Since Ree's Bangles was started as a fundraising effort for my trip to Honduras, I feel it necessary to mention that I did get all my money and went to Honduras June 26- July 2. It was amazing, a great time. I met so many wonderful people, made a few new friends, and got to meet my precious Nancy! I would do it again in a heartbeat!
So after returning home, I went to the First Annual Street Festival in Lennoxville on August 20. I had a great spot for my table. It was a nice day, although there was a bit of rain at one point. Tons of vendors were there, which was pretty cool to see. I didn't take the chance to do much investigating, but I was very impressed by what I saw, and again felt out of place. These people are GOOD! Anyway, I made a few small sales that day, but nothing extraordinary, and the rest of the summer/fall went the same way, which wasn't very encouraging. Especially considering that this is currently my main source of income. :/
However, during October and November I received 2 special orders thru Etsy, both very challenging. The first (a Queen Bee ornament) was a challenge as I hadn't quite learned to communicate with my customer as I should have. So I had to start over, which was very frustrating. We got it all figured out in the end, and she loved it. The second order was for a bunch of scrapbooking/card making charms that would be sold with rubber stamps, so the charms had to relate to the stamp, and I had to make multiples of the same things. They also had to be small enough and flat enough for cards. So this was also challenging, and there was some miscommunication there too, but everything worked out in the end. Since those 2 sales, I've also had 2 more via Etsy for clay figurines/ornaments I had posted there. And I decided to try making some Christmas ornaments, which I got really into and made 2 each of 4 different designs. Then my sister and I went to a craft sale in Magog on November 27 and the ornaments were a big hit! I also made a great contact there who gave me some potentially useful info about other sales and stores where I might feature my creations. And now I've got a ton of orders to fill for ornaments, via Facebook. Very busy! But it's a good busy.
I also have some friends getting married this coming summer and have been asked/offered to make the cake toppers! These will be a challenge as well, since they both want toppers which are twice as big as the characters I'm used to making. I've got a super cute idea in my head for both of them, but I don't know if I'll be able to bring it to "life." So that will be my project after Christmas - two wedding cake toppers!
I'm almost always open to new projects and special orders, so if anything comes to mind, please bring it up and I'll let you know what my schedule's like or if I can picture what you picture. If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you will have noted that I work in phases. First it was the jewelry, then the sewing projects, now the clay. Soon enough I'm hoping to be back at sewing.
I forgot to mention button jewelry. Over the summer I found a really great idea for making flowers out of buttons, and putting pin backs on them. I had to try it! So I did, and they have been pretty big hits. I made different sizes, and tried barrettes too. I'm also going to work on rings.
That's all for now. I hope to update again, before another 6 months! Thanks to everyone who follows and/or reads this!
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