Crystal Heartbreak

Hi guys,

I know its been a while, how have you been? You wouldn’t guess why I haven't updated? ...................*smile* I couldn't decide which of my pieces to display and which story to write about, I also don’t have an update on my steps towards business building and CONQUERING THE WORLD!

So *sigh* I’ve been in limbo.

I'm just going to tell you a story and hope that I build my business along the way. Been looking for a picture I took of a gorgeous pair of earrings I made (even if I do say so myself), it was meant to be a catalyst of love, the start to an amazing relationship, it seems like I’m over achieving right?

Here’s the story behind the earrings:

I've got this friend who I've known like forever.....let me calculate how long.........................uhhhm I've known him since fourth grade that's..............yikes 18 years! WOW, ok, back to the story,

He's a really nice guy, couldn’t hurt a fly, great listener and the good thing about him is we can pick up our friendship whenever we meet, no matter how long ago we’ve seen each other, or how far apart these meetings may be.

So my friend asked me for a favour, he wanted to give a girl a present at Christmas, he didn’t want something generic like cake, cards or perfume, he wanted to give her jewelry and asked your’s truly *wink* to make a one of a kind bespoke piece.

.............oooooohhhhh I thought....there must be a story here, so ‘amebo’ mode kicks in and I bother him till he tells me who the earrings are for...........you wouldn't believe it

It’s for this girl we both went to grade school with, I was so surprised, my quiet anti-risk taking friend was making a romantic gesture, I felt like cupid with my bow primed, my next thought was ‘this has to work’. The girl’s actually my friend now, we meet like 3 times a year at various events and I recently added her to my contact list on blackberry, so I can call her my friend, right?

Confession time (now whispering) I couldn’t stand this girl in primary school, she was one of those pampered babies;

Some people were born with silver spoons in their mouths, hers was platinum.

I couldn’t figure her out; while we were tomboys, hanging with the guys.......she was pretty and dainty and always looked kind of fragile, when it was time to go home they’d wash her feet with some sort of rose petal liquid before she got into the car............you can imagine how the rest of us smirked........let’s call her ‘Princess’......

Ok back to the subject, Princess is actually a really nice person, effortlessly chic, aspiring fashion designer and still a little delicate, so I kind of had a big task ahead figuring out what to make for her.

I decided to make a simple but classy piece, top notch crystals and high end metal; Swarovski all the way with gold plated accessories, when it came to colour I decided to go with something that could be worn on virtually any outfit without it being black, gold or silver, I settled for a shade of Swarovski called gold dust.

It took me about four hours to make the earrings but I was totally satisfied with the end result, dome shaped yet slightly dangly, perfect. I took a picture for my archives and waited for him to come pick it up.

He drove an hour thirty minutes interstate and headed straight for my house, paid and waited while I wrapped the earrings in a box and tied the bow, quizzing him about the girl.......that morning I learnt life lesson no. 318 never expect a guy to have an opinion on jewellery, it look all the same to him, hmmmph....after all my hard work, all he could say was ‘it looked okay’.

He had absolutely no opinion on the earrings; I was hoping I’d ask her for an opinion when she got it, but alas, the end of the story isn’t as I hoped.

Prince charming arrived at the castle but wasn’t granted entrance, so he dropped off the earrings but didn’t get to see Princess, how sad........I was hoping he would describe her surprised face as she opened the box and tell me the full tale of love but alas this story was to end in crystal tears, I actually pursued it and sent her a ping but got no response (something didn’t seem right).........

I never got a verdict on the earrings. Two weeks later, we talked and he told me it wasn’t meant to be, a story of love craved and lost.

I took a risk and asked her recently what she thought about the earrings and she had no idea what I was talking about, I hope she didn’t fling the box in the dumpster though, I’d be heartbroken if she did, this story would turn from crystal tears to crystal war

......to tell the truth I’d rather not know........

What do you think I should call the piece?

Love lost?

Tear drops?

Crystal pain?

Let me know yeah.........I hope you weren’t expecting a mushy story

Have a great day people, my lunch breaks almost up.

Here’s a picture of the earrings.

Holla okay.....I would appreciate a comment or two.

Eni’s List of interpretations:

Amebo – busy body

FIRST STEPS

So in building a company there should be a step by step process right? Like a '101 ways to get your business from crawling to walking'.......sounds too serious, doesn’t it?

I'm just going to breakdown what I’m doing into stages;

I decided a month ago to:

1.STOP FEEDING THE BUSINESS!: Feeding the business is simply explained as pumping all your personal resources into the business on a constant basis, hoping the business kicks off. I learnt the hard way that funneling my salary into my business constantly can’t help me or my company. This is because ½ to 3/4 of my salary was being "swallowed" by my ‘business’ and returns went straight back into my cost of living because I didn’t have enough left from my modest salary.

The solution to this is to decide on a start up amount, an amount you think would help the business kick off, save this amount and then use it to generate funds for your business. If this idea is impossible use the simple logic of using what you have to get what you want. If you've got N10,000.00 or $70 or £50 use this to carry out a small scale project. No matter what your business does, use what you have to carry out a small scale project then make a little profit off that. I've decided to use a small amount to buy affordable raw materials to make easily sellable pieces, I intend to sell off those pieces and make a profit, using the profit and initial capital to buy more raw materials.

2. CREATE A BRAND: I also decided to work on a brand, make cards and work on small scale to medium packaging, I have great dreams of have personalized boxes with perfect dainty cards but that would have to wait for a time when the company has a higher turnover rate, I’d use clear plastic bags with my cards attached to them at the moment and build on that.

Going back to the not feeding the company rule, I had to use the business to generate funds for the cards I had ordered, so  I  contacted an old client and offered to do some restringing for her, this is getting her old necklaces and making them into new more wearable designs. This helped in raising two thirds of the money for the cards. I’m still stuck with raising the last one third of the money but I’m sure I’ll come up with a brand new idea for that.

I also remembered that the most buoyant time for sales was when I made pieces and carried them around to sell to any interested person. This brought about the next stage

3. START SMALL: This I’ve learnt is the only way to grow, I still have my grand dreams but I’m learning to take it a day at a time. So as I said above I’ve gotten an amount of money and I’m making affordable pieces that would easily sell. I decided on earrings, as females never have enough of them; I got some money owed to me by a friend and instead of spending it on lunch I bought  what I’d need to make at least 30 to 50 earrings, I’d usually not buy steel and metal accessories, as I believe in quality and using  sterling silver or gold plated things but with the idea of starting small, I will make earrings with metal first and graduate to the quality products when I can afford them.

I’m currently on earring 4 of 30 to 50 pieces and I haven’t decided how much they would cost as I’m going to factor in all I bought and the cards and clear bags.

Ignore my poor photography skills and let me know what you think about these pieces.

CIAO.

IN THE BEGINING

Early on in life I knew I wanted to ‘do my own thing’, I’d thought the best course was to do some sort of craft (as I’m a ‘crafty’ person and love to make things), so I decided to major in architecture. The plan was to attend school for 5 years, get a degree in architecture, work with a very talented and/or gifted architect for about four years and then start my own thing in the back office of my home. i'd be designing beautiful homes for people at my own time and pace, selling off these drawings and earning myself an income.

Alas this was not to be, 11 years down the line I’m sitting at my desk at the prestigious law firm I work, conducting research on the Lagos State Money Lenders Certificate for a client company we registered. So yeah I’m a lawyer, doing my job as best as I can with a budding jewelry company on the side. I call it a company but it’s actually just a registered name and my innate skills, as I don’t make jewelry that often and I don’t market myself at all. It’s hard knowing that you’re in your late 20’s and not living the life you had anticipated.

I keep thinking about known brands (my favourite) Tiffany’s , Marc Jacobs, Chris Aire (a Nigerian jewelry designer) and wondering what it took for them to establish themselves as well known brands. I always believed in starting with a bang; perfect boxes and high quality pieces..... which end up expensive *sigh*, this hasn’t paid off in the last six years, so I’m eating my words and deciding to create small scale pieces and gradually move up in scale, extravagance and quality.

I’m not to waiting till I’ve got the perfect labradorite and onyx necklace but will start with cute dainty earrings and easy to sell pieces. I’m hoping to gradually build my capital and client base.

This is a memoir of all I learn, adapt and use towards growing the perfect business.

I’m hoping it works out.