Leila Nicole Designs

Welcome welcome.

Well here we are after 3 months, our challenge now coming to a close. If you're new here and wondering what this challenge is about, it was a 3 month class hosted by Brenda of B'sue Boutiques where we learned the ins and outs of creating a cohesive jewelry line, how to bring it together, why we should pay attention to fashion and much more. We got to learn in a relaxed environment, had nearly daily discussions, many points of view, and all in all a great time learning from one another. I thank Brenda and the 55 participants for this course and am grateful I was able to participate.

At the start of this challenge I had a decent idea of creating a line of jewelry, however what I was doing wasn't really a collection, I don't think. I've shared these pieces before, but these were my tester lines where I offered options to customers at the small shows I did towards the end of 2014.

They are great "mini" lines that offer the customer options and I intend to continue with them. However this challenge helped me focus on building an actual collection. From the statement piece, the simpler less expensive necklaces, the bracelet, ring and earring. I seem to be on a spring flower kick lately, it seems to be what sells in my area, so that is what I chose to do for my collection....with a twist. I added stamped solder into the mix. I had a hunch there wouldn't be many doing this so I went with it and named it the Gilded Rose collection. If you're curious why this name, please head over to Part One to see how I came up with the name.

Now as far as this challenge went for me, I learned a couple major things about myself. The first being that I get bored pretty easily (which my husband ever so kindly pointed out). 3 months of primarily working on this challenge and I wanted to scream. I can stay focused, but the boredom kicks in, I get agitated, my mind wanders, and I want to go do something else. Mind you, I work full time to pay the bills and have 2 young boys and a husband that works at least 80hrs a week, so my creative play time is limited. When I look around at my half finished pieces it puts it in to perspective for me, this explains why I can't seem to finish a lot of my pieces, haha. Thats actually why the B'sue Boutiques Creative Group weekly challenges are PERFECT for me. I share my work table Wed and I finish up and share on Friday. A week long, no real long commitment, and the bonus is I have a finished piece that I can now list or add to my craft show pile. So the idea of a challenge that required a 3 month commitment, I'll admit it did intimidate me at first. I wasn't sure what to expect, but my stubbornness kicked in and I dove in head first into this challenge. Now, to spend every waking second on my challenge pieces was a bit of a wake up call that I had to break it up and allow myself some creative play time to make what I was doing feel less like a task. This realization is important for me should I pursue going wholesale. I would need to be able to break it up into sections, work on a set amount of pieces for whatever deadlines and allow creative breaks in between to help ease the boredom.

The second major thing I learned within this class was how wholesale actually worked. The general rule of thumb, so to speak, in what a wholesale account would expect as far as a "discount" from my retail price. So this put my pricing into perspective for me....and realizing I'm doing it wrong. My mom had already commented that my prices in my Etsy shop were basically already wholesale. So to take that price and have to offer a discount to an actual wholesale account really wouldn't be worth it to me. So I will have to take some time after the close of this challenge to re-evaluate my shop and my prices and really be fair to myself, my designs, and my skills.

So I am grateful to have been a part of this challenge because these realizations have put me on a path to get closer to the goals I am trying to reach. To one day quit my job and do something I actually love for a change.

So enough of my ramblings, you came here to see the final reveal. Pictures you want and pictures you shall receive.

Here is my line, I have a statement piece, 2 lower priced necklaces, a bracelet, a ring, and earrings to match. I did an orange set, a pink set, a green set, a blue set, and a purple set. I am only sharing 4 however because the 5th set I am planning to submit to a magazine....wish me luck in getting published!

The Orange set (click on the image if you would like to see larger):

The Pink set (click on the image if you would like to see larger):

The Green set (click on the image if you would like to see larger):

The Blue set (click on the image if you would like to see larger):

As you can see, I took a lot of pictures, so I do apologize if I crashed your computer, but I was excited to share all my pieces. :-)

....and I have more. These are not part of my Gilded Rose collection, but they are a spring flower line I worked on when I needed a break from the challenge. Working on these pieces gave me the extra "oomph" to find my second wind to finish out the challenge and cross that finish line. So here is what I made to distract me.

So all in all, this challenge has been a wonderful process and experience. I learned quite a bit and at the end of it all I have a ton of pieces to take with me to my April craft show. And of course, after the show, I plan to revamp my shop and focus on listing EVERYTHING left. That's my new goal now. LOL! I have 60 items in my shop and I'm pretty sure I have been sitting on about 60 pieces that need pictures and listings. Oy! I really need an unpaid intern because that is seriously the biggest dreaded process for me. After siting 8-10hrs on a computer at work the last thing I want to do is sit and work on listings...but it must be done!

So before I end my incredibly long post (I'm sorry for hogging you!) I will leave you with just a few more pictures. My Gilded Rose collections, together, for visual impact. Thank you so much for taking the time to read, please leave me a comment on what you think. Happy Friday, Happy Weekend. Happy Naptime!

The Blog Hop starts here. Please check out all these talented designers and don't forget to leave a comment and let us know you visited. Happy Reading!

Brenda Sue Lansdowne, B'sue Boutiques

Jewelry Making Outside the Box

Marcia Tuzzolino

Aurora Designs

Jann Tague

Clever Designs by Jann

Judy King

Apt to Wander Studio

Linzi Alford

Magpie in the Sky, Spoil Heap Tales

Cynthia Wainscott

Exotic Peru