Tales From the Road – Wire Works Custom Jewelry

Tales From the Road

Part 1

Last night we had a few friends over for dinner of homemade New Mexico Enchiladas.  After dinner we retired to the front porch to enjoy the incredible sunset and each other’s company. While enjoying beautiful Grand Lake, the stories began to flow.  Soon we were “cuttin’ up jackpots” which is simply the telling or retelling of stories about our journeys and the mishaps we have experienced as we travel across the country.

Many of the travels taken by Jim and me over the years consist of pulling our trailers full of wire jewelry displays across country.  These travels were always centered on our adventures of hauling a trailer behind our Greyhound Bus Motor Home Conversion.  During the early days of our business we couldn’t afford trailers.  Our Ford Van was loaded with the wire jewelry tools, the displays and all our worldly possessions. Of course, the most important of these goods were the gold and silver wire we use in our beautiful jewelry which you can see in our Online Store .  We headed across country to various locations just for the opportunity to display and sell our custom wire designs to folks attending these various events.  Our greatest hope was to pay for our expenses and make a little extra cash.  Sometimes we hit the road without having a solid commitment for space. Should someone not show up or cancel, we were in!

During the summer of 1983, we took off  from Wichita, Kansas to work the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Missouri.  Crossing a bridge that arched over a railroad track, we entered Augusta, Kansas.  Jim, who has little tolerance of bad drivers, looked up and asked, “Who is this screwball trying to pass me?”  I strained to see what was going on and shouted, “Jim, it’s our van”…THE van that held all our worldly goods inside.  It had broken loose from the bus hitch and was in the other lane passing OUR BUS.  Jim kicked into his John Wayne mode and sped up to get in front of the van in the hope of using his brakes to slow it down.  Any minute I expected to hear the crunch that would put our lives on hold.   However, the van continued to run into the back of the bus as Jim continued to apply the brakes of the bus.  Eventually, we were able to stop our runaway van before our “runaway” did further damage.  As for the bus, well, let’s just say it looked like it had enjoyed a night on the town.  After a lot of nervous laughter and a few heart pounding minutes, we hooked the van back onto the bus and continued our trip to Sedalia.  As we setup our wire jewelry displays we continued to laugh at our latest road escapade.  Despite this adventure, we were able to enjoy a wonderful show designing the many unique and affordable wire jewelry items for the Fair goers of Missouri.  As I recall, this was a record year for us in making brand jewelry for the farmers and ranchers in Missouri.

What a TRIP!

Designing Your Custom Wire Jewelry Family Tree

How To Design Your Custom Family Tree

Wire Writing by Jim Thompson

Each family tree that we build is designed  – JUST FOR YOUR FAMILY – they are never exactly alike.  They are all as unique as your family.

The circles that contain the names will be different sizes due to the different length of the names.  We wire write the name first then build the wire jewelry circle to fit the name.  The FREE birthstone crystal is added last.

Now it’s DECISION TIME

Step 1: Who is this tree for?  You, Parents, Grandparents or Friend

When we build your Family Tree it is recommended that you start with who it is for.  Who’s home will it be displayed in.  If it is for grandmother – start with her and granddad, they will go on the top and their branch will be hand twisted.  Remember:  This Personalized Family Tree can be added to or changed as the years go by.

Step 2: Do you want a bloodline tree or full extended family?  You can do Mom, Dad and the kids – leave the spouses off – your choice.

Step 3: Do want a formal presentation or a “just for the family” style.  If formal is you preference supply us the the proper names and extensions such as:

William instead of Will or Bill or if you have a James Jr. instead of using Jim

If you like the informal – this is for family look.  Just use the common names that you call one another.  You can even odd old “Rover” if he is a loved and cherished part of the family.

The key to this is – what would the person you are preparing this family heirloom for prefer.

Step 4: Color for the mat.  I will try to get as close as possible to the color you need.  Sometime a fabric swatch is helpful or maybe just a clip our of a magazine the shows what you want.  We carr the basics in our jewelry workshop all the time – Green, Blue, Mauve, White, and Beige.

Step 5: Send us a list of the the spellings and color mat you want.  Start with who the tree is for: Mom & Dad.

Next list the oldest child, spouse,  children and grandchildren in order of birth – include the birth month with each one.

Proceed to the next oldest child, spouse and children and grandchildren – just keep going until you have them all.

Now all you have to do is relax and give us the time to design your ‘one of a kind’ custom Family Tree from Wire Works Custom Jewelry.