Jewelry & Beading

Jewelry Juggling

by Tammy Powley on May 21st, 2005

Friday I sent in the next part of my seed bead book manuscript to my editor, sat back, and let out a sigh of relief. Not only did I meet my deadline, but I was a few days early. I was feeling pretty good, thinking about even goofing off the rest of the day.

Then a few hours later, I got an email from her asking me to send as much jewelry as I could because they had a photo shoot scheduled for the middle of next week. She needed my seed bead jewelry ASAP!

For the uninitiated, this means some major work for me. I don’t just throw some jewelry in a box and ship it off to the publisher. Each piece has to be numbered, labeled, and logged. Oh, and there’s the little issue of sending jewelry away and not remembering what it was or how I made it later one when I have to write up project instructions for the piece.

My little “oh-I’m-so-great…I’m-so-ahead-of-the-game” balloon popped….bang!

While this experience concerns writing about jewelry, any self-employed jewelry artist needs to realize that stuff like this happens:

* A customer has a big event coming up and needs a custom, one-of-a-kind necklace and earring set made in two days.

* You just found out there’s an opening for an art show, and it’s tomorrow!

* A gallery or boutique owner called you and wants to know when you can come by for a meeting.

Obviously, you can’t anticipate the unexpected things that can happen in your jewelry business, but you can learn to juggle. You can prioritize. What’s more important, all of your ironing is finished or you finish that special order necklace?

This is the reality of trying to work as an independent artist: sometimes, you need to rearrange your life a little in order to keep your customers (be they buyers or editors) happy.

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POSTED IN: Jewelry Design Careers