I seem to get in a panic about Christmas earlier every year! But the reality is for many indie designers, the festive season is generally insanely busy and difficult to keep on top of. Early preparation is a must … but it can be hard to find the time to do it earlier in the year too when you’re running a micro business.

Yesterday I had my first ‘OMG it’s almost Christmas!’ moment of panic. This year part of the issue for me is having just taken on a major web project which will tie me up for much of the next six to eight weeks … and then suddenly it will be October and handmade jewellery sales are likely to already be picking up considerably and things probably won’t really slow down again until around March.

To try to ward off the panic I decided to make findings! I handmake most of the findings I use and always see making them as being a bit of a chore. It’s a major pain to run out of them – even more so during the busy season when there is so much else to worry about. Also making them in very small quantities is really inefficient so a chunk of time needs to be set aside to make a pile of the things.

And above is the outcome of my labour – fresh out of the tumbler this morning. It’s of course nowhere near enough to see me through to the end of the busy season, but it’s a start. I think I need to set a bit of time aside regularly to keep adding to my findings stash from here on in.