Name: Carly
Web Site: http://www.ninadesigns.com/staff/04Carly.html
Bio: The mountains are the home of my heart, where I can go back to, my peace. Photography is both my guide and my medicine ~ allowing me to capture a moment of pure truth while learning to see my own. Jewelry is my joy ~ to experience, to create, to share. Music is the air that I breathe. Dance fuels me. With my best friend by my side, we have successfully transplanted ourselves in the East Bay of Northern California in order to continue to evolve as individuals and as a couple. At Nina Designs, I am participating in a circle of creativity and growth with those I work with and our customers. It is a valuable and unique experience to have the opportunity to inspire others within their own creativity while also sharing my own through designs and compositions of our jewelry components.
Posts by Carly:
Birds Nest Silver Charms and Silver Leaf Pendants Share the Gift of Spring!
May 10th, 2011
Celebrate New Beginnings with Silver Nest Charm
Spring in Berkeley, CA inspires earrings of silver leaf pendants and bird nest silver charms to share as a gift for a dear friend of mine. I am moved to create from shifts in my environment and the shift from Winter to Spring in this area is spectacular! The birds talk more when the colors start popping and the trees begin to fill with leaves so they can take cover and build their nests for their little families.
I have a dear friend who absolutely loves birds and one of the many delightful aspects of birds is their cozy nests! This combination of Sterling Silver Birds Nest Charms with the Large Sterling Silver Leaf Pendants was completed with the use of our newly designed Sterling Silver Hook Earring Finding which has a loop that faces front for easy attachment of charms, dangles, gems or pearls.
If you prefer 24k gold, Nina Designs offers both the birds nest charm and the leaf pendant in 24K gold plated sterling silver. Just imagine how special the gift of a 24k gold plated sterling silver nest would be. This could be a wonderful gift for a new home, a new start, a new family member to be, the birth of a baby, the engagement of friends, the adoption of a child, and so much more. Spring is about life in all of the variety of beginnings. Share it in every way you can!
How has the arrival of Spring inspired you in your jewelry adventures and most of all, in your life?
Our Ready to Wear Jewelry and Jewelry Findings make great gifts
August 4th, 2010
Many jewelry enthusiasts soon become jewelry designers as we learn to manipulate silver wire and jewelry findings into original jewelry creations we are proud to wear. The only thing we love more than the jewelry is the creative process itself. Nothing thrills us more than putting together a fresh new necklace, bracelet or pair of earrings that we made. But what do you do when you run out of time, or want instant gratification?
I find that shopping our Ready to Wear Jewelry section always offers plenty of solutions. We have breathtaking bracelets with ornate granulation and wirework that are handmade by skilled Balinese silversmiths, gorgeous
What is your favorite Nina Designs ready to wear item?
Jewelery Findings ~ Get Them While They are HOT!
June 9th, 2010
Mermaid's Dive Necklace
In my most recent reviews of our jewelery findings inventory, I have noticed a trend towards pieces with an ocean theme. Sales have spiked for items such as the sweet little sea-horse charm in silver and in gold, the seashell charm and the small mermaid charm. Could this be due to the changing weather? Maybe designers are anticipating sales for their clients that come through and purchase items during their summer travels? Regardless of the cause, I have taken note of this trend and will respond by increasing our on-hand inventory to meet the needs of our customers. I will also review our on-hand quantities of other ocean themed items that may not have shown up in my inventory review just to be sure that those are completely stocked as well. Get them while they are hot so that you don’t miss out and I will also do my best to make sure that we won’t run out! How do you respond to trends that you notice in your orders?
Overstock and Closeout Jewelry Findings Sale
April 14th, 2010
25% Overstock Sale
40% Overstock Sale
These are wonderful items with the same high quality you expect from Nina Designs. We just have more on hand than we need based on current sales. As soon as inventory levels on these items drop down to current needs, the sale will end. Get them now while they’re discounted! Also, if these items inspire you, don’t worry – we will continue to carry them, just with lower inventory levels.
In addition to Overstock Sale items, we also offer steeply discounted Closeout items. These Closeout styles will no longer be available once we sell out. There are some beautiful styles at up to 65% off. When using closeout styles in your jewelry, be sure to mention to your customers or the friends who are enjoying your work that the pieces used are “limited edition” because the parts can no longer be purchased once we sell out.
I hope this information will encourage you to take a look at our Sale Items. You never know what treasures you may find and buying Overstock and Closeout styles are a great way to stretch your dollar in this challenging economy. All of us at Nina Designs frequently take advantage of Overstock sale items and buy them before the sale ends!
My Morning Breaks from Managing Silver Jewelry Findings
March 24th, 2010At Nina Designs, I feel fortunate to work in the business of silver jewelry findings with so many other talented women in a creative environment. My obsession with jewelry findings is fulfilled and I am also inspired to continue with my own creative outlets. At the same time, as the inventory manager I can easily get stuck in front of the computer in my office with spreadsheets and bills and numbers of all sorts. In order to clear my mind for a fresh perspective and a change in visual stimulation I often get outside for short walks. On my morning breaks I like to go for a nice walk in the crisp morning air, during the afternoon I may take another walk to look at the flowers, get a warm drink, or stop off at the market for lunch. I see dogs from the local animal shelter being walked by wonderful volunteers, flowers in bloom or trees in transition from their stark branches to the new buds offered for the blooming sweetness ahead. Today on my walk, I stopped at a bush that was full of honey bees working away at the blue blossoms with collections of pollen on their legs. Spring is here but I also found time to enjoy the winter sun and will look forward to the heat of the summer ahead! Moving the legs, stretching, getting some air, watching the bees and smelling flowers. These are important remedies during a day at the computer.
Daily scenes from my morning walks
I saw a gold vermeil honey bee collecting pollen!
Jewelry Supply Inventory Management: The Shifting Target (Part 3)
January 27th, 2010In the jewelry supply business and in the jewelry business in general inventory management is often the very key to success. Inventory management has a variety of challenges and is always fluctuating. As the inventory manager at Nina Designs, I would like to share some of my current approaches to inventory management that may help you or inspire a dialogue of further discussion on the topic. In October, I discussed “New Items and Opening Orders.” In December, I discussed “Reviewing Past Sales and Projecting Into The Future,” now I will discuss “Being Careful of the Outliers.”
If you are regularly reviewing your inventory and sales, you can determine when there is a spike in sales on a normally slow item. I call these items “outliers” and give them additional scrutiny. While this spike is exciting, you don’t want to over order or invest too much of your budget into an item with sales that may crash. It’s worthwhile to take the time to do an inventory report for that item to determine how many customers are purchasing it, who is purchasing it, and how often each customer is purchasing it.
Example of an outlier: Snowflake Mandala
I will usually look at a year’s worth of the past sales. If only a small number of customers are purchasing the outlier and there is one large volume purchase, I may reduce my re-order for that reason, especially if the large purchase is made by a new customer or if this particular customer has never ordered this item before. I cannot depend on that customer re-ordering in the same volume or even re-ordering the outlier ever again. It isn’t a wise financial decision to order a large volume based on one customer’s sales because we may be stuck with that inventory and unable to use those funds to re-order other items that are selling frequently to multiple customers.
Jewelry Supply Inventory Management: The Shifting Target (Part 2)
December 9th, 2009In the jewelry supply business and in the jewelry business in general inventory management is often the very key to success. Inventory management is also an aspect of the jewelry business that has a variety of challenges and is always fluctuating. As the inventory manager at Nina Designs, I would like to share my current approaches to inventory management that may help you or inspire a dialogue of further discussion on the topic. In October I discussed “New Items and Opening Orders”. This month, I will discuss “Reviewing Past Sales and Projecting Into The Future”.
Using past sales figures as a tool for re-ordering is an approach that will save you money, time and give you focus for the management of your inventory. You will save money by allocating your funds towards items that are selling well and ordering in volumes that will prevent you from being overstocked yet not running out of inventory. You will save time and gain focus through having a set routine for re-ordering as well as having fewer overstocked items to manage.
I review the sales for the past three months and use those averages to project into the future. If I notice that I am selling 30 pieces of an item per month on average then I need to decide how many months inventory I want on hand for that item. I usually allow for three months inventory on hand to allow for unexpected large orders from customers as well as turn around time from our vendors. My intention is to reduce the possibility of being overstocked while also doing my best to always have stock available to our customers.
Jewelry Supply Inventory Management: The Shifting Target (Part I)
October 9th, 2009In the jewelry findings business and in the jewelry business in general, the management of inventory is often the key to success as well as an aspect of the business that is challenging and always changing. As the inventory manager at Nina Designs, I would like to share my current approaches to inventory management that may help you or inspire a dialogue of further discussion on the topic.
Today I would like to discuss the topic of New Items and Opening Orders. We receive an overwhelmingly positive response to our new styles and we keep this in mind when placing our opening orders. We do our very best to keep consistent inventory on all of our items and especially our new items.
New item we accurately forecast from initial order to re-order
There is a trend in new styles in which there is a burst of activity when they arrive on the website for the first time. After the initial burst, the activity will level off for most styles, and for some, it will continue (these often become our best sellers). We have chosen to respond to this initial burst of activity by ordering a large volume in our opening order. This volume is often determined by reviewing the sales of other similar items that we have had for an extended amount of time. We will gradually sell through this large volume over time and we anticipate no loss in sales because we will be sufficiently stocked to not only have the items available for our customers, but to have a large enough time span for reviewing sales for accurate re-ordering.
To continue reading about “panic re-orders,” click here.
Extraordinary Hand Woven Filigree Beads and Charms
August 12th, 2009I appreciate unique experiences of life and nature (like the perfect shooting star) similarly to the way I appreciate the unique features of our filigree collection here at Nina Designs. The detail in this collection is extraordinary. Each piece is woven by hand from strands of silver thinner than a human hair. It takes a light touch to arrange these strands in the proper placement, then heat them to just the right temperature for the solder to take. A moment too short and the bead will not set, a moment too long and the whole arrangement will crumble. This is a remarkable process and each piece is so beautiful.
From tiny sweet treasures to large extraordinary pieces, each has a unique quality because they are all intricately hand crafted. They are light in weight but not too delicate to wear regularly. I really enjoy using the tiny filigree flower dangle for accents on larger pieces or for dainty earrings. The filigree orchid charm is fabulous because just like in nature, each one is slightly different but for the jewelry designer, you can still match them for pairs of earrings. For those who enjoy larger pieces, the large filigree oval bead has visual substance but is very lightweight.
I wanted to share this collection with you because it is often missed due to our how wonderfully attractive our New Styles section is. So please take a short extra moment and visit our Shop Visual Menu to quickly find the filigree collection. I am sure you will find something perfect for your next piece!
Silver Filigree Orchid Pendant
Silver Filigree Oval Bead
Ocean Treasures Silver Charm Necklace
June 17th, 2009Because I’m new to jewelry design, I approached my Ocean’s Treasure Necklace in segments. Starting with a simple sketch inspired by our Silver Bubble Pendant, visions of the ocean began to develop. I selected our Silver Saturn Chain because it reminds me of tiny ocean bubbles and seaweed. Perfect for my design! Now with my sketch in hand, I began gathering a variety of silver charms, spacers, gemstone beads, pearls, silver chain and sterling vermeil beads.
To further develop my design, I physically laid out the necklace as it would look on a woman’s neckline. The first image shows my initial step of composition. If you look closely, you will see nothing is attached. That’s because I still have three possibilities for a clasp in mind. In my creative journey I try to allow the piece to develop freely. Each step presents another vision of where I want to go next. I allow these changes to flow. For instance, I decided to replace the coin pearls near the clasp with two Chrysoprase gemstone beads. The necklace was more balanced and looked better that way. I also replaced the silver skull charm with its sterling vermeil counterpart because it made a stronger impact. As my last step I added Garnet and Ruby gemstone beads, because the piece was crying out for color!
This necklace was a delight to create. It was technically challenging but I learned so much along the way. It would be wonderful to hear how you approach your creative visions, so please feel free to post any comments about your own work too!
Carly's Sketch
Ocean Treasures