Doing things yourself has drawbacks. It really does.
When I think of that concept, it nearly always takes me back to a very specific DIY project I did once after graduating from college.
One of the funnier moments of having your own business is how people give you well-intentioned (albeit missing the mark) compliments regarding your ability to design things yourself—compliments like “Oh, that’s cool! And you can do all that yourself for free!” You just sort of take the compliment and smile and grit your teeth through the rest of it.
About once a year, particularly as Christmas begins to draw closer, I see something with which I’m never quite sure how to respond. I know that the people who post it on social media are doing so with their hearts exactly in the right place—but I can’t help but feel like the sentiment is missing some pieces.
There’s something oddly amazing and empowering about knowing how to build or create something—anything, really. For that reason, I’m excited to be teaching some jewelry making techniques and, later, some “recipes” for various kinds of jewelry. This is the first in a meandering series of instructional posts on making handmade jewelry. Of all the techniques you need to know how to do to make handmade wire jewelry, eye pins are fairly foundational. Closed loops connect everything, so other wrapping techniques simply build on that knowledge. There are also a few different ways that you can learn to make an eye pin! Let’s get started!
The incidence of food allergies, intolerances, and sensitivities is climbing, which is why you’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t at the very least know someone with a food allergy, intolerance, or sensitivity even if not personally dealing with one. Some attribute this to our changing food supply, others to food-based additives contained within common medicines, and others to our modern, biologically changing gut microbe. Regardless of the reason, the possibility of food-related reactions makes the basics of eating together—an age-old custom of building community together—a sticky scenario.
It’s cliché in probably every way possible, but one of the best ways to inspire new work is to step away from the work in front of you. If, like me, you lean (heavily) toward being the task-oriented sort, that can be difficult. Compared to busy work that often requires little creative thought and simply more doing, it can seem counterintuitive that walking away from your work will inspire you to do more and better work.
If you’re interested in building a service-based business that includes working with clients on custom work, there are a few things that are helpful to know going into it. A lot of working with clients effectively is about setting the right processes in motion from the start. This is especially true if you’re working with clients who are far removed from your industry. With that in mind, these are some ways to be really intentional with the “how” in your process.
I confess. I’d love to be that person—the one with the homemade soda sitting in neat, little rows in a small corner of a beautifully organized walk-in pantry. In this alternate reality, there would be multiple varieties—like raspberry, lemonade, a blend of citrus flavors, and others. (This would pair nicely with the batches of different kinds of homemade ice cream, ice cream treats, and popsicles stored in a big freezer.) I’m not quite there yet, so my solution to a frozen treat was a fruit soda float with as short a list of pronounceable ingredients as I could find. This was inspired in part because a summer stand-by is often root beer or cream soda floats (we like this brand for those—available at your local co-op or here), and fruit soda floats seemed a fun alternative to those!
In recent years, it’s become more widespread knowledge that cosmetic and skin care products and even clothes sometimes contain elements that our skin can absorb into our bodies with adverse effects. However, there’s something that’s often missing from that list. Jewelry doesn’t generally come with an ingredient label, so it’s an easy one to overlook.
You know what you want to do, you’ve thought of a name, and you’re ready to take the plunge. That’s awesome! The first step in anything is getting started, but before you get ahead of yourself, there are a few things you may want to consider.