Where does the time go?

Wow! It’s the middle of May, soon summer will be here.  Actually it felt like it was here the last few days.  We hit 100 already, odd for the Oregon Coast.  Are you ready for summer?  We are, at least we think we are.  Our home isn’t air conditioned so we keep a window unit for our bedroom.  We have to have a haven of coolness somewhere.  We went to Costco and bought a fresh unit to keep us cool for the summer.  I have a small pool I purchased on sale, all to do now is to buy the chemicals so we can keep the water slime free.  Yup! I am ready for summer. 

Torching in summer is a lot harder though.  Not to mention the sunshine days calling us out.  We live six miles inland from the Oregon Coast.  Primo place to live in summer.  It’s normally cooler over in Newport, 70 on a given day.  Toledo will hit the 80’s to 90’s a lot, and our home sits in full sun…not to mention the garage with the studio set up for torching.  When it hits 90’s in the garage, its pretty hard to sit and sweat and torch…so we will hop on the bike and hit the road, we live in the most gorgeous area for a ride on a harley.  The smells of summer are so awesome.  Blackberry’s hot in the sun along the rivers…The sea breeze and smells of gardens in bloom. 

Well anyway, just wondered…are you ready for summer??  I have a feeling it’s going to be a hot one.  After the nasty winter everyone seems to have had.  But I do believe I am ready.

Marketing…auction’s…trying something new

I have been selling on eBay for 7 years…over six of those selling our handcrafted lampwork beads.   Well for some reason today I got an itch to try a couple .99 cent auction starts.  We are headed out on vacation for a week.  Going to Jamaica, no internet I imagine…if there is, its still not a priority to hunt up a computer and check.  I figured ten day eBay auctions to let our customer’s know why our listings are so small and what’s up with that kinda thing (normally we post Mon thru Fri new auctions and have a list of 15 or so).  So we have two auction’s up…one Dan and one Kaye auction…both starting at .99 cents.

Dan~O Beads “Spring”

 K~O Lampwork “Spring Magic”

Marketing wise, it will be very interesting to see if the beads go for the price they normally would sell for on eBay…it’s kinda a test.  Cost wise, fee wise, it’s a lot less to start your auction’s at .99 cents.  Thats for sure.   But stress wise, it’s not the easiest way to sell your work.  Soooooooo when I get home from Jamaica….I guess I will find out if it was a good or bad business choice.

What does your website do for you? - blog it!

Flaming Hot! blog subject….What does your website do for you?

Well, I was pushed into setting up a website by beadmaking friends.  I resisted for so very long, thinking eBay was enough.  Honestly, it probably was.  It is nice thou to have a website you can tell people about.  It never fails when your on vacation or out and about and someone notices the bead around my neck…or a bracelet I have on…I will say “Oh I made that”  It sure get’s their interest…and they start to ask questions.  So it is nice to have a website addie you can send them to.   I just say “you can find us at koregonbeads.com“ 

I set mine up through pappashop.com.  Very easy to use and understand….shopping cart and all…I love the ease. 

I have sold quite a bit off our website, which is really nice….I also use it for holding all the photo’s of our auctions on eBay.  I was paying .15 cents each before using eBay photo services…so just doing that pretty much pay’s the $20 a month for the site.   I do have hopes of working the website up into a better selling venue.  Honestly though, its so hard to keep beads on eBay, Etsy and the website.  I just have to find the time and work a bit harder.  It is worth it. 

Since it took me into year four of business to get one set up.  I do have to thank all my friends right now on my blog.   Thank you! for pushing me into the website thing.  It’s so much easier than I thought, and it is as Martha would say “A good thing” LOL.

Needing a vacation after a vacation…

Why is it when you take a vacation, you almost “well maybe do need” a vacation to rest up when you get home?  I just spent 11 days in TN visiting my friends Angie and Vern “beadaddicts” and I had the most wonderful time…I met a lot of eastern TN lampworkers “the firecrackers” and had some quality torch time with my friends Angie and Vern.  I played in Boro a lot and learned to make flowers and implossions.  I also learned to make treasure bracelets as taught in Robin Atkins book “Beaded Treasures“.   Below is a pix of my friends “beadaddicts” and I on a day we went to Knoxville to a bead show and met up with some other lampworkers for lunch.  Left to right is Vern, Angie and Kaye.

 

I had the most wonderful jam packed 11 days…but I tell you it wore me totally out…it’s been a week and I am just starting to think I can get back to work.  

It seems everytime I take a vacation, I need a vacation or at least a week to get back together again and on track.   I think my mind is playing tricks on me though because I only  had three weeks when I got home until my next flight out on a trip.  I only have a touch over two weeks until Dan and I take off for a week in Jamaica, we are staying at Sandals in Ocho Rios…I can’t wait! all inclusive, even the 18 hole golf course.  I can’t tell how long I have dreamed of going to an ocean this blue…and this warm…and sand this white and well…I think you can get the picture LOL.  I have named our beads tropical this and that for so many years, my mind is on fantasy vacation all the time.  So this trip is like a dream trip for us.  My hubby’s brother and wife “sonyabeads” are meeting up with us there on day three…they will be there five days.    Its going to be so cool to kayak, snorkle and learn to scuba dive! along with those Hobie Cats, a sail type pontoon boat.   There is something like ten restaurants and twelve bars…a piano bar and I think some dancing in the evenings, along with different theme events each night.   I can do that :) 

Here is a treasure bracelet I made for my trip while I was in TN.  Carol Crye made the gorgeous flowers that are in it.   I can’t wait to drag out my flip flops, capri pants and swimsuits and head on out to sunshine and warm tropical weather.

Well anyway, thank goodness I had some stock made up for when I got home…for now we are plugging along and selling what we had on Etsy and eBay .  We do plan to take a break the week before and week we are gone on our trip…and hopefully not need to big of vacation when we get back.  

What’s your new favorite thing???

Well for a time it was my iphone, I love my iphone….but it’s old news now.   So the “new” favorite thing?  Well I was gifted with a Biagi bracelet, what is a Biagi bracelet?  A very bad addiction that’s what!  You buy a silver bracelet and add screw on silver charms, you can also add “lampwork” the magic word for me…I can create colors and looks along with the charms and well, its my new favorite thing.  I just finished a tropical theme one…and am working on a harley, motorcycle theme next.  And…..guess what?? they make necklaces to…I am so in trouble.  Buying large holed spacers, bails that I can dangle beads that will slide on, even furnace glass comes in large enough holes to fit!  So very many options, it’s so fun playing with idea’s and making cool looking theme bracelets.  I get my Biagi brand bracelets and charms from Trudi Madison.  She has a great variety and loves to feed my addiction, yep, she is ever so helpfull and tells me things that are coming soon.  Yikes!   Hehe.  I also have a wonderful bracelet I was given that Andrea Guarino makes, I have a kryptonite bead and charm and the gorgeous linked bracelet.  The fun of putting your look together along with silver and glass…is so much fun.  So hey! what is your new favorite thing?

 Here is a picture of mine….pretty isn’t it??

Below are some of our beads we have available for sale, these fit Biagi, Pandora, Troll and Chamilia bracelets and necklaces!

Up on eBay  “Chilli Pepper”

 And up on Etsy are  “Breathless Summer”

and “Fragrant Tropics“

Flaming Hot!

What are the little ways you enjoy glass and the business you run?   Blog it!

Well this one is easy….I am my own boss.  I can work when I want….if it’s slow, I can take more time off.  I can take a vacation anytime I want, for as long as I want.  When it gets busy, I just work harder.  I can do office work in my jammies and sweats…and I don’t have to drive anywhere but the post office to ship.  I am here for my pet’s.  I am here if I am needed as a gramma or family things, and I can get all my housework done while thinking and taking breaks from my office.  I am home to make my hubby lunch each day.  I can make gifts for loved ones…that are personal and special for just them.  I have excuses to buy jewelry making supplies and beads.  Its biz ya know!  I get to say “I made that” when people say “I love your necklace”   Best part, I can keep any beads I want…cuz I can!  I can design beads for an outfit or event….I have a way to express myself and accent my outfits and myself.

Sure, sometimes its a chore and stressful and I don’t want to work.  You have to have some discipline and tenacity…to really make a go of it.  You succeed by how much you put in, how you market yourself and how cool of things you create.   But when you need time off…you can have it now…this instant and not have to deal with the “boss”.

Since I was raised in a family that my parents were self employed, the being in control of what you do is….well what I knew.  Working hard to bring in more money…striving to expand and be bigger and better, new marketing thoughts and idea’s.  Well, all of that comes natural…and ingrained somewhat.  Being able to work at the pace your capable of at the given time is nice, life sometimes get’s in the way of work….this job, I can put efforts where I need to put them…be it business or family.  I really don’t think I could ever work for someone.  This type of job, making my own product and being in charge of marketing….is me….it’s who I am.

The biggest thing…being totally in charge of my product and being proud of what I sell.  Meaning, I just didn’t get a job and sell what I was shown and told to sell.  I am my product and all the marketing, names, colors and style is what I like…who I am. 

Downside??  oh yeah there are many…but that wasn’t the question or theme for blog it today

Flaming Hot!…blog it

We all hang on to the familiar.  What is your staple glass object you continue to make and why?  Flaming Hot!  Blog it subject of the day.

I sit and think on this subject and realize a lot of “stuff” family wise has been going on in our lives.  Most days my creativity is zapped and stress is high, it’s been a tough couple years.  Oh! I do have great discovery days, days that I find new…but those are far and few now days.   I might of packed it in, or quit or how ever you put it, if I couldn’t of remade popular items that have sold well, that I actually love and still enjoy myself.  So I take successful bead sets and focals (well at least similar focals) remakes and sell those.  They are tried and true, sold well and have been popular.  It is easy to sit down and just loose myself for a couple hours and make them again…they flow.  

Over time, the styles have changed for my “staple” beads….yearly pretty much.  I have been calling them my series….not sure if that is the right word or not, but they are all similar, sometimes the same, sometimes a sister to a bead or set born before.   This last year has been my dichro year, I found a way to make it mine with my organic bling series.  The beads have been popular and do sell well.  With life and its challenges in the family/child department right now.  I make sets and focals in varied colors, just to keep business flowing.   Years before this last one…it was my florals…before that, my stringer detail and lentils/squeezed beads.  Before that it was my organic’s and hearts to match.   There were others in the middle, but those were the big series of beads/that had a year run or more.   I eventually move on, and discover something new that really makes me happy to make.   I am really struggling right now because I know I need to play and discover something new and fresh….and it’s not happening yet for me…and that is really frustrating.   I am hoping life will change, the family issues helped and resolved end of this month.  Giving me less stress and opening my creative outlet within.   For me, my staple is my tried and true of the period of time I am living in.  It changes through time….right now….Organic Bling…like shown below.  I simply hang on to my staples to keep business going during a time I just don’t have it in me to create new all the time.  Simple survival.   As a beadmaker, I know I can’t discover “new” everyday, even during my flowing times….it just isn’t possible for me.  I always make what I like…over and over until it is like second nature to create when I want to.  If I don’t create it enough, eventually I loose and don’t retain, the how to.

Well anyway, the staple for me…for the last year…sample’s below.

After the storm…Bald Eagles

Well the Oregon Coast had a big storm yesterday and last night…high winds, rain, rain and more rain…along with lightening and thunder and hey! some more high winds and even some hail.  This morning I was called out to the back deck by my husband with a yell saying “Kaye, come see the bald eagles!” well I ran and got the camera…and took these pix.  Dan said the two eagles were actually closer and eye level flying over the slough when he first spotted them.  We saw all kinds of birds feeding in the field across the way filled with water….these guys were out hunting to, the sound they make, the sight of them just really give you a pleasure that’s hard to explain.  I am sure this is same pair we saw this summer on our harley ride on the bay road.  It is just so awesome each time you get to watch, listen and take pix of…even if the pictures aren’t the greatest…its hard to hold still when your excited.  Well anyway, just wanted to share my bald eagle pictures with you today. 

 

End of year…winding down after Christmas

I’m worn out, how bout you?  Getting ready for Christmas, colds…caught over and over again, or just never going away.  I’m tuckered out, tired, worn out…whatever you want to call it.  I am just so glad Christmas is over.   I haven’t even posted new auctions on eBay this week, haven’t torched in over a week, and only one day when I did and two weeks off before that.  The weather outside is “ick” cold…wet, windy…hail….I work in a garage…shall I say anymore?? LOL….I just have no drive to bundle up and go out and create beads right now.  My home is a mess, its time to clean and organize.

 A family pix of all of us taken Christmas eve. 

 Our son Brian, his wife Amanda, Maddy in her arms, Me “Kaye” Dan and our daughter Jenn

Christmas Shopping…are you done?

Are you finished with your Christmas shopping?  For the most part, yes we are done.  Just one hard one left…and a few extra’s for Maddy.  My sister Pat had me help her with her shopping.  She wears hoop charms out of Dan’s beads all the time, every day of the year.  She is always having someone comment on them…and ask where she got them, which she goes on to explain that her brother in law and sister make glass beads, and her sister makes them special for her.  She has told me over and over again, “Kaye, you should make those for your website”.  Well, this year she wanted to give a few pair away as a Christmas gift, so she had me make them for her.  While I was busy doing her’s I went ahead and made ten more sets.  I also made some necklaces, pendants etc….so we have some new jewelry items up for sale finely!  Perfect timing for gift giving and Christmas shopping.

Below are mini photos of jewelry items we have on Etsy…great jewelry gifts, free shipping on any items purchased off our Etsy list!  Just click a photo if you would like to know more about any of the previews.

    

    

   

  

Oh! and a great new Sterling Silver ”bling” pendant on eBay…go ahead, you know you want to! click and find out more

And lastly the gold filled hoop charms that my sister ordered some of that started the jewelry making weekend.   I have listed 10 different pair of gold filled lampwork hoop charm pairs on our website…below is an example of how the charms look on a pair of gold hoops. 

 So…if your shopping is not yet done…and you have a jewelry lover on your list….click a photo….and check out any of the above.