Hi. I'm Juli, of Juli's Jewels. I am a tiny little jewelry making business.
I love making jewelry. There, I said it. I LOVE MAKING JEWELRY! It makes me very happy.
I made my first pair of earrings when I was fifteen years old (that was back in 1984, not too long ago.) I fiddled around with beads off and on while trying out other hobbies and crafts that I liked (needlework, painting, what have you). I kept coming back to the beads though.
A few years ago, I came across a little bead shop in Ashland, Oregon that I just loved and was really inspired by. It's the Bead Studio on Main Street. They had so many different kinds of beads and they were all so pretty.
At first, I started making a few simple strung necklaces here, a pair of earrings there. I would give them as gifts of keep and wear them for myself. Well, after a awhile I was making more jewelry that I could keep or give as gifts. I just had boxes of the stuff laying around. And, let me tell you, it was beyond simple now. I found I had a knack for wire work. I also found it was fun to make mixed media jewelry; Little collages in bottle caps, polymer clay, friendly plastic melted onto dominoes, etc.
One day (way back in July, 2007 at a barbeque at my house, when I was up in my craft room), my friend Jan said, "you should sell some of this stuff. You could go around to craft fairs and make some good money." I was shocked! Seriously. I couldn't believe it. "You really think people would want to buy my jewelry?" I asked. She said, "I want to buy this bracelet right now." We laughed a little and went back to our husbands, were she promptly announced to the rest of the group that I needed to start selling my jewelry at craft fairs. Everyone at the barbeque agreed. I sold at my first craft fair in October of 2007, I sold one necklace resulting in a net loss of $38 dollars for the day. I was not put off though. I got a lot of really good feed back. My next craft fair showed a decent profit. I have learned a lot in the last year; never go to a first time craft fair, always pack snacks, take a friend if you can because eventually you have to go to the bathroom.
I am going to keep at the craft fair circuit in the Sacramento Valley area. I have loftier goals though. I would like to have a webshop in the near future and in later future I hope to eventually have a little shop.
Well, I think that is enough for now. Oh, by the way, I guess I am a blogger now, too.
