My day-job is managing a sweet little boutique that sells locally made clothing and jewellery. This means that I'm lucky enough to have an "in" for a retail location to sell my wares!
It was becoming obvious that I would have to start selling some of my pieces... I had too many laying around, and the materials are expensive so it would be nice to have the final products at least pay for themselves. When I started to feel like my work was solid enough to offer to others, I put a couple of them in the display case.
Mine are the ones in the front row. All of these are sold now!
I just added this giant beauty this week. Turquoise is one of my favourite stones!
When they actually started selling, I had to make more! So crazy! So now at this moment I have 5 rings in the display case. I might make 1 more ring and a couple pairs of earrings, just to fill up the little display rack, then sit back and see what sells. I don't expect them all to sell as fast as the others did a month ago as the tourist season has now come to an end and our foot traffic is much much less.
these beauties are currently for sale in the shop
It's been a really really exciting feeling seeing my pieces sell. I know the feeling of falling in love with a piece of jewellery, so to see other people having that experience with my work is just insane. It's really exciting to learn about where the piece is going, too. One ring is gone to San Francisco, one is on the hand of a nice gal from up-island, another is travelling overseas as a gift, and the little snake ring was snatched up by an amazing woman who is a nurse in our local prison.
this garnet power ring lives up-Island now
this cutie now lives on the thumb of a beautiful Healer.
I'm trying not to put too much pressure on creating. If I get stressed out, I put my tools down and go bug 
now living in Sanfran!
my current favourite available for sale... would love to keep this one!
If you had told me a year ago that I would be silversmithing and selling my work, I would have laughed in your face! I am having so much fun! But, I am going to have to find new avenues through which to sell as this little store is closing in November. So sad! So, online store, Instagram, and... do you think I should try to find a way to sell pieces here on the blockchain? For Steem?
labradorite beauty currently available
I made this one the other day but messed it up a bit so I'm keeping it for now. Also labradorite!
I'm still not very good at making necklaces, but this one was pretty easy to pull together, and it sold this week!
I have also fallen out of the habit of taking progress photos along the way for my steemit blog... I just don't think anyone is all that interested in seeing them. But I think I will try to keep blogging about my process as it's helpful for me to document the learning & making process.
make make make
another view of that labradorite beauty
Hopefully these pieces sell quickly. I may have to be patient and wait until our traffic picks up closer to November when the Christmas shopping madness begins. September and most of October are always a bit quiet, even in a tourist town like Victoria.
the drawing board...
In the meantime, I'm working on gathering/making images and building a separate Instagram account specifically for my jewellery. I know from experience with managing the social media for this shop, and my own when I was a pro photographer, that keeping a steady, beautiful, meaningful Instagram presence is bloody hard work. So, I am planning on starting to post to my new account on Oct 1st. Using post automation software, I already have most of the month of October scheduled. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going and continue creating jewellery and images and content for the account. If you feel so inclined, you can follow me over at @caitlynchapmanstudio :)
Thanks for reading! I really appreciate all the love and support I have found on Steemit in the past year and a half!
Peace & Love
Caitycat