Years ago, I made jewelry for myself. I would go to garage sales and buy strands of beads and crystals because I liked beads and crystals, not that I had any plans for them, but after I got married, I decided to use those components to make jewelry and sell it at craft shows. I had business cards made (pre-PC, Internet, and Website days - when giant lizards roamed the Earth). Anyway, made little backing cards for earrings, signs, and generally got all excited about the prospect of making extra cash and spreading my designs to the world! Well, a few more years went by, and while I got tons of compliments, very few sales developed. Of course, I did realize the problem(s) - I was doing little craft shows because I was too che...uh...frugal to spend entrance fees on art shows, I did not work fast enough to develop an inventory, I made only one of anything (I get bored easily), plus I would not price things real low - I wanted to make SOME money!. Then, especially after the technological revolution, anyone who was creative could look up tutorials and learn how to make jewelry, and 99% of the time it was very nice. So, unless someone had a really unusual take in that field, or they had a huge inventory and could sell it very cheaply (OR if it was high end), it wasn't going to work. Like most of my friends tell me, "You can only have so much jewelry!". So it was looking gloomy for my little business....
BUT, during my years as a gardener, I had seen a picture of a leaf casting in a garden magazine - it was a concrete leaf created by Little and Lewis, sculptors in Washington state who are pretty much recognized as the premiere leaf casters, and some of the first to show that leaf castings could be art. That picture stuck with me, and as time went by, I couldn't help but wonder if I should try it for myself....
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