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.

Of course, I had to go to the beads store again. Although it would be nice to knock it all out in one run (meaning get all the supplies in one visit and be done then), that never happens. I am going out of town tomorrow to UGA and although it might sound weird, it is pretty important that I wear some of my new jewelry and get my friends to as well. College campus are a great way to advertise. A lot of my sisters older friends at UGA wear my jewelry and it has become quite popular there. I hope to do a trunk show somewhere there in the future. Anyways, my point being that I need to make several new necklaces tonight so my friends and I can advertise tomorrow. I spent the rest of the day making these necklaces.

The website is finally coming along. I worked on it some more today for about an hour and a half. So far I am just using old pictures I had taken of my jewelry throughout the site but will definitely need more pictures. Currently I have the home page done (until I can add more recent pictures), the about me page done, and am making a template for the Shop page, the Lookbook page, and the FAQ page. The lookbook page will basically be a gallery that contains images of people wearing the jewelry and people dressed up in a complete outfit wearing the jewelry so the viewers or buyers can get an idea of how I would like my jewelry styled. I am most excited to get some pictures for the Lookbook page.

I finally collected all my supplies today when I went to the bead store, except I use the word all loosely because there has yet to be a trunk show yet where I haven't forgotten or needed more of some material the day before. After getting all the new materials I sat down and made jewelry for about an hour and a half. I do a lot of organizing the materials before I actually begin making them. For the short beaded chain necklaces, the most popular typically, I cut 16" from the spool, another 1" and a half, get a clasp and choose the pendant then put all of the pieces in a small plastic bag. I usually make around 50 of these short beaded chain necklaces so this takes some time. In this hour and a half I was messing around with some new materials I had gotten and was trying to make a replica, or look alike of a necklaces I had seen online. It may sound weird but a lot of my time is spent online shopping or looking at pinterest because I always need to know what the popular style is. I began to work on my website later that day (finally.) I found what website I thought would work best with the type of site I wanted to make, and landed with wix.com, which is convenient because I have worked on wix before. I spent about 4 hours creating a template and buying a domain name and upgrading my wix account to an eCommerce site. So far I am pleased with how the website is going.

After finishing my classes at 3:00 I went to Laura Pearce's store. I ran an errand but mainly we talked about the upcoming week. She is leaving for New York tomorrow the rest of the week and weekend meaning I can't work with her at all this week so she wants me to come in all day Monday (the 20th) and the majority of the day Tuesday (the 21st.) I will finally get to sit down with David, her jewelry designer to talk about what he does there. I spent the rest of the day doing homework so I didn't get to the bead store, which is an issue because I need to get started on more necklaces for the show.

I used the list of necklaces I needed to make (made on monday) to create a list of materials needed to make those items. It usually takes me an hour or so to figure out exactly how many feet of chain I need and how many strands of labradorite (a semi precious stone I use a lot) and how many clasp, etc. When I first started making jewelry I drew out my designs then wrote down what I needed to create each neckalce, like the picture below. Included in the picture is how the necklace actually turned out.




































Now that I have been making necklaces for a while I don't usually have to draw out my designs I can pretty much guess how much material to get.

Today after class I went to get a quick bite then went home to go over all the pieces I had left over from the trunk show in Tuscaloosa. First I had to double check to make sure that my inventory list and what I actually had checked out. A lot of times when there are several people purchasing necklaces at the same time I forget to mark off what sold on the inventory list so it isn't always accurate. In that case I have calculate the amount of money I made that day vs. what I have on the inventory list and if I made more than I listed and am missing necklaces than that means I just forgot to mark off that someone bought it. The very first trunk show I did I had my mom and sister helping me check out but they both thought it was difficult and don't offer to help in that way anymore (and I don't blame then) so from now on it is just me checking people out and I often make mistakes. Luckily no mistakes that have been a big issue, just tedious for me to check later. So after I made sure the inventory list was correct, I had to think about what necklaces I needed for the upcoming trunk show. The main difference between the Tuscaloosa trunk show and the Atlanta trunk show will be the type of people that will come. Typically the Atlanta shows have a lot of kids my age as well as parents, the type of people that the Tuscaloosa show was lacking. I created a list of the short beaded necklaces that sold at the Tuscaloosa show that I need to make more of (they are the most popular at Atlanta shows with kids my age.) Not many of the long knotted necklaces sold so I won't have to make too many of those, which is good because they take a while to make (they are semi-precious stones on silk with knots in between each bead and a pendant.) Those necklaces most likely didn't sell because they usually range $75 to $115. In addition bracelets, which I don't usually make, are easy to sell at the Atlanta shows because they aren't very expensive. Finally, I have to plan to make several pave diamond pieces. The pave diamond (meaning crushed diamonds) necklaces are big for the parents and are relatively expensive so I didn't make any for the first show.

I had class from 10:55 to 3:00 then had a quick meeting with a teach until 3:30 then met with Laura Pearce at 4:00. I ran errands for Mrs. Pearce until about 5:15. Nothing jewelry oriented but like mentioned before, busy work is still work. Basically today I just ran errands, I didn't get to the bead store like I had hoped too but I will need to do that early next week after I have planned everything I need to make for the next show.

I took a break from anything jewelry related as the past few days were extremely busy. I didn't mention this before but I had also spent about 3 hours making jewelry saturday, 2 hours planning the show and 8 hours on sunday making jewelry. So not only were monday and tuesday packed with lots of driving and working, but the weekend was packed too.

Tuesday morning I woke up and drove home from Tuscaloosa. I had about a 30 min break after my 3 hour long car ride before I had to head to Laura Pearce's. I ran some errands for her and we discussed when I'm going to sit down with David, her jewelry designer, so he can explain the whole process to me. I am really excited to met with him. So far my errands have been busy work, which I do realize is a part of the job, but now I am really getting to know more about jewelry design.

Today was a long day to say the least. I woke up around 7 to finish tagging necklaces and making sure I had everything ready for the show. I had to bring two folding tables, table clothes, around 20 neck stands, trays and boxes as well as other display items, all the necklaces of course, the square credit card reader, extra cash for change, and an iPad to use with the credit card reader, so there was a lot to remember to do. I hadn't finished taking inventory completely so I used the 3 hour car ride to Tuscaloosa to write down every necklace I was bringing. My current way to take inventory is make up a number, assign it to a necklace, write a description, assign a price, figure out the quantity, and leave a column to check off if it had sold yet. Looks a little something like this

Inventory Number	Description	Price	Quantity	Sold
SG100	Arrowhead on chain (Black, gold or brown)	$35	4
SG101	Bar on chain (long, short, curvy, wave)	$30	4	S
SG102	Two coins layered	$34	1	S

So once I got to the Chi Omega house in Tuscaloosa I got my sister to let me in and I introduced myself to the house "mom" and thanked them for having me then began setting up. I was in a living room sort of room with several tables which was nice but all the tables were spread out so I realized that during the show a lot of people only came to one table not even noticing all the pieces on the other tables. I had my sisters and my mom to help me set up which was awesome considering I only had an hour to put everything out and in previous trunk shows I start the day before, considering they are typically in my own house. I don't really have a rhyme or reason for the way I arranged them this show, I usually separate by long or short or price but because almost everyone that was there hadn't seen my jewelry before I wanted to mix everything up so they would be able to see the variety. Here are some pictures of what the show looked like:

So overall the show went okay, not great compared to shows I've done before. The main issue was weather. It was pouring rain in Tuscaloosa that day and it is mainly a walking campus so not many people, myself included, wanted to leave their bed. In addition to weather my timing wasn't perfect, my sister told me lunch at the house was from 12:00 to 2:00 so I thought a show from 12 to 3 would be good and allow some people who went out to lunch would have some time after to stop by, but she mixed up the times and it was actually from 11:30 to 1:30, so I missed a bunch of the people who went at the beginning of lunch. Another mistake was advertising. I only posted about the show on my Instagram, which is what I usually do for home shows, but I made the mistake of not trying to reach out the people on Facebook. I overheard one girl who was looking around say "I wonder how Katie found out about this," so clearly I didn't do a great job of getting the word out. I asked my sister to post in her Chi Omega group and she did but she said they post a lot in there and it might have just gotten lost in all the post. All in all the show was fun and a different experience but not as successful as I had hoped it would be. Traveling with all the material was not as difficult as I had thought it would be so I would definitely be up to doing another show not in my house. I also gained a lot of Instagram followers from girls who hadn't followed me before so although I didn't make much money it was probably a good way to advertise. 

I ran several errands for Mrs. Pearce to start of my day. After several drop offs, I learned one about jewelry business, I might need to charge for personal drop offs (mainly for gas money), and one thing about myself in general, I am directionally challenged. I am excited to officially start my internship with Mrs. Pearce on Tuesday April 7th. She has decided that I will be most useful in helping with social media and sorting mailing list. After running errands I went to class from 12:00-1:10 then got some lunch, then went home to work on some jewelry. I got a few necklaces done but definitely need to finish a lot more this weekend before the trunk show. My biggest mistake for previous trunk shows was finishing making necklaces too late and having to rush while taking inventory. I plan to finish by mid-day Sunday so I have time to take inventory and make tags for all my pieces Sunday afternoon & monday morning. After making a few necklaces I headed to the bead store for a few supplies - I spent around $200.

Today went a little differently than I expected, I had originally planned to meet with Mrs. Pearce after school but she rescheduled. At 3, instead of meeting with Mrs. Pearce I just made necklaces for around 2 hours. I made around 12 short necklaces which was good because I was behind for the trunk show. Other than the necklaces made, today was mainly just time spent at school. Tomorrow I am working with Mrs. Pearce for the majority of the day which should be interesting. I am excited to see what she has for me to do and to see how her every-day schedule is.