Behind the Scenes

Ever wonder what your favorite etsy shops do when they get orders?

Probably not. 

Some have everything preassembled/made. Some deal with custom orders.

As evidenced by the first photo, not everything is preassembled.

Most of my charm bracelets are assembled unless it's a repeat order like the Percy Jackson charm bracelets tend to be.  

Instead the charms are sorted. A chain is added. It all goes into a small ziplock bag. 

Then I wait knowing how many I have available to make and sell.

Sometimes I talk in short, choppy sentences. 

When one gets ordered I find the relevant baggie and dump everything in my work surface.

Charms are lined up in order. Jump rings are pulled out of my supply box. My trusty green mini pilers are located. I settle in for the five minutes it takes to assemble.

It takes longer to design the charm bracelet. Hours - literally hours - are gone into planning, finding, and buying charms. These particular charms, and the chain, came from 5 different places. If I can't find a particular concept charm I have to either nix it or go back to the design board. 

Talk about over thinking things.

I'll pause for varies chuckles or head shaking.

...

...

...

Good now? Great!

Once I'm ready to settle in I start by counting the links in the chain. It's not always the same!

I line up my charms in order, counting. Double and triple checking links and charms.

I take the link number and divide it by the charm number.  It's always a decimal.
Always.  Grrr.

Laying the chain out flat, I start spacing charms by using the whole number without rounding up. This tells me how many links are left. 

This is the fun part. 

Then I'll move the last charm down and figure out my pattern.

Sometimes I end up with a 2-3-3-2-3-3-2 pattern, the number being the number of empty links between charms. 

2-2-3-2-2-3

3-4-3-4

It always varies depending on links and charms.

This Percy Jackson charm bracelet has a 2-
3-2-3 pattern. 

Then I assemble based on the pattern.

 Normally the chain is laid flat across my knee - I'm sitting cross-legged - and I slide it off slowly as I work.

Once assembled it's packaged.

I use a thankyou stamp for my cards. Why? Sometimes my left-handed scrawl is not pretty.

Yet I hand write the addresses? It's easier than dealing with my printer. And if I do mess up I can use a shipping label to cover it up. ;)

Everything gets inserted, sealed, and then a layer of tape to protect my envelope shop sticker and return address label. It also insures that the closed flap remains closed. 

Then the post office where I hand it over to the lovely clerks who know me and exactly how I like things shipped.  It also gets the packages out faster than waiting for my mailman to pick them up. 

Plus I can go to the gym afterwards. :)

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