Studio Saturday with Erin Prais-Hintz

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

This week's winner is Kell, who likes to make pretty things in between teaching classes, grading papers and conducting research for her PhD in Chemistry. Wow! You won a lampwork focal from Lori Anderson!  Just email Miss Lori by clicking here and she'll get that right out to you!  

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 "It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark." ~ Howard Ruff

Being prepared is a great thing to be. Being a procrastinator rather than a planner, I am sometimes caught unawares when opportunities come flooding my way.

And I can tell you that it is raining chances right about now.

One of my opportunities is an art show. I only do one show a year, small potatoes to what some of my colleagues do, but it is enough to drive me to drinking. Orange juice with some vitamin C is in order to get me through the next week and a half with my sanity intact (*splash of vodka optional, who's with me? ;-).

I am always thinking of this one show throughout the entire year... updating my booth configuration (L shaped or U?)... buying banners in January that I have yet to use (and then buying yet another one just a month ago)... seeing potential display items all around (like the paper towel holder that I picked up at Hobby Lobby and my vintage dress form named Pearl)... considering what I should bring to sell (more earrings this year? bracelets? custom order forms? and at what price point?). The only thing that I don't have to worry about is money. This show is a fundraiser for the Women's Fund of Portage County called A.R.T.S. Night (A Reason To Shop) and they tally all the orders and take all the payments which means that all I need to do is kick back with a glass of wine and chat up the customers. (My kind of show when you get to drink wine ;-)

{A shot of my booth BEFORE I put any jewelry on the displays. And then I never got around to taking a picture WITH the jewelry on the displays. Sheesh! Notice that my neighbor had rather large and slightly garish paintings. Which is what prompted me to buy the banners to put some space between us!}

I like this show because it is small (only about 50 vendors, all art), short (only about 4 hours) and has the clientele in my hometown that I know should be buying my things (and it isn't every woman, just women with discretionary income who appreciate fine handcrafted things! ;-). The ticket price is high at $25 which means that people have told me they are less likely to buy because they already made their 'donation' at the door. That has always bothered me. But this year I have a glimmer of a plan.

{Practice booth set up in my dining room back in January to see how the banners will work. Splendid! They show some of my best work, and hide the garish paintings in the booth next door. I didn't have all my displays, hence the flea market look on the tables, I am hoping all my newish displays will look better than this.}

Last year I was using this show as my market research for what has evolved into the 'simple truths' line of pendants and components. At that time I only had a spark of an idea and decided that I needed to experiment with different materials for the message. I tried bezels with resin with beautiful Japanese chiyogami papers. Then there were the stamped dog tag style in copper. And finally etched metal. All of them were great, but the stamped dog tags won out from this 'research.' I am not the best at the whole pounding on metal thing, probably since I have so many other fun tools and beads to play with that I haven't experimented enough. Around here they were seen as edgy and cool and everyone snapped them up. But I knew that to succeed I needed a much larger audience, like Etsy, and in the whole wide world I am not nearly the best with metal.

As luck would have it I got detoured in my plan and wound up with a block of polymer clay in my hand. I haven't looked back since and I think that was the right decision.

{My newest banner from VistaPrint for my 'simple truths' (great quality banners, excellent price, but be sure to spring the extra money for the aluminum display - very sharp!)}

This year my focus will be on bringing to this show what I know will be affordable, stylish, unique and charming. My 'simple truths' will be the main displays, in necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings (of course, I have yet to make one piece of jewelry with them, I am just focused on making more charms and keeping up with order!). I will also have other more substantial jewelry options for sale, but I have a feeling that what will go over best are these simpler pieces, perfect for everyday or gifting.

So since this is what I am thinking about while drinking my orange juice*, I thought I would share one new thing with you one I am working on: packaging.

I usually have my copper boxes and ribbons and will likely bring some of those for gift wrapping (for a small fee), or copper organza bags, but I wanted something that announced to the world that this was handmade with love and who doesn't like tiny little packages tied up with string?

I found this great stamp that has the definition of 'handmade' on it and I had the 'discover' skeleton key from a friend (thanks Heather!) so I have been stamping this on all the paper packages that go out in the mail. I had been researching packaging lately and paying attention to things that I ordered and received in the mail. I appreciate recycling materials and using what you have, and those little touches mean a lot to me. For instance, you can't see it on this box above, but I now use a little copper key tag attached to the ribbon. Just one more little touch to say that my client is extra special to me.

While researching, I saw a lot of cleverly wrapped packages, and it makes me wish think that I should put together all the scrapbook supplies I have amassed. I really wanted to buy the Tim Holtz kraft glassine envelopes, but I didn't want to spend a fortune just because I wanted it to have a handmade touch. I realized that I had paper envelopes for party favors left over that would be the perfect size to hold a pair of earrings or a small charm necklace. So I have pre-stamped the envelopes with the message and key and when sold I will fold them over, seal with a piece of skeleton key washi tape (I know! Are you squeeing along with me? This one is a limited edition MT tape that is from Japan and I have likely the last two rolls in existence! Or so they tell me ;-). There are tons of cute washi tapes out there, if you just search for them. They add a bit of charm to whatever they touch.

{New packaging for the show. Simple, but very me.}

I have a bundle of assorted colors of baker's twine coming that I will use to tie the packages up after I slip in a business card and a thank you. I got the assortment because I couldn't decide on one color, although I am trending toward orange and white, as I think that might work well with my copper and craft paper packaging. I don't have it yet, so this is a mock up with simple natural jute twine (also cute!).

So. There you have it. Those are some of the things that keep me up late at night planning for this one dinky little show (and keeping me from completing the jewelry to sell at said show!). The theory is that if I can get this all down I might be able to tackle a bigger show and that was really a goal this year that never materialized. But just doing this one show is killing me (how do you people do this all the time? and even bigger than this?) and I think I might be running out of special orange juice*. Now it is back to work on getting ready because as of this post I will only have 9 days left!

My giveaway this week is one of my 'simple truths' (that little tan-ish, yellow-ish one in the corner - truly more tan-ish than yellow-ish).

This is the October 2011 'simple truths sampler' charm. My sampler club is a small but mighty group of designers who signed up to get a limited edition charm or pendant each month. (Limited edition meaning that I won't sell this exact same design and will only make as many as there are in the club.And there are still some spaces available!) But this month, I accidentally made one extra, so if you would like a random little sleepy owlet for your very own, please answer the following question (winner will be announced on October 15th):

 What is the best jewelry packaging idea that you have done, seen or imagined?