MikiCat Designs

Street fairs are fun but in the heat and humidity of South Florida's rainy season, they're brutal as well. Cat and I attended the Third Second on Second Thursdays block party, pub crawl, art fair last Thursday. This is a relatively new event that 7 restaurant/pub owners in Downtown Himmarshee (Second Street) in Ft. Lauderdale thought up to try to bring more business to the area in this time of economic recession. We were even featured on the local news and you can see my partner on TV at CBS4. What a hoot!

Besides ourselves, there were a group of marine photographers with some really neat photos, a really great Zen artist and another jeweler who does lost wax casting and a lot of lapidary work making knives out of obsidian, etc. Rolling Rock beer and New Times sponsored the event and were there also. The event benefited the Riverwalk Trust.

While a small event, I managed to make some contacts and even sold two of my pieces. Cat managed to make quite a bit doing Tarot readings and being her usual bubbly self. We definitely plan on being there next month though I will hope and pray that it's a little cooler. We managed to avoid the rain up until the last 15 minutes.

We had everything packed into the carriers and had just gotten ready to fold up the tables and get the car when the heavens opened up and we not only got rain, we got a downpour that had me soaked to the skin in less than 2 minutes. Let me tell you, it's not fun being hot to the point of being soaked in your own sweat. Add a torrential downpour and while it's cooling, it's quite, quite uncomfortable. Remind me to avoid outdoor September events next year. I'm not even sure October is going to be any better. After all, it is our rainy season but I don't ever want to do this again in this kind of weather. ACK!

I have to say I enjoy going to craft fairs and events though setting up and breaking down are hard on my back. We've also got to work more on setting up the right type of display. we're still working on that. As you can see, we bought a couple of folding, adjustable tables from Sam's Club. (Thanks Yahoo Groups!) Cat found some inexpensive black tablecloths and the pretty gold scarf cloths for the tables online. I've been collecting display pieces and think a lot about how to show everything. But it's not easy. We'll be getting a banner made and perhaps next time I'll remember the bracelet display. [sigh]

But hey, I sold some jewelry, made some contacts and had a fun time. Isn't that what it's all about?

This article is coming out of a wonderful discussion I had with a very talented goldsmith who is trying to educate people on exactly what custom work is. He writes this whole article on his site where he talks about fabricating a ring for you, or making a wax carving and then manufacturing it for you, or say you want stones on it, you may have your own or you may want to buy from him. Stones come in all qualities so you can spend most of your money on the highest quality stone or go for the glam and save. There are so many individual pieces that go into making a custom piece that people tend to shy away from it. All of the above mentioned type work is what most people think of as 'custom', but actually, anything can be custom. A simple droplet earring in the colors of your, a wire wrapped ring, with the birthstones of your children, a funky necklace made to complement your grandmother's old brooch, they're all custom pieces. The most important thing he taught me was... "If you can't walk into a store, point at something in a case and buy it, it's 'custom'. So when you think of custom work, don't think 'expensive', think 'exact'. You get exactly what you want, rather than simply choosing from what's available!

That can be a great boon to someone who absolutely LOVES this earring, but would much rather have it in silver and red, or copper and peach or any other metal, crystal combination. It's very easy to do and in some cases, such as doing this gold earring in silver, will actually cost you less. But you'll still get the bragging rights of "It was custom made for me."

The person I'm talking about I just met on the Orchid forum part of the Ganoskin Project. Pete Schlosser has 7 years experience as a gold smith in the trade, currently lives in Minnesota with his wife and is seriously thinking of moving down here to Florida. In true southern tradition, We all would be so plea-ased to hay-uve y'all come and live dowen here with us. LOL Of course I think the move is a while away. Considering between Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens and Palm Beach is not an easy choice. I'm all the way down in the depths of South Florida so anything north of Boynton seems foreign to me. I just gotta get me out more. LOL You can find Pete's site at The Goldsmithy. In his own words, "How fast things change. Here's my website, now ancient in design (2003?). Every piece shown is that old, I never update the site even though I probably should."

Anyway, I'm hoping that you will learn a bit more about what custom work is and why you should always ask if someone will customize a piece for you. It's the best way to get exactly what you want, at a price you want to pay.


Miki

Well, our Grand Opening for our online shop is scheduled for this 4th of July weekend. Let me tell you it's been a hectic month here. First with finding the right web designer who can not only design the website but program the shopping cart, help with marketing and all the other stuff involved with getting a presence on the Internet. It's not easy. But a little bit fun. I found a wonder, wonderful designer and knowledgeable marketer in Delia Cumming of AKMWebCo.com. She has a ton of patience and actually listens! I love her logo design for us, though it may need a bit more tweaking. Still, I realize now how hard it is to program and design a website for someone else.

I haven't been designing or making much jewelry this month either. Just trying to get good photos and get as much inventory put online as possible is taking up a lot of time. I will be adding more and more this entire month, but not quickly. I still have the Etsy shop and Artfire studio and will maintain them for those who like to wander. If you find anything on either of the shops that's already sold, please email me and I'll be happy to provide a custom piece for you if possible.

So get ready for something to happen. Right now just what that is, is anyone's guess. {chuckle}

Miki