MikiCat Designs

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

They've just given us a way to have our Artfire Studios on our Facebook Fan pages and you don't have to leave Facebook to find everything we make and sell. I think it's awesome and hope you'll check out Mikicat Designs Facebook Fan page and our new Artfire Kiosk. It is so cool.

In the meantime, I've been working on some new pieces. A 4-in-1 European chainmaille Ring in Sterling Silver, and a really small micro Byzantine weave in 14k gold and Blue Titanium. I haven't priced them or even gotten decent photos yet. But that will happen. Here's a picture of the 4-in-1 Ring. It's so pretty.

I also made a pendant to match the Snow & Ice Earrings I sold. I was so inspired and it came out so nice, I almost don't want to give it up. But when you get a custom order, you can't keep them for yourself. (grin) But it did come out nice and sparkley and pretty and matches perfectly with the earrings of which there are one more pair left!

The end of the month is almost here and our Grand Opening hullabaloo is winding down. I've also put some great things up for sale and reduced prices on the Website, our Etsy shop and our ArtFire Studio. Now is the time for some great savings on beautiful handcrafted items for yourself or to give as gifts.

This month I am also featuring Haffina Creations! A wonderful blogger, artisan, designer and Guild Master. This wonderful woman not only writes articles for Handmadenews.org but also formed the Artfire Chainmaille Artisans Guild, creates some beautiful jewelry and sells it in her studio. She's even started to make polymer clay beads and opened a new studio just to sell them to other artisans. Check out her blog and learn all about her latest passions, what's news and how, like me, she just doesn't find enough time to do everything she wants to do.

Haffina is offering a special Christmas in July sale so check out her offerings at her Artfire studio.

I've started a web ring at WebRing® for Chainmaille Artisans. Anyone who has a current and active website or blog is welcome to join. Doesn't matter if you're a professional or hobbyist, Web rings help us promote each other, share interesting new sites related to this passion and keeps the Internet turning. LOL

To join, simple go over to WebRing® or copy and paste http://www.webring.com/hub?ring=chainmailleartis into your browser. Then click on Join This Community in the upper right. Log in, follow directions for placing the navbar on your website or blog and approval should be forthcoming within 24 hours. Don't forget, you must place the navbar code into your website or blog or you won't be approved.

I hope to see many people joining me. And I promise to maintain this ring by making sure everyone keeps their site up and the navbar properly listed. I hate it when a web ring stalls. :)

Miki

07-02-09 Update: After promising to maintain this ring by making sure everyone keeps their navbar up and properly listed, here I go and screw it up during the makeover. I'm temporarily suspended myself from the ring and hope it'll be back up and running this weekend. Apparently, though, the page spewing forth validation errors because of the WebRing code. So it's true, stuff does happen. :(