Archmaille Designs Blog

I actually returned as of Sunday… but you can go to my personal site at codysortore.com to read all about it and see a few pictures from the trip. It was an amazing time and I’m ready to get back to work for you guys!

Come hell or high water I’m determined to make the bike trip this week… latest is going to have to be Wednesday. Seeing as it will be the last week of Pirate Fest with the St. Louis Ren. Faire it works out nicely. I won’t actually be selling but should make it there. At least that is the plan as of now. We will see how things play out once I am actually on the road if I can make it to St. Louis in time

Hey guys,

I was planning on taking Archmaille Designs on the road just for a bike ride starting last Sunday. That didn’t happen because my cousin called me and said that if he had more time he would go with me. Needless to say I am giving him the more time since going alone seems somewhat fruitless. This also means that the trip will most likely be cut somewhat short, as I can’t expect him to want to ride the 560 miles to Chicago on impulse. Expect the trip to take place vastly along the Katy Trail here in Missouri sometime within the next month (and hopefully within the next couple of months) I plan on letting everyone know both here and on my personal site the exact date of launch.

Thanks for the continued support!
Cody Sortore

There is a much more detailed explanation for everything on my personal site, but essentially I will be going on a month or so long bike ride and taking Archmaille Designs with me! I will pack up all my supplies and what I have made up to bring with me to sell.

The plan for the ride is to head east towards the Katy Trail and follow that to St. Charles, then move on to St. Louis, and work my way across Illinois to Chicago. So if you are on route between here and there there is a possibility that I will see you along the way! I will be stopping in at coffee shops, or other similar places (such as Panera) whatever the towns I am in have to offer and will set up shop every night working on making pieces of jewelry and selling what I have to help pay for the trip.

Have I ever said that I hate updating my online catalog? Because it is true. Maybe it’s just the summer that makes me not want to sit here at the computer and resize images for hours uploading them and adding descriptions (oh wait, almost nothing has descriptions here on the site does it?). Sorry, I will get back into the whole swing of the jewelry business at some point in time. Working on a new line of jewelry anyways which should be fun! It is a little off from the usual Archmaille Designs work so it may need it’s own site but it will be at least put here in the blog when/if I do make the line.

Just today I’ve put in quite a large order for silver, copper, clasps, and other jewelry supplies. As some of you know I lost my jewelry pliers in the car accident I was in heading up to St. Louis for the Ren. Faire the second weekend I went. I just got my check from MTV for doing some freelance website work with them and used the money to replace the jewelry pliers, as well as ordered nearly 1 pound of silver, 6 pounds of copper, 90 clasps (30 high grade Italian forged figure 8 clasps as used with my sterling silver jewelry pieces, and 60 quality Italian forged lobster claw clasps used with my less expensive copper jewelry), along with a good deal of flannel pouches for shipping items in. Now it is the job of my customers to make the necessary purchases to make my purchase worth it’s time

In other news, I have a friend who has promised to help me with jewelry descriptions… which is coming slow, but that is ok. I’m not very creative when it comes to describing my own work, so it’s best kept for someone else. Those of you who have purchased before are welcome to add anything you’d like, good or bad. Adding comments to pieces is always welcome Thinking of having some sort of option here soon to where I will send you a piece for the cost of shipping/handling if you write up a review for it on the site.

Hey! If you’re here you obviously already know about the newest edition to the Archmaille Designs website out blog! But just to reiterate things, yes this is our blog, and yes you will find special deals, site information, and various other updates in here!

Of course as always if you would like to get to know me better you can always visit my personal blog which you can find on the sidebar under “blogroll” as Cody Sortore’s Ramblings.

Thanks to all those who graciously supported me in going to Jamaica! The missions trip was amazing, you can see a number of pictures and those stories on the first set of hopefully many other Jamaica Blog Entries. Thanks for your continued support since I do plan on returning next year, and the years to follow for as long as I am able.

Well I have been blessed enough to have the opportunity to go on a Jamaica Missions trip with my church in May of 2007. As part of that 90% of all profits from here will be going towards that! Any kind of support is helpful, monetary support through purchases is greatly appreciated, but I also ask for prayers. Prayers for success of the trip, and the well being of all those going is the most important thing any of you could do for us.

Thank you to all my wonderful costumers!
Cody Sortore

I’ve been running this business selling silver jewelry now for four years. In those four years I’ve never had any price changes. Simply put, I’ve had no reason for it. Now looking at sales being low, and the economy finally taking swing back up I’m looking into making some price changes. One of the things that prompted this was I just recently visited a jewelry store, which I used to be competitive with on their charm bracelets. I figured that they couldn’t have changed much in price being that charm bracelets aren’t nearly as popular as they used to be. Obviously I was wrong, they are now selling charm bracelets for nearly $200 each. I don’t plan on going up with my prices that high, but I do need to find a way to help pay for some of the new equipment for the business, as well as hopefully increase sales. One thing is I don’t want people to see cheap machine made jewelry at more than double my prices and automatically believe that it is higher quality.