Living the Dream

I just made this collection of 3 necklaces for a show at the Bellevue Arts Museum for a show called “Everyone has a story”

The Seattle Metals Guild Exhibition Committee is seeking entries for Everyone Has A Story, an SMG show featuring narrative works, talismans, and other jewelry/small objects by our members, in the BAM Shop at Bellevue Arts Museum. This show will run in the store at the same time as Ron Ho: A Jeweler’s Tale, a retrospective of Ron’s incredible career.

This is my story. It is a series of 84 hand-cut sterling silver letters forming 3 necklaces. It took 37 hours of my life. I can’t say I enjoyed every minute, but I’m proud of what I created, and feel like it reflect my intention and outlook on life.

“YEAH OKAY SURE WHATEVER FINE”

“WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE”

“I DONT WANNA STOP I CANT NO PLEASE DONT IDK NOPE”

My life has changed a lot in the last year. A year ago I had it all planned out. But now I’m not so sure. In some ways I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing. In some ways I’m not. “What am I doing with my life” is not a question. It’s a thought. These are all thoughts that race through my head on a daily bases. People who know me say I have my shit together for 26 years old, but I don’t know. I just do things that make sense to me and hope for the best. Living the dream.

Sterling Silver. Hand cut letters. Chains are 74, 56, and 40 cm long. Hand fabricated April 2019 in Seattle WA.

$1800 (for all 3)

New Pieces

Hey kids,

I have so much going on. Some exciting new prospects. Some exciting new projects. But I don’t want to jinx anything and tell y’all. So here are some new pieces I’ve made! (They’re all for sale in my shop, so click away)

Website Update

So I’m part of a wonderful jewelry networking community group in Seattle. We meet once a month and discuss different topics relevant to designing and selling a jewelry production line. It’s a great group of people and it’s really helped me over the last year. Last week we had a meeting about websites and SEO and Shane and Trenton of Clarity Online came and did a presentation. I feel like I knew some of the info, but they really clarified a lot about certain things you should have on your website and in your shop listings, and certain things you can do to stand out in searches. I would highly recommend checking out their services.

So after that I spent the next 7 hours making a plan of how to optimize my website SEO and clean things up. Then I spent the next 3 days doing everything they suggested. There’s so much to do! And the frustrating thing is that a website is always a work in progress. It will never be “done.” But I’m doing the best I can, and I’m sure that my efforts will pay off.

Here are some updates I’ve completed:

• Wrote up a “policies” page with all my policies for online sales, custom and repair work, wholesale orders, consignment orders, terms, and privacy. Who knew I needed so many policies? Please go check it out and let me know if you have any suggestions or advice to make it even better

• Registered with Google’s “My Business.” Yeah I’m not the hugest fan of the google monster, but I do feel like it will help me get noticed locally.

• Updated all of the listings in my shop to include certain keywords and more accurate information

• registered a business email address: nina@nina-raizel.com.

• updated my logo and header

Yeah, I’ve been busy. What do you think? How’s your website looking?

Portland

So last weekend I took a trip to Portland OR. I went there partially to see friends, and partially to visit as many galleries/jewelry shops/boutiques as I could and show them my work. It was a lot of hard work, and I spent many hours walking around. It was freezing out, but at least it was sunny. Making and selling my own jewelry is a hustle and there are so many parts of being self employed that I didn’t think about before I decided to make the leap. It’s a journey, and it’s sometimes a struggle, but it’s so worth it.
🚎
Hopefully I’ll be announcing some new retailers soon!