My Memory Wire Has Amnesia

After the traumatic experience of losing all except one of my precious jump rings on the floor (which a lovely reader referred to, very aptly, as "the black hole"), I thought I'd try my hand at a memory wire bracelet.

How I imagined my new bracelet would look

Memory wire is so called because it remembers its original shape, and will always revert to that shape.  You can purchase memory wire for rings, bracelets and necklaces, generally in coils but sometimes as a complete piece with a clasp already attached. 

You can imagine, to a novice artist, that this has a lot of appeal - hell, most of it's done and I only have to get a really lovely combination of beads and bits on the wire to end up with a beautiful piece of jewellery.  So I bought my memory wire bracelets (multicoloured wire, just because I could, and it seemed more artistic somehow than plain old grey), and a pleasing variety of beads.

So not only did a memory wire bracelet sound like a relatively simple project, it also seemed like one of the smarter pieces of jewellery that you can buy. Best of all though, I felt like the possibility of it following the jump rings into who-knows-where was fairly remote.

I started off full of enthusiasm.  It didn't last long.

These lovely little bracelets have a connector (trust me when I tell you that connectors will be featuring in a future blog!) that screws one side of the bracelet to the other - obviously so you can get the bracelet on and off without dislocating your thumb.  Suppliers think of everything really.  Under the side of the screw connector, with the hole for the screw, is a crimp bead (fairly self explanatory - it gets crimped onto the end of the wire to prevent everything sliding off when the bracelet is undone), and the other has the screw piece sticking out.  "Screw piece" would be one of those technical jewellery terms I use now I'm an artist.

So I uncrimped the bead (that only took an hour or so - I think Hercules had crimped it) and prepared to thread my gorgeous beads on, in an artistically pleasing way.

Hmmm, forgot to suss out the hole size in the beads versus the diameter of the memory wire - they're both the same.  Rookie mistake, it could happen to anyone!  Luckily enough of the beads had a minutely larger hole and I managed to slide them on (i.e. push, shove, beg and plead until they moved).  As luck would have it, because I completely forgot to set it out and measure it first, the pattern of beads I'd chosen fitted exactly (I can only think that whoever watches over us must have taken pity on me).

As you might imagine, by this stage I was feeling fairly pleased with myself, even if I had sore arm muscles from the pushing and shoving - and the bracelet was looking great too.  Just had to pop the crimp bead and connector end back on and a new bracelet would be looking for a loving new home.

These things should have come with instructions!  No one mentioned that the connector should be on before the crimp bead.  And no, it didn't occur to me to look how the stupid thing went together as I pulled it apart - it was a simple connector with a simple crimp bead.  Why is it called memory wire if it can't remember how it goes together?

By the time I'd managed to pull the whole thing apart again and start over the end of the wire was sort of daggy and needed to be chopped off. And no, it didn't enter my head that if I chopped off a couple of millimetres of daggy end that my lovely pattern of beads wouldn't fit anymore and would be completely lopsided and wrong.

How my new bracelet really looks!

And no, I didn't think about how hard that crimp bead would be to get off a second time, when I put it on anyway, because I thought it wouldn't be noticeable that the pattern was lopsided and wrong.

The positive side to all of this was that I discovered my artistic temperament and invented a new swear word. I tried the new word out on the memory wire, while I was trying to work out what to do, but it didn't seem all that impressed (there's a distinct possibility it had heard it before).  I guess I just chalk it up to experience and start with a new bracelet.

And that's as far as I've made it.  The new bracelet is apparently a smidge thicker and I can't get the beads on it!  Lucky I like shopping - I need to buy new beads.

But as I write this, I can feel the lopsided and wrong bracelet looking at me from the bench - sort of like it remembers something unpleasant and might just get it into its little memory wire head to come alive, find an axe and visit me in the middle of the night.

I'm thinking elastic may be the perfect medium for me next.

Jump Ring Circus

In my newly found artistic bone (located somewhat near the funny bone) I've had to learn what all the little bits and pieces of jewellery making, known as findings, (this much I sussed out quickly...after I looked in a dictionary) are called.  Here's a few of the ones I've come across so far, and what they're used for.

First, we have chain.  Now chain isn't just chain much to my surprise!  It can be twisted, linked, belcher, double linked and so on. (Thank goodness for the dictionary and Google!), which you can buy in lengths such as a metre, or already prettied up into a necklace or bracelet length complete with the doing up bit known as a clasp.  Oh, in case you're wondering, the belcher chain doesn't actually burp the national anthem, I listened.

You can also purchase various types and hardnesses of metal with which to make your own chain, however being in the affordable category of jewellery, I've given that one a miss.  I'm also getting on in years and believe I might not finish constructing a single necklace chain from scratch before I move on to the great jewellery store in the sky.

Clasps seem to have an infinite variety of styles - toggles, lobsters, parrots (which I think might be the same as a lobster, but that could be entirely wrong so don't quote me in case the parrots or lobsters get miffed and attack me), magnetic, screw and so on and so on and so on.

Then you have connectors.  This one I worked out all by myself - they connect things (oh, go me!).  But that's the end of the simple bit, there are oodles of types of connectors as well.  I think it would be safe to say that if you imagined something you wanted to connect one bit of jewellery to another, there would already be a connector made exactly that way.

And then there are jump rings.

Jump rings are those tiny little circles of metal joining beads and charms, connectors and clasps, onto things.  They come open or closed which is exactly as it sounds - open ones have a break in the ring, closed ones don't, and they come in all different sizes.

I bought 3mm open jump rings (not knowing any better at the time and having to start somewhere).  3mm looks quite largish on the ruler, but the reality is that 3mm is TINY!  And jump rings, well,  jump!

Me on a good jump ring day

An open jump ring needs to be held between two pairs of pliers and twisted sideways to open them far enough to slip the whatever into the opening, then moved sideways back until it's closed neatly again.  Certainly sounds simple.  Until you put two pairs of plier ends onto a 3mm wide piece of metal that's about a poomteenth of a millimetre thick.  Then trust me you need to be an octopus, and a particularly dextrous octopus at that, to open, hold, slip something on and close again smoothly.

Here's a riddle for you.  If you have two hands (which I do) and each is holding a pair of pliers (which they are) which are in turn holding a 3mm jump ring, where is the spare hand that slips the pieces over the jump ring?

Not being an octopus, I've had to resort to other measures.  I've found that teeth don't work to hold any of this stuff, and neither does the man of the house who has sausage fingers (now that was a mistake - live and learn!). Throwing the piece in the air and hoping it lands in the right spot over the jump ring didn't work all that well either.

In the meantime, the second your attention wavers on the pliers in one of your hands the damn jump ring thinks it's the main event in a circus and jumps right out of them.  And bounces...and bounces...and bounces around the room.  Being only 3mm wide and a poomteenth thick they are nearly impossible to find if you don't locate them by sound before the bouncing ceases.  (If anyone knows an out of work lion tamer with chair and whip, please get in touch - I have a job for them).

As I wasn't fast enough for sound location, I tried various measures to recover the escapees.  Firstly, the 'find the lego block in the middle of the night' method i.e walk around in bare feet and you're sure to stand on one.  Didn't work.

Then I tried the 'crawl around on your hands and knees peering myopically at the dark corners' method.  I got sore knees and squinty eyes, but didn't find any jump rings.

Then I even resorted to sweeping the floor.  Hallelujah!  Found one.  Yes - one. 

So the jewellery making's on hold for a bit while I bring in the search and rescue dogs to find the remaining 299 jump rings that have to be on the floor somewhere.  Unfortunately for you all, hearing about my dexterity in making a little loop in the end of a connector pin is going to have to wait.  Sorry, but learning to live with a little disappointment every now and then is a good character building exercise.

Creative Is My Middle Name

After you look at jewellery long enough, you get bitten by the creative bug. A little of the old "I can do that - but way better" strikes you. Believe it or not, it's actually a bit more difficult than you'd first think.

Charm bracelet - pretty, but not technically challenging

First, you have to figure out what you're going to make - necklace, brooch or bracelet? I'm not including the charm bracelets I currently make in the artistic category - it's not that technically difficult to thread beads on a bracelet (I know, shocking to learn isn't it?), even though some days the beads are little escape artists. The creative part is making the whole bracelet look pretty and not like a bunch of beads bunged on any old how.  I'm fairly good at that part, but it rates close to a zero in the technical challenge department.

So, what do us artists do when we want to create our art? We go shopping! An artist must have pretty much any type of material to hand, in order to design and create said artwork - in this case, hand made jewellery. Once all the materials are in the "studio", then it stands to reason that the artistic juices flow and beautiful jewellery is the result.

The shopping part (which I flew off to do quickly) was completely daunting. Do you know how much jewellery stuff is out there? Three hours later I came home with the most pathetic little bag of goodies imaginable and then had to put it out of sight because I was so traumatised by the whole experience.

I found this very similar to shopping for fabric - I'm female therefore I must know about fabric, right?  Wrong - I don't sew, I know nothing about fabric, and find all the women making a beeline for the exact thing they're after quite scary.  How do they know what to get? And an even bigger question - how do they know what to do with it all, once they have it? Were they born with a fabric gene, whilst I got the tree climbing one?

And so it was with me and jewellery bits and pieces...er, jewellery findings. I do apologise for using technical terms, but us artists struggle with speaking the language of the ordinary mortal world.

Eventually, after about a month (I did mention I was traumatised didn't I?), I sneaked a peek in the bag of beads and findings.  Yep, they were still there.  Just checking.

The very first item of jewellery I created

Not too many days later, I just bit the bullet, tipped the whole lot across the work bench in my studio (i.e. kitchen table) and took a good look at what I'd carefully selected.  Wow, grabbed a few really nice things in my panic. And so, feeling inspired, I set to work. 

Half an hour later I had created my first piece and I WAS STRUTTING! Doing the finger point happy dance around the kitchen for my admiring fans.  Strut strut, finger point, "who's gooood!", strut strut, "oh yeah, artist at work babeeee", finger point finger point...

My fans were just so adoring that it was truly humbling. The dust bunnies came out for a closer look, and the fly on the window sill (that I really thought was, well...dead) waved a leg at me. Swear to god, it waved it's little leg and saluted me in admiration before it waved no more.


Now there's no stopping me. Creative is my middle name, and truly - an artist is born.

P.S. If anyone has an almost dead fly they don't need anymore, could you please let me know - my audience is a little thin this week.

Stolen: Floor - REWARD offered for information

Attention everyone, my office floor has been stolen!  It was last seen 2 weeks ago under my desk, filing cabinet and feet.  A reward is being offered for information as to its whereabouts.

Let me take you back to the last time I saw my floor, and the circumstances leading to its disappearance.

*Six months to two weeks ago:

Starting and growing a service based business is somewhat different in space requirements to that of a product based business.

You need a desk, a computer and printer, and a file cabinet (until the business grows and woo hoo a second one is required). Then the stuff that goes on the desk - noddy head toy, stress balls, large doodle pad (lots of doodling time in the early days) - and of course pens in all the colours of the rainbow (if one is going to doodle, then one's doodles should be attractive) along with paper clips (for chain making) and so on.

A paperclip chain is a must have in any decent office environment

You might also require a car - however I don't park mine in my office so I'm not including that.

When you have products to sell, you need all of the above - and then you need the storage space for for your lovely products.  Day one of the whole new life is easy - there's no stock at that point, so the office (which like many home based businesses starts on the kitchen table) is quite spacious.  You look around at your new work environment, nod a little in time to the noddy toy whilst thinking "damn fine office...and so neat - and hey, I've got a floor".

By the time 6 months has rolled around it's a whole different story.  You can no longer work from the table because the rest of the inconsiderate people in the house actually want to eat their meals there without balancing plates and cups on piles of beads.  I think it makes meal times a little bit more fun playing 'catch the crockery' as it rolls along.  Apparently though, I am the only one who has a sense of humour here.

And so us home based people are banished to the back bedroom.

But in the meantime, while we were having fun at the dinner table/office, the gremlins have been destroying our workspace. Where's all my space gone?  And while we're looking for things, where the hell's my desk?  Who dumped all that stuff on it?  If I only had a dog these days I could turn around and glare at him or her in an accusing fashion.  But I haven't, so I had to glare at the Other Half instead (it was almost as good, except I don't remember my dog ever talking back like that...).

Clearly a storage system was required for all the different types of beads and charms, then a separate area for the made up jewellery.  So far so good.  Then I packed everything to go to a market - still following a sort of system, still good.  Then when the market finished the people who were running it wanted to get to the pub for lunch, and literally threw everyone and their goodies out of the door to lock up.  Not good at all, and my system started to get a few cracks around the edges.

Meanwhile, MinzBeadz was growing slowly but surely, and the amount of stock, logically, was increasing too.  So more storage, more sorting, more stacking, more labeling - ahh, nicely under control again.

And then The Son came home.

*Present day

So, his former bedroom, which housed the mess of my Other Half (his is mess, mine is work - let's make that clear), had to be relocated in MY office!  Crowded you ask? Apparently only on my side of the room (I have to take his word for it as I can't actually see over the top of the piles of his mess).  Periodically a paper plane flies across to me with a note that tells me how he's stretched out and comfortable over there and doesn't understand how I can be so disorganised.

My other half also puts earphones in and listens to his really bad music.  At first glance this is a considerate thing to do, however random extremely loud taps of the workboots (presumably to the music), coupled with earphone deafness shouts, of a word here and a word there, do not make for a great experience.  More like losing a few years off your life with fright every time one or the other occurs.

And the son seems quite comfortable in his old room, which magically has more space than when he lived in caveman fashion there before (primarily because we had the bulldozer through after he moved out).

NB: To be fair to said son, the move home is a temporary after an operation whilst needing some TLC, so not entirely his fault.  Alright - not his fault at all (why must you be so pendantic?).  I just don't see why he can't play at being the princess and the pea and have a few beads under the mattress - didn't he sleep enough during his operation?  And from ages 13 to 18?

Anyhow, back to the story - in order to actually do some work in the day, access to the computer and desk is required. So I did a major tidy up (no mean feat given the three square centimetres I now have to move around in).  I also thought that perhaps I might like to join a circus - I seem to have accomplished a fairly impressive balancing act of things on top of things... on top of things.

The good news is, I found my desk, diary, computer and pretty coloured pens and paper clip chain (I was a tad worried about the chain, it took quite some time to get it to that length).  But the bad news - when I stopped being impressed by finding my desk I discovered that my floor was missing.

Theft is the only logical answer and, to whoever took it, I'd like it back NOW please.

Choosing the Perfect Business Name - in 127 (or more) easy steps!

Choosing a name, registering it and getting an ABN is simple - or so you'd think.

First off - get the ABN. In Victoria, where I am, you can go to http://www.business.vic.gov.au and use a nifty little tool to check your eligibility. One of the first questions is "Have you started trading as an enterprise/business?". Well, no not yet (I figured the buying frenzy didn't actually qualify as trading). So, check the 'no' box...

The next page shows a list of activities that constitute trading (none of which have occurred at this stage). So, check the 'no' box... Response: "You are not entitled to be registered for an ABN". Well, that's a bit rude! 

In order to trade as a business you require an ABN, to get an ABN you need to be already trading as a business - which you're not allowed to do without an ABN. Dizzy yet? On reflection, this might have been the point I actually began to have a few disquieting thoughts about everything being a piece of cake. What to do? Alright, it's just a teensy little fib - check the 'yes' box. Woo hoo! The government likes me.

Second - register my business name. http://www.business.gov.au has links to each state or territory and is easy to follow. But hold on, you can't just willy nilly register your name, there are things to check first. Is it too similar to an existing business name? Is the domain name available? And what about trademarks - is my name the same as a registered trademark?

The choosing of a name took a very long time. What I discovered was, whilst lots of appropriate "bead" or "jewellery" names were available to register as my business name, I couldn't actually find a domain name to match. Someone had beaten me to them all! Really, it was sheer greed - didn't they know I might need just one of them? 

So, selecting a business name with matching domain name, that Google or Bing might like to pop into number one position, wasn't going exactly as I'd planned. And I still haven't got my name. And I still have to read up on trademarks...

For much of my life my nickname has been Min, so in a flash of inspiration (did I mention I have flashes of inspiration? You might recognise it as brilliance, but I'm quite modest so I'm sticking with inspiration), I decided on MinzBeadz. No business names like it (check), domain name available (check), anyone with the trademark (um, check?). Maybe I should get some help with this one.

Checking whether a trademark is available is not just a matter of someone else having the exact same name. You can step on someone's toes by having a similar name too. You are able to check trademarks yourself at IP Australia  however there are a number of companies around that will do the hard work for you (you need to suss them out carefully, as many just give you a 'yes' or 'no' with a comment along the lines of "call us to discuss" - as if I have time for someone else's sales pitch).

Best of all though, and highly important, (as much of my start up cash left my account rather hastily in my little shopping spree for stock), some of these companies will do it all for free! 

One of the nice things that I've found, since my whole new life began, is helpful people who don't seem to have an ulterior motive in helping. As a perfect example of this, for assistance with trademarks try Mark My Words Trademark Services - friendly, helpful and, most of all, speaking my language. As I'm not bilingual, speaking in English rather than Legalese is a necessity, and not feeling like a dodo, I find, is really good for the self esteem. Mark My Words Trademark Services will not only search to see if your name is ok to use as a trademark (for free), but can do all the registration part for you as well (unfortunately not for free).

But back to my wonderful name. As it turned out, no one except me wanted it, which is a little hard to understand given its greatness, and all seemed well in the mysterious world of trademarks.

Off to Consumer Affairs to register MinzBeadz which was quick and easy - big thumbs up to Consumer Affairs Victoria, and my beautiful and important looking Certificate of Registration arrived only a few days later in the mail.

Now I'm a real business, as opposed to a shopper gone mad. I know this because shoppers gone mad only have credit card statements and receipts, whereas I have A Certificate.

Proof I am absolutely not a mad shopper (oh, I added the gold star - I thought I deserved one)

All I have to do now is register my domain name, get a website (with one of those cute little shopping carts), and wait for the money to roll in. Of course, I will still be nice to the little people when I'm a gazillionaire (cut to scene: white sand, azure water glinting sunlight, hammock, palm trees, really cute bronzed waiter bearing cool drink with a little umbrella...)

But that's a story for next time (the website, not the cute bronzed waiter).

Min

Owner MinzBeadz
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