New Website!

It took nearly a year.. but I finally have kicked my old provider to the curb and have gone with a new company and a new website.  I am so happy! What a difference double the money makes.

I am finally able to list new items and add new photo's, what a relief!

Check it out

www.alydahl.com

I was able to list more of silver fingerprint jewellery (jewelry for my American friends).  I have been working on a ton of cool stuff over the past year including my ready to wear line (pret-e-porter for my french friends).  I am constantly adding more item's to my page.

Today I listed some sterling silver bangles (.925) for the very first time & because I am so keen to try out my new website functions.. I decided to put them on sale!

Check out the sale tab at:

http://www.alydahl.com/sale/

They may not be on sale for long so check it out while they are!

A family affair

One of the wonderful things about my job is I am in contact with many lovely people & stories. Sometimes I never exchange more than a few emails, and sometimes it is strictly a business transaction and every now & then I get to hear stories.  Momentarily being brought into a family, knowing the story behind what I am creating and the special meaning the jewelry will have.

This past Christmas one order sticks out as one of those great moments in my job.  It was a phone order from a Grandma on the prairies who was getting her only grandson's fingerprint made into jewelry as his gift to his Aunt, his Mom and his Poppa.   I had an instant connection with the woman on the other end, it was like I had known her for years.  We came up with a gift for each person on her grandson's list and went to work. 
I love making each piece of jewelry I am commissioned for, but for some reason knowing the meaning behind these pieces brought a warmth to me as I made them.  Most of the time I will receive a lovely email from my customers after they receive their jewelry and every so often I get a phone call.    This particular order, I received a phone call.  Now I have to be totally honest, when you are an artist and you get a call you get nervous, did they like it.. was it what the expected.. all of your insecurities come up before you answer the call. 

I was moved to tears when I answered,  it was one of the best calls of my career.  I listened intently as she re-in acted the Christmas exchange and how each person who received a fingerprint pendant or key chain teared up.  And then she made me laugh, when she spoke of how she forgot to order one for herself and everyone teased her when they asked to see hers.

She may not know this, but I was in the Costco washroom with my son at the time of the call.  I am sure people thought I was crazy, laughing, crying, barely speaking.  That call made my day, no.. scratch that.. my week.  Now, when I am feeling insecure will look at the photo of the jewelry I made for her and smile.

Thank you to all the incredible clients I have, thank you for the tears, the smiles, the laughs and the fun, and especially for letting me into your lives for but a moment.

BFF's come in all shapes & sizes

Most of my custom work is done with human finger or toe prints, however recently I have been gaining recognition and clientele looking to have their pets immortalized. 

Today I am highlighting 3 pieces I have done recently that I adore.

I often get the privilege of entering someones life for a moment, and get to share in their story.  Late last year I was contacted by a lovely woman in Australia who was going through the heartache of a terminally ill pet, something I could connect with and made me love this project even more.
This is Milay's paw print, I was saddened to hear of Milay's passing just after the print was taken. I am so glad I was able to capture her print in something her biggest fan could wear close to her heart forever.  

Christmas is often a hard time to find the perfect gift for the person with everything.  I was approached to make a quite a few unique items, here is one that I really love that was made for a gentleman.

This is a large golf ball marker with the owners dog's nose print on it.  I love how it turned out.  Here is the adorable Manny's very Manly nose 

The great thing about animal prints is the amount of detail you can pick out in the final product. Look close & you can see the fur & whisker lines on the nose.

This next piece was custom created for my cousin's girlfriend. Between them they have 3 beautiful dogs.  Wanting to get something that represented each of the dogs we created this necklace:

 As weight can become an issue for a wearable piece, we decided to do the nose print of the puppy & take the fingerprint of the larger dogs (yes dogs have fingerprints).  It is amazing how different the prints were between the two breeds of dog.  I am really happy how this turned out.  Talk about sentimental, totally unique & beloved.

I have been given a challenge to come up with something on a horse that I can print & that can be worn... So far everything looks huge.. Any idea's?

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 :)