From Home Biz to Retail Gallery Storefront

Since 1998 until a couple of years ago, my husband and I ran our business from our home. We concentrated on doing shows and selling our work from our website and on eBay. Our house has a great location near an incredible Northwest beach and a gorgeous view of the water, but in exchange for that......it's teeny....728 sq foot teeny....and yes, we had also been fitting our business in there as well. That worked fine until the kiddos came along. The two boys are now 3 and almost 6. Getting the business out of the house was a must. So, we went to our artsy downtown La Conner looking for a shipping office and place of operations.

For not much more, a great retail space was available that looked perfect for us. A year and half goes by and it turned out that we were feeling too crammed in there. We moved to the front of the building that we were in to a bigger spot and it is PERFECT for us. Each need now has a place of its own, not having to double or triple its use. For example, Scott's beadmaking desk is for that alone, his tool making station is for tool making, our photo station does not have to be taken down and set up each time, we have a shipping table for that alone, and so on. But the one thing that I am the most excited about is my beading station. I'm in heaven. My beads are no longer in little boxes, I have everything at a glance. A true artist's pallette. It has made creating so much more fun and I design best when I can see colors together in a way I might not have otherwise. We are on 1st Street in downtown La Conner, WA if you want to visit. We are called Bearfoot Art Glass Studio. Hope to see ya sometime!

New Lampwork Necklace Design!

I'm excited about a new, yet simple, design that I suddenly created a few days ago. I'm about to make one with black and white beads as well. I love the way it lays and shows the beads on the side.

I am looking forward to updating my blog daily and building it to be functional, interesting, and informative. I need to train my brain to think in blog. It was strange one day when I realized my idle thoughts were composing Facebook entries. As I went about the house doing chores, etc. I suddenly would put together a one liner of what I was doing. My brain was getting trained in a new way of thinking. Now for the blog training.

A Blog Declaration

So, I've not been active on our blogs for a while and I think I know why. I did not have a clear direction for the blogs. I have this blog and our other one is Blogging Bearfoot that focuses more on my husband's lampwork beads and tools. With the two kiddos and running our business, I haven't been making jewelry as often as I used to. At first I was going to have this blog be a showcase for my new jewelry, but I think what I would really like is to have this blog be a place where I can write and post whatever I feel like at the time. A graceful combination of random insights and experiences along with what I've been up to in the jewelry department. I also have a lot to share about online marketing and selling your work online.

I will go forth whether anyone chooses to read or not. I want to get in the habit of blogging and I will make peace with the possibility that I may just be talking to myself. Nothing new there, I'm pretty good at talking to myself. However, I also know that I will feel very encouraged if I see the occasional comment posted.

Over the next few days, I'll be making a few changes to this page.

Well, here goes!

Some of my Jewels

This is a photo that I took the other day. It is looking down into one of our jewelry showcases at our studio in downtown La Conner, Washington. The photo is kind of dark, but I like the overall look and feel of it. Just wanted to share.

Slideshow of My Jewelry

Find more photos like this on Beader's Showcase

100 Twitter Success Tips and Tools

100 Twitter Success Tips and Tools

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Eye Candy and Kudos for Mo

I had a nice e-mail sent to me recently, so I thought I'd post it here. I also wanted to show you a tassel I made in the shop for someone recently. Check out that huge sterling silver bead.

Girl Power! I spent a few hours today in a brightly lit, beautiful new glass art studio owned by Scott and Monica Bouwens.I had an old necklace that I loved but didn't wear. Too short, out of date. I had set aside a few free hours so I tookmy plastic baggy full of old necklace beads and parts to Monica and came home with an impressive new and improvedversion of my necklace. Fun! Beware, you may get addicted to jewelry making. Beautiful glass beads made by Scott, and the jewelry made by Monica surround you when you walk in the door. Monica patiently guided me thru the process of selecting a plan and finish beads so that I could remakethe necklace and wear it home. She has everything you will need! I was impressed with Monica's expert tools, preparation, comfortable seating and lighting and how organized she is. If you just want a few hours out of the house to do something creative, planning a team building idea, need a birthday party idea for teens, a girl's get-a-way, a coffee clutch idea for your neighbors, visit the Bouwens' glass art studio on first street on the water side of SeaPort Landing Building. There is plenty of seating and room to move around. Parties last from 2-3 hours and you can bring your own food and drinks. I am making matching earrings next! Check out the website www.bearfootart.com Joan,La Conner