them so I can attach it to each chains clasp. AND now there's a space for me to be able to write what kind of wing you are receiving! I can just hand write that on at the time of clipping it onto the clasp (say that 10x fast).

In the photo above, I had to re-do the wing on the back of the tag, because when I printed it out, It was kind of flying in the middle. I have since made the wing sideways so its coming off the bottom of the tag.

This is great because a lot of people get these as gifts, and I send a lot to boutiques and stores. This will make it reallly easy to slap a price sticker onto the back, and keep all the info attached to the necklace. OH I'M SO HAPPY!
I think the future ones that I make will have a nice color, but Im just printing these on white cardstock on my home printer, nothing fancy. Well, fancy pour moi.

The photo above is how they started out, I had to make a mock up, print it under the template made for vhs video spines (yeah old program), fold, cut and cut and punch a hole. I know, a lot of work, but I like to do this stuff. Its really satisfying and makes everything look great.

If YOU have some fabulous tags, or tricks to share about how to make your jewelry or goods look fabulous with all its accoutrements, please DO TELL! Leave a note in the comment section with a link to your items, or blog post about your tags and I will post it here.

Featured on Cuteable!

Thanks Cuteable for sharing my new fused glass rings with your readers!
I made these little glossies this past month, while gearing up for the Holidays. They are all about $10 and have an adjustable band. The band is wider than my old rings and they are SUPER comfy. I wont go back to the old style band anymore!

Look! You can see my taking the photo in the rings' reflection! Hi everyone!

busy bee/ busy butterfly

Ive been away working and playing. Im in Cape Cod! I packed for an 8 day trip and its turning into a 20 day trip. Good thing I brought half my studio with me.

Its been fun and BUSY! Im still trying to perfectly balance keeping up my business, selling jewelry on the pier, making new things (or collecting supplies with the intention to make new things) and spending time with my enormous family (four sisters from out of town, four neices and nephews, friends), and this week....building a carnival parade float to ride on for Thursdays parade! It never ends in the summer. There is only balance, and my daily nap (neither of which I am getting as much as I want) . I hadnt taken naps for years (though I have always always been a big fan and advocate of the nap), I find myself napping everyday at 2pm, or trying to at least. The days I cant, due to something fun happening or packing/shipping etsy things, I am in bed by 9:30pm.

These are the newest butterfly wing necklaces. It was a special custom order that is just so gorgoues when together. This is a side-by-side photo of the reverse of each pendant. There are two different wings in almost all of them, Can you find the ones that are singles wings? Its tricky because some do not look the same front to back.

SO, that is my update for now. I know Ive been neglecting the blog and updates- but its just the way summer goes. Im even considering when to close the shop for two weeks so that I can just sit down and create completely new items like earrings and etched glass works, resin castings and molds. I find that even when I put a shipping delay I still ship because I know it will be too huge of a pile of work at the end if I dotn slowly get it out the door.
It all takes time, but i think if I temporarily close the shop I might be able to hunker down and work work work. Which is actually what I love to do. See you soon!

New Butterfly Wing Ring in the shop!

I've been busy busy taking photos of all my new butterfly wing jewelry! Here's a glimpse of the newest ring I have in there. I tried using foliage to make it a little more nature-y looking. What do you think?

Have a lovely day!

DIY Instructions - How to make a ring display for craft shows!

I had a big show last week and needed a new ring display. I wanted something sturdy and with a little bit of chunk to it, so I could show off my Glitter PoP Rings.
To make your own, you can get some ideas from this tutorial. Scouting out the right box and fabric are key. You can make any kind of ring tray you want with this in mind. Mine cost me about $16 total. You can certainly buy one already made for that price, but making you own enables you to customize it to your own ring size and make it match the rest of your display more than the commercial ones.
This is my first blog tutorial, so bear with me!

First, I had to decide how many rings I wanted it to hold. I estimated about 40 or 50 each, as I have about 100 + rings.

Supplies:
-trays (mine were $7.00 with a coupon)
-foam , just larger than your tray (mine were $7.99, but look at the thrift shop, or take apart your own chair!)
-opaque fabric, twice the size of your foam (the first one I used was too sheer and showed the green foam through it, and I had to find some more opaque fabric)


Tools:
-scissors
-box cutter
-marker
-ruler, or any stick to stuff fabric down (hand works too)


I found some bamboo house ware trays at Bed Bath & Beyond. They are stacking, and these would have been great if I could have had a little less foam, then I could have set up the rings at home and just stack them and bring it to the show. But I wanted the rings to sit right at the brim for easy viewing. Plan this when purchasing your foam. How thick do YOU need your foam to be?



Above:
I bought two trays. The green foam is from Joanns fabric, and is for seat cushions. They had all sorts of thicknesses and densities. I got one that had a big of heft to it, so that the rings would stay in the tray. If it is too floppy, your rings wont have anything to grab them, so go for dense.


Above:

Lay your tray over the foam, and score a line where you will cut it. I used the outside of the box to measure, knowing that I need a tight fit. If the foam is larger than the box, when I put it in the box it will expand and stay put. I did this all by eye and just winged it.

Above:

Cutting was satisfying..it made a nice clean line. Snip snip! But the foam was a bit thick so I found myself cutting twice over every line. I had to be careful not to shred it, but it was easy.

Above:

Stuff the foam in to check the size. if its tooooo big, just snip again. Mine had to be stuffed into it, which is what I wanted. I don't want it to move AT ALL.

Above:

I then set my intended rings onto the top to see how far apart they needed to sit. I have large rings, that needed a lot of space. I marked with a sharpee where I would need to cut.

Take the foam out of the box again and cut on the lines!

Note: I thought I would just need to kind of slice halfway down the foam, but decided to cut the foam completely at each black line. So I marked the foam #1-#12 so I could put the puzzle back together after cutting them. Once I sliced completely through, I stacked and stuffed the foam back into the box. There was a lot of finagling and wiggling to get it to stuff back in and look neat and tidy. Just work it in.

Next, lay the fabric on top. I found the center of the fabric by folding it in half, and stuck the middle into the middle foam crease. This helped me evenly distribute the cloth.

Above: I had to cram the fabric into the sides with a ruler and my fingers and lots of tug-o-war. So dont be afraid to really get in there. I had to do it twice on each ring box, take the fabric out and put it back in to get it to look nice. Make sure you get the fabric ALL THE WAY DOWN to the bottom so that it doesn't come out when people are trying on rings.

You can see that this was my first try, and you can still see the green through the fabric. I switched it out the next day with a velour sort of fabric. This felt nice to touch and made the rings look a lot more refined as well.

Here's my final product! This is what it looked like at the craft show (boy what a messy table). I think I will go back and get a few more trays. They had smaller ones and I think I want a small tray for each of my fused glass rings with different prices. I also had a lot of foam left over to do this again. This was an easy project that didn't require any glue. I love that!

edit: here's a new photo. I also use the larger box to hold cuff bracelets and matching rings.

edit: some people have been asking where to find the rings (thanks!) - I make them myself and sell them in my online Etsy shop. www.popko.etsy.com

Twist Fair!

The two-day show this weekend was a success! Heres some photos:

My studio table, days before the show. I like to make make make! I made about 100 glitter pop rings. That was exhausting. Next time I will try to just keep up with it so I dont have to make soooo many at once. They really sparkled at the show though, the lights were awesome.

Needless to say, I didnt sleep much last week. Im always last-minute.

Here's the view while I stood on a chair at my booth.

Shoppers shopping!!!

This is my new display stand below. It was great for the fused glass, but I had to change the one for the butterfly jewelry, as it didnt show off well enough. Part of my craft show experience is getting the displays down pat. I feel like I have had a differetn set-up at every single show. I need to set it up in my house more often so that Im not fiddling with it at the shows anymore.
Oh, and I made that ring holder! Its a bamboo box from bed bath & beyond, made to hold desk things or kitchen organizing. Its pretty on the outside, and I stuffed it with foam and fabric to become a ring display. I made two of these. They REALLY worked, because I sold more fused glass rings than ever before.
Above, you can see my first enormous fused glass pendants. I love them. The ones that didnt sell there will be in my Etsy shop soon. Also, you can see the suncatchers that I made. They make me very happy happy (but the needed a better display).

Above, my table, day two. I thought there was a 2 foot max requirement for all displays, (at least thats what the rules said), so I abided, even though my display is always higher. Everyone else in the room had mile-high displays. Like- everyone. Wah. So now I know that I can eliminate that rule if I get in again for November. Everyone knows that a higher display is easier to look at.

To see more photos take a peek at the flickr group here: Twist Photos

Or check out the incredibly organized and informative website for the show here : TwistFair

So thats my brief update for now. Back to the etsy orders!