Happy Halloween!

May your tricks be minimal and your treats be abundant.

For you readers who like random pics posted, here's one for ya from my back deck. It's called "Mr. Pumpkin's View." He stares all day into my woods and doesn't seem to mind it. Lately, however, he's been quite bummed because those leaves they are a' fallin'.

Anyway, some store updates: A fellow Etsy member sent me a convo today to ask if I sold pendants by themselves...the answer is YES I do; I just haven't listed any yet. Look for more to come in the near future.

Also, I'm beginning to feel a little better, so I'm hoping to be able to post my first "Sharin' the Love" entry either tomorrow or Friday. The reason for the weekly feature is based on the poll I conducted regarding what would encourage readers to subscribe to a blog. I had 22 voters; each voter could vote for more than one item. As of tonight, the results are as follows:

• 12 people voted for "Tutorials (banners, avatars, photography, Photoshop, writing descriptions, etc.) "


• 8 people voted for "A monthly contest"


• 15 people voted for "Interesting, engaging, and visually attractive blog posts"

To my surprise, no one voted for "A checklist for listing Etsy items" or "A neatly formatted list of 'Etsy Best Practices,' grouped by category." I believe the reason for the low turnout on these two items is because most of the folks that visited my blog may be seasoned Etsy sellers rather than new sellers.

The upcoming feature will combine the tutorials (based on those that others have submitted [I don't want to reinvent the wheel here] or ones that I create) and the use of interesting, engaging, and visually attractive blog posts. My goal is for "Simply Wired: The Blog" to serve as a collection of resources--a "one-stop-shop" to find out what types of information is out there to assist sellers. Along the way, it will highlight some amazing Etsy members and their products.

Improving the Etsy Shop Series

Now that I've opened up my store, I'll be doing most of my changes right on my site. Today's tip was to be sure your Featured Items are ranked appropriately. This one is also finished, as I've been keeping up with my featured items as I list them. The one bit of advice I did get from it, however, is to be sure to have featured items that are in later pages of your items. This will encourage buyers to browse ALL items of your list. Great idea!

Mosaic Brooch Draft

One of my friends asked me to make her a brooch...I've never done one before, so today was the day I finally decided to finish my practice piece. I had the frame already created, but had to read up a little on the "mosaic" technique, as I really don't use it often. What it does is allow you to use a numerous selection of different sized beads to create a "mosaic" woven with wire. You weave the wire and beads around the frame, and keep moving inward until you just start randomly placing whatever piece or size will fit. My favorite part is adding little coils to the piece. Can you see 'em in there? Anyway, the one I'll be working on will be sterling silver, with red garnet and red coral beads. I think the color combo will be gorgeous! (My friend picked it out...she really has an eye for that kind of stuff.)

So, of course since this is a draft there are a few things I would have done differently. For instance, I used 28g instead of 26g wire. Mistake. It's too thin and breaks easily. I also need to be sure I incorporate even smaller beads into the design...I had nothing less than 4mm for this one, and I need to have 2-3mm beads to fill in the small gaps.

Well, that's all for now. I have to get ready for a Halloween party tonight...my costume came from Etsy! I bought these lovely little horns from AbbieRoad. Aren't they adorable? They're only about 2" high. I'm going to be some type of fairy...witchy...I dunno kinda thing. All I know is I can't wait to sport these little guys.

Black & Silver Skullies Earrings

Black & Silver Skullies Earrings
Originally uploaded by Simply Wired

Coming tomorrow to my Etsy shop, just in time for Halloween shopping!

The Smell of October

I caught it today after I walked down my driveway, returning from a quick trip to the store: October. Breathing in, the crisp air burns from the golden sunshine that rises later and sets earlier, reminding us that our summer has had its finale. If you know me, you know that I'm not really an autumn fan; I'll take spring and summer forever. But for those few weeks in October, as the leaves glow orange, red, and yellow amidst their lack of light, and pumpkin patches bear their signature fruits, I take it all in.

In my little nook of the U.S.--Western Pennsylvania--the leaves are not quite turning yet. From my deck at the back of my house, my view is covered in trees, all trying to hold on to their green while their neighbors slowly transform. Soon, they'll give in, and the view from my sliding glass window will be adorned with nothing but color. Even my birds know that fall is upon us; their numbers are dwindling, hopefully because they've discovered the birdhouses my husband and I built for them.

This morning I began the fall scrub-down of my house, which is why I'm late on posting and why I'm delayed in jewelry making. I need to get things in order on the homefront in order to let my creativity flow without interruption. Halloween will be here soon, and I'm doing a revamp of all of my decor (mostly because my house is in the process of a complete transformation). Tonight, because of my completed missions today, I was able to finish Reloj (yeah!) and get busy with Talking in Circles (see my previous post on these for details). With my camera arriving tomorrow, I hope to get things photographed, descriptions written, and open that store soon...but I'm patient. It will come. Until then, I'm going to let the chill of the air creep in when it can, let the leaves begin to color my backyard, and get ready for All Hallow's Eve. All is good.

Look how the sun has painted the trees
All these colors never known to them
Colors never known to their leaves
I'd like to sing like that
--Chris Pureka, "Compass Rose"

It's Coming Along...Slowly

I'm making some progress on Reloj. But it's coming along slowly. Way too slow for me, but I guess I'll have to live with it. I have the most recent version posted here; you can check my Flickr page for additional views.

Notice from the last photo that I took the tusks out...they just wouldn't work right for me. Plus, I couldn't get the wraps exactly the way I wanted them, so I figure I'll save them for something else. My collection of beads will always have room for them! I also plan to restring the amber strand...it's a little too long right now.

Finally, I'm going to make some coiled beaded jump rings to connect the three strands together on the sides. It will add some more wire to the piece, balancing out the large amount of beads I have in the strands.

In other news, I bought a rock tumbler this week, and it arrived today. I opened the box and it smells like it came straight from the factory. Not that this is a bad thing, but you can tell it's made in some huge machine shop from the smell.

I figured I'd be able to throw my earrings in there today (see 'em all? Aren't they cute? And there's even some Halloween-themed ones in there, just in time for the season), and have them ready to put in my Etsy shop on Monday. No such luck. It turns out you have to do an initial run of the tumbler, and you also need stainless steel jewelry shot. My supplier gave me the polishing grit for rocks/gems, but I failed to do my homework in this area. So, it's ordered and on its way. Hopefully I can use it this week. The other funny thing I noticed about the directions is that it calls the water, polishing grit, and other materials inside the barrel a "slurry." I think this is a nice word for "sludge." This should be interesting. And oh yeah, the tumbler is from Chicago Electric. From the reviews I read, it's a decent tumbler to start out with (mine holds 3 lbs and was about $50, with shipping). The only problem is that the belts come off a lot, but luckily my supplier sent an extra one, which I thought was nice. Anyway, more updates to come soon, hopefully one of them being a "Finally, I'm Open" announcement.

Wire rocks,

Chelsea