FIXING JEWELRY

I used to make jewelry and then I got frustrated, discouraged and bored all at once. No one was buying. I used high-end materials altho semi-precious stones, not gems. Without customers, I had no income to buy materials. I see in the catalog that my little 3mm round silver beads that are the heart and soul of so many pieces are now up to $104 per 1000. Maybe that sounds like a deal to you, but not to someone who sold NOTHING not   one  thing last year (not 2011 the yr before) NOT ONE STINKIN THING at Christmas, when I usually laugh all the way to the bank.


Ok. So I giggle. Not thousands, but at least a couple of hundred.
And that year, nothing. Not even a pair of earrings.

By the same token every art fair, every gallery, every store had tons and tons of jewelers, all priced under mine. Not that mine were over-priced--maybe they were, but not much. I never made in bulk. You never bought one of my pieces and saw anyone else wearing the same thing. Perhaps something with the same stones, but not the same design or combination of colors.

I didn't do home shows. I didn't do weddings. That requires duplicates. I quit doing art fairs the year I had three tents destroyed, one that was not even mine.

So I quit.
And after awhile I began painting again. And I sold or gave away probably 1/2 of all my jewelry stuff.

Then, suddenly, I sold two or three necklaces--good ones--. And one fell on the floor and broke. The woman brought it back to me and asked if I could fix it. It wasn't me: she dropped it on a cement floor and some of the stones broke. That day I had sold her two of my finest pieces and she had 5 more at home. How do you say No?

With caveats firmly understood (I do not have those stones anymore: most of my equipment is gone: it will not be exactly the same...) Anyway I fixed it. I restrung it on heavier wire and actually found some small pieces of Labradorite and a good clasp. I re-did it maybe 8 times trying to get the design just right. Then I discovered the heavier wire was too thick so I re-strung it, re-designing as I went (two or three more times) on lighter wire, tested the clasp, attached it, finished. Tried it on: the clasp broke in half in my hands, a terminal glitch.

Got more wire. (That piece was now too short by a couple of inches). Restrung. Re-designed at least twice. Found another pretty but not appropriate clasp, not happy with clasp AT ALL. That's life. I can order another but she will have to pay for it.
Attached clasp, and poof! all done. A mere 8 hours of work.

And now?
I do not have her phone number........anywhere.
I do not have it in the phone--either phone under her name. I do not know where she lives. I don't know if she is married. I know nothing about her except that she likes my work and buys it.

So if you're out there, the necklace is done.