A customer told me that their friends weren't able to come yesterday and were still interested in any pieces left over so I decided to post on instagram and let people know that there were some necklaces that didn't sell and if anyone was interested in stopping by today they could. I had never done that before (with previous shows) but it was definitely a good call. I spent the whole day taking pictures of the left over pieces and letting people stop by randomly throughout the day. I ordered this white box off amazon for photography purposes that came with lights as well. I used it today and wasn't super pleased with the way the pictures turned out. I am going to keep working with it and see if I can get the pictures to be how I imagined. I am going to spend the rest of the day uploading the pictures taken at the show and using the new photo box to the website. I plan to announce the website tomorrow via my instagram. I encountered an issue I didn't plan for with the website though. I wasn't aware that to use an eCommerce site you have to have a Merchant Account, so tomorrow I am going to the bank to see if the current business account I have with Suntrust will also work as a Merchant Account and if not what to do from there. Once all that is sorted the website should be totally ready, otherwise everything is ready you just can't check out.

Final Trunk Show

Yesterday may have been LONG but today was LONGER. I woke up around 7:30 to finish making necklaces and setting everything up. I had set up a fair amount yesterday so setting up the items wouldn't be the long part, it would be labeling them. This is always my least favorite part. So for each necklace I add a tag to it with an inventory number and a price, it doesn't seem that hard but it sure is annoying. I stopped making necklaces around 11:30 to allow myself an hour to label everything and attach the tags and still be done with 30 minutes to spare. My very first trunk show was stressful because I hadn't tagged anything until about 30 minutes before and I had no idea how long it would take. I finished tagging everything around 12:20 and had my first customer around 12:30, it is not uncommon that people come early so I have realized that I need to prepare for that. The show went on from 1:00 to 3:30. Typically I get the most people from 1:00-1:30 and then for the next two hours people come sporadically. Overall the show went pretty well! Each show is so different so it's hard to compare them to each other and base how well a show did compared to a previous one. After the show I went through and checked over everything that sold and everything that was left. Once all of that was done I took a break from all things jewelry.

Below are some pictures of how i set up the show! The last two pictures are pictures of the pave diamond table and the very last picture includes pendants and clasp necklaces. Those necklaces are interesting because you buy the necklace separate from the pendant and it is interchangeable therefore you can buy one or several and switch them out.

                              

Today was LONG. After finishing up at school around 1:10 I had to run some last minute errands for the show. I use organza bags in all my shows and usually have plenty but forgot to order some more so I had to stop at the bead store to pick up some. Typically I order from this website because they are a whole lot cheaper but since it was so last minute I had to get from the bead store. I also had to stop at the bead store to ask how they suggested closing off a certain necklace. I don't work with leather often, mainly because I hate working with it, but it is usually a big seller at my shows and people love leather so I try to have some pieces. I made these new style leather and pave diamond necklaces and wasn't sure the best way to add a clasp or some sort of closure so I asked the people working. I don't think I have mentioned this before but I am actually kind of close with the owners (as you can imagine due to the unreal amount of time I end up spending there,) and they often help me with some of my pieces. After stopping at the bead store I had to get tags from Office Max. They carry hanging tags and sometimes jewelry tags (smaller hanging tags) so I usually just use those for my price tags. One thing I hope to change soon is my method of tagging. It is tedious, the tags are distracting and not pretty, and a lot of times they fall off so I then have to tell people the prices rather than them just being on a tag. I got home from these errands around 5:30 and then began to making all the necklaces that needed to be made. I stayed up until around 2 am making necklaces and setting up the displays.

I spent the majority of the day at school because it was our last day in our uniforms and I didn't want to miss any of that. After school I made necklaces for about 3 hours and 30 minutes. I have realized that I am so bad at time management. I still have a lot of necklaces to make and it is two days before the show. I'll be honest though, it is like this for pretty much every show. Basically I have a ton to do tomorrow and Saturday morning.

I finally met David. David is Laura Pearce's jewelry designer and maker. David designs pieces and welds them himself. I sat with him for about 2 hours and learned all about how he became a jewelry designer and the process of actually making the pieces. I got to look at his designs and he showed me pictures of the step by step process to make custom designed diamond earrings.I will talk more about everything he told me in my defense & presentation. I really enjoyed talking to David and learning what he does everyday. It was so interesting how similar his process was compared to mine. He had several sketches of rings or necklaces he planned to make that looked just like the ones I make (but obviously a lot more legitimate and expensive.) I did decided that I definitely want to look into welding classes because I think that might be the next step for my jewelry. After going to Laura Pearce I made some jewelry.

Today was super busy. I started the day off at Laura Pearce for an hour running errands and discussing the plan for tomorrow. Tomorrow I am finally meeting with her jewelry designer to learn all things jewelry. After that I needed to get another pack of clasp so I ran to the bead store quickly before I had class at 12. Luckily the bead store I most commonly go to is on Cobb parkway so getting from there to class was easy. After class I had an SGA meeting. Later, once I got home, I made some bracelets. I don't normally make bracelets but they are usually a big hit at the shows. They are popular because they are probably the cheapest item there so if you aren't looking to spend much that is the item for you. Around 3 some friends came over so I could take pictures of them wearing my jewelry. These pictures are all for the lookbook. This lasted for about an hour. Later that day I dressed my sister up in a few outfits and styled the jewelry with them. There are two sections to the lookbook page, the jewelry styled with outfits and the jewelry on and layered. The outfit section is for the buyers to see how to wear it with clothes and the on and layered section is to see how to layer pieces and just how the pieces look on and where they hit. I uploaded the pictures to the website and edited it. Later I made some pave diamond pieces. I usually try to get these done earlier because they take longer to make & are the more expensive pieces so it is nice to have more of these available at the show.

After organizing all of the necklaces that needed to be made this week I realized I was missing a few materials. What I mean when I say this is, I typically don't buy enough clasp for the amount of necklaces I plan to make, or I realize I don't have enough long necklaces so I need to go get some material to make some more. I went to the beads store to pick up the missing materials but my business checking and savings account were running low so I had to take a loan from the bank of Mom. I have had to do this several times before shows because in order to make money you have to spend money, and lots of it. I keep all the receipts and then tally up how much I owe her in the end. Taking out this "loan" creates a big problem though, I now HAVE to make at least the amount of money I spent of hers. Of course I would like to make a profit but it doesn't always work like that at shows. So the issue is that I know have a minimum that I have to meet. A lot of times at shows I make too many necklaces or just don't sell enough and end up with only a small profit and a lot left over. I eventually sell the left over pieces so in the end I have a greater profit but not that day. I plan to put anything that doesn't sell from the show on Saturday up on my new website. Speaking of, I worked more on the website after going to the bead store. Then after that I made some jewelry.