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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Dilemmas and decisions

Once again today I was asked to CHANGE a piece of jewelry for a customer.  TWO pieces, actually.
I am occasionally asked to do this, and MOST of the time, even though I waver on the fence - I am able to say "NO".  Only once before have I made a change - just last summer for the Art Gallery.  As far as I know, that customer was satisfied.  Thank goodness.  So now, two of the Grapevine line pieces that were on consignment at Off~Rack had been admired by a customer, who also bought the necklace that was the match to them - a bracelet and earrings.  I ultimately felt that because she had already made the committment and purchased the necklace, that I should at least make the effort:

BEFORE I made the changes, the earrings had a small hand sewn 'grape cluster' using amethyst hued drop beads, and a lucite leaf atop some glass pearl and czech glass.  The bracelet was one of my fancy fringe bracelets - where I freeform fringe and wrap strands of beads and accents around a strung bracelet - giving it texture and seemingly bringing it to life. 
AFTER I made the decision to change them - the bracelet was shorter by about 1 1/2 inches.  As luck would have it, I chose to chop off the RIGHT end - one that I had apparently needed to add an extra few inches of strung accents to as I was finishing it.  Those accents were easily removed (which would not normally be the case), and a few of the beads taken off the strand.  I reattached the clasp - and voila.  A shorter, but still fringe-y bracelet.  The earrings were a bit more of a challenge.  I really had to study them and recall how I'd put them together before I could come up with a way to keep the grape cluster that was SEWN into the loop holding the whole thing together.   Again, lucky for me, at the time I chose to use softflex and crimps to give them a softer feel, so the CRIMP was able to save the day.  I am kind of proud of myself for being able to successfully alter these two pieces - but definitely don't want to have to make a habit out of it!  STRESSFUL!
The prep for this weekends grandma/granddaughter beading party is going very well - so well that I stopped to do the alterations on the pieces above.  All I have left to do is 10 more kits, and set up the tables, clean the bathroom, sweep the floors -you know, all that mundane stuff you put off as long as possible ANYWAY!     I'm looking forward to it, and even plan to do a little door prize give away.  Found some things I never sold when the shop closed that I actually don't need or want! 
Should be fun.
Be sure you hop down to my previous blog post and let me know what type of prize you'd like for the next give away - A bead mix, a kit (with no instructions-just all the parts, you get to wing it), or a finished piece of jewelry.  So far, just as I suspected - the mix is winning!  I'll decide on Friday - so hurry on down!
Peaceful beading,
TTFN

3 comments:

april grinaway said...

I can identify with your stressful post !

coolmoon said...

The customer that requested the change IS going to be purchasing them, thank goodness. Should see the 'reward' from that sometime next week from the consignment shop! Whahoooo!

KayzKreationz said...

Glad your customer came through after all that work. Glad the bead mix won. Can't wait to se who wins. My contact info is in my blog profile.