Making v. Marketing.

Hello Folks!

So I'm struggling with the dual nature of this beading business beast...

It seems like a constant struggle between the creative process and the selling half of things; it's like being two people at once!

Making: So here I am, back on the bead eating couch, happy as a clam with my three tackle boxes and one tin full of beads surrounding me. I've graduated from dinner plates to a beading board (Oh sweet heavenly piece of plastic with fuzzyness on the top to hold all those beads in place and in order! Oh miracle of design.. Oh savior of my sanity and supplies. I love this thing!) and I'm balancing that on my lap while ignoring this horrible crick in my back while mixing those colors and sizes and textures. I'm perfectly at peace and pooking my face so hard that I may actually turn into a duck.

This is my bliss. This is my creative process at it's finest and sometimes the only happy point of my stressful days. When I decided to make jewelry for the purpose of selling it instead of giving it away, this is exactly what I envisioned. I spend my days off on wild bead hunts, both online and in stores, pawing through everything I can find for that just right color and size before I scamper home to make something pretty. This, in short, is a heck of a lot of fun.

But what they never tell you is that there is a dark side. Oh yes, a dark side.

Marketing: So over the course of a day I churn out a whole bunch of stuff I love while wearing my favorite piece of the day around my neck and sometimes tiara style around my head. Don't you dare judge, you know you'd do it too! Then the sun comes out. It's picture time.

The picture process is probably the most amusing part of the day for my neighbors. I know they've watched me, I know they think I'm batsh*t crazy. I have the perfect outfit for setting off the necklaces, I wrap a white scarf I have from Paris around my midsection and put on a cute little white twill-ish spring jacket I bought on a whim and never wear. Side note- the jacket is so inappropriate for winter and the scarf covers my ta's and that's about it. So here I go, running out into the snow and stand squarely halfway up my walk, turning at the right angle to face my neighbor's house which is where the sun is. Click, turn, click, turn, click, zoom, click. All they can see is that I'm wearing pajama pants, a belly shirt with fringe and a little white blazer, photographing myself roughly at noon each day. Did I mention the heels? I live in black heels. It keeps those pesky pj pants out of the snow.

Click. Run into the house, freezing. Change necklaces. Back outside. Click, turn, click, turn, click, zoom, click. Try not to imagine what the man next door who is shoveling thinks. I repeat this process for roughly 20 minutes until I see the neighbors calling the local mental health clinic. Next comes the pictures of the pieces on their own. I use an old cream colored sweater and a cutting board as my background and I tromp out, not fully in pajamas and heels and bend over the three foot high snow bank with my behind squarely pointed at the neighbor's house I was just facing. There are plows up the street. I pretend not to notice that they are watching. They look seriously amused but I can't be bothered, I'm working!

Click, arrange. Click, angle myself and my rump differently, step on pj pants with heels, pull down pj pants slightly and moon the street. Yank up the waist band and pretend I don't hear the plow guys. Click, arrange, zoom, click. Roughly 20 pictures per piece later, it's back in the house. I'm snow blind but ready for the next part... now the fun really begins.

Stay tuned for the rest of the dark side of beading.

I've got to stop for now.

-the little miss milyssabeth