crown count

well, i just got done packaging, weight and inventorying  the crowns made thus far.  only 125 crown sets.  that's well below what i wanted to have in stock before heading out.  I do have a handful of other crown nearly ready go, that I abandoned in order to just finish up what the 125 that were already done and needed to get boxed up.  I did want to have 200 sets.

but frankly, those 125 sets take up quite a bit more space than i was expecting, so there's not much more room for additional boxes.  I'll be inventorying the candle sets tomorrow.

phew!

alright, the Visas have been granted.  They're on their way to us right now.  should have them in hand tomorrow.  and josh is working on booking the flights.  looks like we'll be flying into Manchester, even though we preferred Heathrow.  Hopefully, the airport will stay open  (it was closed Sunday from the Icelandic volcano plume).

I'm getting all the crowns packaged up today.  tomorrow i'll do candles.

and lots of errands to run today!

finally, a pic

When Josh came home from work today, he started laughing at how many crowns I had out on the table and kitchen counter (don't worry, I haven't cooked anything in about 2 weeks now, the counters are clean :)  )

So we took a pic of what things looked like this evening...Pardon the funny spot lighting off to the side.  that's my make-shift photo set-up, as my usual crown photo spot has been torn down to make room for inventory storage.

Oh, and today was not our lucky day either.  Maybe we'll be granted the Visas tomorrow?

waiting game

Ok, we overnighted out visa applications to a company in chicago who aids in rush visas.  but we had a delay, because we only included one photo, each, in our original application.  turns out we needed 2 photos of each.

josh about hit the roof when I told him (yeah, i got to field all those emails).  so we got new mugshots taken (ugh...end of the day, tired, can't even show a hint of a smile...yeah, not very pretty).  overnighted those.  chicago got them.  our applications are at the consulate.  so now we wait....until they hopefully grant us visas...in which case, they will then be overnighted, with all our originals-hopefully.    so there is a slim chance we will have everything back tomorrow....or Saturday....or Monday...

We had to mail josh's actual ph.d diploma (he was not happy about that), a full 12 months of pay stubs, our original marriage license, our passports, multiple applications, photos...photo copies of all of that...and rights to our first born child.

:)

i have given myself only until the end of this week to finish making stock.  i need to post photos of the stock..but i'm so overwhelmed, i don't even feel like transferring photos off my camera!

i will soon, though.. josh has taken some pretty amusing photos of all the crowns.

ok, back to work.

crown dreams...getting closer to moving.

well, after dreaming about work for another night in a row, i'm happy to say that we're finally getting closer to our move to England being official.  All of our info was submitted to get the COS# from the company (certificate of sponsorship)

Once we have that COS#, and the "Ok to go" from a couple of bosses, then josh and I will be off to Chicago to go to the UK embassy to apply for our Visas.

We're also attempting to get ahold of the lady who is organizes the move to help ensure that we've done all that we need to do...and to see if we're forgetting any steps...oh yeah, and making sure we have a place to live (minor detail).

So we're getting closer.  and We're at about T-minus 5 weeks from our goal departure date (tickets won't be purchased until after visas are received).  the jokes at josh's work about how the trip may be delayed due to Iceland's volcano are getting really old.  Josh has accurately been telling everything that, the trip had better not be delayed any, otherwise I;ll lose it and got ballistic on someone there....that or I'll make Josh swim us over there, with me on his back.  That usually get's a good laugh...but it's true!

Ok, so status update about work:  My daddy will be here later this weekend, to start learning the shipping steps.  josh is getting stuff configured so that, From England, i can print to my printer here in Indy!  So I'll be printing of the shipping labels, and daddy just has to stick them on the right boxes!

and speaking of boxes...Wow.  Yeah, i'm a little hesitant to show photos of our living room right now.  mass of inventory boxes stacked waist high.  unorganized.  Ribbon scraps everywhere.  stacks of crowns out in the garage that need to be polished and/or attached with ribbon.  gettin' closer.

i will start posting pix of this whole process...but then it's hard to find the time to post pix.  eh.  excuses, excuses.

Ouchie!!!!!

So, I'm having balance, sensory, depth perception issues right now!  And that that's not good when working on crowns:

I was just working on making a bunch of new textile crowns.  and to make these, I drip a few holes, put 1 rivet, then go back and drill the 2nd  hole, for the 2nd rivet.

So I was doing just that, and I guess I wasn't paying attention, and as I started to drill the 2nd hole in a crown, it got ripped out of my hand!  and because of a backerboard i have on the press, and with how fast the drill was turning, the alminum crown just completely wrapped itself around the drill bit!  and even though it was fabric covered, it got ripped out so fast that it cut up my hand as it wrapped itself around the drill press.

So after bandaging myself up, i went to the fridge for
some Soda-pop.  (diet coke always helps me pull myself together).  and i went to take a drink, and I spilled soda all over my face and the floor.  Today is NOT my day!

new crowns, and more are coming

So I'm almost finished with the custom orders, but am also well into making stock. there boxes and ribbons EVERYWHERE!  I'm finding it a bit overwhelming to make up the stock.  I thought i'd be fine, and just chug my way along one design at a time.  but i'm also filling orders at the same time....plus making all the coordinating candle sets for the crowns...well i just kind of feel like i'm here, there, and everywhere.  I think that if i can keep up my current progress for a couple more days, that I should be doing a lot better organizationally come Monday.

And as far as out travel to England goes, well, we're quite a bit closer.  Josh is working on his "certificate of sponsorship" from his work.  once we have that, we get to go stand in line at the UK embassy in Chicago to get our Visas.  And once we have those, then we get to book the plane tickets.  we're at T-6weeks.

We went out today and got a bunch of extra copies of the house key made to hand out to family, in case of emergencies, and someone unexpected needs to check in on our kitty-babies.

We also got a couple of cheap clocks: One will be set to Indiana time, the other will be set to England time, so that my dad doesn't try calling us at 1am, when he things it's only dinner time.

I also found a local person who has the same font as my logo for her embroidery machine..and i ordered in some fun blank polos and such, and will be getting some nifty things made up.  I did a bit of shopping with my sister over the weekend..got a few articles of clothing that will be nice to England.

the biggest "thing" has been deciding how to handle bikes...whether to fly with them, ship them, or buy some over there.  After sooo much talk and back and forths...i think we're going to ask the company to reimburse to ship them.  (we have a 2 hour train ride from the airport to our apartment..and we're already going to have like 6 pieces of luggage...can't really manage all that plus 2 large bike cases.)

and so in an effort to gain a sense of control, i tried staying up late this evening to post mass quantities of things on the site.  well it's 2 am and i'm tuckered out, and tomorrow is another long day. so i'm off to bed!

Looong day

Oofda!  I've been soldering crowns since before lunch time today.  and I'm tired...and I have a lot more work to do before I can call it a day. 

And Josh just called.....Some guys from the Derby, UK office are in town right now, and a bunch of people are going out to dinner.  And since Josh will be working with these guys in just a few short months, he was invited along.  So I just got a call 'asking' if it'd be alright if he went along.  Of course it is!  Just eat a decadent dessert for me!!

Last time he went out to dinner on the company's dime, man oh man, was it a fancy dinner.  They had gone to a Brazilian steak-house...let's hope they don't go there again, since it's still Lent!!!  So I'm curious to hear about where they're going to go...he wasn't sure yet when he called.  and last time he did this, he didn't get home until almost 9pm.  So while he's off schoomizing and enjoying fine dining, I'm going to go polish some silver until I look like a chimney sweep, then I think i'll partake of a lovely frozen, veggie, organic meal.  mmmm.  tasty.

(it actually really is.  I just like to tease).

Oh, and then I need to bead 2 crown sets.   And get ready for my dad to visit.  He's coming to town tomorrow night to be able to offer some help around here on Friday.  I need help with the whole stocking up on 6 months of inventory.  I need boxes out the wazoo!!  So he'll be taping up all the shipping boxes, and doing all the misc. organizations jobs that need to be done so i can really rock-n-roll.  (you know, all that stuff that I could be doing now, rather than typing this...but it's more fun to make daddy do it).  I'll post pix :)

April 5th Deadline

Alright, so to inform those of you who aren't sure of what is going on..in about 10 weeks, my husband and I are 'moving' to England for 6 months. While I am away, YOU MAY STILL ORDER ANY CROWN YOU SEE POSTED ON THE SITE! The trick is, you will not be able to customize any of the crowns. I'm currently working on making up crown, candle, tray, and ornament/cake topper stock. My dad will be shipping things out for me as orders come in. But everything will still have been made and packaged up by me. And when you email with questions--it's still me you're emailing.

But because of this move, and the need to build up as much stock as possible (and get my household ready for the move), I have to close-off all customization requests at some point. and that date is April 5th. UP TO AND INCLUDING MONDAY APRIL 5TH you may still request to have your crowns and trays engraved, and you may specify your ribbon color/attachment style.

After that, you'll have to deal with the ribbon color/attachment style shown with the crowns on the site. (you always have the option of changing the ribbon color on your own). I do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause anyone!

You may be happy to hear, though, that while I will not be doing name engravings after the 5th, I will continue to make crown sets that feature engraved designs (such as the peacock and St. basil crowns). And many crowns can be engraved after the fact...so you can always mail your crowns back for engraving at a later date.

Price increase on some brass and copper crowns

well, the world is a small place.  The terrible Chilean earthquake that took place a few weeks ago is creating major waves in the precious metals market...specifically the copper market.  and since brass is an alloy of copper, both copper and brass have been dramatically affected.  My prices just increased by a full 50% for these materials.  this is not an increase that I can just absorb.  So out of necessity, I need to raise prices a bit to help the increased cost in materials.  one way to look at the price increase is that suddenly brass and copper are way more valuable/great investment.  as we have all seen with the recent spikes in gold and silver, too--price INCREASES are always quick and sharp, while precious metal price DECREASES are always very slow and steady.

New shipment from India...

I love it when I receive shipments from "my guys" in India!  It feels like Christmas morning when I get a new package full of goodies:  I can barely wait to open it up and see what's inside!!!

This time around:  Finally!  More "Helen" fabric...Navy blue, a sage green that is a litter limier than i was expecting.  and a lovely brown. 

Customization cut-off...but I do have new crowns....

Alright, So this past week was the last week to place your order for anything really-really custom.  I'm absolutely still doing engravings...designs, names, dates...that kind of thing.  But no new crown designs (i.e. anything that differs greatly from what I offer on a regular basis.  But as I prep to leave for England, you will see a variety of new crown styles being added to the online galleries. 

I have so many neat materials on hand...and I want to try and use everything up!  A lot of the designs will be metal...and I have a lot of really awesome engraving designs that I drew up over the last few weeks.  My engraver has been running non-stop today, and will continue to do so until we leave!  There will be a whole new variety of crowns from which to choose...all different sizes, too.  I'll be posting things as quickly as I can, so as to not keep you in suspense.  Additionally, I have a bunch of new tray styles arriving this week!!

sleepless night...

It's late Sunday night/entering the wee morning hours of Monday.  I have a big week coming up.  And I can't sleep.  I'm feeling pretty worked up about everything I need to get done in the next 11 weeks.  I know I can and I will get everything done that I need to and want to get done.  But still...I'm stressing out a little bit tonight.

part of the reason for my stress is my new line of Crown Cases that I've asked my Father-in-law to make.  He's done an amazing job with helping my vision become a reality.  And we are SO close to having the perfect product.  but I just thought of a detail "thing" tonight, that I CANNOT get out of my mind.  and I won't feel better until I talk with Alan about this detail.  So i need to wait until a reasonable hour to give him a call....and discuss...and then i'll be fine.  But until then, I just can't turn off my mind!

Cleaning house!

So today, I woke up...and looked out at my office and felt frustration.  I have work-out-the-wazoo to do...but just couldn't face my office.  So i just got done doing a thorough cleaning.  sometimes you just have to take time to put your workplace in order...even creative spaces fall into that rule of thumb. so i just got done with that.  even organized paperwork.  feeling pretty good now.

and only 'pretty' good, because i had to re-stock on lots of materials today....which means having to spend lots of $$$.  but that's the cost of business sometimes.

So now i guess i'm ready to go to work, to make some $ to pay all the bills that will be arriving with all the new materials next week!

travel/customization update

Hi all....Depending on how much time you spend looking around on this site, or this little companion blog, you may have caught wind of the fact that my husband and I will be headed off to England at the end of May.  We will be there until the end of Nov.  During the time that I am away, my parents will be shipping out orders as they come in.  So my job right now to is to fill not only the normal incoming orders, but to also build up 6 months of stock for my parents to ship while we're away.



In light of the fact that it's the busy season---filling lots of custom order for Spring weddings, plus all the stock i'm needing to make for when we're away...well, I'm getting pretty busy around here.



As such, I am needing to curb the amount of custom work.  I am just fine continuing to do engravings...so no problem on that kind of customization.  But, STARTING MARCH 1st, I'm going to have to say "NO" to any crown requests that are much different than anything you currently see for sale on my site.  I just don't have the time needed to really dedicate myself to brand new-custom-crown designs.  I'm still willing to modify designs currently on the site..but can only do so to certain extents.  I apologize in advance for any disappointment or inconvenience this may cause...but your understanding of the situation is very, very much appreciated.  as always, call or email with questions!

Fun new Material?!

Have you ever paid much attention to the sign boards/trophy plaques that sign/trophy engravers use?  Well i have any have always found myself quite envious of that beautiful 2-tone look you can get.

And while I can get gold coated silver to achieve that awesome 2-toned look when you engrave, it is ridiculously expensive.

The majority of these 2-tone trophy materials are plastic...but there are coated metals out there.

So, after calling, and calling.....and calling.  I finally found a trophy engraving supply place that was willing to mail me some metal samples.  and turns out I can purchase the metals in sheets large enough for crowns (just need to have them cut down into strips like I have all my other metals cut). 

So here are some test pix of these samples.  What you are seeing are various colors of lacquered aluminum.  I can also get lacquered brass.  I was most interested in the "metal" colors...gold coated aluminum, copper coated.  But I also got a "color"....white.

Pretty good "metal" finishes, huh??!  I was very pleasantly surprised!

Close-ups of the "copper"

Shiny Gold, Matte Gold

white and shiny "silver".  The shiny silver differs from just plain solid aluminum (like what I normally use) in that you get a much more uniform grain to the metal...and it's more reflective/shinier as well.  

The white coated aluminum was actually really difficult to engrave.  I have to use a cutter first, and then i go back over it with a 90 degree bit to kind of emboss/shine up the aluminum, so you don't see rough cuts.  The diamond tip bits I use on everything else just can't get through the plastic uniformly (see that really messed section on the white??!).  But doing an initial pass with a cutter, and then putting on the diamond bit works really well. a little extra work, but it's worth it for that pretty of a result.

So..I think I'm going to have to order in several sheets of this material in a variety of colors and start making crowns out of it!!!  so be on the look out for some really awesome 2-tone metal crowns! (no, I haven't set a price, yet.)

Milos Crowns!

The Milos-silver crowns are in demand right now---I just got done making 3 sets, and thought it might be fun to show those crowns in progress. 

I've already got the crowns constructed and coated with "liquid silver"

I airbrush on the silver finish and allow it to dry. 





 Then, I spray on a sealant, to prevent tarnish

Once the sealant dries, I just need to attach connecting ribbons onto each set, photograph each set and email them to their rightful owners and ship them off...One set is staying in the US, one set is going to Canada (and they're getting married in Cyrpus!), and the 3rd set is going to the UK.



And it seems like, along with the Milos crowns...all metal crowns are in demand at the moment, so here's the mess that I call my silver-smithing table at the moment.  I have about 5 different crown sets in progress on that table.  Plus that whole pile on the floor!  Looks like I'll need to clean/organize the weekend, huh?

And my garage is still cold, so yes, that's a space heater.  I've been listening to a lot of Stevie Wonder while working, too...so the crowns have a nice jazzy aura!

ok, back to work!

Monday, Jan 11

Well, I'm closing in on the end of my work day...still a few sets to finish up and photograph before i can call it quits. And then several emails to send out tonight...that's good after-dinner work.

Tomorrow I will be in Ft. Wayne for most of the day. but should be able to tend to emails in the morning and evening, at the very least.

I did a test plate of all my new font capabilities on my engraver the other day:

It took a couple of hours for this all to engrave!

These are the fonts shown UNOXIDIZED

I've got the reverse of this plate on the engraver right now...I'm putting in the exact same thing but will be OXIDIZING that side.

Fun, huh?






Alright, I need to stop procrastinating and go finish up my work so that I can run to the grocery and still get to the gym tonight too!

New Year, New site features and news

Happy New Year, everyone!

I have so much to report, let's see if I can do this in an organized fashion:

1)Tomorrow, Jan 4th, will be my first day back to work. So, Thank you to everyone, in advance, for being patient with me as I catch up on emails (didn't stay nearly up to date on email correspondence over break as I had planned). I'm also recovering from a really bad sinus infection that set in the day after Christmas(which is why I didn't stay up with emails), so please bear with me as I get back up to speed on everything. (also, I will be out of town most of the day on the 7th)

2)New website features:
My husband Josh, (Today is our 6 year anniversary!) is finalizing some new website features for me (how romantic!). The website will now feature an integrated cart/check-out system. I'll probably be staying up late tonight to ensure that the site is fully up to day and functioning, so that as the updates goes "live" there won't be any confusion.

3) OK, so bear with me on the wedding candle page--I still have a ton of pix to post.

call or email me with questions....you may still place orders over the phone (301-237-5858), please excuse my nasally voice from my cold.

I really look forward to seeing what the New Year brings for OrthodoxWeddingCrowns.com! And once I feel I'm all up to speed on work and website functionality, then I'll work on adding some pretty pictures to this blog!

Christmas shut-down

To get ready for Christmas, and to enjoy the holiday (and rest up before the spring rush), my studio will be shutting down starting this Saturday, the 19th. I'll get back to work on Monday, Jan 4th. I will not be making or shipping anything during this time

If you really need some questions answered during this time, feel free to call or email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!!