Clay Ludlow 4/24/1920-6/8/2009

My husband, Clay, died on June 8, 2009, and my life has changed forever; I miss him so dreadfully. Except for a few orders from the web site, and some new custom wholesale work, I’ve barely touched my tools since April. Luckily, I did get some new things made before we realized he wasn’t likely to come home from ICU. Here’s one that was fun to do; an adaptation of a tutorial by Abby Hook.

Fancy coiled and bead necklace

Seems nowadays when I try to make jewelry I make more scrap wire than ever before; so hard to concentrate on being “creative.” I’m really thankful for the two new wholesale orders because they’ve made me get back to work. Both are for setting very large stones, something I’ve not done in awhile, so it is a good lesson in concentration. I have a show coming up in mid August and really must get some things made, so hopefully, this is the start of productivity.

Custom setting for 25 mm stone

There are so many things that need doing now that I’m on my own, not to mention all the stuff dealing with Clay’s passing, that I find it incredibly easy to procrastinate; after all, these things need doing, so it isn’t really procrastinating, right? I must, must, must get that order out today. Three more stones to set. There, now that it’s written down, it will get done.

Since this blog is “Not enough time in a day…,” my idea for the day is to first wrap those three stones, get them to the Post Office after loading up the truck for yet another dump run, get some food in the house that isn’t fats and carbohydrates, and finally, begin on my second quarter’s business books so I can do the sales tax form due at the end of the month.

Life is sad, but it’s still good.

Cute little thing with lots of possibilities

This is the first thing I made this year. I’m trying to gear toward the under $35 market this year. I’m also thinking of doing simpler 18-20 inch necklaces with handmade chain. Since I reorganized my bead drawers, I’ve discovered that I really need to start making things with all those pearls. I have 9 trays of them in all sorts of colors and sizes! I’m just going to pull them all out, and see what happens. 
I love working with wire. It’s fun to figure out how to put things together without solder, especially, as I am very bad at soldering. People tell me that when soldering, more is not better, but I just can’t seem to get it. 

After I work a bit with this style, I want to work with the new beads I bought at the San Mateo International Gem Show; I just wish I’d written down what they were! Pricey little things, and the name was so common (perhaps topaz?) I thought surely I’d remember. I got the supplier’s card, but no joy from either their web site or email. Any one heard of Bead Palace?

Anyone know what these are?

I also found some beautiful faceted Beryl beads, and Just received an order for a necklace using them. Now that’s how it’s supposed to work!

Now, back to the jewelry bench….

I would really recommend that you do not start your next show the way I did, however. At 6:30 AM on the first day of the show (yep, we’re talking set up day here) I lost my footing on the stairs and buggered up my ankle. I was limping a bit, but wasn’t terribly concerned. By the end of the day my foot was quite swollen and a bit purple here and there. The following day it was very colorful and swollen even more. My neighbor at the show gave me an elastic bandage so I was able to hobble around. Still focusing on the terrific sales, I was very upbeat.

Awaking on Sunday, I could barely get my shoe on! Had lots of Aleve on hand and began to think fondly of home and doctors. Even my poor toes were purple by now, barely walking, and the restroom seemed miles away. Sales are still great so that helped. During tear-down I had the help of not only my husband but two other crafters who helped tote stuff to my car. Glad to be home!

Now all I have to do is get to the doctors today to see if it’s just a sprain or if something more serious is going on. I have my last show to set up for this Friday, so hope to get some relief by then.

This morning I worked a bit on the craftersofcalifornia web site. I think it’s coming along nicely. Please hop on over and have a look. I’ve talked with several fine crafters and artists who say they are going to send in the app, but so far no follow-through. It’s a busy time for everyone, so I’m hopeful that I’ll see more apps coming in after the holidays. Fellow Ganoksins, if you live in California, please send me your information and get a free listing on the site. 

Better get back to work now, only three days to restock for my next show; talk to you all again later.

Then the hard part, the site itself, the brochure and application forms. Its always the details…. I rather liked the brochure, but the website was boring; I got bogged in details, and couldn’t think of a good design. Then, in comes the helping hand of Virginia Vivier of the Ganoksin Project. What a gem! She looked at my site and gently said, “I visited your new site and see that it is a ‘work in progress’.” Then she said to call. When we talked she gave me some fabulously helpful hints for improvement.

I’m soon off to the Fotolia and other site to look for California images, then the new site updates will begin. I’ll post updates here as the site evolves. In the meantime, I invite anyone to check out the site as it is now, and if you’re a California jeweler, I’d love to have you list.

Please pass the word to other fine craftsmen you know. (And please, I use the word ‘craftsmen’ in it’s wonderful, pre-politically correct form: “one who is excellent at one’s craft,” so don’t send “I’m offended” comments about the term. Any other comments or tips would be greatly appreciated.

I awoke at 4:00 with my head spinning about 2 client websites that are in the works, and how to find a manufacturer for a jewelry component, and how to get jewelry made while doing back to back shows for the next 4 weeks, and trying to find time to get custom work out, and I really need to clean house; but now, it’s 6AM and I’m about to get ready for an escape day….  Tomorrow I really must get to work on those custom orders, but today, I’m going kayaking.

For any who may visit my new blog here at Ganoksin, please leave a comment.

Slept in late this morning, up at 7 AM. Poured that first lovely cup of coffee (God bless programmable coffee makers) and started checking email. Yippee, my go-to guy for computer glitches sent me a reply and it’s an easy fix for my internet problem.

I unplugged my router, waited a few minutes, plugged it back in, restarted the computer, and voila! my wireless is working again. It was very frustrating to be trying to get my husband, Clay, to play on his new laptop when he couldn’t go online from the other room. I hadn’t realized there even _was_ a problem since I’m almost always directly connected and don’t know whether I’m using wireless or ethernet to connect to the router, it just works. One problem solved, and it’s not even 7:30 yet.

I received a phone call from a woman who saw us at Graeagle and she hoped that I could get a Celtic cross to her in Reno by Tuesday. She’s flying out to see her son graduate from boot camp and wanted to give him the cross. I went online, checked out shipping, and was able to assure her that I could make it up, ask for package pickup from the Post Office, and by using Express Mail, she would have it Monday. So, the next thing was to make the cross. Luckily, I had plenty of rings in stock, so got it made up. Those last 4 rings are still a sticking point, so I made up 2 just to try and figure out where I was going wrong. Finally realized it was that I was putting 2 rings in the wrong spot, inside rather than outside the previous links. These will now go much faster in the future. Hurray!

Next, back to the web, print out the shipping label and order package pickup. It’s now 9 AM; two problems solved, a little money made, one extra Celtic cross done for stock, and also replied to two new requests for link exchanges (one I linked to, the other denied).

Received a FAXed proposal for installing new windows, signed it and FAXed back an acceptance. Don’t like to rush into things. We’ve been talking about getting new windows for about 10 years now.… installation date, Aug. 21.

Client called to confirm that she would be out about 11:00 or a bit later for web work. Got phone calls from 2 people who want my strawberry plants. I had placed an ad on freecycle.com that I was going to Roundup my strawberry bed on Monday, (putting in a cutting garden instead) and any who wanted strawberry plants could come and dig ‘em up. Terrific response. I really recommend freecycle to anyone who wants to find or get rid of stuff. I’ve seen everything from computers to trailers to full size organs on the list, all free!

My web client came about 11:30 and rather than just scanning some images for her. it turned out to be quite an interesting learning experience. She has her site hosted by Godaddy and does all the work online. It took me a while to figure out how to use their site to edit, kept double-clicking to edit an image, as I do on my Mac, and which was the absolutely wrong thing to do online at Godaddy! Finally just did all the editing off-line, then did a copy/paste into the HTML of her site. It looks nice, she was pleased, and I have a much better understanding of why there are so many “not so great” sites online. There is a huge learning curve to these hosting site, and each one handles formatting differently. Word of advice, if you are going to use online tools to post and edit your website, be sure to read all the instructions and tutorials, and don’t be afraid to call tech support. That’s what they are there for. It would be almost impossible for a beginner to post a professional looking site in “just a few minutes,” as some of these sites claim.

Now it’s 3 PM. I got the web site fixed; scanned, edited, and uploaded all her images; and had 2 ladies come out to dig strawberries (+ had 4 phone calls asking about the strawberries). Both women brought their very young children with them. The kids were, mostly, well behaved, but “eager.” I had to stay out and keep an eye on them while the moms dug: one child almost uprooted my newly planted Rose of Sharon, and another was trying to climb on the not very sturdy fence. I’m so glad my kids are grown!

Now I can get to work on my jewelry order. Oh yeah, think I’ll grab a quick sandwich first. Clay has already eaten, so just had to get something for myself.

The necklace for my customer is turning out to be very interesting. I was a bit skeptical at first when she said she wanted such large cabs, all different sizes, shapes, and shades of black and white, but it’s going to be quite stunning. I’m excited to see it coming together.

Five PM and time to end my “official” work day. I join Clay on the deck for a drink (his is scotch, mine flavored water) and conversation. I sure do love Summer. It’s so nice to sit out on the deck at the end of the workday and just enjoy my garden. About 7 PM, I get another call about the strawberries. She’s been waiting all day to get her car back from the auto repair shop, so I don’t have the heart to tell her to wait till tomorrow. She’ll be out in 1/2 hour. I start dinner (so glad Clay made spaghetti sauce yesterday). When she arrives, I show her where the strawberry bed is and tell her to take what she wants, but to please leave some for the others who are coming tomorrow. By the time she is done, it’s getting dark and dinner is just about ready. Put the final touches on and finally get to eat (it’s now almost 9 PM).

Now I get to sit and read. My stack of magazines is getting pretty high, even though I’ve canceled several subscriptions, I still can’t seem to keep up. Tonight it’s MacWorld magazine from June. There are some fabulous tips —web based applications, a new widget for tracking multiple To-Do lists, email cleanup tips, video sharing, and Mac OS X tips— that I’ll need to scan onto the computer and index so I can find the info again when I need it. I used to just clip articles, but now that I scan them onto the computer using OCR software, I can actually _find_ the articles I want when I want to review them.

About 11 PM, can’t concentrate anymore, but not quite ready for bed. I take out my trusty Palm, and play a few games of Pilot Lines and Solitaire to quiet down the brain. 11:30 and it’s time to call it a day. Just another day in the life of a wirewrap jeweler.… Life is good.

My jewelry web sales have really increased this past year, due in large part to the SEO work I have done on my site. Show sales were down overall. To preserve my sanity, this year I am going to focus on the “fun” part: designing both jewelry and web sites, and let the money angle take care of itself.

I have added several green kyanite pendants to the new items page of my site, which will be posted soon. I have a few more descriptions to write (always the hard part). I’m also trying to get more photos taken of existing stock, especially earrings and pendants. These will be added to their respective pages, not the new items page, so be sure to look around.

Right now, I’m working with Moldavite. This is essentially glass from outer space; how cool is that! I’ll post some online when I have a few more done.

My first show is in April, so I have lots of time to get my office organized, and make new stuff. If you’re in the Sacramento region on April 19-20, come on by Nimbus Winery and say, “Hi.”

In the process of bidding, however, I learned a lot about timing. (I also learned that my spam filter was “catching” the notices from ebay about being outbid, which was a bummer.) Luckily, I discovered that on a not-so-wanted item. So here’s my tip of the day: if you ever want to bid on ebay, be sure to add them to your address book, or find out how to “whitelist” them with your provider’s spam filters, so you don’t miss crucial notices.

I did win the bid on one item: beautiful carnelian rectangles. These will make very nice earrings and pendants. Dara responded almost immediately to my inquiry about how to add to my order, so I also ordered a fabulous boulder opal piece and matching beads with her “buy now” buttons.

I’m hoping to get these made up before Apple Hill. Boy, I better get to work making…! We set up at Apple Hill just 3 weeks from now, on Sept. 21st. If the next 3 weeks goes as fast as the last 3, it’ll be here in absolutely no time at all. If you’re in the neighborhood, drop on by. We’ll be at El Dorado Orchards, Camino, CA., every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through October.

Oh yes, I did find some irregularly shaped green kyanite “blades,” so hope to have some of them made up also.

The amber pendant as a work in progress….
I started on the bail, not looking great at this point. This one is going to be a real evolutionary work. I can hardly wait to see what it wants to be when it grows up.

Done! This is the completed pendant. So much for a quick and simple setting. I guess this piece of amber just wanted more flash. It’s always fun for me to see what something ends up as. I guess that’s why I enjoy working with wire. It sort of happens on its own; sometimes, I’m just the hands.

We had a fairly successful show Mother’s day weekend in Old Town Shasta. I was a bit miffed about Shasta allowing all the import booths. In fact, they had put an “imports” sign right next to my booth!!! Of course, I had them move that, but I still spent all weekend watching green plastic garden frogs on a stick going by; very disheartening. I’ll be writing a letter to them about how they are hurting the show. I have a real hard time understanding how they can’t see the direct cause and effect (losing crafters) of allowing imports in.

It’ll be a shame if after 12 years, I have to drop this show from my schedule, but we don’t do shows that let just everyone and their third cousins twice removed in. I don’t mean that to sound snobbish, but I find that generally speaking, once imports are allowed into a show, the show spirals downward rapidly, both in attendance and sales.

Off my soapbox now, I promise to post a more cheerful message next time.

Only two more days to work on jewelry before leaving for Lakeport, CA. I’ll be working on Hairskewers and earrings today. I hope to get a few rings done as well, but may have time to make some while at the show. This show is rather laid back, but good jurying. Stop on by to see some very nice crafts: Memorial Day weekend at the Natural High School in Lakeport. And, don’t forget to stop by my booth to say,”Hello.”