I'm certainly not complaining; I truly love working on various projects in my company, and the combination of work, hobbies, everyday life, and exercise are elements I've carefully chosen. I can imagine it's difficult for some people who have chosen a different way of life to understand someone like me with a thousand elements in one single day.
Back to my business.
I create jewelry based on my own ideas, which can take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks before a finished product can be presented. I'm going to write down what a whole process can look like before it reaches social media.
The creation begins, and sooo much can happen during the process. Cutting and burning myself is more the rule than the exception. An intense pain has developed in some of my fingers after many years of craftsmanship. I can't describe the different stages of creation in detail here; they are endless! It involves everything from mathematical calculations, millimeter measurements, sawing, annealing, soldering, sawing, filing, sanding, polishing, etc.
The product is photographed in my photo tent, which means up to 50-100 different pictures with my mobile phone (I don't have an SLR camera at the moment). This is for ONE SINGLE product. The time it then takes on the mobile to get the right light and sharpness is brutal.
When I'm satisfied with the picture on my mobile, it needs to be sent to my email, which is then saved and edited in an editing program (a lot of time here too).
After that, the product needs to be uploaded to my webshop, where nothing can be missed, and hopefully, I'll be happy with the pictures there, otherwise, I just have to repeat the same procedure again.
Finally, the pictures are posted on the different social media channels I have: Facebook, Instagram, and now also TikTok.
Summary:
create product: takes anywhere from 5 hours - 3 weeks
photography: one day
editing: half a day (if it's a good day)
upload product to webshop: 30 min - 1 hour depending on how much trouble it causes.
social media updates: constantly ongoing
material procurement: happens constantly
build good contacts: a lifelong mission
I do the above summary after my full-time job as a special needs teacher in an autism facility, and you would never manage it if you didn't love what you do.
"It's hard not to get good at something you love to do"
My photo tent!
