Its Sunday night… time to get ready for another week.  I will only mention the challenges related to my jewelry making in this blog.  I would have to write many more paragraphs to tell you about children challenges, aging parent’s challenges, friend challenges, aches and pain challenges… life.  However, when it comes to my business, I actually welcome the challenges and find that rather than see them as obstacles , I view them as exciting and inspirational. 

Challenge #1) Camera lens problems.  Talked to my hair dresser, Hector, who is also a photographer.  We did all sorts of experiments to try and pinpoint the issue… problem with camera, problem with lens, operator error.  No luck, we still could not get the focus to work.  Talked to my friend’s daughter, Jaime.  She showed me how to put the lens on manual.  However, my eyesight is so bad and I wear glasses that progress from closeup to far away, I couldn’t focus on manual. (see earlier post The Learning Curve to see how bad the pictures came out). Then I tried to find a local camera repair center.  Only two numbers were listed on the internet or in the phone books.  Both were for security cameras.  Both claimed there was not a camera repair shop within a 100 miles.  I found one Ritz Camera Center still open in this area 20 miles south and took my camera in.  A knowledgable salesman (now that is a novelty) found the problem immediately.  Somehow my focus got shifted to the right and then locked in place.  He fixed it and then showed me what to do if this should happen again.  10 hours of hunting and I had the solution.  If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again… as my mom used to say all the time.

Challenge #2.  How to make the wrap bracelets a bit faster with just one needle.  If any of you have delved into the wrap bracelet craze, you know it can be a frustrating endeavor… first you have to make sure your thread is centered (I only have two hands, I need a third to hold the thread together) and  then you have to go back and forth between two needles going the opposite direction. Needles get mixed up, the thread tangles and you need to secure the project so it doesn’t move while you are working. Its one of the reasons why I was unwilling to lower my price for this bracelet for a customer.  (See earlier post on Custom versus Costume Jewelry).  But I saw a picture in a magazine of a bracelet that appeared to be made with just one needle, so last night when it was quiet at the gift shop I work in, I started fiddling with this new technique.  Voila… it worked. Its a bit of different look, but I like it.  Let me know what you think? I will photograph it tomorrow with my now working lens.

Challenge #3)  I joined the Bead Soup Blog Hop Party for the first time this year.  There are more than 300 beaders who are part of Lori Anderson’s http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/2011/08/september-2011-list-of-bead-soup-blog.html annual event.  My first challenge was connecting with my partner.  She lives in Oklahoma and I live in Florida.  Check out her blog page http://mamasgottodoodle.blogspot.com/.  We haven’t really formally connected but I am sending her a surprise and she is sending me one;  I will give you a hint on what I am sending her.  What does Florida have that Oklahoma doesn’t?   Lori introduced us to the coolest photo editting site  Picnik which will help us hide our pictures.  I started playing with it tonight.  How cool?

Looks quite professional doesn't it?

 That’s all for now.  Hope you got through all my verbage.