Simply Shiny Life

Artbeads announces its Labor Day Sale!

Save 20% off orders $60 or more! Stock up on all the basics for the upcoming holiday season or pick up that gorgeous handpainted Russian Artist Pendant you’ve had your eye on.  Sale ends September 7, 2010, so don’t miss out.

To get a heads start on the Labor Day Sale, use this coupon code at checkout: ZZW20P-LDS

In today’s daily thread on the Starving Artists forum, the question asked was “What are your life strategies for dealing with the daily battle?” I thought it was an interesting question, so decided to post my rules to live by. I have a fairly short list, but try to abide by the 5 things below.

1. Take each day at a time. Worrying about what the future will bring is an exercise in futility.

2. I can’t change anyone but myself, so I don’t even try.

3. No one but me can make myself happy, including the Hubs. I decide the happiness quotient for the day.

4. With the exception of my spouse and my kiddo, I’ve decided (and implemented!) that I don’t give a damn what other people think of me. I swear it’s like winning the less stress and less guilt lottery.

5. No matter how bad I think I have it, there are MILLIONS of others much worse off than I am, so I need to just shut up and get on with it. I am much much luckier than I deserve, so enjoy it.

What’s your daily mantra? What rules do you live by?

Artbeads launched a new contest called the ‘Bead IQ Trivia Sweepstakes.’ You can test your bead knowledge by taking the short quiz and then enter the sweepstakes for a chance at winning a $250 ‘Bead Genius’ Prize Package, which includes a $100 Artbeads.com Gift Card and $150 worth of beading and jewelry supplies.

This sweepstakes is open to US and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) 18 years of age and older and ends on September 16, 2010.

To play the Bead IQ Trivia Sweepstakes, please follow this link: Bead IQ Trivia Sweepstakes

Artfire is testing its new ‘Collections’ functionality. Artfire Studio owners will have the ability to curate groups of items from different Artfire Studios to display trends, themes, colors or other groupings of the Seller’s choice.

I’ve been playing around a bit this week and created several Collections of some truly gorgeous Artfire creations. As of today, the Collections tool is only available for testing to the Artfire Maven group. But, Artfire hopes to roll it out to everyone very soon.

Here are some I’ve curated:

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections

You can see my entire list of curated Collections by using the Search box on the left hand side of the page, choose Advanced Search and then enter shinyadornments in the Curator text box.

Pretty nifty.

Will you become a fan?

Starving Artists Team Facebook Page

Resellers, the definition of resellers and discussion around how to handle them has been a hot topic on two of the larger ‘handmade’ seller sites this week: etsy and artfire. I’ve tried to keep up with the discussions, which have been vitriolic at times. It’s clear there is a LOT of angst over site admin handling or lack of handling of this particular issue.

Sellers are peeved, well, more than peeved truly, at the number of shops that are allowed to continue to sell items that are NOT made by the shop owner, have been identified as purchased from a known wholesale site for pennies on the dollar, and are being labeled as handmade and sold at a premium to unsuspecting buyers. Buyers choose to patronize these sites because of the site’s self proclaimed focus on the artisan and handmade, enabling the buyer to shop and support artisan sellers.

In addition, because of the apparent randomness by which site admin close some obvious reseller shops and not others, questions have been raised, and, well, raised again and again:

What defines a reseller? Why aren’t the identified reseller shops closed down? Why aren’t the written terms of service being enforced by the site? Why does it seem as though some admin don’t truly understand the written site TOS? Why are some shops treated differently than others in this respect? Do the site owners TRULY understand the impact this dilution has on the handmade marketplace identifier? (As mentioned in this post http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2010/07/new-certified-handmade-artisan-process-from-artfire/ ) Should the site’s tag line be replaced with something more along the lines of a global marketplace as it isn’t a truly handmade vision anymore?

Artfire has been discussing this topic with some of it’s sellers to try to figure out the next step. I think it is a good idea to discuss now, as the site is still relatively small. Otherwise, it will acquire the issues Etsy is currently facing as the reseller issue there is one that is large and has pretty firmly entrenched itself over time.

One of the difficulties for these handmade sites is to determine a process that will weed out as many resellers as possible, while not initiating steps that may harm a truly legitimate artisan that has been falsely identified as a reseller. These shops are seller’s livelihoods, so it is important that the action taken can’t irreparably harm a seller if it is taken in error.

As I think about long term strategies to define an artisan marketplace, and the proliferation of the reseller studios, I’ve come up with a potential list of Artfire To Dos: (Granted, my proposed list of next steps certainly doesn’t identify all scenarios or potential issues, but I’d like to see it as a first step. )

1. Continue to certify vetted sellers with Handmade icons. Add certified Vintage icons for Vintage shops at a later date. It’s not perfect (as discussed in my previous post) but it is a good visual differentiator and a good start.

2. Ensure that the process for flagging and removing individual items continues and works as it originally did.

3. Continue to not embrace traditional resellers and make these shops adhere to the Artfire terms of service and Item Decision Tree (http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Terms_Of_Use)

4. Recognize that it will be impossible to keep 100% of the resellers that decide to set up an Artfire Studio from actually doing so AND resellers won’t be honest about correctly categorizing the items that they sell, initiate the following actions.

a. Implement additional screening questions during the Studio creation phase (Do you make the item yourself? Do you purchase it from another artisan? Do you have creation help? Etc) to properly align a Studio with the correct category.
b. Implement a whole shop flagging tool that can be used to report obvious reseller shops to Artfire Admin
c. Implement a Commercial goods category
d. When an entire shop is flagged for reselling, bump that shop into the newly created Commercial category
e. Commercial shops are live, but aren’t included in site search, featured on the FP or in campaign emails, etc
f. The Commercial category is ONLY used for bumped shops. It isn’t a category that can be used to set up a new Artfire Studio.

5. Reiterate to legitimate Artfire sellers that the Certified label is embraced by Artfire, and certified / Pro shops gain a plethora of additional tools to use in their selling efforts.

6. Loudly and frequently announce to Buyers that Artfire cares about the buyer’s experience and recognizes that some buyers truly desire the ability to patronize an artisan mom & pop’s shop vs the big box store. Ensure that Buyers recognize what the Certified label means in a readily accessible format throughout their entire Artfire browsing and buying experience.

To be clear, I am absolutely NOT advocating allowing resellers to be part of these sites. I am suggesting these things to deal with the ones that will invariably slip through the protocols.

What else do we need to consider? What did I miss?

This is a long post. I appreciate that you stayed with me until the end.

(BTW, if you are interested in reading the VERY long thread about this topic,  and etsy admin responses,  you can find it here: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6579548&page=1 )

Found this today and thought I’d share.

Social Media Cheat Sheet
CMO’s guide to ‘The Social Landscape” A guide to help you understand how best to leverage major social media sites.

http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/03/07/the-social-media%20-cheat-sheet/

My ShinyAdornments shop on Artfire has received the Certified Handmade status icon. YAY!

As I shared in my previous post, Artfire Studio owners must meet a set of criteria and have their shops reviewed by Artfire staff.  I’m now the proud owner of a lovely blue icon in my shop.

When a buyer clicks this new icon in a seller’s Studio, this message is posted to the screen

“This Certified Handmade Artifact recognizes this
artisan’s commitment to exclusively offering
Handmade and Fine Art work in their studio.”

Of course the process and certification aren’t a perfect solution to some of the issues surrounding non-handmade items being listed and sold as handmade, thereby duping the unsuspecting buyer. Arguments can be made about whether or not the Artfire staff is qualified to actually deem one shop true handmade and another not. Additionally, as ONLY Pro shops can be ‘certified” there will be some concern about Artfire’s quest for $$ over substance, as Pro shops pay a fee each month to attain ‘Pro’ status which gives them access to many additional seller tools.  Finally, what policing power will be established to ensure certified Studios adhere to the only Handmade rule?

Regardless, I believe this is a very good first step for Artfire. A way for the buyers to whom it matters to identify artisan sellers and give them the opportunity to support handmade and not ‘faux’ handmade made in sweatshops, purchased for pennies, labled handmade and sold at a premium.

Again, Kudos Artfire!

Are you a Pro Seller on Artfire? Have you submitted your application yet?

I submitted my application for Artfire’s New Certified Handmade badge. I thought I’d share it with my lovely readers.

By the way, as part of the process, a Studio owner must also have:

a.      An avatar (check)

b.     A banner (check)

c.    Complete Studio Policies (check)

d.     A Bio with photo (Just added a photo. I’m not the most photogenic, but the kiddo is, so added this classic. With my Old Chicago T-Shirt. Natch.  Wanna See? http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&seller_id=11658&op=new&body=2 )

I had a bit of trouble with the question about my ‘process’ and being ‘concise’, so I was just honest. And you KNOW I’ll update you when I hear whether or not my submission was accepted.

What is your ArtFire User name?
ShinyAdornments
http://www.artfire.com/users/ShinyAdornments

What is your main handmade craft, including the Main Category you list your craft in?
Handmade Jewelry

Do you list in main categories other than your main craft?
Yes, Handmade Accessories

Please explain in brief but concise detail your handmade process for each main category craft you list on ArtFire.
I’m inspired by a color or bead or book or television show or some other fleeting idea, go to my work area, dig through my supplies until I find what I need, dig some more until I gather up all the tools I’ll need, take a break to get a new soda, turn on the radio, turn off the radio, check on the kiddo, change my mind about the beads I’ve picked out, find new beads, determine that I need to LOS the wire I need, find the LOS and stink up the downstairs bathroom darkening the wire, finally sit down at my work table and put all the components together. Then decide I’d really rather make a ring, so fire up the torch to solder the components together, melt said components, decide to start over, and finish the earrings I’d started in the first place.

It’s a similar process for the Handmade Accessories, as I list hair sticks in this category. Just exchange the foul smelling LOS for foul smelling Devcon epoxy, add in the search for the right size wooden or bone hair stick components, leave out the melting the components piece, and you get the picture.

You must include at least two pictures with your email showing your handmade process.

• At least one picture of your workspace

I’ve blogged about my new workspace in the basement. You can find images here:

http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2010/06/back-in-action-again/

See the humongous vice on the table nearest the door? That’s what I use to pull the knot in this 12ga wire bangle after annealing http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=377547

You can see all the beads in their fishing lure containers against the back wall and my torch under the table. What you can’t see are the bug sticky traps under the tables for the recluse spiders that also love my workspace. Ick.

• At least one picture of a “work in progress”.

Again, blogged about in progress work quite a bit. Here are a few examples:
http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2009/11/slower-than-a-turtle-progress-with-my-silver-projects/
http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2009/09/sketching-my-ideas/
See the two sketches and stones in the bottom right hand corner of the first picture? They became the necklaces in the next link

http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2009/12/new-gun-metal-necklaces-using-labradorite-cabs/

http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2009/09/artisan-sterling-and-amethyst-pendant-components/
This became the pendant in the next post for this giveaway

http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2009/09/artisan-sterling-and-amethyst-pendant-you-can-win-it-in-my-giveaway/

http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2009/07/my-silversmithing-class-handmade-projects-so-far/
See the hearts and the male symbols I soldered? They became the necklace in the next post

http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2009/08/i-heart-boys-handmade-sterling-silver-heart-necklace/

Are you a Pro Seller on Artfire? Have you submitted your application yet?

Artfire has initiated a process that will include a review of seller accounts and the issuance of a logo representing them as “Certified Handmade” shops. This is really good news for potential buyers who would like to know for certainty that they are supporting true artisans and not resellers.

Artfire Studio owners who want to pursue this certification must meet several requirements as well as submit various types of documentation in order to support their status. You can view the full seller requirements at this link http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=forums&op=view_topic&tid=9608 on Artfire. After vetting, those Studio owners that meet the requirements are issued a special blue hand icon for their shops.

When a buyer clicks this new icon in a seller’s Studio, this message is posted to the screen

“This Certified Handmade Artifact recognizes this artisan’s commitment to exclusively offering Handmade and Fine Art work in their studio.

This artisan has been through a careful review to ensure they are the producers of the fine work you now see. When you see the Certified Handmade Artifact, you can shop with the confidence knowing that you are indeed supporting a handmade artisan.”

Having a vetting process that identifies artisan makers is nice differentiator between AF and other sites that sell handmade. Artfire’s press release about the program can be found at http://www.1888pressrelease.com/artfire-builds-artisan-recognition-program-with-the-certifie-pr-225763.html

Initiating this program is timely too. I was perusing some closed etsy threads this morning and came across this one from artist Sherry Truitt
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6574015

Read her comment on page 6 about what happened to her placement in a magazine article that had planned to showcase handcrafted etsy items
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6574015&page=6

Artfire has chosen to provide certification to artisan sellers by actively vetting shops and granting them true handmade artist status. This vetting and the subsequent icon that is granted will be a REALLY good way for buyers to know that the items they’ll be receiving are actually handmade by the artist that owns the Studio.

Kudos to you Artfire.