Once again the issue has come up as to why I sit around welding my jumprings. This time by my mom who apparently talked to someone who apparently know someone who makes chains and does quite well at what is probably the equivalent to the "Sunday Market." You know the kind, that food and crafts fair that pops up on the weekend with hippies selling tie dye t-shirts and hemp jewelry between the Funnel Cake stand and the guy selling metal sculptures of animals that only vaguely look like animals and can only be called such as it's "art." I don't mean to rag on those kinds of markets, there is some cool shit there, but there's also a lot of weird shit there and well, let's face it, there's crap there too. But to me, it equates to selling to the Renaissance Faire crowd, you know, the people looking for "Chainmaille" Jewelry (as I have stated before, most people erroneously call a number of chains chainmail simply because of the fact that the only people really making those weaves anymore are people who made chainmail.)

I didn't have a good answer for her at the time. Just "That's how I make my stuff, it's a quality issue." I'm not one of those people that does well on the spot so I thought about it. Why do I weld my stuff? For one thing, some chains can't be made without welding/soldering. My Helm Rail Bracelet for instance. Short of magic, that chain would be impossible without welding. I can't even imagine trying to make that thing by soldering it. There are also the chains the loop in loop style of chains, which closed loops that are woven together rather than link in link style chains. While I've only been doing the link style chains so far, I do plan on going into the loop style chains.

But there's another reason. That guy sells to people in markets and probably Ren Faires from the sounds of it. His work is probably twice the size of mine (while I could be wrong, that's usually the case.) I'm not looking to sell to the Ren and Art Fair people. The shows I'd have to do would be the ones where people sell a piece of pottery for $500 or a wood carving of a fish for $1500.

That's when I realized it. It's the simplest way to explain it in a way almost everyone can understand. It's the difference between a watch and a Rolex. You can by any old watch for $25 to $50. Can buy a really nice one for quite a bit more. Or you can buy a Rolex for a shitload more. But would you buy a Rolex with a neoprene band? No, you expect it to be made with the same material as the casing.

I'm not going to sell a gold or platinum chain unwelded. No one will buy it, it's that simple. My product is meant for the higher end jewelry market and they expect quality. So I don't care how successful someone else selling unwelded chains to everyone else, unless they're selling to the people who buy high end jewelry, it's got very little to do with me.

One thing I hate about trying to design jewelry is that I have to fight with it. I try to do it in my head as much as possible because it's really annoying (and potentially costly) to fight with it while making it. The annoying thing is that this doesn't always work and I have to actually see or try things to see if they work. I don't doubt this has a lot to do with not having 10 or 20 years of experience. I've spent the past week fighting with a design, not particularly complicated or anything, just a matter of connection and I've kind of whittled it down and simplified it, but that raises some other issues. I managed to fix those kinds of issue with my last piece, and this isn't nearly as complicated.

Currently trying to add my chains to more normal jewelry pieces as inlays and design elements. Actually accomplishing that, however, is challenging. I've only got one piece really kind of in the works and that's been on hold since my welder broke, think I'll get back to that shortly and may wait a bit on my other idea.

My mom is turning into my sales/funding person. This is both a relief and highly annoying. Going to have to pay her and considering I'm not even sure I can make a living and supporting myself, not sure how taking on a partner is going to work. Would be one thing if I was just going to repay her, but she's been weaseling her way in for awhile. For shows this will be good, as long as she's not on assignment at least. Having Asperger's, I don't deal well with people and she does.

She's also been talking to some gallery in Washington I guess and wants me to bring stuff out when I go out there to show them. I'm still really against this kind of thing because of the massive pay cut. I hate working. Selling something and half the price means I have to work twice as hard to make the same money (assuming it sells), and then I'm probably going to have to give half of that to my mom as it is, which means I have to work 4 times as hard. Considering how time consuming my work is, volume is not an option.

Didn't make it past the Saul Bell Award preliminary judging.

Going to sulk for a while, as required by my coping process.

May have found a company that will make the waxes from my CAD stuff. Going to call and see what kind of prices they charge. I never got a response from the last company I tried to contact, so going to see what this company has to say. It's a supply company, so they're likely going to be easier to deal with. If things work out with them, I'll probably start working more seriously on some stuff, up until now I've just kind of been tooling around and learning the system and such.

For some of those stones my mom got me, I definitely want some really nice pieces to put them in. So hopefully this will work out.

I love Friday the 13th, I always have such good days. I've had an unusually good week overall, but one of my best friends has had an extremely crappy week, so sort of evens out how I feel about it. But none the less, had a good week personally. Got a laptop, got my welder back, and today I apparently got some gems. My mom went to a gem show today and bought me some stuff. Haven't seen it and not sure I will until I go out to where she's stationed for Christmas. But she apparently got me some opals and a very expensive color change sapphire. I believe she got it directly from the stone cutter himself, so it was significantly cheaper. I believe it's 1.77ct and would be valued at $1500 a carat or something at retail. Changes from blue to purple. So not only is it one of my preferred stones, it's in my colors. Sort of don't want to sell it because of that, but it's probably too big for anything I'd make for myself anyway.

Well, just got up so I think it's time to find me some breakfast.