Friday, June 10, 2011

Preppin' for the Emmys!

So I'm finally making some progress on my 100 pairs of earrings for the Emmy's Swag bags. It's a lot of prep and organization, I actually have a chart built up on Mindmeister.com to try and keep myself organized and on track! There's just so many things to get ready, here's a sample:

Packaging for the bags: box with label, business card, info card, cute organza bags, etc.
Display: which pieces to include, what type of display (bought or made myself)
Marketing: press releases, blogging, twittering, etc.
Making the earrings: ordering enough supplies for 200 copper teardrops (100 pairs of earrings), marking, cutting, sanding, hammering, oxidizing, applying clear coat, making 200 earwires (cutting, shaping, filing ends smooth, hammering...)
Misc. extras: getting a FedEx account, assembling bags, and on and on and on

Whew! It's exhausting just listing all that I need to do, imagine actually doing it all. It's a good thing I have about 3 months to get it all finished! That seems like a lot, but with all the other things going on; shows, jewelry making, articles to write, website to upkeep, wholesale accounts to persue... it ends up not being that much time at all! :P Luckily I'm really good at assembly lining my production!

Here's a few photos of my work in progress:

Lots of sheets of copper; carefully marked out to save materials. 
I was lucky enough to have access to a huge metal guillotine cutter to cut the sections. 
I'll finish marking the teardrop patterns and they'll be ready to cut out.

Here's the copper, sections cut, teardrop shapes in place and cutting has begun. 
I can only do 20 or 30 at a time before my hand gives out, 
it's not easy to cut shapes from sheet metal with tin snips!

About half of the earwires cut with ends rounded and smoothed.

The ear wires have been shaped and hammered 
(hammering hardens them and gives them a better shape)

 Here's my little package that's going into the swag bags! 
Notice all the labels? I definitely don't want them to forget who made these, 
I'm even going to scribe A.W.E. onto the back of the copper!

Well, I'm off to cut some more teardrops. Stay tuned for more updates!

6 comments:

  1. What a great idea to have an organization calendar! Good work!

    i love love love the earrings! Great packaging too!

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  2. Thanks Shannon! I usually don't bother with the organization charts (too complicated) but there's just too many things for this to keep track of on post-its! lol.

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  3. You're rockin' & rollin' along! Love the earrings, and the calendar is a great idea. :)

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  4. I'm right there with you Deb! You're a bit more organized than me though :) The earrings look great!!

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  5. Thanks Tina! The MindMeister thing is really cool, actually and you can have a free account for up to 3 projects I think... I like free. :)

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  6. I KNOW Autumn, sooo much to do. Poor you though, all the sawing and soldering too! I specifically chose something that was bold and a statement but that didn't need sawing or soldering. And these earrings are super popular at my shows so hopefully they'll be a hit and actually get worn and not "regifted" by the celebs. Lol. --did you decide on your display yet?

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