My First Ever Tutorial: Go Make a Shrink Plastic Flower Pin!

I have made a tutorial - written instructions and a video - on how to make the shrink plastic flower pin pictured above. It was a heck of a lot more work than I anticipated (I now know how to use iMovie... sorta) and the video is pretty darn amateurish, but I think it does the trick.

I got inspired to do the whole tutorial thing after watching a video of a fascinating talk: "The Global Microbrand: using the web to stay small whilst selling all over the world," given at the Etsy Labs in Brooklyn by Antonio Gould (did the "whilst" in his title give away that he's a Brit?). Among other things, he said that if you make a video tutorial on your specific area of expertise, you will likely be the very first person in the entire world to do so. Well, when you put it that way, how could I not do it? So please do go watch my unique contribution to the wide world of shrink plastic jewelry making - it's right here! And if you decide to make a pin of your own, please send me a picture, or post it to the Flickr Group I started. I would so love to see it!

New Stuff

Finally, some new designs - must be that "back to school - time for work" vibe hitting me. Available at Etsy only for now: http://www.jessicapoundstone.etsy.com.

Crafty Synergy Interview

There's a quote by Kenneth Lonergan (I'm trying to find it) to the effect of: at some point in time in life you realize that there are people at every level of power who feel like they have no idea what they're doing. The fact that I'm a jewelry designer despite having zero formal training in doing so has made me feel like an imposterer at times. It's resources like Patricia Zapata's Crafty Synergy, which features women running creative businesses, that make me realize that most people are just sort of making things up as they go along - and making beautiful things as they go. I was pretty blown away to be asked to participate. You can read my little interview here.

Drudgery Is Almost Always Invisible

Jewelry By Jessica Production, originally uploaded by Poundstone.

There is a certain amount of drudgery in every job. Even in jobs that seem terribly glamorous. Artists who create amazing work still have to spend time cleaning their equipment, trying to get people to buy the work they’ve made, entering their sales into a spreadsheet, ordering supplies, etc. Writers must edit and re-edit themselves, then submit their work to multiple edits by others, some of which they probably don’t agree with. Running your own “cute little boutique,” means dealing with many vendors - some nice, some nasty - worrying about profit margins, cleaning the shop each night, and re-stocking shelves. Etc. etc. etc.

Recognizing the entire cluster of tasks required to succeed at an endeavor is, for me anyway, the first realistic step toward actually deciding whether or not that particular endeavor is for you. As a whole, the best case scenario is that the enjoyment you get out of it more often than not overshadows the stuff you must do to make it work.

For me, more often than not, the excitement of coming up with new designs and color combinations for jewelry that people actually like to wear does overshadow the drudgery that comes along with cutting all of the plastic pieces, drawing on them, painting them, varnishing them, scraping paint off their edges, affixing their findings and cords, making sure each clasp is sound, trimming out their tags, blah, blah, blah.

And hey, at least I can do all of that while watching old episodes of Northern Exposure on DVD.

To reiterate this post's title, while drudgery is almost always invisible, it can sometimes be beautiful (see above picture).

A Jewelry Project Of Mine In A Real Live Book...

A Jewelry Project Of Mine In A Real Live Book...
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

Thorugh a series of fortuitous connections, I was invited to contribute a project to the book Craftivity. Based on the sample pages I've seen, it's a really beautiful production. I guess that's what you get when the editor is also a designer : ) More information is here. Hope you get to see a copy, and like what you see!