Danielle Miller Jewelry - BLOG: July 2012

Once a month, members of the EtsyMetal team are given a topic or question and then are requested to blog about it simultaneously. This month's topic is: What In The World Are You Doing?
...Please share your "goings on"!

Well, in my case it is a matter of what I am doing and what I am NOT doing...

For starters, I decided to take a sabbatical from all wholesale trade shows in 2012. This will be the first time in 15 years that I did not exhibit at the Buyers Market of American Craft! This has left me with both a feeling of apprehension and relief. I am still taking wholesale orders, I am simply not traveling to the wholesale shows. Everything else is business as usual.......well, sort of......
I will be discontinuing many designs throughout 2012. All good things must come to an end, right? Since 1995, I have successfully built my jewelry career on my "Abacus Collection". Even though I have added new items every year to keep it fresh and new, after so many years, I have simply grown tired. I have decided that I need to revive my artistic juices and to truly do so, I must put things that I feel are holding me back to rest. Once my supplies run out, most of this collection as well as other older collections, will be retired. (Stay tuned for news of flash sales on these older items!)
I am continuing to develop new work as well as my eco-friendly engagement and wedding ring lines. This is where I have focused my energy lately and I am really enjoying it!
At the beginning of the year, I was awarded with an Artists' Ventures Initiative Grant from the SC State Arts Commission. The purpose of this grant is "to encourage and enable the creation of new artist-driven, arts-based business ventures that will provide career satisfaction and sustainability for South Carolina artists."
With the help of the above mentioned grant, I have started to conduct "Make your own Wedding Band Workshops!" Yes, you read that correctly....I am assisting couples with no jewelry-making experience. From raw material to final polish, they spend the day under my tutorship creating perfectly made wedding bands. They learn how to melt, mill, measure, cut, form, solder, sand and polish the rings to perfection. It is a romantic gesture and a lifelong memory above and beyond a trip to the jewelry store!