One More Show

After what is going to go down as one of the most memorable snowiest, coldest and flight cancellation inducing winters we can remember in NYC, or for the country for that matter, we have decided last minute to do Accessories the Show at the Javits Center this February 23-24-25.  We are booth # 223, so if you haven't been able to see us yet and find yourself at the Javits Center (like so many of us do this time of year) stop by and check out the line!

Vintage Button Necks

 

For the past few days I have been playing with the bags of old vintage parts (mostly buttons) from the 80s that I packed up and took with me in the move.  I've been wanting to find time to play with the pieces, so when I knew I had a trunk show at Lockwood Thursday, December 5th, I decided to take some time out to make necklaces.

The necklaces are fun and really funky.  Not everyone is going to wear one, but I feel like anyone can appreciate them, especially if you have a penchant for bold, over the top jewelry-very popular in the 80s.

 I look forward to creating more pieces, particularly cuff bracelets, but here are some examples of the necks, which I plan on selling on the retail site, most likely they will go live next week, when I have a little free time!

 I put the more black-toned necks on silver chain, and the browner, more tortoisy necks on gold chain.

I love this one, my friend Lydia described it as Long Islandy, and yes, although I'm not always super proud of it, I did grow up in Long Island, so I'm ok with that description!  I meant for it to be ironic, but I think it's still pretty.  I may just end up keeping it!

 I love the faux malachite in this necklace, and I think this may be the most 'wearable' of the necks, adding tortoise to any piece usually tones down the bold factor.

I like this red piece, it has a little 80s mod thing going on, and it's perfect for a black outfit.

This was the first neck I did the other day.  I think it's probably the most simple one, I love the button in the center.  That is one of my favorite 'old colors' that they don't make anymore that I wish I could use in the line, it's really stunning.

I also decided it was high time Lisa August Inc. joined instagram, so this was my first post:

 Pretty Cute!

What's Happening

Things have slowed down a bit, and I think we're getting into our groove finally.  I took a few pictures around the place, just to give a little glimpse into some of the things we do here in a day.  Way more to follow, because, there is a whole lot going on here for sure!

 These are the colors I'm feeling for Spring/Summer 2014.  I've been working on a chunky bright group, with the brights on the top of the photograph, and next I will be working on a ladylike pastel group and a neutral group this week.

 One of my favorite moments so far happened two Fridays ago when Lenore, Claudia and I stayed a little late to get some things done.  I had bought a bottle of white wine, and was bummed when I realized we didn't have a wine opener-big peeve of mine!  It's about a 7 minute walk to the stores in Woodside, and I couldn't really waste 15-20 minutes for a bottle opener.  This was back when things were still somewhat in disarray, and Claudia asked-don't we have a tortoise one that you guys made back in the day?  I walked right over to my roll top desk, opened the top drawer and there was our tortoise corkscrew.  Awesome.  It was a small victory, but at that time, victories were few and far between.  Team work: that's what Lisa August is all about. 

 These are the vintage parts I plan on making my one of a kind pieces with, they're out of the bag, and I'm going to begin playing very soon!

 These are our bestselling 2" cuffs in jade and gator drying after being dipped into acetone.  The acetone gives it it's shine, although they usually still get polished after this step.  One side gets dipped, dries, and then the other side gets dipped also.

This is what our chain looks like after getting dipped.  The chain is dipped after it has been assembled.  Dipping the chain seals the links, and then the chain gets tumbled for smoothness and shine.
So there's a little glimpse into what we do here, consider this a mini golden ticket...

Week One

This was the first real week of being here at Lisa August Headquarters.  Everything has been such a blur this month, and this was the first week we would be here, no moving, no trade shows, just work.  By Monday, our power was on and we were able to chop, bend, polish and tumble downstairs, which was such a relief.  When I locked up with Lenore on Monday night and we checked on the downstairs, she said, "What's that noise!?"  I was like, the tumblers.  It was a happy noise (although on most days, kind of an annoying sound).  These days haven't been like most days though.
These are the tumblers (I know it's a little dark, the electricians are on it) on video:

So the guys are doing a great job downstairs, and upstairs we've got the ladies getting the job done.  We've been able to engrave, drill, assemble chain, dip (for shine) bead, etc.  Everyday we have a little more set up, and next week the electricians will be giving us more much needed outlets and lighting.  Once that's done, things will be a lot more organized.  We use things as we need them, and so far it has been working out pretty well.

Then you have Lenore and Claudia, our office mavens, keeping everything in order, shipping our orders, and what not.  Guess what?  Our ?@#*%&$&-ing internet went out on Thursday!  Guess what?  That was the night my web developer was coming to meet with me!  Guess what?  Everything we do is done on the internet!  Our banking, shipping, billing, etc...So here we are, still having trouble getting our orders out (thank goodness for understanding customers!) and still no retail/wholesale on our website (I swear it's coming).

That takes me to today, Saturday morning, a friend of a friend of my Dad's who works for Verizon is here with me now, hopefully fixing the problem.  So here I am, back at Woodside, it feels like I live here now.  My apartment is kind of a mess, my poor cat Miko has had no litter (that's been remedied) and I can't even stay awake when my friends come over to watch Newsroom at 8 o'clock at night.  And I'm not that notorious friend who falls asleep during movies, I'm the one complaining when people fall asleep.  So, owning a business has been interesting.  I know things will calm down in another week or two, and we need to settle more and get into a routine.  Just taking it one day at a time.

Me, Claudia and Lenore stayed late last night, did a little work, drank some wine and had good Thai food, things are shaping up, getting a little more organized each day.

This was a fortune I got this week, and I just thought it was HILARIOUS:)

So, I will leave here in a bit, get myself some toilet paper (Miko wasn't the only forgotten one) and have my friends over for dinner tonight, because I like to keep the pressure on myself! Have a great weekend all!