I Need Patience and Persistance

Tonight I pulled out some freshwater pearls, miscellaneous garnets and sterling silver beads for one necklace lanyard:

and then did another one using onyx ovals, black Czech druk beads, more garnets and 14k gold plated beads.

I'm setting up a new piece with beads made from chips of white shell reconstituted into spheres with a slightly yellow tint to them (I'm not sure if the base is acrylic or glass, I'm betting acrylic - but they're cool looking), pale-yellow/white mother of pearl donuts, through which I've strung a yellow jade bead, and gold plated brass spacer beads with rows of dots around them that make them look sort of pineapple-y. I'll finish it off and post about it tomorrow.

I'm a bit down today, probably because I've got the 'why am I doing this' whisper going through my head. I was all enthusiastic about making a lot of new stuff when I thought I was going to LosCon, but with that pretty much not going to happen (barring another vendor's cancellation, which I just don't think will happen, or if so, not in time for me to re-arrange my holiday plans again), I don't have any venue other than my Etsy store to sell my work and the kind of time it would take (to say nothing about cost) to really market my work online is not available to me right now. I do best when people can actually see my stuff in person.

I've always wished I could work in a more creative field, and my headlong dive into this beading has been an outlet for my impulses, but I've made so many necklace lanyards now I could probably wear a different one every workday - I'd rather see them find new homes.

So, I tell myself to be patient and persistant, this is only my first full year of being a business, part-time as it is, and next year I'll scan the web for conventions and register early!