Wire Wrap Jeweler_In the life of...

Life is sure different now

2009-07-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

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:

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 the Graeagle show coming up in mid-August and really must get some things made, so hopefully, this is the start of productivity.Since Clay’s passing, I find it easier than ever to procrastinate; after all, these things need doing, so it isn’t really procrastinating, right? I must, must, must get that order out today. Since this blog is “A day In the life of…,” 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.

Nifty wire conversion widget

2009-02-09T15:27:00.000-08:00

Wire Gauge Calculator 1great free widgetsWidgetbox

I ran across this easy wire conversion widget in an email newsletter by Rena Klingenberg. If you're interested in great jewelry business help, check her out at by signing up for her newsletter.

2009-02-09T10:07:00.000-08:00

I am a
Snapdragon

What Flower
Are You?

This was fun to do. Clicking on the image will take you to thisgardenisillegal.com for a "flower quiz." Take a few minutes to fill out an easy form and find what kind of flower you are. I was sure I was a daisy, but a snapdragon is cool.

Announcing CraftersofCalifornia.com

2008-10-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

I am in the agonizing, but fun, initial steps of creating a new site for Crafters of California. The first part was easy! I had a great idea, a web site featuring only California crafters, artists, photographers, anyone who makes their own product, is serious about sales, and who lives and works in the state. What is unique to this site is that the artist doesn't need a web site, an email address, or even a computer to be listed. I knew I'd hit on a good idea when http://www.craftersofcalifornia.com was available, so I grabbed it. Yippee, I'm on my way!

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.

2008-08-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Just an ordinary day.…

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.

A New Look!

2008-04-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

I think an alien has taken over my body! I've been busy organizing this year! I've organized almost everything: storage shed, work space, office shelves, file cabinets, computer files. I've even reorganized how I organize! This is so not me. My natural state of affairs is minimally controlled chaos.

Along with all this reorganization, I decided it was time for a new,

more professional look to my cards and web site banner. My son, Scott Becker, the director of marketing for Rubicon Express, gave me the idea of using the tools, and I think it works quite well. What 'ya think? I'll be getting the logo for the web site, business cards, bag labels, etc. done, hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, in time for my first 2008 show.

As for new jewelry, I went on my once a year gem buying spree and got some incredible new stones: yellow jade, peanut wood jasper, and some gorgeous grosular garnets.

You'll have to come on by a show and see what I've made. Actually, I should say, "am making," as the pieces are mostly in my head at this point. Did I say I've been busy organizing?

Today I'll be making watches. I hope to get at least 3 made: one of simple chain maille, one with pearls, and the third with either the peanut wood jasper and yellow jade or turquoise.

If you're in the neighborhood, please come to my newest show: "The Multicultural Arts Festival and World Marketplace," at the Laguna Town Hall in Elk Grove, CA., on May 10, from 11 AM till 6 PM. Hope to see you there.

Announcing BHLWebDesign

2008-01-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

I finally took the plunge, registered a domain name and designed a site for my web design business bhlwebdesign.com. Web design has become my second "love," after wire jewelry. I specialize in designing for crafters and artists, but I offer full service page design, either template-based or fully custom. If after visiting the site you have questions, please email or call.

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."

First time as ebay bidder

2007-09-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

Well, that was fun! I was on a quest for green kyanite, and came upon the Laurel Canyon Beads ebay listings. Years ago, 2002 in fact, I had set up an ebay account so I could show a friend how to do so; thus, all I had to do was find my user name and password, and get to bidding. I'm sorry to say that I lost out on the bidding for those beads, because they were incredible. I had doubled my initial maximum bid level, and got down to wire in the bidding, but couldn't justify going even higher, so someone else got them for one dollar more. Of course, now I find myself wondering if that was her highest bid, and I might have gotten them if I went just a bit higher, but I had to cut off somewhere. This bidding thing can be pretty intense.

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 continuing life of an amber pendant

2007-05-21T07:33:00.001-07:00

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."

Getting Ready for Shasta

2007-05-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

Well, took a full day, but I think my boxes are all labeled and sorted so that NEXT time everything will have a place. I keep hoping to hit on a system of packing for a show that will make tearing down easier. Heck, it's only been 19 years....

This year we'll be in the RV park, because the kids are having the roof torn off their house for a remodel, so it took a bit longer to pack than usual. Then of course, when I went to burning CD catalogs, I realized that my 2006 schedule was still on the old and there was no link to this blog. That meant that I had to make changes to the file, then burn. Next, after I thought all was packed and ready, I realized that I hadn't packed up the new jewelry! Ok, that's done. Then the final, "Oh my gosh!"

Hmmm, don't have confirmation for this show in my files.... Don't have the copy of the application for this show is my files.... Don't have record of show fee payment for this show in my files. I never received an application.... I"M NOT IN THE SHOW!!!!

Luckily, I have the home phone number of one of the promoters, called her, and she FAXed me a form. She also put me in my same spot, and I'll just take the money with me to the show. That was very close. In all my years crafting, this has never happened before. I now have a reminder sheet in my Palm Pilot, with all my shows listed and the date they usually send the applications.

Watch for the end of this.... This pendant was supposed to be a quick and simple wrap. I had this great Amber chunk and found there was a hole (filled with sand) in the center of the piece. So, I decided I would put a stone in there. Of course, then it needed a second stone in the other cavity to balance. When I got to the top, I didn't have enough wire to finish a proper bail, so had to add wire. In order to do that I decided to do a woven bail for strength and design. This is where I am. I wonder what it will look like when I'm done. Hmmmm, put it aside until after the Shasta Show.

In 2 weeks we can pack up again and go to Lakeport, aren't craft shows fun?

Updated web pages

2007-04-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

I finally got my newest items on my web pages. It took a bit longer than usual, because I'm trying to learn how to get better photos; definitely, a time consuming experience. I'm about ready to throw in the towel on this camera and buy a newer one. I'm thinking that 8 years is a long time to keep anything when it comes to technology.

I've also been busy putting out the newsletter for our local Friends of the Library. I'm on the Corporate Board, and sort of "volunteered" to do the newsletter. :-)

Now that that's all done, I MUST get to making new stuff for my upcoming show in Shasta, CA. We all have our fingers crossed that the weather will hold, praying for a nice 82 degrees and dry!

Hope to see you there.

Maille crosses

2007-04-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

I think I've finally got the hang of this; those last 4 links have been a struggle: I finished 3 chain maille crosses in time for the Shasta show: 2 sterling silver and 1 gold-fill. The next step is to try different sizes.

The sun is finally shining in Pollock Pines so I get to spend some "garden time." That'll be a nice change. I'm a warm weather gal, so am ready for Spring .

Not much to say this time, just wanted to try to add to the blog. Next I'll see if I can get a new picture added as well.

2007-04-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome All to my new blog. I'm not sure why I want to add yet another thing to my list of things to do, but it seems a Blog is the way to go these day, so here I am. I’ll be addinf comments here about what I’m working on, and perhaps some personal things as well.

The first item, for those who don’t already know, is that I took my very first surfing lesson — at age 60 — and actually got up! It was the greatest fun; wish I’d tried it years ago. My kids say that Kauai was definitely the place to learn, because the water is so warm. We spent two fabulous weeks there, and got in some whale watching, and snorkeling, too. Then we came home to snow, ah well. (sigh)

On the computer side of my life; I finally got my new computer set up the way I want it: my dead 19” external monitor was replaced by warranty, my lovely new macbook is runing beautifully, and I am extremely happy now that I have DSL!

I just finished revising the web site for http://www.colorharmonies.com, and am just beginning the design for http://www.thecolorofhealth.biz. I’m also learning how to take better pictures of my jewelry. Hopefully, they won’t need so much Photoshopping time once I learn how to get in close and get clearer images. My son has shown me a few great tips about how to fix the backgrounds and sharpen up the images I have so the details are more focused, but it would be very nice to not have to do quite so much “fixing.” Of course, tnow that I know how, I should go back in and fix some of the backgrounds on my existing images, but that will be a ways in the future.

Now on to jewelry. I found beautiful & affordable Tahitian black pearls at the latest wholesale gem show! My blacks are all baroque shapes, large with nice color, and I bought some beautiful greys in 8mm-9mm rounds. I hope to get earrings and more pendants made up before my Shasta show.

I struggled to learn the “Full Persian” link so that I could make chain maille crosses, and I finally got it. These will be available in either silver or gold-fill, and initially, will be about 2” long. When I get better at them, I may be able to offer smaller sizes, but those are much more difficult.

I hope you’ll come back often to see what I’m up to, and I’d love to hear from you.