The RESULTS of the BALC 2016–Blog Hop

April 1, 2016April 1, 2016 / Shari Lynn Gardner / 29 Comments

Hi everyone,

Well, I finished and NOW is the big reveal that everyone has been waiting for! No jokes, at least if it is, no one told me.

It is morning, I did not go to bed and have pulled an All-Nighter, and I’m still editing this post, taking pictures, editing the pictures, then placing the pictures into their spots, after changing the main focal of my line since I was being overly picky and I thereby ruined those cameos with no time left to order more. I had planned to use the traditional women cameos with my hand painted flair, but as I mentioned I started with the red and white resin cameo and painted her hair dark auburn.

Then I decided to mix it up with a different cameo, but after first painting her hair blonde and not liking her hair light, I changed her to a darker brown with red high-lights. But of course, this is where my picky-ness caused issues because I couldn’t possibly have both women have dark hair, so I changed the other to blonde and that is where my current nightmare began…I had to sand some of her first layers of paint because it was coming out to thick, but I sanded too far and she lost her face (lol..lost her features). I also had a strange reaction when I used a sealer over some of the cameos, which caused the paint and inks to run, almost like they melted, so some of my fairies, little girl cameos, and cats looked as if they are either possessed, crying and mascara has smeared their faces, and as I said above I didn’t allow enough time to order more pieces or time to fix everything.

Unfortunately, if I had listened to my mentor I would have never been in this predicament. One big lesson learned, because of experience is that I need to plan ahead. Brenda has been teaching myself and my classmates that we each need a plan, something in writing to refer to, to plan for mistakes, plan for extra needed pieces, and plan for chain that all matches that I am now out of…from this day forward I will have a plan. It’s okay to laugh, I’m laughing at myself, especially because I am getting quite tired and still have more to do.

The Build a Line Challenge Master Class, sponsored by B’Sue Boutique where I buy almost all of my jewelry making supplies, and taught by the absolute best mentor- Brenda Sue Lansdowne, owner/jewelry designer- has officially ended with our final reveal Blog Hop. Please, please, please continue the hop following the list of all of my other classmates, with the list at the end of my post. We have all worked so hard to finish our first, beginning lines of jewelry that everyone is sharing throughout the hop and I know that you will enjoy seeing what everyone else did as well as myself. I know that I am truly excited to see what else my classmates have created and Brenda Sue created her own line too, which I can’t wait to see.

Gold and Yellow Bird Spoon Neck and Pegasi

Brass and Black Key with porcelain roses and decal

staged collage-dk hair woman rose bracelet

Some of the biggest thoughts and advice if you’re considering taking next year’s class or if you have the opportunity to take a similar class, my thought is do it. There is never a good time, if you’re waiting, so throw all caution to the wind and just do it. Learning is something that can never get old and actually keeps us young..sshh, so I’ve heard…lol.

satin brass gold floral with hat woman dangle

These last three months have been so enlightening for me and not just in jewelry. Brenda shared so much with us, but also had each of us really taking an indepth look at ourselves. Where do each of us want to do with our jewelry and do we have big aspirations of being the next jewelry mogul? I am still not quite sure what I want. If someone had asked me one year ago where I thought I’ld be, had I even considered having my own Etsy store or for that matter, would I be selling my work? Then I would have said no. So much can happen to a person in such a short amount of time, it can be overwhelming. I have changed my mind so many times during the making process. I do know I will have a plan, even if it gets changed a lot because it will help to keep me on track, I will have deadlines for myself to keep the lines recreatable, easily ensuring I will have the key pieces in stock and in my inventory, if I decide to keep having a line. To me having a line is not really that different from creating OOAKs (One of a Kinds), except that the pieces will share pieces that are similar and that can be recreated, basically meaning more than one person can have that necklace or that bracelet. Maybe one person likes brass, or the “yellow gold look,” but someone else likes silver, with a line both people can get “the look” or color they want. Also, while there is one top piece that is the starter piece, it might even be a OOAK, the line will share pieces of this design for all levels of the price pyramid, meaning if your budget only allows you to purchase something from the bottom level, you can still get the same quality because the bottom pieces are held to my standard of anything I make regardless of price. So if you see a pair of earrings that you like and then decide you like one of the necklaces a couple of weeks later and you got your taxes back or earned a commision, you can purchase those and they will go together perfectly.

For the final reveal I chose to use the resin floral cameos as my focus, but almost all of my cameo pieces are enhanced with my usual style of hand painting. I did use Gilder’s Paste in the silver, gold, black, and pinotage for each design I had in stock, and hand painted most with acrylic paints and a little Lumiere here and there. I also have some gorgeous acrylic stones and some decal pieces of glass cameos in limited supply, but all in all, everything whether it be the traditional woman’s portrait or fairies, unicorns, horses or cats, or the glass flowers, all relate to each other in some way creating some sub-lines within my line. The yellow bird, and porcelain and resin roses, rhinestones, and chain are prominent pieces and all going back to that one brass stamping that I just love for its design.

It’s funny I completely forgot, I’ve been participating in this class and as I was looking through my papers to look up reminders on what to talk about in our blogs and was reminded that there is actually a winner of best in class and a runner up. During the past three months, judges have been silently listening in on our class, except for the weekends some chose to give advice and tips, as Alumni of the class of 2015.

I, personally, would like to say “Thank You” to the Judges, Design Team Members and Admins, for taking your time to help Brenda with the class. I have learned so much from the discussions and your words of encouragement. And, not to put her last, but Thank you, thank you, thank you Brenda. I am so happy you are in my life.

Now, please go visit my classmates and when you have time, stop by my Etsy store https://www.etsy.com/shop/SLGJewelryDesigns where I have mostly OOAKs (but that will change once I place an order for more supplies and get my new line of Cameos a bit more organized, then I’ll decide what else to make. I also have some gorgeous vintage pieces for sale too.

Hope to see you all soon, enjoy your day..

Good-Night..I’m going to bed, its 8am.

Here is the hopping list!

Brenda Sue Lansdowne Jewelry Making Outside the Box

http://www.bsueboutiques.typepad.com

Diana Buynak Butterfly Emporium Ceramic Studio

http://butterflyemporium.indiemade.com/blog

Irene Hoffman, Heart’s Dezire by Irene

http://heartsdezirebyirene.wordpress.com

Clare Wells Nemeth, Creative Magick

http://www.craftingmagick.blogspot.com

Mary Reckmeyer, Afrayed Not

http://www.afrayedknot.net

Marcia Tuzzolino, Aurora Designs

http://auroradesignsjewelryblog.me

Elizabeth Wilks, Wearable Art by Lizzie

http://wearableartbylizzie.blogspot.com

Jeanette Rose Belmont, One Canvas At A Time

http://www.onecanvasatatime.com

Lyn Joy Reeve, A Journey From Jewels To Jubilation

http://lnreeve00.blogspot.com

Beth Trubman, The Journey of Jewelry

http://thejourneyofjewelry.blogspot.com

Carole Carlson, Bead Sophisticate

http://beadsophisticate.wordpress.com

Jann Tague, Clever Designs by Jann

http://janntague.wordpress.com

You are here:

Shari Gardner, SLG Jewelry Designs

https://slgdesigns.wordpress.com

Susan Bolton, Fern’s Place

http://www.fernsplace.org

Chris Kemp, Noodle Pie Bracelets

http://noodlepiebracelets.com

Susan Bowerman, Woodside Wireworks

http://woodsidewireworks.com/

Pamela Anger, Novegatti Designs

http://novegattidesigns.blogspot.com

Joan Donovan, Hailey’s Cottage

http://haileyscottage.com/

Alison Huie, Ally’s Baubles

http://www.allysbaubles.blogspot.com

Sharon Palac, Sharon’s Jewelry Garden

http://www.sharonsjewelrygarden.blogspot.com

Erica Olmos, Beeb’s Closet

https://beebscloset.wordpress.com

Erin Whitacre, Shattered Time Jewelry

https://shatteredtimejewelry.wordpress.com

Fran Sitton, Sitton Up Front

https://sittonupfront.wordpress.com

Ginger Hammond, Lynn Leigh Designs

https://lynnleighdesigns.wordpress.com

Paula Gaskill, Lovely LaylaBug Jewels

http://www.lovelylaylabugjewels.com/Blog.php

Mary Deis, The Rose Sword

http://theroseswordmdeis.blogspot.com

Renee Webb Allen, Small Stuff Design

http://smallstuffdesign.com

Valerie Tilghman, ArtJewelsandGifts

http://www.artjewelzdimensions.blogspot.com

Chris Cravens, Vintage Cravens

http://christinecravens.blogspot.com

Leslie Carver, Adorn Divine Designs

http://www.adorndivinedesigns.blogspot.com

Donna Parry, JewelryDonna

http://jewelrydonna.typepad.com

Gina-Marie Hammer, Tangles, Twists and Treasures

http://tanglestwistsandtreasures.com/blog/

Kelly Wymer, Winged Wisdom Enchantments

https://wingedwisdomenchantments.wordpress.com/

Blog Hop #2 for the BALC Master Class

February 25, 2016February 26, 2016 / Shari Lynn Gardner / 26 Comments

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Blog Hop #2 for the BALC Master Class, hosted by B’Sues Boutique. The owner and my mentor, Brenda Sue Lansdowne, whom has graciously given so much of her time and is teaching me as well as a group of 35 wonderful ladies how to Build a Line of jewelry that is cohesive, that can be reproduced in a limited edition, and what will sell. If you’re new to my blog, please feel free to look back at previous posts and you can read all about our first blog for this class, which was in the end of January. We each discussed what we had learned so far and we revealed what our theme would be for our lines.

In case you haven’t figured it out, my theme is Cameos. At first I wasn’t exactly thrilled to have cameos as my theme, but the more I have researched them, and started buying supplies for my line, I started to see just how much I could do with a simple cameo.

Just these two above, show how different they can be. The first one of the couple is an unsigned brooch and the second is an Avon Cameo, both of which I personally own.

There are so many options, vintage cameos with gorgeous hand painted pictures, to more modern cameos with decals depicting the same glorious scenes from old or entirely new . Today’s resin cameos have limitless possibilities and you can see from my pictures that I have options upon options: flowers, animals, people, fairies, unicorns, just to name a few. Here’s a few of my started pieces.

Over this past month we discussed making a line of jewelry versus just making One Of A Kinds (OOAK). We also had to ask ourselves where we wanted our jewelry making to go? Did we want to be a hobbyist, just making things we like and to give to family and friends as gifts; Or did we want to be Makers, selling our designs in an Etsy store, or on Amazon, or have a booth at craft shows or in an Antiques/Craft Mall. Lastly, did we want to go for that big brass ring and become production designers, where we could sell our pieces to big stores whom would pay a wholesale price and then sell our pieces for retail prices. Possibly becoming known for our brand, having clothing designers asking us to make jewelry that would go with their line. At this point, I’m not really sure what I want. I know I love making jewelry, and especially being able to add paint and make it mine. So with those closing thoughts, I will leave you with one more picture and the list of links for all of the other ladies in this class, so you can please “hop” to see theirs too. Thank you.