It's been raining like a tropical monsoon for a few days now, last night I saw the biggest display of lightning light up the entire sky over the city.  Driving home from dropping some new friends off at the airport, Jo and I saw a HUGE lightning bolt flash horizontally across the sky from way up in the mountains all the way across town and over the entire city!  It was amazing!  The dog did a bit of freaking out at the thunder, proceeded to shake for about an hour, and then finally fell asleep between us in bed.

The rain stared on Friday, and we went camping on Saturday.  We headed up to the North Shore early and I did the market as usual...dropped off the crew at the campsite to get set up while I spent my time at the market chatting with new friends and trying to stay warm and dry...We got pretty lucky and stayed mostly dry at the campsite!  Good timing I guess because by the time we left on Sunday it was raging all over again!

Sunrise light on the way to N.S.

Blurry, yes.  Awesome, also yes.

Last week I had a few custom orders to work on in the studio...It's so awesome to have these special request projects to work on!  I LOVE making something with someone specific in mind, I find myself thinking about them wearing it, loving it, and generally being stoked on their new one of a kind creation.  As someone who is starting to scratch the surface of a successful indie business, I can't possibly express all the ways it makes me feel when someone chooses to spend their hard earned money on something I made!!!  Every time I make a sale, I am so thankful and get super fired up for all the ways I want to see my business grow. 

Two custom order spinner rings, and one heavily textured wide band ring.

Some of the new cards that I just got in the mail!

Beautiful mess.

These little ladies were my grandmothers, I remember them always sitting atop her dresser with all her jewelry boxes.

 

 

 I forgot to take pictures of the "after"...as in, with oxidation.  The spinners have happily flown away to their new owners, the wide band ring, I still need to photograph and get in the shop.

In other studio news, I had one of those nights last night when my soldering skills were failing me...I had to take a few deep breaths and move on to other projects.  I'll get back to my bezels later on, and hopefully they will decide to cooperate!

Until then, it's lots of sawing, shaping and planning for the next batch of creations...And, lots of dreaming, planning, and manifesting some of the plans I have in my head.  I have a million wants for my business, and so many of them I don't know how to go about creating.  Today I feel full of doubt, uncertainty, and wonder at how in the heck I'm supposed to go about getting all these topics sorted out.  I wish I had a magical guru/mentor/advisor to answer my questions.  The bottom line is that I want to get my work seen by more people, whether that be in retail locations or getting more traffic at the market on Saturdays.  I've been scoping out some local shops and making lists of places I think may be a good fit for my work.  I fear that my best market/customers/locations, are not really the kind of places that we have here in Honolulu. The retail scene here is small aside from the chain stores at the mall, and the local boutiques and galleries are so focused on either very "Hawaiian" jewelry or the very trendy stuff that can be found anywhere...I know I may be extra pessimistic today, but I can't help feeling like I'm living in the wrong town for the ultimate success of my business. 

Whew...that sounds really bad, but what I mean is that I realize that my opportunity for exposure here is more limited than if I were living back in Seattle, with weekly craft markets frequented by thousands of people, and tons of boutiques that thrive on the products they carry being unique, handmade, and one of a kind.   I love living here and wouldn't trade back if I could, it just means I have to be even more determined to get my work out there, and even more motivated to MAKE IT WORK!

Thanks cyberfriends, for being an ear to my thoughts, ramblings, and general brain dump today!
Aloha!