Oh Hi!

[Bitter Jeweler]

I'm alive! And well!

I'm amazed this place is still ticking!

Sorry I drop off the radar here. I try to remember to check in once in a while.
If your interested in a life update...I'll oblige...

Me?
I'm doing well, overall. Still married, finally legally...it will be 21 years next month!!!
Biggest life change...3 years ago I went back to the low carb diet. This is my second go at it. I was up to 260lbs, and am now down to 180!
I maintained pretty well until The Rona hit. During lockdown, and all that uncertainty we said screw it and ate tons of crap for a few weeks. then went back to being good, then being bad again, then good. All in all over the course of the year I was up 20lbs. We recently rebooted, and got back down to my lowest...180lbs. I am pushing to lose another 15. Husband was in the same boat.

Four years ago I finally had time to get back into gaming and bought a PS4. I remember so many of you talking about the Mass Effect series, when it was current. I am glad I finally got to play the remastered trilogy. Wow that was awesome! It was emotional, and I am experiencing post game depression. I love that games can do that to you.

Business...

Whew. Business. What a ride it continues to be.
The first several years I had to work 7 days a week, and was just making it. I was letting people control me a little bit too much. Some things happened and I said no more mister nice guy. Business also started changing getting into 3D design and printing. I started growing my custom design business, and really started to get to show my creativity. It started becming the bulk of my business! Then one year my $25K wax printer failed near busy christmas time and I had to send the thing in for repairs. It shut me down, and it was really hard. The next year it happened again at the beginning of November, and again I ended up having to send the printer in for repairs. It took them TWO months to fix it. Again it shut me down. This time I fell into a deep depression. This was ruining me. I started losing customers because I was becoming unreliable. Dark times. But, I bounced back. I bought a resin printer that has been super reliable, and I recovered and never looked back.

The recovery was amazing and business began to grow again. I was repeatedly setting records. But then it started becoming overwhelming again. So I decided to stop doing repair work altogether. I wanted to focus on what I loved, and what was the most profitable...CUSTOM design. Everybody told me that I can't do that. I HAD to do repairs. Nope. This ended some relationships. I went 100% custom and what do you know...that grew more! I began setting new monthly records! I was on top of the world! Then the Rona hit. *ugh* Fortunately, the boom I was having allowed me to finally SAVE money. I was able to make it through lock down. I was lucky!

Opening back up, business quickly picked up pace again. But after last christmas, I had a falling out with my biggest account. I fired him. I lost a third of my income. THen for whatever reason things cooled off in January/Febuary/March. I posted my lowest numbers ever in January. For the first time in a long time I was worried. THings have slowly picked back up, and I am doing OK. Not great, but OK. This has allowed to finally take saturdays (and sundays) off. The trade off with having less work from the retailers, is I started designing for myself. And that has been AMAZING. I never had time to make what I wanted to make. But now I do, and I am cranking out the ideas. While I am not selling any of it yet...(next phase) I am building up my own inventory of original work, and I couldn't be happier! The next phase of business is to shift to becoming a retail store. (I mainly do wholesale for retail jewelry stores). So now I am in the beginnings of trying to make my brand known, and get people to come directly to me. It's hard. There's a lot that needs done, but slowly and surely I am getting there.

I have to say, running a business has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It's always changing and you have to find ways to adapt. There is always too much to do and never enough time to do it. I am proud of where I am at now.

If you want to see what I have been up to, you can find me at facebook and instagram by searching for David Wilkinson Design.

So, that's where I am at in a nutshell.

It was sad to hear of Timbuck's passing. It was sad to see other members drop off the radar too.
What happened to Lolli and Ness? Is Wraith still around? I see some familiar faces still kicking around here. That's great! Remember when people said this place wouldn't last?

[Aimless]

Holy crap, what an incredible—and terrifying—rollercoaster! You're honestly an inspiration mate and I really dig the custom designs! wraith, lolli, Nessie and some others are still on Discord if you wanna say hi illusions drops by from time to time as well

[littlelolligagged]

I'm still around, sort of. It's good to see you again! More on Discord than here, though, usually. Very glad to know that your business is still going and that you're doing well.

[Being]

What about the photography?

[Veldan Rath]

Funny how we both drop back in on the same day.

People might talk...:P

[Bitter Jeweler]

Illusions! I remember chatting with him when I was JUST getting into 3D printing.

Lolli! What is Discord? I know, I'll look it up. How do I find you? When are you people there?

Minx, it HAS been a rollercoaster. Fortunately more highs than lows, but the lows remind you that you can't take anything for granted.

Being! I haven't had time for photography, well, other than trying really hard to get good at product photography.
I am not excellent at it yet, but I at least I am better than most jewelers who take crappy cell phone picks of jewelry
to represent themselves.

Veldan!

Randblade! Didn't you have a pub or something?

[littlelolligagged]

Like IRC, but modernish! We idle! It's great!

https://discord.gg/NGzFXuU

[Bitter Jeweler]

IRC was fun!

[RandBlade]

Hi BJ, great to see you again!

Had a pub, sold it coincidentally just a few before the pandemic began. Fortunate timing, I would not have wanted to run a pub during the pandemic with all the restrictions on, I feel sorry for those in the industry.

[Illusions]

Illusions! I remember chatting with him when I was JUST getting into 3D printing.

Read your full post. Glad the 3D printing is helping with your custom designs. Unfortunately I haven't kept up with it (3D printing or design), mostly due to time and life, rather than lack of desire.

For instance, my fiancee and I had a kid. He's almost 1 and is a loveable and mischievous little scamp.

[RandBlade]

Congratulations!

[GGT]

Oh Hi! Good to hear from you again, Bitter! Along with Veldan and Illusions!

[Dreadnaught]

Bitter thank you so much for sharing, and that is quite a roller coaster! I remember when you were breaking off from an employer and starting to talk about going out on your own. Amazing to know that, despite the ups and downs, your talent is real has been rewarded.

Change name to--> Independent Bitter Jeweler

Hi BJ, great to see you again!

Had a pub, sold it coincidentally just a few before the pandemic began. Fortunate timing, I would not have wanted to run a pub during the pandemic with all the restrictions on, I feel sorry for those in the industry.

You had a pub? Damn that's some timing.

Read your full post. Glad the 3D printing is helping with your custom designs. Unfortunately I haven't kept up with it (3D printing or design), mostly due to time and life, rather than lack of desire.

For instance, my fiancee and I had a kid. He's almost 1 and is a loveable and mischievous little scamp.

Woot congrats!

[Wraith]

Is Wraith still around?

He sticks his head in every now and again. Glad to see you and your shop survived the virus.

[ar81]

I am glad to see you around too. My story also has been a roller coaster.
A bit more tragic in many ways, contrasted with a few moments of touching the nirvana. I would go through the tragic details but I intend to overcome that, not get people depressed. Basically those who should love me and my wife, behave in an opportunistic way and treated us worst than the worst enemy in the moment when we were most vulnerable. Not only they backstabbed us, but robbed us. She has no one left now, and I have half of my family only. During adversity is when people show their true colors. The details are ugly, depressing and beyond evil.
It would have been better if these people had died in an accident, because you would have sweet memories of them. It was difficult to overcome death of a loved one (who was a really nice humane person), while the mourning of all these people working as a gang, plus the mourning of being robbed by those who should be supporting you.

On the positive side I had some very positive experiences like a meeting with people from aerospace that would be very hard to meet. Years ago when Dreadnaught and I had a fan fiction Independence War Geocities webpage in the 1990s, recruiters thought scifi was "childish". Well there I was with all these childish people. Also, I was able to be very close to a rocket the day before launch. It was upclose and personal. It was the most "childish" experience I have ever had.

At least the pandemic did not mean another disruption.

[Lor]

Hi all,

I didn't fancy creating a new thread but wanted to latch onto BJ's thread - glad to see your doing well sir as well as many others.

What can I say? I'm alive and well. The last 2 years have been quite a rollercoaster which everyone has experienced, and even now still having to adapt to Covid being in our lives. In terms of my life, i honestly don't remember what/when the last time i truly visited, so not sure what to say. I moved into a bigger home 2 years ago, to give both my children more space to play. Work has been carnage, however the company has grown massively - despite plastics apparently being the devil. My wife and I have been going through a tough spell but we move forward together and the bond is still strong.

It's all a bit weird for me right now, fantastic to see many of you are around and well, but equally I'm really struggling about someone mentioning further up about Tim. Kind of a sucker punch. Yes, I don't come here often but i spent a lot of my time talking to you all at various times in my life. To know that one individual isn't with us anymore is a little like losing a family member to me.

I will try to frequent more, however should anyone want to contact me I'm happy to supply my email address to Rand or any mods. You are all more than welcome to give me a nudge, or even hit me up on social media.