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I’ve not posted much new work the last couple of months. My time has been eaten up lately with my full time job, the hunt for a new house, and now the process of moving from our old home to the new one. Things like stucco inspectors, and painters and carpet measurements and septic leach line mappings and spiders and water quality tests have me captive.
The good news is that I’ve already picked out my new work area. There’s a tiled sun room simply calling my name. It’s already equipped with heat/cool, lots of light, and plenty of electrical outlets. Additionally, the tile floor is a HUGE benefit as I’ll be able to move my soldering equipment and torch from the garage into this space to accompany all my other beading paraphernalia. This new tile floor is so much more conducive to molten silver than the carpet in my existing space. Just the thought of having everything I need in one place makes me giddy. LOL
We close on this new property in mid April. After selling the old house and getting settled in, I’ll be ready to take up the torch again. Probably more than ready, really. I’ve got loads of ideas that I’ve been logging into my sketch books. I’ll be incredibly ready to actualize them once I’ve gotten everything settled and the kiddo enrolled into some new summer activities.
I am REALLY looking forward to this move.
I’ve posted several articles in the last few months about how to make the most of your etsy and artfire shops, and how to simplify selling handmade items online with tools, etc.
Here is a quick list of useful blog posts in case you missed any of them:
1. Optimizing your Etsy and Artfire item description for GOOGLE base
2. International postal shipping tips for your handmade items
3. How to price your handmade creations: Tools available online
4. What are Google Alerts and why do I need them?
5. Using Google Analytics to track my etsy traffic: ENABLE Site Search!
6. More tagging tips for your etsy and artfire handmade items
7. Marketing : 5 basic steps to successful selling
8. Etsy sellers: Want to know what treasuries you’re in? And gift guides?
9. Etsy and Artfire item titles: Are yours configured the best way for Google?
New green and lavender etsy treasury, featuring the Starving Artist Team members.
If you click on the image, it will take you directly to the treasury list on etsy, until it expires.
BlueKimonoStudio posted this on the etsy forum. I thought her post was a good one and food for thought for jewelry designers. She provided suggestions from a buyer’s perspective when looking for artisan jewelry on etsy.
BlueKimonoStudio posted:
Since there are so many fab jewelry sellers here, I thought I’d share a recent experience as a buyer on Etsy.
I wanted a simple chain with a certain pendant for my daughter. I found hundreds of listings, but most had some problem that was a deal breaker:
• the listing didn’t tell me the size of the necklace or charm
• the listing gave me the size in millimeters. I suggest giving millimeters and inches. I did not have my metric converter handy.
• the listing used jargon including BOGO and OOAK. (today I’ve figured them out, but what if I didn’t want to do that?)
• the listing showed only close-ups of the item, and nothing like a hand, person or even a coin for scale in the photos. Even if the measurements were there, it helps sooo much to have a scale photograph, hopefully near a human body part.
•listing didn’t tell me what the materials are.
Folks, I searched through dozens of listings with problems like these. I would buy more jewelry on Etsy if I could learn what I need to know about a piece. I need to see the item in relation to something else for scale. Seriously, this is the biggest drawback for me.
I finally found my necklace after about 20 minutes of scrolling through listings.
There’s so much gorgeous jewelry here on Etsy…I hope these observations are helpful to some of you makers.
Looking for a Bead Society, or a Polymer Clay, Metal Arts, or Glassworking Guild near you? Check out this monster of a list on the Rings & Things web site. Wow!!
This is a work in progress. I’m slowly moving content from my previous Simply Shiny blog. This one will contain more personal content…..I hope.
Check back. I should have things up and running in the next week or so.
I’m working on a new ring using a triangular jasper cabochon. Isn’t it lovely? I’m a huge green fan, and this one is so gorgeous. I really like the sand like colors at the bottom of the stone. It looks like the desert doesn’t it?
I’ve got some ideas for a cool cut out back, but before I get that far, I’ve got to perform some serious sanding on the OOPS solder mess on the inside. Either I didn’t get the bezel hot enough to draw the solder to the sides, or not enough flux or not cleaned enough or something. Regardless, I’m left with some big blobs of silver solder that I need to sand out of the bottom of the setting or the stone isn’t going to fit. Any suggestions for a quick clean up?
I’m going to attempt to make a larger band on this one too. Textured for a bit of interest. (You can see another pendant I’m working on in the bottom of the pic.)
How have your holiday projects progressed? I’d love to see what you are working on…..
I’ve been lucky enough to receive a few custom orders from buyers that stumbled across my ShinyAdornments.artfire.com. I like receiving custom requests, they help me think about other designs I wouldn’t have otherwise.
Generally, I accept custom orders within the context of my existing work. If someone sees a style, but not quite the right color, or a color but not quite the right style, send me an email. I’ll discuss your ideas and we can develop the perfect piece to your specifications.
Here are two recent custom requests that are now part of my shop’s inventory:
What custom requests have you received that are now part of your shop repertoire?
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It’s December, and there are less than 20 shopping days until Christmas and even fewer until Hanukkah.
Here are some great holiday gift ideas for that special girl in your life.
Happy Holiday Shopping Everyone!
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