Perky | mariaparay.com

Posts Tagged ‘Perky’

Please Vote for VetDogs!

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Chase Bank has just announced a new community initiative to give grants to deserving charities. The 100 charities with the most votes will each receive a $25,000 grant. Voting will continue and ultimately, one charity will win a $1,000,000 grant. Wouldn’t it be great if that could be VetDogs? They would be able to train so many more dogs to help our veterans who are disabled.

Everyone is allowed 20 votes, so you may vote for your own personal favorite charity too – but please vote for VetDogs and help our veterans who are disabled!

Why am I so passionate about VetDogs? As most of you know, I am a volunteer puppy walker with the Guide Dog Foundation. I raise adorable little puppies for about a year, until they are old enough to go into training. In October of 2008, I was on campus with my sweet little Perky, who was almost 4 months old at the time. Melissa, a trainer, was giving a tour to the first class of veterans receiving VetDogs and asked me if I wouldn’t mind waiting so they could meet Miss Perky. Of course! The six young veterans came out and we chatted and they had the chance to pet Perky, the star of the moment. I was struck by these young men – most were close in age to my own children, several were missing limbs, all had a positive mind-set.

The wonderful Miss Perky, at 4 months old.

At the end of our conversation, I thanked them individually for their service to our country. Their reply? “No need to thank us ma’am. It’s our job. We love what we do.” I walked away in tears. It was then I resolved to do something to help make their lives easier and I saw VetDogs as the way to do it. Whether a veteran is disabled by amputation, brain trauma, PTSD or any of the other grievous wounds that occur in war, a service dog helps them achieve a sense of normalcy and independence again. Even being in public is more tolerable for them, as people focus more on the service dog and less on the veteran’s disabling condition.

Perky and I partnered to create the Perky’s Paw Necklace as a fundraiser piece for VetDogs and I am thrilled to announce that we have already raised $340 for VetDogs, just through word of mouth sales! I hope to raise much more, once my web site is up.

You can do your part for VetDogs also – please vote!

Perky's Paw Necklace, with original paw print graciously supplied by Miss Perky.

Tags: Charitable Donations, Guide Dog Foundation, Perky, VetDogs
Posted in Causes, VetDogs | No Comments »

Introducing . . .

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

Siena

Meet our new pup from the Guide Dog Foundation (GDF) – Siena! If you notice a family resemblance with the wonderful Miss Perky, it’s because they are sisters. There were four girls in their litter and all were evaluated as potential breeder dogs for the GDF. Evaluation tests looked at eyes, heart, hips and temperament. Temperament is a rigorous test with many components – including how well they can handle the noise of a gun shot! All four girls passed eyes, heart and the temperament test. Siena and another sister had the better hips, so they were selected for the breeder colony.

Perky went off to training and we were left with a dog-less home. Siena was raised out of state, so the GDF needed to find a local home for her. Does this sound like a match made in heaven? We are now the happy caretakers for Siena, Guide Dog pup extraordinaire!

Tags: Perky, Siena
Posted in Guide Dog Foundation | No Comments »

A Special Piece of Jewelry – Part V

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

My eyeballs are about ready to fall out. I have been working on a very special piece of jewelry for three days now, trying to get it just right.

pc-set-up

Here you see my set-up for making a polymer clay stamp that will be used to imprint metal clay. The purple polymer clay, a clear roller and letters in a wood box are the main tools. The cards are a low tech way to roll the clay out to a uniform thickness. I put an equal number of cards on either side of the clay and as I roll, I keep the roller ends on the cards. The clay, in between the cards, is rolled out to the thickness of the card stack. Hey, whatever works! The rest of the items are “tools” I’ve found around the house. An old apple corer, a couple of lipsticks and stick foundation – all wonderful for making different size circles. I’m always evaluating everyday items for something usable in my art - wonderful textures and shapes are waiting to be found – one just needs to remember to look.

With tools in place and clay rolled, I cut out a circle, with a smaller concentric circle within. Then the fun began. I wanted to imprint “a dog leaves a paw print on . . .” circumferentially, on the front. Sounds easy. Well, here I am, three days later to let you know it isn’t! Roll clay, cut out circles, imprint – and repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat – until it’s perfect. Right now, my left engineer brain is fighting with my right artist brain. The trial piece below looks pretty good at first glance. But I see too much space between the letters in the word “leaves.” So more rolling, cutting and imprinting until I come up with a “neat but organic” look that would make both sides of my brain happy. I do like the paw! The pink silicone mold I made was from a reduced size print of our dear Miss Perky’s paw. It’s the real thing!

Have you figured out exactly which non-profit will benefit from this necklace, when it is complete? I may have a little contest down the road, so start guessing!

pc-stamp

Tags: Design Process, Handmade, New Technique, Perky
Posted in Guide Dog Foundation, Jewelry Making | 4 Comments »

S.A.V.E. Customer Service

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

To be successful in a less-than-ideal economy – actually, in ANY economy – my business needs to provide a beautiful product, good value and excellent customer service.

Jay Goltz recently wrote a NY Times article that encapsulates the heart of great customer service. The author’s ideas are very much in line with mine – make sure every customer is happy. Although the goal is “100% happy,” sometimes a customer has a legitimate issue with a product. In that case, Mr. Goltz offers a simple mnemonic to help right the situation.

If you are a business owner, read how to S.A.V.E. customer service. Whether you are a business owner or a customer, I would love to hear your thoughts on what you consider important factors of customer service. Feel free to share any really great – or really awful – customer service experiences.

I am still recovering from my surgery but can finally get to my studio to create again! That’s the easy part – the photography, not so easy. As soon as I figure it out, I’ll be happy to share some of my new work with you. Meanwhile, here is a less-than-ideal photo of a prototype for my Perky’s Paw charity piece:

perkys-paw-prototype

Tags: Charitable Donations, Customer Service, Design Process, Guide Dog Foundation, Perky
Posted in Customer Service, Guide Dog Foundation, Historic, Jewelry Making, Running a Business, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Babysitting

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Well, if you’ve been wondering where I’ve been lately, I’ve had my hands full babysitting. She is very cute, almost five pounds, with beautiful black curls and gorgeous eyes. But I’m not used to getting up in the middle of the night and getting up at the crack of dawn. To be honest, she was running me a little ragged. But you tell me if you think she was worth all the work:

Little Roxie

She was intrigued by this hose and loved to walk through it.

I'm thinking she wants to stay out and play some more.

Miss Perky returned to the Guide Dog Foundation for training last week and I knew I would be sad after dropping her off. Due to my personal schedule I have to wait until Aug.-Sept. before I can get another pup to raise, but Roxie needed a home for a week and I had an empty dog bed. So she was mine for the week! Roxie, a Standard Poodle, was four OUNCES when she was born – about the size of a stick of butter! Tiny Roxie was not expected to live, but she was given lots of TLC by the family that whelped her and she was up to 4 lbs. 12 ozs. by the time I got her at seven weeks old. She had quite a growth spurt over the past week and went back to the foundation today, a very respectable 6 lbs. 15 ozs. She is still half the size of her litter mates, but I am sure she will catch up.

Having Roxie for the week did take my mind off losing Perky. We miss her so much – she was an absolute pleasure to raise! But she was bred to be a working dog and I think she will enjoy the new challenges ahead of her. I will update you as I receive her progress reports. Perky is adjusting well to being in training and here she is being walked by a volunteer on campus. She looks pretty happy to me!

The Gorgeous Miss Perky!

Tags: Guide Dog Foundation, Perky
Posted in Guide Dog Foundation | 4 Comments »

A Special Piece of Jewelry – Part IV

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

We are down to our last component – the chain!

Ball chain with lapis lazuli beads

I have to admit, I decided this part a long time ago. What better to continue the military theme than ball chain? This 2.5 mm ball chain is just a tad larger than the chain used by our Armed Forces for dog tags. However, the military uses a stronger stainless steel chain, whereas my chain is sterling silver – so I needed the bump up in size for added strength. Although breakage may sometimes happen due to an unseen chain defect, I’d rather my customers not have that experience! I always design for durability.

The necklace will be 24″, an easy length to slip over the head without having to open the clasp. Again, a little shorter than the 29″ necklace the military uses, but a lovely length for most women.

Perky and I visited our local Army recruiting center last week. We met our friend, SSgt. Bush – remember SSgt Bush who helped with our star component for this necklace? We also met Sgts. Crawford and Rogers. Perky was a big hit with everyone!

I was told by Sgt. Crawford that each soldier has two personal ID tags – one on the the 29″ military chain, which has exactly 365 ball beads on it; the other on a smaller chain, with 52 ball beads on it. If the unthinkable happens and one of our soldiers is captured, they have – in their chains – a way of marking the passage of time. I didn’t know that – did you? A sobering thought for us civilians.

SSgt. Bush & Perky

Sgt. Crawford and Perky

Sgt. Rogers & Perky

Tags: Design Process, Lapis Lazuli, Perky
Posted in Jewelry Making | 4 Comments »

She Swims!

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Yep, she's a water dog!

Shake that water off!

Can I go in again?

Just one more time, pretty please?

Perky had fun in the pool last weekend! It’s amazing how dogs instinctively know how to swim, the very first time they enter the water. We are enjoying every minute with her, as she will be going back to the Guide Dog Foundation in 6 days, to start her training.

Tags: Guide Dog Foundation, Perky
Posted in Guide Dog Foundation, Historic | 2 Comments »

A Special Piece of Jewelry – Part II

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

I started the design of this special piece here. Today I finished another step in the design as you can see:

Perky's Paw

Or I should say Perky finished another step! Yep, this is my dear sweet Perky’s paw. Not to worry, no puppies were harmed in the making of this print! I had originally used a scanner to scan her paw, but with her black toes and black hair I couldn’t get a clear print. Not her fault – after all, she is a Black Lab! So I bought a non-toxic, water-based, easily washable ink pad and took her print the old fashioned way. She was very patient and humored me, both with the scanner and the “fingerprinting.”

The largest print is her full-size print; I made reductions of this for the other sizes. I will have to look at the proportions of all the components before I decide which size print I will be using.

Doesn’t Perky have the cutest little paw? I’m glad I’ll have this print to remember her by, after she goes in for her Guide Dog training. I may do this for all the pups I raise, from now on.

I don’t think you’ll be able to guess what charity this special piece is for. There will be another clue in the next design post.

(All content copyright by Maria Paray and not to be used without written permission.)

Tags: Design Process, Guide Dog Foundation, Handmade, Perky
Posted in Causes, Jewelry Making | 6 Comments »

Perky Update!

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

It occurred to me that I have not posted about my dear Miss Perky in a while. I just downloaded some photos that I thought you might enjoy.

She is about 9 1/2 months old now and pretty obedient for the most part. She understands when she needs to be on “best behavior” – and when she can get away with some shenanigan! She is one smart pup.

Perky with a friend from a local farm

Perky loves to go see the horses. When I start off in a direction opposite to the farm, she stops and looks at me with her head tilted the other way – letting me know she would prefer to go visit the farm. I think she thinks the horses are just big dogs. The horses are just as happy to see her, galloping over to greet her when they see her.

Perky in "uniform," on a walk

Perky knows to act like the future Guide Dog that she is, when she has her jacket on. All bets are off when the jacket comes off!

Miss Perky at rest after some hard play!

Of course, it’s not all work all the time! Perky does live a “dog’s life” – she has run of the house and lots of play time in the backyard where there are all sorts of interesting things to explore, such as squirrel and bunny trails.

What a pleasure to be raising such a wonderful pup!

Tags: Guide Dog Foundation, Perky
Posted in Causes, Guide Dog Foundation | 4 Comments »

The Business Plan – Operations

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

The Operations section is a description of how the product will be manufactured and sold. This should include a discussion of the company facilities, suppliers and product sales.

I currently own a studio large enough to accommodate my new business.
I currently have the equipment to make beaded and wire-wrapped jewelry, as well as some pieces requiring metalsmithing. Everything will be designed and handmade by me, with great attention to detail. A piece doesn’t leave my shop unless I say it does.
I have most of the major pieces of equipment necessary to work, including a kiln and flex-shaft. A wider range of hand tools is needed and will be purchased with profit that is put back into the business. Large equipment, such as a rolling mill is slated for purchase next year.
All equipment and raw materials are available online with an estimated lead-time of less than two weeks. If one supplier is out of stock, I can always go to another. My supplies are not company specific, so there are no repercussions if a supplier goes out of business. This is an especially important factor, given the current economy.
Manufacturing of jewelry would comprise about 70% of the work week; paperwork, web updates, photography, customer service and marketing would take up the remaining time.
My cost of goods would include material costs, overhead plus a reasonable labor rate.
My sales will be through several venues: my e-commerce web site, an Etsy site, private showings and retail through a high end art gallery. Each of these venues will draw on a different audience to view my jewelry, increasing the odds of purchase.
I may have to revisit the shipping question after rates go up on May 11th, but so far, the best shipping value is insured USPS Priority mail. The USPS supplies the Priority shipping cartons for free. Delivery confirmation and a small discount are applied if I print the labels in my studio. Next day pick up service may be requested, at no extra charge, saving on trips to the PO. Although I must say, Perky and I do go to our local PO frequently – it’s good practice for her – plus they love her there!

Well, here we are in the home stretch of our Business Plan with just two sections left!

Next: Financial Analysis and Projections

Tags: Business Plan, Handmade, Perky, Starting a Business
Posted in Causes, Guide Dog Foundation, Jewelry Making, Starting a Business | 2 Comments »

mariaparay.com