Wow.. Way to Blog Aly

As it turns out the past year has been crazy good & busy.  Here I am in January, doing my annual business plan, when I decide to check out the last time I posted a blog.. Umm .. topic was Fathers Day. So it's been a while.

The summer was hard, after Fathers Day I suffered from extreme tendinitis and was actually worried about the future of my business.  What if it was something that would last forever? Would I be able to work?  The truth is, I am my business.  I am the artist, the sales department, the purchasing department, customer relations, book-keeper, marketing manager.. But without the ability to create with my hands I am none of those things.  To say the least, I was worried.

Luckily,  the summer is by far my quietest months for creating.  I typically work on my pret-a-porter line, or as we pronounce it in the west "ready to wear" line. Instead I took 2.5 months rest, and just around the same time as the fall orders rush started coming in, my hand and arm was feeling better.

So back to the grind I went.  Things had piled up on my break, not to mention the book keeping side of my brain had been on holiday since Jan 1st of 2011..  I found myself behind in everything. 

I finally made the big decision of hiring a book keeper.  I have to say hands down my smartest business move to date.  He is wonderful.  All I have to do is keep everything in a file & he magically tells me how much more I have to make to break even.  Heaven I say, Heaven.

Christmas was my best season to date, I was busier than ever and never happier.  I suppose having the threat of not being able to do what you love makes you love it even more.

I have been working on same great new fingerprint jewelry designs, as well as re-creating drawings from my kids into wearable silver art.  If you're interested contact me.  I hope to have them listed on www.alydahl.com soon. 

Hopefully I will remember to post again before June... if not.. Have a great Valentines, Mothers Day, Easter, Fathers Day...

Cheers,  Aly

Fathers Day!

Thinking of getting something for Dad? The Dog Tag is awesome for Dad,  I have been busy making them for the past few weeks for our local Dad's as well as some high profile Daddies.

Here is what I learned but did not know before I had kids, a husband and started a business hand crafting sentimental keepsake jewelry.  I honestly did not know that Dad's were sentimental. 

What I know now is Dads are extremely sentimental and proud of their kids, just as much as Mom's. I have had a lot of men that after they received the tag as a gift (Let's be honest 90% of my sales are by women) have gone out of their way to email or phone me to tell me how special their tag is to them & how they cherish it.  It surprises me every time.  And it is why I LOVE doing what I do.

My husband was the inspiration behind the first dog tag I made, the first one I made was made to look like an heirloom and antique & cracked it to give it a raw treasure feel. 

I decided it was too feminine and kept this one for myself.  I then re-designed to be more masculine and military inspired:

I love this tag and this quickly became a best seller for men and women.

This year I did a slight re-design again, changed technique in crafting and here is the 2011 Men & Women's Dog tag:

I often get asked which Chain to purchase with the dog tag, here are my recomendations:

For a Man who wears jewelry, likes bling or needs something extra sturdy - go with the 3.0mm  or 4.0mm 24" Ball Chain.  

For Women & Men who are not as used to wearing jewelry, or does not need something as heavy duty then the 2.2mm 24" is the way to go.  It is probably the most popular or best bet if you are not sure which one to get. 

 I do sell the 1.8mm ball chains but find that they are a bit light weight for the size of the dog tag, but some people like it that way too. 

So it does come down to personal choice.  You can always exchange if you decide it is not the right chain for you.  

When it comes to length 24" is the standard, and typically is the best length for most men.  My husband is 6'5" and it still looks good on him.

Hope that helps your Fathers Day shopping!  You can buy on line at www.alydahl.com

This month only 15% of all sales are being donated to Breast Cancer Research. 

If you are looking to have made in time for Fathers Day please order by the end of this month & have the imprint back to me by June 10th to ensure I can have made & sent back to you by Fathers Day.  If you are in the Metro Vancouver area I can arrange to meet you to take print or drop off kit to. 

Have a great day!

Drum Roll Please..

I am a day late due to health reasons, however regardless of the lost day.. we have a winner, and it was a tight race!  Robin Stewart won the race at the final hour with a 1 point lead over Tiny Toes.

Here is the winning photo:



Thank you to everyone who voted, because of your votes here are the earrings that Robin will be sporting around town:

Congratulations Robin!  I had a lot of fun doing this competition and I do plan on doing another one so make sure to take a photo of your Aly Dahl Jewelry & keep it on hand for our next competition!

Here is a link to our facebook page with the final photo's in the competition: Facebook/alydahldesigns

Cost of Silver - Yikes!

I did a show yesterday in Vancouver at Portabello West,  being that it was Easter and the Canucks were playing game 6 of round 1...I had very low attendance expectations.  I was pleasantly surprised by the turn out and the response to my art.

However, I had a comment that near broke my heart, a women told be that my Impressions jewelry is expensive, and could she just buy some other piece of silver and I could etch the fingerprints on it?  Are you serious lady?  1.She obviously has never crafted anything in silver and doesn't know a thing about casting or crafting. 2. She has NO clue how expensive silver is. 

After talking to a few other artists I came to the realization that the general public may not be aware of what is happening to the costs of silver. 

Here is a chart that I took from http://silverprice.org/silver-price-history.html to show what has happened to the cost of my raw material since I started this business in the past 2 years,  with special note on the past 6 months.   For those who hate charts, silver has gone up 282% in the past 2 years. 

When I started this business, silver was $12 an oz and it is now $46 an oz.



Are consumers willing to pay a higher cost for silver? 

Most of my items I had on my table yesterday were made from materials I purchased last summer.  Basically what I am saying is the silver items on my website are a steal of a deal.   You could melt them down and make a killing selling it per oz.

Which leads me to my custom work, my Impressions line, this is the  line that I buy silver on a more regular basis.  I have not raised my prices in the past year,  but it is looking more and more like I will have to.   Will this price me out of the market? Are people willing to pay for silver or will silver artists start to die off or turn to copper, & brass?  Do consumers want more brass & copper?

Silver is now a precious metal.  Cherish it.  It is worth something.
 
Next time you are at a market and you try on a silver ring you love, and you find out it is near 300% higher priced than you expect, understand why.
You now know what it cost the artist to buy the silver, the tools, the finishing materials and realize, that these artists are currently working for their passion and their time as been donated to the art you adorn, they are doing this out of  fear that no one will buy it if they charge for their time.

My jewelry tree - love the way it turned out, the pic does not give it justice

If you feel the need to judge an artist by the value of their work, know that your words have power,  most artists create because they love to,  trust me when I say none of them get paid their weight in silver :) 

Contest Time!

Post your favourite picture of you or your loved one wearing a piece of our jewelry on our facebook fanpage and win these fun hot new earrings:

Contest details: 

Upload your pictures by April 24th at midnight to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aly-Dahl-Designs/235097213785#!/pages/Aly-Dahl-Designs/235097213785   Please tag yourself in the photo so we can contact you if you're the winner.

Once your photo's are uploaded we will put them into an album and on  April 25th - May 8th our facebook fan's can vote for their favourite picture,  invite your friends & family to vote.  They will need to become fans to vote.

Voting, each person can vote once per photo - Votes will be by saying "vote" in comment section or by liking the photo.

You can upload more than one picture, but must highlight a different piece of Aly Dahl jewelry in each photo.

Winner will be announced May 9th,  shipping will be paid by Aly Dahl Designs.

By uploading your photo you will be agreeing for Aly Dahl Designs to use your photo for promotion. 

 Thank you for entering & good luck!

Good Luck!



Congratulations Laila Ali!

Congratulations to the Ali family on the birth of Laila's baby girl, Sydney.

We had the absolute pleasure of meeting Laila at the Oscar event in LA in February, gorgeous doesn't begin to describe her, perhaps it was the baby glow but she is perfection.  If only I could afford to hire her as my model, she is that kind of beautiful.  

Here is a photo of Laila with baby Sydney still in belly. 

We spoke about doing baby Sydney's toe print,  and I can't wait! I love doing toe prints!

Once again,  Congratulations to Laila & family. 

Oscar Post 9 - Miss Jay

Miss Jay

I have to say that Miss Jay seemed like an old friend.  You know the ones that you only see once every few years, but when you do it's like nothings changed.  Perhaps it's the years of watching America's Next Top Model, or maybe it is just the way he is. 

He is one of the funniest people I have met in a long time.  He had Jolene and I laughing for most of our encounter.   It started with him coming over and asking what it is I do, and when I started to tell him he stopped me and looked me in the eyes and said "Oh Child, you don't have enough silver to cast what I would want immortalized".

I am sure I replied in a perverse kind of way as I recall him saying "You must be Canadian, only Canadians can keep up with my dirty mind".

Believe it or not, but that is not the first time I have been asked to cast an impression of a personal part... I mean I do tell people, I can cast what ever you can take an impression of...

Miss Jay was the last person to come to our booth on the first day.  And I am so glad it was him,  it was the perfect way to end a long, fun filled, adrenaline high day.

He took a kit to take to France with him as his partner has a niece that he loves to spoil.  I look forward to making a special keepsake for the worlds best Cat walker.

Here is one of the goofy shots we took..