Sterlingfest Preparations

I can't sleep. My mind is jumpy. And yet I am completely focused on one thing: Sterlingfest. Four more days of preparations and then it's the big day! My first person-to-person sales event. Somebody recently said that they thought it would be good for me because I'd be able to see people's reactions to my stuff and learn from that. True. But what if it sends me into fits of tears because they think it's crap? ... but enough of that thought train...

Here's some of what I've got ready so far. First things first: My logo! It was designed by Chocolate Box Designs. Gotta give a shout out to Summer, who I love. She also designed my business cards and I plan to someday hire her to re-do my ChicMade shop banner on Etsy to match.



Here is the first display thing I made. It's a sheet of thick cardboard covered with this cool, suede-y fabric in a great grey. Then I used silver ribbons pulled across it to hang things on. The color of the fabric and the ribbon really didn't photograph very well. It looks really classy. You can also see most of the earrings I've made on it. I think I'll make another of these.

Here is all my "inventory" so far (actually I've made another necklace, two bracelets, and two earrings since I took this picture). I set all this out and learned two things: One, I've made my goal of having 100 items made before this weekend, and Two, I need to make more gold things.


Here's a close up of some of my favorite necklaces. Once I figured out how to do that dropped bead thing (you can see it best on the dark necklace - how one bead in the center is down lower than the others?) I really took off on making necklaces. I hope other people like it as much as I do!

Here's my bracelet supply. The newbies in this category are the memory-wire bracelets. They're hard to see from this angle but there's a red one at the top, slightly left and the bracelets on either side of that are too. I really need more gold.


Here's a few of the pendants I've been working one. I'm still practicing with the "wire wrapping" technique that these use. But a few of them have come out good so far and there they are. I've even already sold one on ChicMade!

After I took those first photos I decided that the earrings really needed "earring cards". So these are blank bookmarks that I bought at the craft store, folded in half, poked holes with a pin, and stamped a cute little chic (which you can barely see in this photo). I'd love to have had the time to have some printed with my new logo, but I'm down to the wire here! This way I can write the price on the card.
And here are the bags that I'll use for purchases. It took a lot of tweaking before I liked these. It's not easy making a brown paper lunch sack NOT look like a brown paper lunch sack. In the end I ran the purple paper through my paper crimper and I'm much happier with them now. I also just bought white bags that I'll use too with the same purple paper on it.

So there you have it - my preparations so far. I still need to pick up a folding table from my in-laws and figure out which table coverings I'm going to use. My dear, handy Dad made me two bracelet displays and a necklace tree that are in the mail. And I'm still anxiously awaiting the arrival of my business cards. Every spare second I've got I'm down in the basement beading away. I hit a bit of a bump, creatively, this morning and finally decided that some gold chain would solve all my problems. So off I ran to Michaels, and sure enough, I'm good now. I also need to get a big poster-sized print of my new logo. I was all ready to do it at Costco but apparently you can only do that by mail and I don't have time for that anymore! The only way I get any sleep this week may involve an over the counter drug that ends in "PM".

And here, just because I couldn't resist, is a shot of Richard and Isaiah reading. It was just too sweet to not post.