Pet Memorial Jewelry

I'm very excited to announce I have finally completed my first, fused glass, pet memory necklace.  Pet memory jewelry is where your beloved pet ashes are fused in between two pieces of glass forever.  You don't  have to tell anyone what's in the pendant unless you want to.  It's a really great idea and one that I've wanted to do for a long time.  It just wasn't cost effective to run my large kiln for one or two pendants because of the cost of the electricity.  When I learned how to create my fused glass watches, I had to purchase a small kiln where the shelf size is about 6 x 6" and it runs on a 110v outlet so the cost of running such a small kiln isn't too prohibitive.  I got my first order last week and wow, the pendant is so darling.  The one for the customer  has flowers, green grass, and blue sky.  The flower represents life and the memory of the living pet and the blue sky where I've sprinkled the ashes, represent the pet in heaven.  The pendant in person looks like there are clouds where the ashes are.  This is an amazing pendant.  I hope my customer loves it and what I tried to create for her. 

The other pendants were created at the same time using my own pet's ashes.  I love how the red, purple and blue one turned out because I can have any color I want, I could use red, pink, purple, blue, yellow, orange, green, white, black, brown. I have about 25 colors to choose from.  The other clear pendants have dichroic glass and some even have glass pieces that color the pendants.  I still have to decide how to finish them to hang as a pendant.  I may try to wire wrap them because I don't really like when the bail really stands out.  I'm okay if it shows a little, but not as much as these would show.  The two black pendants are created different; one you can see the ashes from the front and the other you cannot.  For the black pendant that you can't see the ashes from the front are where the ashes can only be seen from the back.  I need to try these types of pendants again and put more dichroic color on them.  They didn't turn out as vibrant as I'd like, but they're still really beautiful.

Here are my pendants for you to see.

Keep checking back and as I get more orders I'll post the finished pendants online.

I love how the middle and lower right pendant came out.  They are simple and the ashes aren't too overwhelming.  People won't know they have ashes in them unless you tell them.

For this pendant, the ashes are centered in the middle of the pendant and can be seen from the front.  I wasn't sure if I would like the pendant with the ashes in the front of the dark background, but it turned out really nice.

To Consign or Wholesale which is better for you?

A difficult dilema, I've recently had to ask myself, "Am I making enough money for the amount of time and energy I spend doing consignment or is wholesale more rewarding?"

Here's what I found out about Consignment shops:

I have found that depending on the consignment shop, they'll keep different percentages of the proceeds; 30%, 40% and even 50%.  You need to decide are they working to earn the amount of  commission they are getting?  Ask them questions, what are they going to do for you for their commission, because that's what consignment is, "a commission".  Do they let you keep your cards there to promote yourself?  Are they taking your items to any craft shows, farmers markets or other out of store venues, or does the item stay in their shop just for their walk in customers?  Do they have a website and will your items appear on their website to draw in customers?

Some will have you sign contracts and some won't.  If you're signing a contract with them, read it and if you don't like what it says, see if you can change the wording.  Make sure you discuss with them, what happens if an item is broken or stolen so you know?  Most of the time if you're selling items by consignment, you are the one taking the risk if it is broken or stolen.  If the item is damaged, you may need to fix it or it may be damaged so bad that you no longer can sell the item.  Sometimes your item is stolen and you're out the money, not the store owner.  Some shops will reduce the amount of your item over time (basically forcing you to put it on sale) to get the inventory to move more quickly through their shop.  If you are not okay with your item being reduced, make sure you come to an agreement.

With consignment, you usually have to wait to get a check either by mail or by dropping by the shop monthly.  Dropping by the shop is a great way to keep in contact with the store owner or manager to see what their needs are and show them any new product you're working on.  Depending on how far away the shop is, it can be difficult to get there and it takes time out of your day that you could be working on creating more products.  I did find going to the shop to be a way to build a relationship with my store owners, but I also found it to be a lot more work than I expected.  I was asked to change out my items more frequently than every two months.  This took a lot more time than I expected because I would have to go through all of my items, put new price tags on exchanged items and clean the sticky part off the backs of the items I removed from the shop.  I then had to update my invoices to reflect the new merchandise that was left in the shop. 

Make sure you and the store owner have an uderstanding about the pricing of your item.  Are they selling the item for the amount you are listing or are they raising the price so they get more money.  One very important thing I learned is, I listed an item for a certain amount and was being paid for what I asked for.  Later, because I was dropping off more inventory, I found they had increased the price of the item by so much that I now was only netting 30% of the profit and they were now netting 70% of the item.  They were not splitting the increase with me, they were keeping the additional proceeds for themselves.  At first I was extremely upset because I priced my items so low in hopes they would sell quickly and I would get more money.  The store owner explained that they have to pay their workers, pay credit card fees, power, etc and they need to make a certain amount of money per item to make it worth their while.  After they explained it to me, I understood their point, but this was something I hadn't expected, so be aware and ask questions to the store owners.

Consignment and wholesale are really very similar in the fact that it gets your product out there for others to see, and the shop will usually promote you as a local artist. I've found that people love to purchase from local artists. The best part about selling locally, you have a live person in the store trying to sell your item for you on a daily basis which gives you more time to create your art.


I think for now, I'll be focusing on wholesale and see how that works for me.  I won't have to wait for a check, I'll probably net the same amount of money and if items get broken or go missing from the shop, I no longer have to take the loss.  I may find that store owners aren't as willing to buy wholesale because of the economy, but in the end my time is really valuable and in the end I think I will appreciate selling wholesale more than consignment.

What do you think?  Have you had experiences with either or both?

Here are some of my fused glass watches. I hope you'll be inspired and love them as much as I do.

I have finally finished a few, fused dichroic glass watches for you to see.  I use all dichroic glass which make them really amazing to look at.  I use sterling silver wire to wire wrap the dichroic glass to the watch face and to wire wrap the silver plated magnetic clasp to the end. 

In the next week or two, I will be posting some online for sale at addicted2glassfusion.artfire.com and addicted2glassfusion.etsy.com but here is your first look.  I posted a few at the top of the page too.  I hope you'll check back to see more.    

June update on dichroic fused glass watches

I have made a few fused glass watches and WOW!  They turned out fabulous.  I made a purple and a silver watch.  It took me about an hour to wire wrap each one.  I know I'll get a little quicker, or I hope so.  I have misplaced my camera so I didn't take pictures of them with a digital camera.  I did however post one of the pictures to my twitter.  You can go to my twitter and check it out.  http://twitter.com/addicted2glass  The pictures aren't the best, but it'll give you an idea how they turned out.  I really wanted to keep the purple one for myself, but it was too big.  I brought them to one of my consignment shops to see if they can sell them with the size I made them without me having to re-wrap them to a different size.  I'm still making some slight changes to the new watches I'll be working on.  The problem with the watches I made; they aren't adjustable.  I've just received some more supplies to see if I can make an adjustable band so they can fit more people.  I have 2 more that I've shaped, but I'm waiting on some watch faces before I put them together.  If I receive them today, I'll hopefully wrap them and post a few pictures here on my blog sometime next week.  I hope you'll check back soon to see them.

Thanks for stopping by to see what's new.

What's new?

I'm so excited.  I can't wait for everyone to see my new dichroic fused glass watches that I'm working on.   I'm still in the process of cutting and grinding the glass.  I hope to fuse them this weekend so I can then shape them into the watch pieces next week.  The colors are amazing.  I'll have reds, blues, greens, purples, pinks, silver, gold, and so many combinations.  When I went to Las Vegas in April, I purchased so many beautiful colors of the dishroic glass.  I think I'll have a good variety of watches for people to choose from.  I'll be posting pictures here on my blog and to my two websites when I have them finished.  Here are the links to my sites.  Chem back late June to see my watches   http://www.artfire.com/users/addicted2glassfusion#   http://www.etsy.com/shop/addicted2glassfusion

May update and announcement of who won a pendant of their choice

Congratulations to TheresaJane from Etsy who won my May pendant give away. She picked a beautiful fused glass channel pendant with burgundy glass and dichroic fuschia, pink, silver, turquoise and a tiny bit of salmon. It is really beautiful. Hopefully she'll receive it before Mother's Day.

She was looking for pendants with purple in them and I realized I didn't have too many for her to choose from, so I'm going to go through my new beautiful dichroic glass I purchased from my Vegas trip to the glass craft and bead expo where I purchased some more beautiful new dichroic glass and see what I can come up with next.

I have been putting all my energy into school and can't wait to get back into my studio and start creating again. Starting late May when my classes are done, I will get into my studio and put stuff away from my Vegas trip. I have to do some re-arranging because I purchased a second kiln and I have to move my saws and grinders into a new location so I can put my baby kiln next to my big daddy kiln. While I was in Vegas, I purchased a small kiln specifically to do test pieces, bracelets, watches, and pendants with ashes in them so people can keep their beloved pet close to them in a beautiful pendant. I’m working with my local vet to start making pendants for their customers.

After I get my workspace organized, I plan on getting to work making new jewelry. Check my websites in June or here on my blog for first glance of my new glass work. My two websites are http://www.artfire.com/users/addicted2glassfusion#  and  http://www.etsy.com/shop/addicted2glassfusion

Thank you for stopping by.

My Vegas Trip was exceptional!

Well, I have recovered from my Vegas trip to the Glass Craft and Bead Expo.  What an amazing expo this was.  I can't believe all the classes offered at one venue.  Jayne Persico's class on fused glass bracelets and watches was the highlight of my entire trip.  She is an outstanding teacher and she's very approachable.  She was a delight to take this class from.  I would definitely take another class from her in the future.  I was able to bring in some of my questionable items (which I call flopps) and she spent the time with the class and told us what went wrong and what I should try next time.  If you are a fused glass artist and have an opportunity to take a class from Jayne, I highly recommend it.  I was shocked to find that I already owned one of her books but was too nervous to try anything in it.  I have since ordered a 2nd book from her.  Here's her website if you want to check out who she is http://www.jpglassworks.com/ 

I took a class on how to make bubbles in glass from Joseph2bears.  He was a great teacher.  His wife also assisted in the class. His ratios in making the bubble mixture were very different than I've used to make bubbles.  He gave me some great ideas that I can't wait to try.  I would recommend this class if you want to learn a few new things from another really great teacher.  Here's his website http://www.joseph2bears.com/

I could have passed on my third class given by Ann Sanborn.  I felt it was a complete utter waste of time and money.  I feel that the Glass Expo is doing a terrible service to people by continuing to offer this class, but I think it's political because she's on the board or something like that.  All of my neighboring classmates were also completely frustrated with the class and were ready to leave before the class was 1/2 over.  In a 7 hour class we got about 45 minutes of instruction.  She was completely scattered the entire day which was very frustrating.  She would start to tell us something that was in the class description and then she would start talking about something else.  It was hard to get information from her, from start to finish.  We got bits and pieces of information and had to fill in the blanks throughout the day or ask her to go back to previous discussions to clarify what she was saying.  A lot of what she talked about seemed like a sales pitch.  She told us how much she charges for her services and add on's if she's going to do a website for you.   Every web site she used as examples was not completely finished, including her own website.  She told us her website is a work in progress and she's still working on it.  She told us what some of her customers had done wrong, but she never showed us what a fabulous website looks like so we can get an idea of the direction we should go.  I see her name on a lot of magazine articles, so maybe she has some concepts that are useful.  I'm not really sure.  I'm going to read some of her articles and if I learn something from them.  I don't want to dis her too bad if she was just having an off day, but I wish it hadn't been on my time or with my money. 

Even with one bad class, this expo was still the highlight of my year.  I met a lot of great people, exchanged ideas and bought a lot of glass and supplies.  I can't wait to try out some of my new techniques.

I hope to have some pictures of my items posted on here in the next few weeks when I have time, so check back.

Vegas baby!

I can't wait for April.  I'll be jetting off to Vegas to take some glass classes.  I can't wait to get out of here, it's been so cold and cloudy. 

One of the classes I'll be taking will be, how to make bracelets and watch bands from glass.  Mother's Day is coming and I hope to be able to make my mom a special watch.  It takes some wire wrapping skills which I'm not very good at, but I can't wait to give it a try.  I've heard that making bracelets takes special talent to get just the right size.  We'll see how it works out.  I hope to make one for my grandma and my step mother for mother's day. 

My second class will be learning how to make bubbles in and on top of the glass.  I've figured out how to make bubbles in the glass, but the bubbles on the glass has been something I've searched everywhere to figure it out.

My third class will be a marketing class, which I really need.  I can't wait to see what else I can do better. 

So, April will be a great month of learning.  Hopefully I'll find some time to sit at the pool and enjoy the sunshine in between classes.  I'm not sure how warm Vegas is during April, but I hope warmer than here.

You may not see any new glass until June because I'm in school until mid May and then my friend Cora and I will be celebrating our 40th birthday's in Arizona.  I'll post my pictures of any items I make during my classes here on my blog.

Meanwhile you can always check out both of my websites and let me know what items you like.  What would you like to see more of?  addicted2glassfusion.artfire.com and addicted2glassfusion.etsy.com.

I've also started tweeting.  I can't believe it, but it's starting to take shape.  You can find me at http://twitter.com/addicted2glass.