my window is up

hey kids! if you're in or around brooklyn, go check out my window at brooklyn design lab. it will be up until december 4.

BDL
413A 7th ave.
between 13th & 14th sts.
park slope
f train to 7th ave.

or go to my flickr page to see the whole set of photos.

crazy busy

hey folks!

you know those people- who can run a successful business and also have fun, engaging blogs that are updated every day or so? yeah...I'm not one of them.

oh man, I can't begin to explain the amount of work that's been on my plate. all of the details involved in launching everbrite mercantile company have run well into the fall, leaving molliedash.com sorely neglected. when my assistant felecia left in the spring to have her baby, I left the position unfilled. things got pretty slow sales-wise and it didn't make sense at the time to hire someone to make more jewelry. so b and I plugged on through the spring and summer going to trade shows and weekend craft markets looking for vendors. I started ordering products, photographing and editing them, uploading the photos and descriptions to the database, and weighing and measuring them for shipping calculations. b spent many, many hours writing the code for the site, debugging it on various browsers and operating systems, and figuring out shipping formulas. together we designed the interface and consulted on many details and decisions. by august we had postcards printed and previewed the shop at the brooklyn flea. in october we launched the website.

some time in the spring I was contacted by a literary agent who had an idea for a book and was interested in having me write it. it seemed like a great opportunity and b was fully behind me doing it. I met with the agent a few times and put together a proposal with her help. but knowing that we were launching a new online shop and that fall and holiday would be coming soon enough (my busiest time for jewelry) made it hard to focus on writing the proposal. the process of submission and re-writes was starting to stretch out longer than appropriate, and the agent finally asked me if this was something I really wanted to work on. yes, maybe at another time, but no, not right now. (the agent did continue to look for another author, so I'll let you know the title if and when it gets published)

okay, so back to focusing on a fall line and getting the website updated. always ideas for how the site can look and function better. so as it's november and it's getting kinda late, I contacted felecia to see if she would like to do a bit of pick-up work. and thankfully, she did. now we are cranking through some new pieces with her amazing speed. I did hire an intern who started in early october, and she's been helping me with other aspects of the business. I was contacted in the summer by amy of brooklyn design lab about teaching a class there. each teacher is invited to do a window installation, and my intern has been much help in putting this project together. (I install it this friday, yo!) about a week ago, in the midst of my too-much-to-do freak out, I told b that I really, really, need to get the site updated. so he sat down and worked his magic on it for a few days, and it's almost ready to launch.

so yeah, not out of the woods yet. but getting close.

arts n' crafts rain day

(posted by "and friend" of ebmerc.com)

It didn't rain. But rain would have fit the day.

In addition to Mollie's upcoming Eco Jewelry Design workshop at Brooklyn Design Lab, she is going to install a window display at their studio in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The theme of the display: re-purposing of non-recyclable materials.

Or some such thing... I wasn't quite paying attention.

As Joanna and Mollie worked at their extremely well-organized table in Mollie's studio, I made a gigantic mess on the floor: cutting old telephone wire, plastic bottles and magazines.



The result of my hacky labor: an Obama-headed "Mr. T Bot" Uber-Bling necklace (who pities the fool quite nicely as his cardboard voice balloon clearly indicates.)



Mission accomplished. Time for leftover chinese delivery chow.

258 cafe

b and I have been out on foot distributing everbrite mercantile co. post cards to coffee houses and cafes for the past week. we've had this gorgeous warm weather to take advantage of after all. on the first day we hit the obvious places, our neighborhood being adjacent to fort greene/clinton hill, and park slope being the next neighborhood down. on tuesday it was beautiful out again, so I suggested we get some lunch here in bed-stuy and pass out some more cards. we had seen 258 cafe mentioned on the bed-stuy blog but never ventured in. ridiculous seeing how close it is to our apartment, but we tend to either work at home or go OUT. we stopped in on our way to food 4 thought (which was closed for renovations, so it was peaches instead) and I met the very outgoing owner of 258, francine. she said she'd take a few cards, but insisted "try a cup of coffee!" I felt so compelled to obey her wishes that we stopped back by on the way home (to francine's amusement) and tried a cup of her joe. I'm not even a fan of flavored coffees, but I fell in love with her chocolate raspberry. just the thing for dessert. the three of us got to talking about the neighborhood and its burgeoning local businesses, and before we knew it, we had made a new friend.

francine said that she's had great success with local artists setting up a table in front of her shop to sell their goods, and asked us if we'd like to do it. the next time we came by to chat, she introduced us to frank, who was doing laundry next door. he's a jazz musician who played at 258's anniversary party, and francine invited him to play next sunday, november 1 while we were standing there. that's when it came together and we decided to set up our little table on the same day.

so stop on by. we have a neighborhood cafe! with live jazz! and coffee and treats!

november 1, 12-5ish p.m.
twofiftyeight cafe
199 malcolm x boulevard
@ putnam

A/C train to Utica Ave. Exit towards Malcolm X Blvd. and walk straight up till you hit it.


View Larger Map

then came bling

(posted by "and friend" of ebmerc.com)

Mollie is deep into rolling out a whole 'nother thing; pushing further and dishing out a brand new flavor of bling.

New pieces will be listed on the site soon. If you can't wait, then you'll need to pop on over to see Tiffany Porter at her Old Hollywood shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

She already has the latest molliedash selections as well as many other vintage finds, antiques, old-ish pieces and new items from other designers. She's got a magical little shop there in the old Polish neighborhood of Brooklyn.


m.dash busy in her lab

my new dress

look what i just ordered from frecklewonder. i've been following this site since the wee early days of internet shopping, like back in 2002. it has been a big inspiration to me in setting up my own site, in terms of ease of navigation and good photography. oh and good products too! and wow, it's my first frecklewonder purchase. usually her stuff sells out too fast for me to grab something. so psyched- hope it fits.

new designs

a whole collection of new items is coming for the website. I'm introducing pops of bright color, braided cord, and some mammoth pendants. and of course a new site design. so stayed tuned.

our favorite neighborhood spots

b and I were over in Long Island City yesterday, visiting PS1 and the surrounding galleries that were open on a Monday. we picked up a neighborhood map at PS1 that pointed out the neighborhood museums, galleries and restaurants. As we sat eating our lunch at the court square diner (best moussaka I've had yet!) b remarked, why doesn't our neighborhood have a guide like this! to which I replied, we could totally make our own. and so b did, forming a google map with our favorite bed-stuy neighborhood places. we just started it yesterday, so it will continue to grow. I need to put in the actual street addresses and links in case you're interested in visiting some of these places. so go on and check it out at ebmerc.com/our-town.

my 100th etsy sale

wow, never thought I'd get there, but it happened today. my 100th etsy sale. I've had a shop going since July 2006, just a year after the site launched. and man, have I had my ups and downs with it. the main advantage of etsy, the largest and best-known online "hand made" marketplace, is its ease of use and low start-up cost. etsy allows anyone who makes crafted or artistic goods, sells vintage clothing, jewelry or crafting supplies to launch an online shop in a matter of minutes. etsy's emphases on community building and technical innovation provide many opportunities for users to promote their goods within the site. the drawbacks of etsy involve it becoming a victim of its own success. started by a small group of 20-something crafters and techies, its founders were lacking in the maturity and business experience to handle its explosive growth in the past four years. etsy launched with a lot of fun and tricky visual tools such as searching for items from a color picker, a time machine and a geo locator. what etsy was lacking, and this is huge for an online marketplace, was a properly functioning search tool that uses, you know, words.

finally after four years, etsy has undergone a major organizational restructuring and has made a search function among its top priorities. there have been a number of etsy success stories, but they are far outnumbered by small sellers like me. I've tinkered with my product mix, and have settled on using my shop to sell "destash," those extra supplies that pile up in the studio, and some of my lower-priced vintage. I don't make a ton of money from my etsy shop, but it's a fun diversion, and a way to keep the extra supplies under control.

incidentally, the 100th sale was made to one of my best customers, who also owns a number of molliedash jewelry creations. thanks p!!!

still looking for an intern

yo.

I was in a bit of a crunch to find an intern before leaving for last week's vacation. Truth be told I should have interviewed more applicants. The (two) that I hired ended up seeking full-time work instead. so, if you're still interested (or know someone who is) scroll down to the sept. 2 post to read up on the details.