HRM Steampunk Symposium 2012 Pictures (finally!)

Thought it was about time I posted my pictures from the HRM Steampunk Symposium I was at in January. The event was held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. 

My dad helped me for the entire show and my daughter and sister also came to visit. I made very little at the show, didn't even cover the cost of the tables and license fee to the City of Long Beach, but I had a great time and made some new friends. I want to do it again next year.

I had a very nice space on the starboard side of the ship, which faced the ocean. The first day it was quite hot because of the sun shining through the uncovered windows, but the next two days there were clouds and it was much cooler.

one view of my table

and another view

Her Royal Majesty, Queen Victoria and her entourage

Two fabulous steampunk ladies

A distinguished officer and his explorer son

An Admiral

A nurse

Happy New Year!

Getting ready for my first show of 2012, HRM Steampunk Symposium on the Queen Mary in Long Beach starting January 13th. I believe that the vendors area is open to the public from what I've read*, so no need to buy a membership if you're nearby and would like to visit my booth!
*"...but the ideal location and popularity of the Queen Mary will enable our vendors to be exposed to the general public..." 

 I've made a few new Steampunk and Victorian style pieces, plus one that's not, while I listen to China Mieville's Embassytown from Audible over the last few days:

Earthenwood ceramic pendant and bead, Mother of Pearl, Gears from Vintage Jewelry Supply

Aqua and brown Earthenwood ceramic pendant and Czech glass beads hand knotted on polished linen cord
might be adding a few more to this

This is a non-theme piece - Humblebeads pendant with carved bone,  ecru Czech druk beads and some beads that reminded me of slices of wood from dreamgirlbeads

Chandelier earrings with deep teal Czech firepolished glass, brass chain & filigree from Vintage Jewelry Supplies and some lovely brass spacers and bead caps

Here's a Victorian style set with a lavolier-ish necklace made with a filigree and chain in the center, with deep cut garnet glass beads, luster coated glass roundells linked into a chain and a strand of tiny Swarovski crystal pearls and garnet Czech druk glass with tiny gold bead spacers.

These matching earrings are made with Tierra Cast gold plated pewter links and bead caps, gold vermeil spacers, Swarovski 2mm crystal pearls, deep cut garnet glass from Artbeads and garnet Czech druk beads. Chain from Vintage Jewelry Supplies. I'll probably be making a three strand bracelet to complete the set.

Well, that's it for tonite - hope you have a wonderful 2012!

LosCon 38 Wrap Up

(Much of this is cross posted on my other blog NVNC ID VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES.)

Los Con is held at the Los Angeles International Airport Marriott on the Friday, Saturday & Sunday after Thanksgiving. This year was my 3rd year in the dealer's room there. The last two years I've driven down on Wednesday and stayed through the Monday after with my dad. This year I still ended up staying at Dad's place for two nights, but since I only live about half an hour away from the venue I was able to drive home for the night on the other days. The con was a lot of fun, got to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones, too.

Some shots of my table & goodies:

Dad enjoying the people watching.

I didn't dress up on our first day, with setting up in the morning, I needed to wear comfortable clothes I could move easily in. That didn't stop me from dressing up on Saturday & Sunday, though:

On Saturday I wore my Victorian(ish) Shopkeeper outfit with a new hat (I've since found my original hat) with wonderful purple feathers and lace.

On Sunday I succumbed to temptation and purchased this Renaissance(ish) ensemble.

I've got some pictures of costumed folk who wandered near the table, too:

A customer from another convention poses with her
Dawno's necklace.

 Buy More (from the TV show Chuck) couple

 Festive Pirate

LosCon 38 Klingon Crew

All in all, a really great weekend. Thanks for dropping by!

Preparing for LosCon38 - My 3rd Show There!

I'm trying to make some new pieces for LosCon38 this coming Friday, as well as a holiday event where my husband works in early December. The first piece below is an assemblage of copper floral bits on a copper oval with a copper cuff bracelet base. I'm very happy with how it's turned out. The various copper pieces came from B'sue on Etsy (she also has B'sue Boutique) and Vintage Jewelry Supplies.

The next set are a few of the assemblage pieces in steampunk style that I'm going to make pins and necklaces of. Lucite flower from The Beadin' Path, filigree and chain from Vintage Jewelry Supplies. Most of the larger watch parts, the moon face stamping, & tiny watch gears are from Steampunk Supply on Etsy. I think the key may be from there, too. There are a few bits and bobs from Earthenwood Ceramics and Tim Holtz's  "idea-ology" line of supplies, too.

Finally, here's a necklace with some gears on the chain and antique watch face, watch part with ruby jewel, brass filigree and brass chain. All the watch parts are from Steampunk Supplies, the chain from Vintage Jewelry Supplies.

Of course I'll have my usual lanyards, bracelets and a few other steampunk pieces on display as well. If you're going to be near the airport (LAX) Marriott the weekend after Thanksgiving check out LosCon and come see me (and my dad!) in the dealer's room! If you can't, I'll try to take a lot of pictures and maybe even live-blog from the event. You can read all about it here!

Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Another Update on IntoStores.com...BBB Complaints, Quite Revealing

Now I don't give the BBB all that much credence because of a number of things I've heard about them. For an example, check out this 20/20 report from last April. You can Google "complaints about the Better Business Bureau" and see for yourself.

However, the BBB listing for IntoStores.com has full address and phone number information, as well as info you should know if IntoStores has contacted you, I'm going to share the current BBB link about IntoStores.com and keep screen shots for future reference.

I *highly* recommend you read the full details of the unresolved complaints on the site - they are very informative. Here's an excerpt from one of them:

...After signing up I realized I could not contact buyers. I emailed my sales rep asking for the buyer contact information and he emailed me approximately 50 company names without their contact info. I emailed my sales rep again asking where the buyers names and contact info were and why weren't there more?He said there was no way to contact buyers, their site was designed for the buyers to contact me only. What did they mean when they promised me "unprecedented access to head buyers, key decision makers and upper level executives?" I emailed my sales rep saying I was mis-lead and he offered me free advertising. I told him I was very unhappy and I want a refund. They said no- I have to pay for 6months of membership before I am eligible. To request a refund before makes me not eligible.
Business response: Per consumer *states via email: The company I have submitted a complaint about has contacted me and has offered a refund of $117.00 of the $230 I have invested. I would like to accept this refund so that I am able to recover some of my investment.

*note that IntoStores didn't respond - this is what the consumer who complained emailed back to the BBB.

As I said in the previous post - Seller Beware, what IntoStores offers looks too good to be true, they spam people's emails for clients, and they deliberately make it very difficult to get a hold of them when you're not satisfied with their service.

Caveat Venditor, Redux - "IntoStores.com" Sends Me an Email

Every  now and then this post from 2009 gets a comment thanking me for the research I did into "IntoStores.com" which is re-posted under the Monday Miscellany graphic below. The last comment I received got me thinking that I should re-post this, with that comment as an intro to remind us to investigate as best we can (before we commit our credit card #) to any 'deal' we might hear about to get our work out there with retailers! Also, if it comes to you via email out of the blue, it's a pretty good bet it's not something you want to be involved with.

Here's the comment:

Thanks for posting this since, like an ass, I fell for it! I have been trying to cancel forever now and they have no phone number on the site (imagine that!) and the number listed on my card statement just rolls right to a voice mail. I called the number you posted and got the guy's voice mail too. I did leave a message though. Hopefully they'll cancel it. I don't even care about the refund (it was my own stupid fault for falling for it. I'll chalk that up to a learning experience) but I don't want to continue to pay for it!! I appreciate your posting the number. Thanks!! 

First off, thanks MomX for commenting. Secondly, you weren't an ass at all, these kinds of schemers are clever, they have a legitimate looking site, and the message appeals to our desire as artists/creators to get our work out there in the public and make it more profitable. 

I was a bit ahead of the game as I had read tons of posts and warnings about similar types in the world of publishing. It's just that I was a bit more educated about how these guys work when I got their email. These kinds of schemes are not something everyone has knowledge of. I'm just so sorry you have had such a bad experience.  Please call your credit card company and tell them you want them to stop making payments to that vendor, ask if they'll help you get a refund and that you called them because you've tried to deal with the vendor but he refuses to deal with you directly.  Good luck!

Anyone remember my post about WiseRep? Well, maybe the buzz about it was bad enough that they decided to change their name? Either that, or someone else thought it was a good idea - I just got a very similar email from "IntoStores.com".

Do you wholesale your jewelry? The department stores, apparel and accessory retailers, gift shops, specialty stores and large chains we work with are aggressively looking for jewelry to purchase this Holiday season. We need a larger variety of pieces they can choose from, hence my email to you. If you want to make a Christmas push and if you're interested in selling to more stores, now's the time. Visit us at

Sincerely,

Kevin Sanderson
VP Merchandising
866-788-5799 (ext 3)
IntoStores.com

Emails like this should set off your inner skeptic. It's not personalized at all. They say they're working with "department stores, apparel and accessory retailers, gift shops, specialty stores and large chains" but nowhere on their site do you actually get verification that they do. Get an email like this, it's time to do some detective work.

When you get these kinds of emails you might want to check out the site - but be sure your virus scanner is operating and updated, just in case. I checked the IntoStores.com site and it's full of phrases that suggest to me it's a way for them to make money off of the desperate and of no benefit to you.

I learned about similar kinds of sites at places where they discuss 'display sites' that promise to get your book picked up by agents and publishers - promises that don't pan out. A great post to review is on Writer Beware about writer' services. Many of the tips on how to evaluate a display site are applicable here.

So, what am I skeptical of with IntoStores?

• "Welcome to one of the largest wholesale networks on the planet." but they don't provide any verifiable statistics back that up.
• They want to "streamline the wholesale industry" - uh, a website could do that? That's a huge claim, like wanting to solve world hunger. Hyperbole like that always worries me.
• Costs you money to join - lots of it. "Pay a one-time set-up fee of $275 and a monthly maintenance fee of $29."
• Also, "Stores that come to you are already motivated to purchase. They'll buy on your terms. You'll set pricing, payment and delivery dates you can handle. They'll pay you directly. Pick and choose who you want to work with."

I'd be willing to bet real money that at major retailers the buyers (well, their contracts and legal staffs) set the terms. You negotiate the best deal you can, but in the end it's 'take it or leave it - there are millions of fish just like you in the sea'. That's how it works in other industries, and I'm professionally qualified via my day job to say so.

Like the buyers at Macy's, or the other stores they've swiped the logo pictures from and posted in their sidebar to make it look like they actually work with them, really want to wade through the listings on a display site. I've looked at some of the listings and I know I wouldn't.

This all sounds like come-on language for the starry-eyed. Stop and think logically. Think about how big businesses really do their purchasing. This is not how they work - I happen to work in the purchasing organization of a very big company (although I'm not a buyer) and I'm seeing a lot of red flags in how this site presents how buyers work, compared to my observation of real ones. In my opinion, this is not how you get your work sold. What it's a lot like, is how someone takes advantage of you on the internet with flashy graphics and grandiose promises.

There's nothing I can find on Google except questions in forums asking "do you think this is a good deal?" (although "elvendude's" comment here is great, so read that) - so unfortunately people are going to fall for this and spend money hoping they'll hit it big right before the holidays. I think your chances are better at Vegas.

The Movers Are Coming on Monday

...and I'm not quite ready for them yet, but hope that by tomorrow night I will be! Every bead and tool is packed up, so I won't be making anything new until I'm unpacked at the new place. That said, I have two new lanyards to share, the last things I made with the last batch of beads that were left out of the packing until this morning.

I really love the diagonally drilled cube beads with the saucer spacers and hope to find them in a lot more colors.

Til next time!

I Haven't Dropped Off the Planet, But...

I'm moving! My husband has gotten a job in another city, down in the L.A. area. I've just returned from finding us a very nice townhouse and we move in (sans furniture, for now) this weekend. Stayed with my dad while I was looking. The drive from here to there (plus the driving around in L.A.) and back put nearly 900 miles on the odometer.

I've almost finished packing up the bead workroom/office, and my husband has gotten through a lot of the the other stuff, but there's still tons to do. Once we're settled I'll be getting back to making new stuff and posting about it. Until then, I'll probably be a very infrequent poster.

Renovation World SF Convention Recap

I gots pictures! Not as many as I'd have liked to do, but representative...

First off, the display:

Setting up on Tuesday

all done!

As things sold or as my whims prompted the order and arrangement changed a bit from day to day.

Front of table as set up for the last day

Other side on last day

This is my fabulous "minion", Bart, wearing one of my lanyard necklaces. After he left and put the lanyard back on the display a customer came by and snatched it up for his fiancee.

Wednesday night I did a class with 15 ladies who made their own necklaces - I wish I had taken more pictures but I was so busy with the class I forgot until I only had a few people left to take pictures of their finished work:

This is 'mom' - she brought two daughters along

This is one of the daughters - she did some really clever things with her design - note the two beads surrounding the center disk - she's put some rings around the beads to create a "Saturn" effect!

This student is an experienced seed bead weaver who does lovely work in that medium but wanted to learn some techniques in stringing. Great eye for design and color!

This student had her own focal piece back in her room, so she came by the next day to my booth to show me her finished work.

I made some pieces while I was sitting at the table:

I used a copper Tim Holt piece as the foundation and then started adding stuff until I was exhausted. Well, until it looked right.

Glad I took a shot of this (there are two separate necklaces in this photo - I'm referring to the one at the top), it sold during the final 5 minutes of the convention! It also has a Tim Holt piece as the base with Accessories Susan filigree and frame.

Didn't make these at the table, but the pink and dark gray Vintage Lucite necklaces from The Beadin' Path, were new for the show. The one at the bottom has some beautiful silver touches and matching earrings.

Finally, I did manage to get one picture of one of the dozens of costumed folk wandering around the dealer's hall

Wish I had taken more pictures, but that's all I managed. I really enjoyed this opportunity. I hope there's a WorldCon close to home again in the near future!

Now I have to start organizing and packing for my move to Los Angeles - I probably won't be posting for some time as I don't think I'll have much time for beading in the next weeks.