Thinking Inside the Box

Hiya, folks! I am spending the morning packing up some orders to ship, and I thought I’d share a little glimpse behind the scenes – you can get a  peek at what customers see when they open their package from TorchFire Studio!

I recently decided that my old packaging was too boring, so I ordered a new style of business cards and product labels to add a little pizzazz. The colorful watercolor background of the cards and labels plays off the hot pink ribbon and drawstring bags. I hope that when one of my customers opens his or her package, it will feel like they are opening  a present!

A Week Ends, A Week Begins.

Last week was perfectly lovely, especially the Thursday – Sunday portion of it. I was able to wrap up all my orders by Thursday and head south to visit my family for the Father’s Day weekend. Ben also came down, but continued further to see his parents and his grandparents for the holiday.

This year, my dad insisted that we not buy him anything for Father’s Day, but I wanted to do something, so I whipped up a little photo to present him with a physical concept of his gift – a full day of “personal chef” services by his favorite oldest daughter (Me!).

I had fun doing lots and lots of cooking – we enjoyed some delicious items like my homemade crepes with orange butter sauce, butternut squash risotto, and my favorite sticky balsamic ribs.

 (And apple pie.)…(And coconut cake.)

Holy cow, did we eat a lot this weekend! Thank goodness that Dad agreed to give Mom and I some tennis lessons. Otherwise, I might not fit into my clothes this week!

Speaking of this week, we have a LOT planned, and a good deal of it involves long car rides and short shorts.  Murphy’s Law has indeed kicked into overdrive, with several orders pouring though in the past few days, just in time to add to my last-minute to-do list.  The day seems to be getting away from me yet again, so I’m off to check some items off my list. Hope your week is off to a great start already!

A Positive Spin

Running a  small craft business all on my own, sometimes it’s easy for me to get bogged down in small details and frustrations:  keeping my inventory stocked up, handling financial aspects, and fulfilling orders in a timely fashion. Quite often, the fun parts of my creative endeavors are lost amid the daily humdrum.

I was recently reminded of the positive aspects of my craft – a sweet  post  was written on my Facebook page by a lovely lady who purchased one of my  rings. She had this to say about her new sterling silver spin ring:

“Apart from my wedding set it is my favorite piece of jewelry.”

Thank you for the amazing feedback, Julie!  It really made my day to hear back from a happy customer and hearing such kind words about my jewelry makes even the humdrum days feel so much more productive.

This Week in the Studio

I suppose you might say that I’ve been goal-oriented this week.

My short-term goal for the shop right now (besides filling orders in a timely manner!) is to generate enough sales to start paying a larger chunk of our monthly bills. Along with instituting a monthly salary for myself, I need to use up some of the supplies I have sitting around gathering dust instead of making money!

With this in mind, this week I muddled through my messy studio space to make and ship several orders and wrangle up a few new creations.

Of course I gave in to my jewelry-supply shopping habit and purchased some fine silver in several gauges. This coming week I will be experimenting with a new jewelry technique – fusing. Of course I will share along the way!

Have a great rest of the weekend!