Sunday, January 25, 2009

Vehicular bird-slaughter


Oh my heart! Oh I'm so sorry world! Today I found a dead bird on my car! a beautiful Gold finch. The moment I saw it I cried I couldn't help it it was so beautiful and so sad! Oh gosh I feel so awful, just truly awful! ...

The Death Of The Bird
For every bird there is this last migration;
Once more the cooling year kindles her heart;
With a warm passage to the summer station
Love pricks the course in lights across the chart.

Year after year a speck on the map divided
By a whole hemisphere, summons her to come;
Season after season, sure and safely guided,
Going away she is also coming home;

And being home, memory becomes a passion
With which she feeds her brood and straws her nest;
Aware of ghosts that haunt the heart's possession
And exiled love mourning within the breast.

The sands are green with a mirage of valleys;
The palm-tree casts a shadow not its own;
Down the long architrave of temple or palace
Blows a cool air from moorland scraps of stone.

And day by day the whisper of love grows stronger,
The delicate voice, more urgent with despair,
Custom and fear constraining her no longer,
Drives her at last on the waste leagues of air.

A vanishing speck in those inane dominions,
Single and frail, uncertain of her place.
Alone in the bright host of her companions,
Lost in the blue unfriendliness of space.

She feels it close now, the appointed season:
The invisible thread is broken as she flies;
Suddenly, without warning, without reason,
The guiding spark of instinct winks and dies.

Try as she will the trackless world delivers
No way, the wilderness of light no sign,
The immense and complex map of hills and rivers
Mocks her small wisdom with its vast design.

And darkness rises from the eastern valleys,
And the winds buffet her with their hungry breath,
And the great earth, with neither grief not malice,
Receives the tiny burden of her death.

- A. D. Hope

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Small update and an Epiphany.



Another day of training. A better day of training. I re-organized and put out new jewelry today. learned all about layouts which come from Target. Kinda interesting because it is someone's job to create these layouts so that they look fresh and new and make you want to buy, buy, buy! I also had the chance to look at the jewelry that Target sells. (My epiphany!) It's makes it really hard for a true crafts person to sell there work. earrings for $5 and bracelets for $6. Cheap materials makes an inexpensive product my problem is that this transcends into my life. People look at my prices of $180 for a pendent verses what they see everyday and though they really like what I have to offer they can't seem to find the reason to spend so much money. This is typically from the ages of 18-30. I have a dear friend and we did a small show together to sell our work. There were hundreds of people but everyone wanted something for nothing! She had made some sterling silver pins and was selling them for $25. I thought that was already extreemly low for all the time she had put into them. A girl came to our booth and asked how much they were and we said "25". the girl said "ok I'll take this one." when we asked for the 25 dollars she said "oh I thought it was 25 cents. Sorry" and put it down. It's frustrating out there and after working in Target for only a few days I can see why they want it cheap, cheap, cheap! Target is "targeting" this age group with there jewelry. I just wish people could understand how much blood, sweat, rashes, and tears is put into it all. One day... one day... All I want to say is that I would really like young people to wear my jewelry too. But it looks like the only people that appreciate it are more seasoned. I going to say a little vow here "I will not cheapen my beautiful bobbles to please those who do not understand. I will create beautiful works of art to become treasures for a life time." with that said I sign off!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Target, Target, Target...


Oh Target... I had my first day of training yesterday. Oh the training.... gosh what can I say. I'm the "jewelry specialist" I sound so fancy right... well it's not so special. I spent 95% of my time "zoning", Target lingo for organizing (making sure that all the clothes are in order of size and that hangers are finger spaced apart) I was in infants.... and Disney... yeah... soooo. I spent the remainder 5% of my time at the jewelry counter. kinda sad about that. I'm training with a girl "Jay Jay" that is the "jewelry specialist". She doesn't know anything about jewelry and must look everything up... But can do some of the basic jewelry counter things like unlocking the cases and changing watch batteries. She does a perfectly fine job at that. I happen to have a little more knowledge here. I know your suprised about that. I have a feeling that I will "zoneing" more than I will be at the jewelry counter. I guess I have to get used to the ways that Target runs their business. Till then I just want to learn about the "jewelry specialist" stuff... is that so wrong?

Friday, January 9, 2009

Happy new year!



Happy new year!
So ... I finally have a job! hooray! guess where..... yup Target. I am going to be the jewelry specialist. I have to say in this economy it is nearly impossible to find a job. It's tough out there. Though I am not going to be a goldsmith in the back of a small jewelry store, I at least get to do something with jewelery. Think I am just a little over qualified but I have a job! I have applied to many places even though they were not hiring. I was starting to get really down... Just lucked out here. Other good things that have come out of all this is I found a really nice Jeweler. He said he would call me in the future. So I still have hope for a future bench job. He said that if he wanted to he could close his store for 11 months of the year and just keep it open for December and be able to survive. This year, he made an eighth of that he usually makes for that month. sick..... thanks bush.....well I am going to rest now after my eight interviews this week! ( the artist is above is Yuko Shimizu thank you Chris)