Hey everyone!
I'm sorry I have not posted. After January everything became a little jumbled and hectic. This year has been a lot of ups and downs especially with the pandemic going on. It's been frustrating and difficult to keep up with a lot of things. However, I'll do a small update on various parts of my life & business.
DIY Videos/ Tutorials
I've made several short videos on tiktok of how I make certain pieces. I don't go into detail but I do show most of the things I do to make that certain charm.
I post the videos on our Facebook and Instagram too in case y'all don't have tiktok. I will try harder to make a blog post for each one talking about the process and materials used. For some parts I will have to reference books or some YouTube tutorial videos because that's what I used to learn my own techniques. I hope they become helpful to all of you who want to learn to make food charms or just created polymer clay jewelry I'm general.
Family
Last month I had our son (Ariel Martin) and since the beginning, the pregnancy was very rough on me. I gave birth at 24 weeks via emergency C-section so he is very premature. We are extremely blessed that the doctor was able to save him. Currently he is still in the hospital on a rollercoaster of good and bad days. So please understand that I do get a lot of anxiety that sometimes it impairs me. I especially get anxiety when we visit him and sometimes I get panic attacks when I get a call from the NICU. It's a mental & emotional struggle but my boyfriend really helps in reminding me to stay positive and send our baby good vibes.
I'll be honest with y'all, postpartum depression hit me hard. I've only managed to do one restock since his birth because of it. It also didn't help that I couldn't really do much physically because of my surgery. It made it painful for me to work on my creations for more than an hour that's why it took a while for me to restock.
"Doesn't your family help you? "
Yes, all of my family helps me but they can only help me with managing events and packaging my products. Unfortunately, I'm the only one who knows how to make the charms. I'm also the only one who has the patience for making them.
I know that my business is called Iba Sisters Handmade and it was started by my sister & I but she has her own full time job that she loves. She helps sometimes with adding the findings to the charms and with events when my boyfriend, mom, or brother can't attend. In addition to that, as of last year she's mostly helped with the business side which is managing some of the financial parts like taxes. Otherwise it is just me running the business and it will probably stay like this and I'm okay with that. After all this business is a combination of my passions not theirs; they just aid me because they are a great family and love me.
Events
Currently with the pandemic going on, we have no events scheduled. If we do schedule an event it will probably be at the end of September or October. If we do attend an event we will be very cautious with our items. We are currently working on a way to display our work so that there is minimal touch to it and it is easier to disinfect without harming the jewelry findings. We will post on our social media and event tab when we do book an event.
I hope this was helpful as an update. Please stay safe y'all and thank you for the love and support ❤