Eeee!! Okay, please allow me a moment to indulge myself and squee mercilessly.
So, remember in my last post (on LJ) where I was whining about feeling guilty because I only had a dozen pairs of foot jewelry made for my step-sister Linda to sell for me at an Art Festival down in Point Roberts? Well, I did try last week before this weekend to make some more for mum to pick up on the way down, but I found I was running severely low on wire, chain, and cord coils, all of which make up the foundation of my jewelry. I made one more pair and was forced to stop, since I was all out of wire.
I also found that, oh shit, I was incredibly low on funds, otherwise I would have totally gone out and bought more supplies to make more. It’s hard, though, to make dozens upon dozens of these things when you’re constantly having to replenish your supplies for them, which leaches away money you haven’t yet made because you haven’t sold any. Umm… not sure if I’m making much sense. Anyway, yes, so I felt bad, and only had one more pair made,and felt terrible for only providing a dozen when Linda wanted fifty to sell for me.
Anyway, so Mum went off to Point Roberts for the weekend, and I heard nothing until I gave her a call today. And guess what? They were a bug success!
They only sold six pairs out of the dozen I gave them, but mum said that was mostly because of a lack of variety. People loved them, and wanted them in certain colours but of course there were only the ones I made. Apparently green and blue were all very popular, as well as gold, which was pretty much what I expected!
That’s Linda in the pink dress in the foreground, sitting next to the little table with my jewelry on it. Eee! Major squeeing moment!
The biggest thing that shocked me, though, was the unending generosity and awesomeness of my step-sister Linda in all of this. She went out there with a table and sat around in the hot sun, singing my praises and modelling/showing off her own pair, and- get this- refused to sell them for $20 CAD/pair. She upped the price on them to $25 USD/pair, and that’s how they sold. And she also refused to accept any sort of commission on them, and made sure the entirety of the money went to me. Oh gosh, what an absolute sweetie.
The table of my foot jewelry after they had already sold a few. They look so pretty on that gorgeous beige scarf Linda used to cover the table!
Mum said they sold a lot more of them at the Farmer’s Market they went to in the morning as opposed to the Art Festival, and many people were asking, apparently, whether Linda would be back in subsequent weeks so they could buy some later. And Linda assured them she would be, which means agh, I’ve got to get to work!
Linda told mum she wanted to get a couple glamour shots done, so she took this gorgeous photo of Linda wearing her pair out at the beach in Point Roberts. This is going on my website/Etsy store once I get it up and running! 
Also; when I was back in Mission a few weeks ago and got my hair cut, I showed them to my awesome hairdresser Cie, and she wanted me to make her a white pair. I did so, and mum gave it to her last week when she went to have her hair cut, and Cie gave the hair cut to her for free in exchange for the foot jewelry. She liked it so much! She also wanted me to make her around ten or so pairs for her to have for sale at the hair salon too. Oh geeze!
Mum’s right, it seems I’ve got a little business going on here! I think I’m actually going to have to get serious about recording inventory and costs and such when I buy these supplies so I know exactly how much money I’m making versus the supplies I’ve bought. I’ll probably have to research cheaper alternatives to Michael’s, DeSerres and the Beadworks store in Granville Island for supplies…
Gosh, I’m just so amazed, I never would have thought they’d be this successful. Indeed, they definitely wouldn’t be if I hadn’t had the help of my mum and Linda to spread the word about them! I’m not entirely sure what to do next, haha, except perhaps replenish my supplies and get back to making them, now that I’d made some more money off of them!
Right, I’m done squeeing about that now. =D Hope all you British Columbians had a great long weekend!
EDIT: Mum also told me about this lady that Linda knew, who owned a ladybug farm somewhere in Point Roberts. This lady is obsessed with ladybugs, was wearing a ladybug t-shirt, and apparently wore nothing but red. She saw them and thought they were lovely, so Mum immediately showed her the red pair I had made with the ladybug beads, and that was it, she was sold. I’m so glad they went to someone who liked them so much!
She also said how Linda would tell people that I was making the jewelry to sell to finance going to Art School (which is pretty true!), and that was enough for some people to get in on it for a want to support me. People are so nice!
(X-Posted to my LiveJournal.)
