Dice bags!

My dice bag stash had dwindled down to only 5, so I decided to make some more!
My first batch was a red and black one and a full black one.  I was working on these 2 at work when things slowed down. A co-worker saw me working on them and actually claimed the red one before I had finished making it!

I also had an idea for making some dice bags with a charm on it at the top. I started with Hogwarts house colors, since those were the charms I decided to start with. I got the first 2 done and pictured. The other 2 have to wait until I make another ring order, as I ran out of some colors needed.

Here are 3 of the 4 new bags I made (I gave the red one to the coworker as soon as it was done).

I have a bunch of pendants/charms in my inventory just sitting and waiting for a purpose. I may use some of them for these dice bags!
I also have plans for a purse! No, this isn't the red and black one that I was making for myself (That still isn't completed). This is one that I have just come up with the idea for, and should be muuuuuuuch quicker to make than the one I was making for me.
I'll post pictures of it soon, hopefully! If it comes out even half as cool as I'm hoping, it will be awesome!

Need more inventory!

So, I had a thought for my convention displays.
As it is right now, when I go to my cons, I take the large pegboard display (where I can keep a large amount of inventory), but I also take my older, more portable, one. I generally don't know what my space will look like before I get there, and sometimes there just isn't room to be able to setup the large display, so I have to resort to the other one.


This poses a problem, as I discovered the first time I went to use the big display.
The whole point of getting the large one was so I could leave the hooks and necklaces on the pegboard, and just close and latch the display in between conventions. I was wasting a lot of time having to put up and take off all the pegboard hooks and merch each time. The large display resolved this issue for me, and it has been amazing!

However,  if I can't use the large display and have to resort to the old one, I'm stuck. That first time, luckily I had a few extra hooks, but I had to take a lot of the necklaces off the hooks on the large display to put them on the one I was using. This not only defeats the purpose, but actually takes even longer.
I have been trying to buy another batch of hooks to keep on-hand for this eventuality, but I realize I will need more inventory, as well. If I can just keep a large amount of necklaces handy, I won't have to remove those from the large display when I'm not using it. I've been working like mad to get more supplies to make a huge amount more. The success of my recent conventions has made this possible, too!

So, for the next few weeks, I am going to be making a bunch of necklaces. I'll post pictures of some periodically! Plus, I was able to get more hooks on sale, so things are looking up!

Here are just a few of my latest ones. I need to put them on cards and they'll be done!

Commission

A friend of mine came to me asking me to make them a bracelet. We talked about weaves and colors, and this is what we came up with!

This is using some of the last of the turquoise rings leftover from the scarf that I made. I have been hanging on to them for a special occasion, and they were exactly the color my friend wanted! I may have just enough rings to make one more bracelet before they are all gone.

I love this color combination. The frost color makes the turquoise just pop even more.

Couple more cons down, now to relax a few weeks

The past couple weeks have been busy! First I had a 3 day comic con, then 2 weeks later I had a 2 day comic con. I did pretty well with them, too! I am so excited that I have found my customer base.
The 2 day con I went to wasn't attended very well, and most vendors did really poorly with sales. My sales were down a bit, too, but overall I did better than most other vendors, and I did much better than I usually do at craft fairs!

Then, my computer died. The power supply experienced a very loud cascade failure, so I have been working on getting it fixed. I already had a motherboard and processor that I needed to replace, anyway, and my husband bought me a new power supply. I have already swapped them all, and the system powers on. I just need to work on it a little bit more to get it back up and running. Hopefully very soon!

My next con is a 1 day convention being held by a library in the state. This one should be good size, and decently attended, too.
I am starting to expand my range, too, and I am looking into my first con outside of Oklahoma! (just across the border, in Arkansas).

Here are some pictures of my booths at the last couple cons.
I know most people don't care so much about these pictures of my booth, but when I was first starting out, I would scour the web for booth examples. Now that I am a bit more experienced, I want to share my setup, in case it inspires others who are just starting out.

Here is my setup for the 3 day con, in Enid, OK:

I did tweak a few things after this picture was taken. Most notably, I moved the big display stand on the right, forward, so it was next to the table, rather than behind it. That encouraged more people to step closer to look.

2 weeks later, for the 2-day con, here is my setup (a corner booth, too!)

Ugh, ignore the exposed side under the table. The fabric I had was barely long enough to cover the table. It was a bigger table than I expected (which just gives more room for merchandise!).

As you can see with both of these, I had lots of space. Because of this, I actually took advantage and used not only my large pegboard display, but I also setup a small version of the portable one, as well. This way I was able to put out many more items for sale.
I have a feeling that my library con will be limited for space, so there is a chance I may not be able to even use the large display. We'll see!

I learned a new weave!

I have joined a couple chainmail groups on Facebook, and I am constantly amazed at all the different designs and weaves out there. There are still quite a few that I don't feel talented enough to even attempt.
That being said, I came across an interwoven 4-in-1 weave. It is basically 2 different strips of your basic Euro 4-1 that you see used in armor, etc, but the 2 strips are interwoven into each other.

I pulled up a tutorial to learn just how difficult it really is, and I was super excited to find a tutorial on how to make a stretchy version. You know me! I looooove the stretchy bracelets. I immediately had to give it a try.

It was actually not as difficult as I was expecting. I really like how it turned out, too.
I don't know if I will make more of these to sell, though, as I would have to charge more. This is basically 2 bracelets in one, so it takes more time and more materials.

 Here is the flip side: