Katherine Palochak created these Bamboo earrings of sterling silver and 24K gold.

It's just after lunch. Your three-year-old is coloring happily at the table, and the baby is napping in her cradle. With the kids settled, you'll surely be able to concentrate at your workbench for a couple of hours, completing several jewelry pieces before the baby wakes and you break for a snack and some play time with the kids. Yeah, right.

If you're chuckling, it probably means you're a parent, and you know just how challenging it can be to combine child care with productive work. Although such idyllic scenes may occasionally play out, many parents find that the demands of being the primary caregiver for their kids can easily overwhelm dreams of turning a jewelry hobby into a home-based business.

“Before [my son] was born, I had been doing jewelry for five or six years, and I have always had a home studio,” says Laney Clark, jewelry designer and mother of Cody, 21/2. “I expected to continue working right through pregnancy and his birth. I thought I could do it all: I could have the home business and be a full-time mom. Boy, was I sadly mistaken.”

Clark has succeeded in continuing her jewelry business, but only because she was willing to scale back significantly to make it work. The biggest surprise, she says, “was just how much time I had to devote strictly to him, especially right after he was born. I thought while he was awake, he could just sit next to me. Oh, I was so wrong!”

She's not alone: if you're not prepared for the demands children can place on your business, you may soon wish you'd thought more carefully about adding a business to an already hectic home life. “It's a juggling act that would impress Barnum & Bailey,” says Katherine Palochak, who has created jewelry for 12 years, as well as running a Wyoming ranch with her husband and home-schooling her three children, Richard, now 16, and twin girls, Shanda and Andrea, 24. “You're always trying to juggle everything all at once.”

Lisa Pichard named a line of jewelry after hurricane Bertha that swept throught the beach leaving it littered with objects that Pichard and her children collected. This pin/pendant, Sea Goddess was made from a moonstone, chalcedony, a found shell, and copper & sterling to mimic the debris.

But if you can find the right balance between business and family, the reward is more time with your kids than a career in the corporate world would allow. “I wanted to spend time with the children,” says Cynthia Wiig, who started her business in 1994 with that hope in mind. Her children, Noel and Grant, are now 18 and 9. “I wanted to be able to pick them up after school. I wanted to be the one primarily raising my children.”

Being your own boss also means you can set your own hours, and you don't have to fight traffic during the morning commute. “I call it 'the fuzzy slipper commute,'” says Jackie Anderson, who began working from a home studio five years before her son, Sawyer, now 9, was born. “I can get up, get my child to school, have coffee, and come out to the studio. When my husband and I were first together, his weekend was Sunday and Monday, so I just made my weekend the same as his. Now, we have a teachers convention coming up, so my son will be out of school for three days. But we don't have to make any arrangements to put him somewhere. I can take him to his snowboarding lessons.”

Many parents use that freedom to chaperone school field trips or volunteer in their children's classrooms. And if there's an emergency -- from a trip to the hospital to a forgotten lunch -- you're available to respond to the need. “Guess who the neighbors list for emergency calls every year,” says Eileen DelDuca, who has been creating jewelry in her home studio since her daughter, Kathryn, now 13, was three months old. Her son, Michael, is now 10. “But it's also nice because with the flexibility of working at home, I've been at the school quite a bit to help with the classes, and then you get to see what your kids are doing. I got to go to Niagara Falls on the class trip. And the kids can call home at any time, and know you're there.”

With such incentives, many parents decide that it's worth the effort to establish a home-based jewelry business. And such a venture can be successful, say those who have done it: you just have to be prepared for the reality of balancing work and family. To improve your odds of success, here are some hints from the master jugglers themselves -- jeweler moms and dads.

Cynthia Wiig started her jewelry business in 1994 in order to spend more time with her children. Shown here is one of her sterling silver cat pendants.

Make the most of the hours you have.
If your kids are in school, that means heading for the studio as soon as you get them on the bus. If they're younger, be sure not to lose those precious nap hours. And in either case, you'll probably want to take advantage of the quiet hour or two after they go to bed.

Whatever your free time, set it aside and discipline yourself to always work on your jewelry projects then, suggests Erhard Kruger, who creates chain-mail style jewelry in between a shift job as a facility attendant at the local ice rink and raising four kids ages 9-1/2 , 7, 5, and 3. His wife, Francine, a textile artist, also works at home.

“I once read an article in a writer's journal about finding time to write, and they basically said the only way to get anything done is to just do it,” says Kruger. “That's probably the best advice for anybody at home. If you're having problems getting distracted by everything else, set aside a certain time of day [to work on jewelry] and make sure you do it. No cheating.”

Another alternative is to seek out types of work that allow you to work while the kids are around. When her children were young, Wiig started experimenting with wire, primarily because it was portable. “I didn't need a bench or a torch or a casting machine,” she says. “So I could take it with me to the park, I could take it with me to the pre-school -- I could create something and still be with my child. People got used to me dragging this wire around and making these continuous-line wire designs.”

A pendant of copper and sterling silver by jewelry maker Laney Clark. Photo: Sharon Bryan.

Be flexible.
No matter how carefully you manage your time, there will be days when things just don't go as planned: the kids or the baby-sitter will get sick, the spouse will leave on a business trip, or school will be canceled due to snow or a teacher conference.

“You have to realize, especially if you're a mother, that it still primarily falls as your responsibility to raise the children,” says Palochak. “There are going to be times when the children are sick and you can't meet obligations. Or you get sick, and between running a household and running a business, you get worn out.” If you're flexible, you can learn to take such disasters in stride.

Be willing to make sacrifices.
If you expect to be a full-time caregiver as well as a jewelry designer, you'll probably find yourself giving up opportunities that could launch your career to the next level. “There are a lot of times when I've had to give up opportunities, but it came down to what was more important in my life: my children or a developing career,” says Palochak. “I could put the career on hold or slow it down for a few years, but you can't really put children on hold.”

As a result, you'll probably be happiest as a work-at-home mom or dad if you're willing to make your children your priority and let your career take a back seat. “If I'd put my kids in day care full time, my business would probably be further ahead,” admits DelDuca. “But I like my kids. I wanted to raise them: I didn't want day care to raise them.”

Jackie Anderson made this Mood Brooch 1 of sterling silver, blue topaz, tourmaline, citrine, and arborite, on what she calls “the fuzzy slipper commute”

Set realistic goals.
Scaling back your ambitions can also mean scaling back your income, so you'll want to take a hard-eyed look at your family's financial status. “You'd better know your finances before you do this,” says DelDuca. “I was lucky: my husband had a good job and my income was never worked into the budget, so for the first couple of years any money I made was gravy.”

If the second income is important to the family, though, you'll want to take periodic looks at your progress. “It's good to re-evaluate: is this working for the family? Are you generating enough cash flow for the family?” says Wiig. “It's sometimes easier to be at a job even part-time than self-employment. You really need to examine what works for you.”

Involve the kids.
If your kids are past the everything-in-the-mouth baby stage, it may be possible to involve them in your work, buying a couple of hours of productive time while the kids work alongside you. “We found out you can cast shrink art,” says Charolette Purviance, who raised nine children while pursuing a jewelry career from home. “When they see mom getting into the waxes and all this neat stuff, they want to help. So we learned a whole lot with Play-Doh -- whenever I'd work with wax, I would give them Play-Doh. Then they graduated from Play-Doh to shrink art.” In that process, they discovered shrink art could be treated just like wax for casting purposes. “Some of my favorite [jewelry] pieces are the ones that my kids drew and I cast into sterling silver,” she says.

“We have a toy area in our workspace and an extra table for the kids, so if they want to get messy with clay or something, we can set that up while we're working away,” says Kruger. “They do show interest [in my work], and sometimes they'll ask me if they can make something. So I'll give them my pliers and snippets of wires and they do weird shapes, sometimes trying to make letters or little animals out of it.”

Judy Williams, who turned her jewelry hobby into a part-time business when her two daughters were in high school and junior high, put her kids to work. They assembled wire-based pieces, strung necklaces for her to knot, and cut lengths of wire. As they got older, they learned to heat metal and make head pins and eventually simple band rings. She also drafted them for help with inventory, and as guinea pigs to try out a new design -- something her two daughters liked best of all.

Lisa Pilchard takes her kids, Russell, 13, Elizabeth, 11, and John, 6, when she goes rock collecting. “I've made some nice pieces out of fossils and stones that I found with them,” she says. “They know a lot about fossils and enjoy stones, too.” Her youngest often joins her in her basement studio, as well. “He likes to take scrap metal and build with it,” she says. “So when he went to school, he was very good at block building, and it's phenomenal what he can do with scrap paper and cardboard tools.”

Palochak taught her kids the rudiments of sales techniques, and brought them along to help out at shows. “When we would do a show I'd take them along with me; I didn't really have a choice because of the way my husband's job is,” says Palochak. “So we worked out a deal where they got 20 percent commission on retail sales and 25 percent commission on wholesale sales. And man, they worked at that, because it was their only source of income for a long time. They might come home with $60 or $70, and $60 for a 13-year-old is quite a bit. And they were a big help to me: they allowed me to take a break now and then and go to the bathroom.”

Expect minor disasters.
No matter how good your kids are, there will be times when they break your concentration at exactly the wrong moment. “I've ruined many a piece,” says Pilchard. “The two kids might be down [in my studio] and they're bickering and fighting. I've melted many a piece due to distractions.”

“We've had some catastrophes,” admits Purviance. “We've had a couple of meltdowns when the kids should have been leaving mom alone and weren't, and mom looked at the kid instead of the piece.”

Set limits.
It can be hard to convince the kids -- not to mention the spouse, parents, friends, and neighbors -- that when you're in your studio, you're really working and shouldn't be disturbed. But if you don't put your foot down -- gently but firmly -- your work will fall prey to an endless stream of interruptions.

“You're the one in charge -- of the children, of the business, of yourself -- so you have to draw the line. You have to make sure people know you're working,” says DelDuca. “You have to tell them they can't come and see the baby whenever they want.”

“I think at one point I actually taped a message on my telephone, 'Just say No,'” recalls Wiig. “You have to set up priorities and create a pattern and somehow try to stick to it, or your time can just vanish.”

And it's not just family and friends you have to learn to say “No” to. “You have to be selective about what you take on,” says Anderson. “If you're used to saying 'Yes' to everything and then you find you just don't have time to do it, you get so frustrated. That's why I decided to cut out custom work, even though that's where I made money. I found it too difficult, having people come to the house all the time and having to be available for them. So now most of what I do is self-motivated, and I do a lot of consignment work for galleries.”

Think about child care.
Many parents decide to build a home-based business in order to be near their children. But the reality is that concentrating on your work and caring for your child don't always mix. “You can't think of staying home with your child as a convenient thing or a cost-saving thing. It's much more complex than that,” says Larry Seiger, a JA certified master bench jeweler who works full-time in his home studio, taking breaks to care for his 18-month-old daughter while his wife pursues her own home-based business. “I think a lot of people think it's nice to be at home because you can watch your baby and not have day care. But you have to make an effort to decide what you're going to do with your child on an hour-by-hour basis. If you don't think about that in advance, it will totally paralyze you.”

For many parents, the best solution is finding someone they trust to help care for the children. “I had a high school girl come in a couple of days a week to take [the baby] out for a walk,” says DelDuca. “It took a while for me to get comfortable leaving my infant with someone else, and it was a lot easier being home, because then you can watch and listen. So the high school student worked out really well for me.”

For others, a supportive spouse can take over child care in the evenings and weekends, giving you time alone in the studio. “I devote my time after my husband gets home from work,” says Clark. “My husband has always been supportive of my creative side. He basically tells me to get out the door [and head for the studio] if I'm procrastinating.”

Connect with other adults.
Working at home can leave you feeling isolated, so it's important to look for things that will draw you back into society. “One of the downsides of working at home is not having another artist or jeweler to talk to on occasion,” says DelDuca. “When I need some input, I will drag in neighbors and ask, 'what do you think about this,' I'll find anybody with an artistic eye.” She also takes advantage of e-mail forums and other electronic means of communication.

“The Orchid list [a jewelry e-mail list sponsored by ganoksin.com] has been very helpful in terms of technical support,” says Pilchard. “It's been very helpful to discuss and listen to feedback and whatnot.”

If you're proficient in a particular technique, teaching a class at a local continuing education program may also be an option. “I know a lot of women who have art backgrounds, and a lot will teach part time just to get out and see people and keep a hand in,” says Anderson.

Exhibiting at a jewelry or craft show also offers a good opportunity to break out of your isolation, as well as earn some money. “Shows are a really good way for me to get back into adult life,” says Clark. “I spend my days talking two-year-old talk, and when I'm doing shows it's really exciting to talk to people and see other people. Some shows I don't sell anything, but I've had exposure to people and handed out business cards. It just gets me back into society.”

Larry Seiger's necklace of 22K gold, 18K palladium, and diamonds. Photo: Seth Tice-Lewis.

Give yourself permission to be imperfect.
For many new parents, the biggest enemy is not looming deadlines or demanding customers; it's the need to be both the perfect parent and the ideal jeweler -- and the guilt that follows when you don't measure up to your own impossible standards.

“I think the really important thing is not to be hard on yourself. Don't beat yourself up,” says Anderson. “I really felt I wasn't doing enough, and that what I was doing wasn't good enough. But you have to set realistic goals for your day and be willing to be flexible, or you're going to go crazy. Be gentle with yourself, but don't stop. You have to grow into the situation as it evolves.”

“The fact that I can't devote myself 100 percent to jewelry making means I'm not doing nearly as much as I could be doing,” says Clark. “At first, I resented it. I was resentful because I couldn't do what I wanted, when I wanted. And that's hard to admit.”

Through long talks with her mother and husband, she eventually realized that she had to give herself permission not to be Superwoman. “Once I started getting a little bit of time, I realized [my life] wasn't going to be only about Cody,” she says. “And [I realized] it's okay if I want to devote time to him, but it's also okay if I want to go out to work. It wasn't an overnight fix -- as I'm finding nothing ever is -- but I'm happy with the decisions I've come to. For now, anyway.”

In the end, of course, all families are different, and so every work-at-home situation is unique. But no matter what their prior ambitions and no matter how successful their home-based jewelry business has become, there is one thing that all the parents we talked to agreed on: they have no regrets about the things they've given up to be home with their kids. “It's been great, and I wouldn't change it for the world,” says DelDuca. “My friends are envious, and my neighbors say, 'I wish I had a job like yours.' I work, but it seems to be when we say we work at home, there's this comfort level.”

Creating jewelry in a home-based studio gives stay-at-home parents a chance to pursue an outside interest, connect with adults, and even add a little income to the family coffers. It takes some juggling, but most problems will have solutions as long as you're willing to work at them. “I think if you're a determined person, that's the key to any successful career or lifestyle,” says Pilchard. “If you're determined, you'll be successful. [With kids around], you just have to be prepared to diversify yourself a little differently, and you have to be really, really flexible.”

But perhaps the best advice comes from Charolette Purviance: “Make it so you can look back on it and you can laugh about it together,” she says.

And you have to love a job where that's the secret to success.

Suzanne Wade has written about the gem and jewelry industry for more than eight years. Formerly editor/associate publisher of AJM Magazine, she is now a part-time freelance writer and full-time Mom.