Mary Louise Eklund

Category: Crafts

Lessons from the First Year of Three Gems

The Three Gems are Jean, Paula, and me! We each love to bead. We loved it so much that we went overboard doing it. Jean initiated the idea the three of us go together and try to sell some at local craft fairs. She came up with our name and registered us for several fairs. Paula jumped in with making displays. Jean even had business cards made for us!

Display at first craft show

After doing craft fairs for six months we learned a few things along the way. Also we rode an emotional roller coaster from bad sale days to great sale days. So here’s a quick list of lessons learned in our first craft fair season.

1. Crafters talk among themselves. Yes they talk about fairs, booth fees, and sales. We learned what fairs had good reps and what ones didn’t. We were assured that our slow sales days were generally slow sale days.

2. There are a lot of beading addicts out there in the same boat and had the same idea. As a result there are many jewelry booths at craft fairs. We now ask how many there are. Are they limiting the number of booths with the same craft?

3. Location, Location, Location – where the booth is located in relation to crowd flow. At one very successful sale we were on the turn to the bathrooms – good sales, good traffic flow. Another we were in a room off a room with a winding path to enter/exit. Sales that day for me were horrid just made half my share of the booth fee.

Three Gem’s at Harbor Market

4. Jewelry displays better on black. Go look in a jewelry store window it’s all displayed on black. Eventually we went to black and sales improved.

5. People want a deal. The $5 treasure chest or $2 hair barrettes were good sellers. At a poor sales shows they were the savers of the fair being the ONLY sales. At good sales shows they were a draw for customers.

6. Price well. See above as to why. I had to start keeping good track of my material cost in the jewelry. I’m not looking to gouge people but I hope that my beading habit can be self-sustaining. I don’t charge for my time, it’s a hobby I do for enjoyment. So as a result I’m not asking more than $20 for any one piece. I won’t price it below materials cost.

Treasure Chest display

7. There will be a lot of lookers. Part of this is the economy today, that I know. But then again think of how you shop, you look, you handle many things considering them then you buy. At a craft fair, many people do the same thing. They shop. Often they look over every booth before making their first purchase.

8. People don’t buy from displays. Displays attract people but rarely will they buy what’s on display, they buy what’s on the table. It’s almost like they are afraid to disturb the display. So we have to adapt our table to have attractive displays and flat surfaces easily accessible for shoppers.

Fused glass by Jean

9. Bring my tools. I can’t bring my beads but I can bring my tools to customize jewelry. I can’t make it longer but I can shorten things, remove a bead to shorten earrings, and such. The ability to do so made many sales customizing necklaces for homecoming dances.

10. Know the crowd. Some fairs are more for deal shoppers. They are there for the produce or apples or see the cars and the craft fair is an after thought. Other fairs people come to SHOP they are there to get Christmas gifts. Display wares accordingly.

Paula’s jewelry

That’s the top three lessons I learned in our first season doing craft fairs. I think next year we’ll be wiser and do some better. I know we need to hang in there for the long haul (years) as the beading/jewelry making fad dies down.

Again thanks for reading! As always you can click on the photos to head over to my flickr account to see larger copies of the images and more photos of the Three Gems or my beading. I’d love to hear from you so be sure to comment here or catch me at Google+, @marylouiseklund, or my e-mails marylouiseeklund at either yahoo or gmail. During the holiday week (Christmas through New Year’s Day) I’m not sure I’ll be able to post regularly but it’s my New Year’s resolution to be here regularly. So feel free to hold me to it!

December 23, 2011
How I Became a Bead Addict

It all started off innocently enough. I took up beading as a hobby. It was exciting. I could make earrings to go with those necklaces I have or I could make necklaces to go with earrings. Then I could make sets to go with shirts, outfits, ohhh the possibilities!

Working with beads as a hobby is exciting.

Also it gave me something to do while watching TV. Crochet was out according to my physical therapist. Well he did say I could do it occasionally but that I needed to find a hobby that required a variation of hand movement. So beading it was.

The beading was backing up. I didn’t have an outlet.

Only it became apparent that my creations had filled my needs and were now backing up into a large plastic container. Yet I was addicted. I still beaded. I needed a hobby to do while watching TV. I can’t just watch TV. Really I go to sleep. I need SOMETHING to do.

So I started giving my new crafts as gifts. I mean already I’d stocked everyone with a crocheted scarf and a set of crocheted dishcloths. Now I was bejeweling my friends, family, and acquaintances. Heck, I’d taken them off my neck and give them to strangers just to cheer them up. Still I was beading faster than I was giving and they backed up even more. The only answer was to sell them.

The answer was to sell them but where?

Okay I needed to sell it. I wasn’t sure where. I investigated several things and thought something on-line was the answer. Well if I was going to sell them on-line the first step was getting decent pictures of them. Which started a long time of attempts that didn’t satisfy.

Photo attempt that didn’t satisfy

I couldn’t get lighting I liked. I couldn’t get a background I liked. I couldn’t get the detail I wanted. **sigh** Still I continued beading. I was making more jewelry and by this time all my friends were now overwhelmed with necklaces and longing for the days of scarves and dishcloths.

Still I kept on beading…

I considered possibly selling the jewelry at the Harbor Market downtown on the weekends. Yet really did I have enough for a whole booth? Would I sell enough to make something after the booth and tent fee? I wasn’t sure. I shared my concerns with another beading friend to find she had the same issues, still beading, had given it to everyone and their cat’s cousin, needed an outlet for it. She also knew a friend who was in the same boat as us. She had the idea that the three of us could split the costs so it wouldn’t be too much for any one person. The three of us could fill a booth. So Jean got the ball rolling by booking us in a local craft fair and a Harbor Market.
The Three Gems was born.

The Three Gems at their first craft fair

So my two friends and I started the craft fair season. We didn’t know we were on a large learning curve, emotional roller coaster, and adventure. My next post will share some of the things we learned along the way.

That was how my beading hobby became my craft fair hobby. I by no means turn a profit, at least not yet. My hope for this isn’t to make money but to break even. Support my beading addiction so it’s not a burden on my family. So they don’t send me to Changes to get me off pressed glass and semi-precious stones strung on tiger tail wire.

And my beading addiction continues to this day.

Yes I’m still beading just like I still want to hear from you. You can comment here or any of the other places I lurk on the net. Just look for my name and you’ll find me on Google+, Twitter, Flickr and Yahoo. You can e-mail me any time at either of my accounts marylouiseeklund at either gmail or yahoo. If you just like this but don’t have anything to say hit one of the share buttons and then rate me. I love feed back! Let me know what you’d like to see me write about I’ll see what I can do.

As always I hope life treats you well until next time

December 20, 2011
Tis The Season

So obviously keeping a blog with everything else I’m doing isn’t working. I’m rethinking what I’m going to do with all my social media and blog. I’m thinking of turning this into more of a personal journal than official writing blog. Apparently that will suit my style.

For those who met or followed me on Facebook. I don’t do that any more. Ever since Facebook updated their system to track you even when you sign out, I stopped using them. I considered that an invasion of privacy and apparently so did the FTC. You can now find me on Google+ because it’s a system that turns off when you log out. They already had their brush with the FTC with Google Buzz and cleaned up their act. I’m me over there too, Mary Louise Eklund feel free to circle me any time. Also say hi in the comments.

I’m also on Twitter. Love it as I can shout out to the world from my phone when a thought is worth sharing. I’m marylouiseklund over there. Note one e for the end of Louise and the start of Eklund in that handle. Also over to the right my tweets run so you’ll see links I think are interesting shared there.

Now to tell you what I’ve been doing since August.

Three Gems – Jewelry Booth

Hmm, I’ve been doing craft shows selling my jewelry. I’ve had a booth with two of my friends Paula Lawlor and Jean Rabe. We’ve had great shows and really bad shows but in the end I just want to support my craft addiction. After the first of the year we plan to open an esty store. I’ll let you know about that when it happens.

Jean is moving at the end of January, her husband has taken a new job a bit south of here. He’s already moved there. I sure will miss them. Jean was a bit part of our writer’s group. She brought years of experience in writing and editing to our group of newbies. Now we’re on our own after January.

As for our little jewelry/craft group. We’ll go on with lessons learned from this year. There are some other crafters interested in joining us. After the holidays we’ll meet, choose what craft fairs we want to do starting in the Spring and start the application process for them.

Mike a the Emporer’s palace Tokyo

Mike had active duty in Japan. This was months after the big earthquake in northern Japan. He did get to go sight see once before the work started. We got to chat regularly over the internet. No we didn’t use Skype but instead Yahoo IM but the voice chat. I think he enjoyed Poland more last year because with that group he got to see more of the host country. Here he was on base most of the time working the night shift. Never know what you’ll get but the Navy still lives up to its promise of seeing the world.

Aaron in his first dorm room

Aaron moved out into a dorm at University of Wisconsin in Madison. He’s doing so well. He comes home regularly to see his girlfriend Sara. As a result we get to see him regularly. As you can see he’s having a great time a college discovering odd things like an old gas mask without the filter and public transportation.

Having a great time at college!

I rediscovered the fun of having ideas, doodles, plans, notes, and such all in one nice book. My new journal book of choice is a large moleskine with grid paper. The great thing about gridpaper is I can draw out floor plans of settings I create in my stories. I can do calendars, and such. Also when I take a notion to sketch it helps having a grid. I’m not a good sketcher but at times it makes me happy.

Yes we were THAT close to him

We didn’t just sit around all the time but did do a few things without going to a single theme park. We took an airboat ride out on a local lake. That was lots of fun. We got to see alligators and other wild life. I told Mike it felt like I was riding a couch across the water. I loved it and would like to go do it again sometime.

Leu Garden Roses

We toured the Leu House and Gardens. There they have a wonderfully historic house with beautiful gardens. Mrs. Leu loved roses and her rose garden was unbelievable! The roses were in bloom and I did enjoy making pictures of them until the mosquitoes came out at dusk! Didn’t see the rest of the gardens as we ran to our car to avoid the blood thirsty swarms! Next time going more toward mid day when the sun is high and mosquitoes are low.

Early Stages of the clean up from the plumbing disaster

Life’s not all been crafting, moving and vacation. We did deal with a huge plumbing issue that happened when the sewage pipe from the second floor cracked and drained through our walls and into our basement. The whole basement had to be redone. That took a while to get in order but our insurance covered most of the cost. THANK GOODNESS!

Grandpa Mac holding Baby Aaron

We lost Grandpa Mac this fall. He was Mike’s maternal grandfather, Dale McAllister. It was sad but a blessing Grandpa was freed from his body. He’d not been in good health and had to be in a nursing homes. We’ll miss him. The funeral service was excellent the minister recounted many of his funny tales make all of us smile remembering the man we knew.

As for writing, I’m working on a Steampunk novel. I’m using the characters from my two published stories. It picks up just after the Steampunk’d story. All of it takes place on the Plebeman estate. It’s been fun and soon the first draft will be done and sit on the hard drive to cool before my editing/rewrites. Then it’ll be out to betas.

Next big project will be an urban (but really rural setting) fantasy set in town I grew up in and my parents still live, Greeneville, Tennessee. I’ve been working on that story concept and plot for months. It should be fun to revisit the area but with a fictional twist of course.

As for genealogy, I’m still plugging away at it. I’ve come to terms that I will always have a filing cabinet of information awaiting input into my family tree program. I’ll always be collecting more documentation and always be behind. All this despite I only deal with dead ancestors and relatives. Such is the life of an amateur genealogist.

We haven’t had any snow that stuck to the ground until today. I’d been counting my blessings and hoping for a snow-less winter but that’s too much to ask for in Wisconsin. I count my blessings that it is late starting this year and hope for an early spring, say oh in March!

Hope the holidays are treating you well. Now that you know what I’m up to give me a shout out to tell me what you’ve been up to. You can reach me here, Google+, Twitter, Flickr (where you’ll find this photos in large sizes and many more from these events & other things), or at either of my e-mail addresses marylouiseeklund at yahoo.com or gmail.com. I try to make it easy to be found.

December 17, 2011
No, no, I didn’t forget I’m here!

Yes this post is late. I know, I know, teach but I have an excuse from the doctor. Can I make it up?

I do apologize for being late but I’ve been battling strep throat that turned into scarlet fever. Yes, in the summer. Yes, at my age. No, I’ve not a clue as to why or how I got it. I blame Australia as it is winter there. I only know I want out of it! I’m on a second antibiotic and making progress.

During this whole process I’ve not had the energy to do much writing. At times thinking coherent thoughts and composing sentences has been a challenge. Yet, I needed a creative outlet. To fill this and add to my daily-to-do list (gosh knows I ignore enough on that now) I accepted the 365 challenge. That is- make a picture each day for 365 consecutive days. I was all serious in my fevered desire for an outlet that didn’t need words I even joined Project 365 over on Flickr and made my own Personal 365 set in my account. To my now non-fevered brain’s surprise I’ve kept this up for the last 10 days.

I know that you over there squirming in your chair is thinking, “Gee, that’s great Mary Louise but what does that have to do with this blog post I came over here to read?” My answer is everything. I’m still on drugs, but not fun good ones rather icky good ones. I’m still struggling to express ideas in word form but visual, that medium is working full bore. So I shall give you my 365 and why I took each picture.

Day 1

This was recall election Tuesday in my district. We were the second round of recall elections in Wisconsin. I am not going to get political on you. (I’ve vowed not to do that or religion here.) I did feel my duty to vote and since I’d been on the first antibiotic for three days thought I wasn’t contagious. It took all my effort to get up, shower and get to the polls. I did it. I brought back proof I’d done it. I stuck it on my keyboard. Once I decided that I was doing Project 365 I made a picture of it. It represented what was the core of my day for that day.

Day 2

Meet Russell, this is his evil side. Aaron bought this silly deer cut out somewhere and named it Russell. Wanting Russell to have a face on both sides he drew this on the blank side. Being sick I was asleep in bed when Aaron got home. He put Russell on my desk for me find when I dragged myself to work the next day. It so happened the next morning Rappy, my greyhound, was leading the way into my office with me following. She yelped, jumped back, and cowered against me. Wondering what had spooked her (no I wasn’t afraid, let’s just say Rappy isn’t the sharpest tool in the doggie shed. She’s so dull you’d give her to at toddler as a play thing.) I flipped on the light. I cackled in laughter finding Evil Russell on my desk. So he became the photo of the day.

Psst here’s his nice side –

Day 3

I was feeling better or determined to feel better, not sure which looking back on it. Any way I wanted to go outside in the SUN! Our backyard beckoned. The black-eyed Susans were in bloom. So using my new camera on macro I sat on the warm walk and tried to get a good shot. I think I succeeded.

Black-eyed Susans always remind me of my Aunt Susan. She never liked the name of that flower. I can’t say I’d particularly like a flower named “Domestic Violence Mary Louise” either. Summers when I was young and would stay with my Granny Winnie, Susan and I would take walks up the lane. Sometimes with Granny other times just us. I remember one time Susan was picking black-eyed Susans and calling each one a different family name – we had black-eyed Mary Louise, black-eyed Winnie, black-eyed Dwight, black-eyed Gary, black-eyed Alan, black-eyed Sidney, and so on until she had big bouquet that included all her brothers, sister-in-laws, parents, aunts, uncles, and me. So my apologies to Aunt Susan, this one is a different Susan with a black eye.

Day 4

We were getting low on food. I HAD to go out shopping. This was my Walter Mitty moment as I was leaving the grocery. I was chilling though it was hot. So I sat in the warm truck and opened my cold diet cola. As I sipped I watched a grocery store employee ride up on this thing with a chain of carts in front of him. He stopped at the cart corral just across from me and began sorting carts to get them ready to add to his string. I had a brief fantasy of running out there, jumping on that thing, revving it up and riding off like a stagecoach driver running from bandits! YeeeeeeHIIIII! I saw in my mind’s eye the bewildered employee standing there in his dark blue apron watching me go with his mouth open and brow furrowed. Then the moment was over. I was tired and wanted to go home. I put the soda in the holder, started the truck, and drove home.

Day 5

That was a blarggggghhhh day. I was wiped out and running a high fever again. I did nothing. Rappy’s bored sighs from her bed summed it up. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired! So she stood in for my feelings. I was paying for all that imagined cart riding excitement from the day before.

Day 6

During all this time, Mike has been on active duty in Japan. Every night I’d wait on Yahoo IM for him to log in so we could voice chat. I didn’t feel like writing, picture surfing, reading, or any thing with the computer that night. I straightened out my jewelry stock for the Three Gem jewelry sales I do. Here are two bookmarks I made with a dolphin theme. Not bad. I think I’ll be selling some stuff on e-bay eventually and have to work out how to get good pictures of it. This was a start on that idea.

Day 7

Woot! I’d made it a week in photos. However with over a week in treatment I wasn’t feeling well or even much better. So I started beading. Since that’s what I was doing I made several photos of it (hop over to my flickr **points to right side there for link** to see more cool macro jewelry shots). I know I really don’t need more jewelry to sell but I have the material and I like making it. Finally, I realized my inventory on bracelets was low and started making those instead of necklaces or earrings.

Day 8

Woke up feeling undead. So undead I called the doctor’s office. Did you know the undead are hot? Yeah run about 101F unlike us cool living people. This was my mug that morning for my coffee. I thought it appropriate. Doc put me on a new antibiotic that makes me feel icky in a different way. Sometimes I ponder is the cure better than being a zombie with a sore throat and rash.

Day 9

OMG! I’m ALIVE!!! I’m human NOT an an-ah-mule! Yes, on the second dose of the icky antibiotic I started feeling better, except for the warned side effects. I made myself dinner that night! It was a big bowl of veggie fried rice and it was wonderful! I ate at my desk waiting on Mike. I got to chat with him & went to bed feeling like the world was improving.

Day 10 – Today!

This morning I woke to find my daily picture waiting in the bay window. No it doesn’t have much to do with my day’s activities as I worked with the insurance company to try to get my house reassembled. (see this blog post to understand why my house needs reassembly). It wasn’t the best day as far as that goes.

Still he’s a handsome furry fellow and made a wonderful photo for today. He’s the trouble maker of my clowder. If there’s a crash he’ll walk out of the room nonchalantly and swear he heard nothing unusual in there. He had no idea what I’m talking about despite say dust from the broken vase clinging to his black fur.

So there you go – my last 10 day in photos. I’m not sure when I’ll do this again. Let me know what you think in the comments (points down below) if you want this to be a regular thing, if so how often. If you’d rather we never speak of this again and if so when we meet we’ll act like it never happened. Maybe you’d prefer this be just a one shot deal and for those really into it they can go to my flickr set… Just let me know. Maybe, just maybe we can make this a conversation rather than just me shouting into the dark of the internet.

Oh, I forgot to say if you are interested in the photos or the ones made those days but didn’t get chosen just click on the photos here and they will take you my photo feed where you can stroll around and enjoy seeing the sights.

August 25, 2011
Entry to the Blogosphere

Bathysphere4826 by Bob Richmond on Flickr. Image used through the Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution license.

Welcome to the first post in my blog. I’m not real sure where to start. Do I jump in babbling about the topic that entertains me for the day? Do I introduce myself? Do I set a statement of purpose for the blog? Do I need a bathysphere to enter the blogosphere? Maybe a blogysphere?

Since I can talk about anything, I know I have the first one covered. That’ll mostly be what I do, jump into a one-sided conversation on something that strikes my fancy. It’ll become two way if you comment because I will reply.

That brings me to introducing myself. As the blog says, I’m Mary Louise Eklund. I wear a lot of hats in life. I’ll write about all of them here. I’m a published writer of short stories. I’ve been published in Terribly Twisted Tales and most recently Steam Punk’d. I have more in the works. I’ll shout out when they are coming out. Given that I’ll write here about writing, words, language, reading, and all the stuff related to that. What I like, what I find frustrating, my process, inspiration, blocks, and all the stuff I go through trying to write.

I enjoy photography as a hobby. You can see my photos on flickr, again under my name. The most recent ones appear on my sidebar. I’ve sold a few in my time. I even worked as a photographer for a bit in my undergraduate days. I like going out and making photos of things, not so much into photographing people. It’s not that I don’t like people, I love to watch people. I just like to take pictures of things because they don’t fret over how they look. It’s also easier to find stuff that’s willing to pose and release for publication isn’t an issue.

On the people topic, I am into genealogy as a hobby. I love the stories I find, the interesting facts, and the thrill of the hunt. I like trying to solve the puzzle of family lore or where did so-and-so end up. Like Mark Hicks my 3^rd great uncle that went to the Confederacy in the Civil War when all the others in the family were Union. His brother was a Union Calvary officer. The family never welcomed Mark home and blamed him for turning in his brother-in-law who died in Andersonville. Mark wound up in Arkansas destitute and living on the dole. I found him. Those stories and the questions raised as I work through the information I have will show up here. I’ve even got a story inspired by my genealogical research and expect more to come from it.

I make jewelry. I do beading and am trying out resin pouring designs. I will eventually sell the stuff. I’ll link to that here when it’s up and running. I’ll chat about my working on it and other crafting. I crochet and take various courses in other things that hit my fancy. So far I’ve enjoyed fused glass, pottery, and precious metal clay working. You’ll get all about those things too.

I’m a family person. I’m a mom of a 17 year old who is in his senior year in high school. I’m a wife of a busy business man who is also an officer in the reserves. I’m also the only child of aging parents. I’m a person with chronic illness that’s manageable but not curable. I’m a pet parent, 3 cats and a dog. Those things I’ll keep to a minimum. If it involves another person I don’t want to say more than they are comfortable with sharing. I don’t want to whine and complain about health, there’s enough blogs made up of kvetching. However, I’m sure some off it will come through at times.

That takes care of introducing myself and what I’ll write about. What do I intend to do here? I’ll post regularly. My goal is at least weekly but hopefully more often. I’m sure it’ll depend on the ebb and flow of the other areas of my life.

December 24, 2010