Frustration....

I'm not sure if many of you out there know this, but before I was 100% focused on making Braille jewelry, I was a Senior Designer for Lenox. One thing that I was very much used to was dealing with factories that would manufacture the items that we had designed. It was a pretty straight forward process: design would come up with new ideas and create either a CAD model- (Computer Aided Design- a 3D computer created representation of the final piece) and/or a technical drawing. The drawing would describe to the factory EXACTLY what we wanted with material, scale, finish, etc.... The factory representative would work with the sourcing department- the group that handled all the business ends of the deal- and in about 2 weeks we would have 1st samples- of which we would critique and make sure the factory is producing exactly what we were looking for. Sourcing also worked with negotiating time, price, terms etc...

Well, one thing that I have realized over the past few years in making my Braille jewelry is that although I want 99.9% of my work to be handmade by me, I really can't do it all and have my business grow. I am a one woman shop- from design, handwork, website, sales lady- if you met me at any shows, you know! But I really want to expand my business and have items available to you at great prices- still my design- but not 100% made by me. I can't do it all... dagger.

Since November of last year, I have been working with a factory to create ~to be announced, but trust me- way cool~ and this has been so slow....... I am used to having an idea and in an hour having a piece in my hand- this is very much not the case. If they tell me 1 week, count on 2. I tried with all my might to explain that I have some awesome events planned for March, I get promises that the items will be in hand... and then apologies.... So, the idea that I would 'hand off' the work has still been a ton of work and I hope soon to be over. When the new items are out- I hope you all enjoy and know it has been a labor of love!