Inspired. Connected. Nourished. Creative Spirit.

Inspired. Connected. Nourished. Creative Spirit.

These are my words.

These are the words that hang taped to my hallway wall above the painting that my 2 year old nephew and I created together.

These are the words that represent the way I want to feel EVERYDAY of my life which came to me via Danielle Laporte's Spark Kit.

My past 4 days were spent in Seattle at the the SNAG conference and I felt these words fill me up and take me to a place of enthralling enjoyment that I don't get to very often.

Inspired. Well, hello Lola Brooks. We listened to her speak on the first day of the conference and this really set the tone for me. She was engaging, intelligent, incredibly witty, and desperately inspiring. She also was wearing a denim pant suit and after she spoke I had to resist the urge to run up to her, tell her that I loved her and that I too own a denim pant suit.

Connected. I took the train down with 3 other jewelers. Simone Richmond, Stephanie Menard, and Brendalynn Avender. We shared a room together and we shared the experience. I don't remember the last time I giggled so much, had so much fun and so little sleep. We talked art, jewelry, geeked out on tool and stone shopping, shared our passions and dreams, analysed love and boys, and helped each other to navigate the twisted path of being an artist.

Nourished. Sharon Massey took one of my cards and told me she really liked my work. Deb Stoner took one of my cards and told me I had great images. The fact that I'm even near their radar makes me believe in possibilities and confirms that I'm moving in the right direction.

Creative Spirit. Everywhere you looked at this conference people were wearing art. Amazing, beautiful, creative, interesting, innovative, hand made art jewelry. I was submerged for 4 days with a thousand other people who all share my passion for taking risks, and trying new things.



Lola Brooks. Image taken from the American Craft Magazine article about her.


Here we are. Stephanie ($27 dollar Sandwich) Menard, Patsy (what happens at SNAG stays at SNAG) Kolesar, Simone (we love drunk Simone) Richmond, and Brenda Lynn (WTFBL?) Avender.


This ring was my favourite ring from the many amazing pieces at the Ring A Day show at the Punch Gallery. It's created by Victoria Takahashi, made of wood, mixed metals, polymer clay, dyed leather, and acorn cap.


A very sweet girl gave me this hand made patch. (I don't have her name, so if anyone knows who she was please let me know and I will give her the credit and link on my blog) I love this. This captures the feeling of my whole conference experience.

Metalsmithing IS for Lovers.

Thank-you to everyone who made my first ever SNAG conference one of the most Inspiring, Connecting, Nourishing, and Creative weekends of my life. xo -patsy.

Getting Ready for the SNAG Conference

At the end of May I will be attending my first ever SNAG (Society of North American Goldsmith's) Conference. To say that I'm excited doesn't even start to describe how I'm feeling about doing this. I live, breathe, sleep, inhale, think about, talk about, love - making jewelry. To be surrounded by my peers and mentors for 4 days talking about all things jewelry art and business is going to feel incredible.

I will be a part of the trunk show which features emerging artists, which is a little scary for me but so very very exciting.

How The Rise In Silver Prices Will Effect My Business

I've talked a lot about fear on my blog and about trying to move beyond fear.......

Lately I have been stuck in a pretty deep swamp of fear.

You see my industry is changing. When I started out in my jewelry career only 3 short years ago the cost of silver, my metal of choice, was around $18 an ounce. Today silver is at an all time high of $38 an ounce and it is only expected to continue rising in price. They are anticipating that it could get as high as $60 an ounce by the end of this year and in the next couple of years could rise as high as $250 an ounce.

I use sterling silver in every single piece of jewelry I make. Sterling silver chain, clasps, earring hooks, posts, wire, and sheet. It's all silver. Which means that every single component of my pieces has more then doubled in cost and is going to continue to rise. Which is really freaking scary.

When I talk about this in my circle,the average response is always "why don't you just raise your prices?" and yes, I will have to raise my prices. But this is a bigger issue then just raising my prices. Raising my prices to the extent that I will have to if silver prices get as high as predicted could completely change the market that I'm selling to. It could mean that my current market, my amazing customers that I have been selling to for the past number of years might no longer be able to buy my work, or will at least have to buy less often, or really think before buying. I really value my customers and my stores so thinking about them no longer being my target market is scary. I worry that this rise in silver prices will push out some of the businesses at my level in the industry if we don't prepare for it.

I feel like I need to get out of my frozen in fear state of mind and be proactive and protective of my business that I've built. So I've come up with some options and would love some feedback and thoughts from my customers, my fellow jewelers, my peers, other business owners, mentors, smart people, and Donald Trump (because I'm pretty sure he reads my blog).

Here are the options:

1. Continue growing my line as it is and increase my prices as needed.

2. Change to plated silver components in my jewelry, possibly even silver plated enameled pieces to keep my prices in the same price range they are in.

3. Explore alternative materials......base metals, fabrics..etc to try to keep costs down and prices low.

4. Create a gold line. Move higher end with my work and embrace a higher end market.

5. Move to Argentina, find a husband named Pablo and drink wine all day and all night.


If you want to share some feedback, ideas, tips, or just have a conversation with me please comment below or send me an email to info@pkkdesign.com

Rejection Sucks

As a jewelry artist I face rejection regularly.

For my career I apply to shows, exhibitions, galleries, magazines, books....they all have a fee to apply ranging from $15 - $50 dollars, sometimes I email them them photos, sometimes I send them actual jewelry pieces. Then they look.............and then I wait.

I wait with the mind frame that, "It would be great......I would be so excited......I feel like this is going to happen.....I'm going to get in, accepted, loved, adored......This is the right place for me....It would be great....my family would be so proud of me.....I would be so proud of me......I'm going to get accepted.......but if it doesn't happen I'll still be proud of me.....things will still be great......really they will...." All of these thoughts swirl inside my mind each time I send off an application for something.

And sometimes they do say Yes....which is such a high....so fun......so exciting......so lifts me up and continues to propel me higher.

You can see some of my proudest Yes moments here on my new media page.

But sometimes they say no.......you're not ready......it's not the right fit.....its so pretty but not right for us......try again next year......best of luck.....it's not you it's us....well okay they don't say that one, I say that one.

Hearing No......feels devastating.....like a punch in the stomach.....like a big doubt snowball thrown my way......No matter how many times I tell myself you need to have a thicker skin, it's not a big deal, it's all a part of learning and growing, you will try again and get in, you're amazing and talented and great things will come your way.....no matter how many of these mantras I tell myself....rejection still sucks. It really really sucks.

But everyone who has ever had a passion will understand..........The rejection isn't enough to stop me. I try something else, I try again.....I rise each time I fall.

Here is one of my favourite things to do when I hear No.....

I play this song really loud and sing along. "A Better Son or Daughter" by Rilo Kiley.




I would love to know what other people do when they hear a No and need to be uplifted.
Please feel free to share with me in my comments section or on my facebook page.

My Unconventional Business Tips

I have a one page Jewelry business plan for 2011.

This goes against everything that I learned in every business class I've ever taken. But i don't like business plans, They're like turtle necks to me - I see the usefulness, but i don't like the way they feel on my body.

My 2011 business plan is hand written on one page ripped out of my sketchbook. I've pinned it up on my bulletin board and it has 12 things on it.

I've researched the shit out of things in the past, I've written marketing plans, competitive analysis, SWOT's, financial plans....blah blah blah. I'm glad that I've done this, but the thought of opening up my plan on my computer and updating it makes me cringe. So for 2011, i decided to do things a little differently. I decided that 2011 is my year for no mucking around. I know what i want to do, now I need to do it. 12 things.....so far I've already started 4 of them...and things are rolling.

I haven't ended up with my deviant business planning ways overnight. Here's a little list of resources that I've found useful this far in my business:

The Women's Enterprise Society - I was a part of a peer mentoring group this time last year which was well worth it.

Tara Gentile - I've taken one of her e-courses and learned a lot.

Danielle LaPorte - I am loving my Fire Starter Sessions - which I won from a little contest Danielle offered. Yup, that's right I won.

Kerri Smith's Artist Survival Kit -Whenever i feel like I can't keep doing this Kerri Smith's hilarious Artist Survival Kit helps me to continue.

Alyson B Stanfield Art Biz Coach

Stayin' Alive: Survival Tactics for the Visual Artist

I Have A Million Fears

This post was originally written for the Doodle heads blog.

When I came across the Sketchbook Project I thought that it was the coolest project ever. I spent two weeks agonizing over which theme I would pick.....Facing Forward was what I finally concluded. I have been meditating, doing yoga, self reflecting, and figuring shit out for the past number of months. I was pretty sure that it was time to Face Forward.

I received my sketchbook and was delighted, gleeful, I couldn't stop stroking the book and flipping it's lovely crisp untouched pages. I sniffed it, I hugged it, I was super stoked. Days went by and I would pick it up, hold it and put it down. I was frozen with fear.

I've got a couple of big fears that I am fully aware of - fear of commitment, and fear of Failure.......hmmmmm, turns out this sketchbook project is bathed with both of these big time. There is something about knowing that every pen mark I put into this sketchbook is permanent....and others will see it, there is no backing out (hello fear of commitment). And what if it sucks....I sketch jewelry designs and they don't all turn out lovely, some turn out okay, some turn out brilliant and some kind of suck (howdy fear of failure, oh you again).

What to do.......okay I thought I would ease into it. I took my theme and started sketching in one of my more familiar books, a tried and true one.....easy breezy, I designed some unique earrings based on my them Facing Forward and on Self Reflection.
Okay, I thought I was pretty much ready to start on the real deal.....design a necklace in the empty gray moleskin book taunting me from my coffee table......nope.... couldn't do it. Again I picked it up and put it down and went to the comfort of my old private sketchbook.

This Facing Forward idea is turning out to be challenging in ways I didn't see coming. And now I am here with all of you, absolutely delighted to be asked to participate in this doodleheads blog. So excited to connect with a new community of artists. So nervous....I'm a jewelry designer.....I draw jewelry......to be amongst all of these other talented artists who can draw amazing is pretty crazy intimidating. But I'm going to do it. It's all about the risk right? Being an artist, being an entrepreneur, it is all about risk. I will Face Forward and I will start filling that sketchbook with pure brilliance....and some not so brilliant and I will share it with all of you.

Looking forward to this journey with everyone.
Patsy Kay Kolesar
www.pkkdesign.com
www.pkkdesign.blogspot.com