Here's the blog I was invited to write for the Pin & Tack blog back in June. I've been so busy making jewelry (which is NOT a complaint, I love it!) that I forgot to share my monthly guest blogs with you, too! Here's the one from May...A Day in the Life of a Jewelry Artistby Melissa McDorman of Uphill Dreams JewelryMay 21, 201212:24pmHold on, let me grab my glasses.... Wait, is that clock right?! As much as I want to roll back over in bed right now I know I've got things to do, so I threw the sheets off of me and headed to the bathroom. Hey, the stone fell out of my nose ring! Darn it. Maybe I'll Make body jewelry one day. Yeah, and I'll specializ... » Read More

My future mother-in-law tried to teach me the 2-bead Cellini spiral bead stitch last year, but with the move and the wedding plans I never did anything with it. Now that we're settling into the new house I finally sat down last week and relearned the Cellini stitch, except I decided to do the 5-bead version. I love being able to use more than two colors in one bracelet and still seeing the awesome spiral it makes. I've already received great feedback on the few photos I've posted to Facebook, too. I have three bracelets completed, and I'll be making more this weekend. I was going to list them on my website today, but I waited too long to take the ... » Read More

I've been selling some of my handmade jewelry on Tophatter lately. It's an auction site I've become addicted to. Anyhow, one of the ladies who had the highest bid for my green and yellow Russian spiral bracelet sent me a customer photo. I love customer photos! It's such a rush seeing strangers wearing something that I made. If you've bought something from me, too, I'd love to see your customer photo! Please send me your photo, name, city, and state to uphilldreams@gmail.com and I will add it to my website under the Gallery tab. ... » Read More

I finally sat down and learned a new bead stitch pattern today. I've been feeling under the weather, and when I had energy I was spending it on school studies. It really felt good to bead again today. I chose to tackle the daisy chain. I tried it months ago at my future in-law's home using a seed bead stitch book as a guide. Talk about a failure! Maybe that's why I chose this pattern to get me back into the grove of beading - it had become personal. Hah! Whatever the reason, I was able to get a handle on the pattern after watching a YouTube video. Honestly, I am no good with reading instructions. On the other hand, show me how to do something and ... » Read More

My soon to be mother-in-law sent me this photo of a seed bead necklace asking if I could figure out the pattern myself. I felt pretty confident with it since I had just finished reading about fringe designs with seed beads in The Beader's Bible. The math of it all (I know, no one told me there would be math involved with beading either!) may become a headache - like where to start the next hanging strand or when to add a larger bead to make sure the whole thing is symmetrical. Eh, I'm gonna give it a shot anyway. Hopefully it turns out SUPER AWESOME and I can post it to my ArtFire shop :-D I'll keep you posted!... » Read More

I finally had some time last week to clear off our dining room table, open the curtains, and take new photos of my work using natural light. I can't believe how much better the photos are! The colors are more true, and the camera's focus actually cooperated. Yay! Before I was using a halogen lamp and I had my camera's flash on. I also added darker corners to the photos with my editing software. This time I turned my flash off and only used the sunlight coming through the window next to the table. The only thing both photos have in common (besides the bracelet) are the sheets of scrapbook paper I used as a background, but even those are different d... » Read More

Christmas was awesome this year... but it's not entirely over for me and my fiance, Bob. We are waiting on his sister and brother in law to get into town before we do a family Christmas at his parent's house. I still have three projects to complete for his family, and we just got word last night that they'll be back this Friday. Eek! I better get into gear here. I can't wait to finish these projects so I can start working on my beaded jewelry again. Bob's mom, Jeri, showed me a new spiral bead pattern that I've been dying to complete. I was thinking about specializing in beaded bracelets, at least until I graduate Penn Foster's jewelry design an... » Read More

Yesterday was my first big craft fair with my beaded handmade jewwelry. I chose the Haines City Glitter, Glisten, and Snow event. Let me tell you why I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would... Bob, my fiance, and I left the house on time at 8am. We stopped for gas, and then we followed his GPS to what we thought was the correct address. Wrong! So I broke out my handy-dandy paper map (I know, I'm so high tech) and I got us back on track. By the time we get within two miles of the location it's 9:15am and we're 15 mins. late. Now I'm nervous. Traffic is backed up for DAYS because of the Christmas parade... will we make it?! We kindly convi... » Read More

I started a new sales schedule yesterday called Random Sales Sunday. Like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter to hear about my Sunday sales! It could last all day or just a couple of hours, so you will need to be on the lookout for my social media messages. Yesterday's sale was 40% off my entire stock with free shipping. I know, you're sad you missed it, but luckily there are more Sundays to come!LIKE ME ON FACEBOOKFOLLOW ME ON TWITTER... » Read More

Last weekend was my first craft fair with my beaded jewelry... and it rocked! I was told that my table had the most traffic & sales, which motivated me to sign up for another craft fair! Oh yes, this may become an addiction! I can't believe I was so nervous over that fair, because it was ssoooo easy! I was very personable and polite without being pushy. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the down time. My booth was ready at 10am, and I stayed until 8:30pm, but my last sale was at 6pm. So much for the night hush (insert sad face here). Anyhow, I mailed in my application, vendor fee, and photos of my work to Haines City this morning. Hopefully t... » Read More

I was excited about creating and posting my first ever coupon code for my new ArtFire web store! Here's what I posted in my shop's intro: SAVE 25% OFF your entire order of $5 or more now through Nov 28th! Use coupon code TURKEYDAY2011 during checkout. I'm really happy about coming to ArtFire. They have everything I wanted in an e-commerce website... except that I can't use my own domain name that I paid for. Ah well, as long as I get some sales this holiday season I'll be happy!  ... » Read More

I've spent this week taking new product photos for my new ArtFire shop. I did some research on product photos, and I learned that the background is a very important factor when it comes to sales... goodbye Plain Jane copier paper!! My fiance and I went to the Hobby Lobby that opened last week, and I bought a few pieces of textured scrapbook paper. I can't wait for you to see all of the photos! My favorite new background is the one with handwritten letters from the 1950's. I'm a sucker for the vintage look! I am hoping to have all of my products transfered over from my previous website by the end of this weekend, so keep an eye out for more ite... » Read More