Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Jewelry Findings Are Back

After a wait that was way too long, Golden Supply Co. on Etsy is an active shop again. It has been very interesting running a supply shop, because the business model is different than from my Etsy art shop. I have learned a lot, and I have made plenty of mistakes.

Buying someone else's product to sell is a very different animal from producing your own product. You can't always control what you have on hand to sell, it takes longer to correct your errors in inventory control, and you don't always have answers to customer's questions.

But...It's well worth it in the end. The whole supply store idea sprung out of the Resin Tutorial Video I did last year. I wanted to share something I was doing with others, to help others experience the creative process.

I soon found out that the findings were not easily available yet online, so I felt a responsibility to make them available. I don't think I fully thought through what taking on that responsibility would entail. So, my plans and systems for the supply store weren't always adequate to deal with everything a supply store makes you deal with.

Hopefully, our re-examination of how we run the supply store has fixed a lot of the problems we encountered over our first year. 2 days ago was the first anniversary of opening the store, by the way. We are striving to offer a significantly reduced turn-around time, and more items in stock. We will be stocking some new items I am very excited about soon.

The video recently reached 100,000 views for the first part. About half those folks that watched the first part continued with the second part. Can't expect to retain everyone for the whole length of a 23 minute video :). We now make our videos shorter if the process allows it.

Thanks to everyone who has watched the video, and to all who have been so patient with us as we went through the growning pains of Golden Supply Co. We look forward to supplying you in the future.

2 comments:

Me said...

Hi John! I was one of the intrepid viewers who watched your entire video--all three parts! It was fantastic. I am trying resin for the first time, and your tutorial answered nearly all of the questions I had along the way.

I was left with one question, though. When you have filled all of your pendants with resin the first time and waited the 8 or 9 hours to dry and you are ready to go back and fill them a second time, can you use the same bottle of resin you cooked up the day before? So, does the resin in the condiment bottle "keep" that long?

Thanks so much and I am off to take a look at your supply store and look for some pendants and rings as well as your art.

Thanks again!
Lisa

John W. Golden said...

Hey there Lisa,

Thanks for watching the video!

That's a really good question, and probably the one most asked.

The resin in the squeeze bottle hardens in about 45 mins, so a new batch is required for the next day.

An interesting thing about epoxy resin is that the thicker it is, the quicker hardens. Apparently, this has to do with the heat generated by the reaction of the catalyst and the epoxy. That heat is integral to the curing process.

Thin concentrations of epoxy, like in the rings and pendants, lose heat more quickly than the thick concentration of epoxy left in the squeeze bottle, and so take longer to harden.

I have heard of some folks putting leftover epoxy in the freezer, then re-warming it and using it, and I am planning to test that out. If it works I'll post a video about it.