Can a Real Woman Compete with Monique?

Proud of my latest metalwork creation (Triquetra), I couldn't wait to wear it to my favorite card club, where I see many loyal local customers each week & sometimes sell jewelry right off my body. (Marketing takes many forms:) I received 3 eye-popping Wowzas from 3 new admirers at the game. The next morning an email arrived from 1 of the women, wanting to buy Triquetra for her daughter's birthday.

So as I now wrap & kiss goodbye my newest favorite creation, I question again the most effective way to market my jewelry online==> with pictures of Monique the Mannequin OR pictures of the human variety. Monique's figure is beyond reproach, and she never complains about holding a pose. The potential human model can't seem to stay still, can't get her body under the daylight lamps while snapping the picture, and can't hold up a strapless dress. However, she does work cheap. Plus in Real Life, ordinary women do seem to enjoy the jewelry her 5'7" imperfect body wears...

I vote for Monique. As the photographer, I've finally learned to position the 2 light cones with daylight bulbs focused just about right on Monique as she poses 24/7 on her table. Besides, I think all of us mortal woman enjoy fantasizing that the svelte, (plaster) model wearing my jewelry in the website could be her, with just a little dietary tweaking.

More Travel = More Jewelry

I recently returned from my annual adventures through the SW with 3 "sisters" of 30 years.


We gab, eat, drive, laugh, play games for money, eat, gab, eat. Did I mention gab & eat? BUT I always lug my jewelry tools, beading board, & packets of "project components" I've prepared ahead of time. Driving in a car at least 20 hours in 10 days leaves much time to make jewelry while gabbing, laughing, & munching in the back seat with my pillow table in my lap.

So I've officially begun the Spring-Summer Collection of 2010, and if some creations have a SW "feel," now you know why.


Soon it's time to travel with my husband. In the next few days, I'll be preparing some jewelry projects in little ziplock baggies to take on our trip to the South & on a cruise from N.O. Once again, I'll be gabbing & eating, while keeping my hands busy with jewelry in whatever lag times exist. I wonder what Southern Influence will be seen in my next creations?

BUT even more, I wonder what I did with travel lag times before I caught the Jewelry-Making Bug?