Cocktails, Anyone?

This weekend's fun project involved playing with some copper, some solder, and these delicious pink candy "jade" beads. Yummy.

Available in my Etsy shop, it's called Cosmopolitan (I couldn't resist making the reference based on the color). I purchased the beads because of a custom request; in the end, the customer decided she didn't want them after all, but I loved their dainty, playful color so I got 'em anyway!

The Weekend Story

I'm very excited for this weekend; mainly because I have no responsibilities whatsoever with the exception of being creative. I'm about to get started, but I wanted to give the blog a little love before I head on down to the basement and fire up the torch.

I began last night...catching up on a wedding order, and working on two new focal pieces for some necklaces that I have in mind. I hope to get them to the point where I can post some pics later today or tomorrow; I'm pretty pumped up about all of them. I also need to fill some orders for rings this weekend; including Stepping Stones and Delicate.

The previous evening's jewelry making activities, however, bring me to my story for today...the other dog in my yard. Last night while I was soldering my pieces together, I heard my dogs--Betza and Gus (two St. Bernards)--flipping out in the kitchen. About a week ago, we had a bear visit us three times, so I figured the big guy was back. I went upstairs and found that the screen door was wide open, which I then realized my dogs had learned a new trick--how to open it themselves. Needless to say, I was a bit worried.

So, I went to the door and started calling for them, expecting to see a giant furry big guy walking on all fours, but instead I saw this halogen light coming from another four-legged creature who was definitely not bear-sized. He wasn't even St. Bernard-sized. I grabbed my Petzl headlamp and went outside in the dark, only partially nervous at this point. It turns out that the light was being worn by a Black and Tan Coonhound puppy named Samurai. What a cutie he was! My dogs liked him, too...but he had all of this equipment on and I was scared that during playtime with the big pups that it would get ripped off or hurt one of them. So, I sent my kids inside to their dismay.

I then called the phone number on Samurai's collar, and about ten minutes later, his owners showed up. It turns out that "Sam" the Coonhound was being trained to hunt raccoons, and this training was happening very near my back yard. The owner thanked me for not getting upset about Sam, and I got to meet their two other dogs, each of which were apparently avid raccoon hunters as well. I said my goodbyes and then I felt bad because I'm such a sap for dogs (and animals in general). In my opinion, I don't think Sam liked doing the job for which he was being trained for. He seemed a bit timid, and when I went inside to wash my hands, they were FILTHY from petting little Sam while I waited for his owners to arrive. This leads me to believe that he's just being groomed for hunting rather than being taken in as a family pet. I really hope that's not the case and that I'm 100% wrong. I know the purpose for hounds is hunting, but if I had one, you better believe he'd be squeaky clean. I'd also treat him like one of my kids, similar to how I treat Betza and Gus. Yes, as mentioned, I am a sap for animals. And that's fine with me.

Treasury West

I love Etsy's Treasury West, because on many occasions you can actually score a Treasury. This is mine, titled LILACS in the DIRT (click on the image to view a larger version). Notice how my gal marybird is getting many a click. I hope it finds you a sale, Mary!

Back in the Studio: Stackable Rings are Here!

Well, as mentioned, last week I was out of the shop because I had to go on another trip. This weekend I was able to fulfill some orders, as well as work on those stackable rings that I posted here a few weeks back.

Finally...they're done! They're called Stepping Stones, and they'll be listed in my Etsy shop sometime today (as soon as I get some time to sit down and write a clever little description!). I'll be offering these on a made-to-order basis, and I also plan to give my customers the flexibility to order three, four, or five rings. A basic design, really: 16g wire is soldered together to form the ring, and then a fine silver ball is also soldered to the ring. The fun part is flattening and texturing each ring with a chasing hammer. Even more fun is adding them to the tumbler and pulling them out after they're all shiny and sudsy from burnishing compound. Wheeeeee!

I'm sitting here right now looking at the set that I'm wearing on my pinky...the sparkle is fantastic! These ones are going to my little sister, as it was her birthday yesterday. Happy birthday sis!

Fun Little Earrings

So, I had a customer from Bahrain (yeah, Bahrain!) contact me about doing a custom order...a simple, classic style of earrings that includes hoops and small, dangling beads. Here they are! I call them Juice, and they're available in my shop. I really like how they turned out--the design is simple enough, but there's some flexibility there, too--you can change the beads on the earrings! As I get more made, I'll probably offer some sets that incorporate different types of beads, allowing my customers to choose their own design depending on the day, week, month, or mood. Fun stuff.

Wanna know how to make 'em? I followed the general guidelines that Sharilyn Miller provides in her book, Bead on a Wire. Enjoy!

New Materials; Old Favorites

First off, sorry for the delay. I have another deliverable for work next week so I've been working my butt off trying to get it wrapped up and finished. In other news, I had to rephotograph two of my best selling items recently, because the type of bead I used for them is no longer available. One of the products is shown here, my Santa Fe Teardrops earrings (available in my Etsy shop); the other is my Santa Fe Red Teardrops (also available in my shop). If you look closely, you'll notice the teardrop bead is flat rather than round. It's also a little more blue in color. Not big differences, but differences, nonetheless.

I have quite a few custom orders going on as well:

• A Reloj variation
• An Ocean Storm variation
• A set of stackable rings (sorry, not available yet, but soon I promise!)
• One plain hammered ring
• A pair of sterling silver hoops that have interchangeable beads (really fun to make!)
  

I'm happy to take requests! One of my favorite parts about custom orders is that the customer can give me an idea of what they want, and then I just go with it. It really helps spark creativity. If you're in a slump, I highly recommend going out and marketing the fact that you do custom work. You'll thank yourself for it, trust me.

In other news, I'm out of the studio all next week; another trip for work. I'll be fulfilling orders upon my return...4/19/08. If you don't hear from me until then, don't worry, I'm still around, and hope to be back working with much wire and metal upon my return. I also hope to do another giveaway beginning this month, which will probably trickle into early May. I'm considering a ring instead of earrings (that I would make for the winner, to fit her size). Which would you prefer, dear readers?

Photography Tips: Sterling Silver on White

For the longest time, I had a terrible time with my camera while trying to photograph sterling silver on a white background. After some research and some reading on a few web sites, including CameraJim's Guide and TableTopStudio, I'm starting to figure it out.

Two key things needed to happen:

• I needed to move one of my lights from the top of my lightbox to the front of it. Previously, I had a total of three lights, one on each side, and one on top. I moved the one from the top to the front, without diffusing it. For right now it seems to be working, and the ugly dark gray shadow that was all over the bottom of the photo seems to have virtually disappeared.
• I needed to add a piece of black paper inside the light box to cast a reflection on the silver; doing so enabled the silver to stand out more against the light background.

Of course, a little bit of Levels editing is done with Photoshop, but this new setup has made it sooooo much easier. Some pics are provided below. I'm starting to really, really love my camera!

Expanding the "Warmth" Series

So, if you're familiar with my shop, then you know about my Warmth Earrings. For a while now, I've been holding on to a few different variations of them, and finally decided to start listing them this weekend.

These are Warmth in Turquoise, and I'm pleased with their results. The turquoise against the copper brings out a nice, complementary mix. In addition, with the rising cost of sterling silver, I can offer these to my customers at a pleasant price. In the next few days, I'll also be listing the same style made with amber and ocean jasper.

I also finally got to work on some more metalsmithing techniques yesterday...the project: stackable rings. I love how you can make them all thin and delicate and hammered out, with lovely little sterling beads as accents. My first set turned out acceptable, but not "sell-able." I put too much solder in between the joint, so it gave a messy little bump, and I forgot that when you wrap thick wire and then hammer it, it expands by at least two sizes. I'm making practice sets for all of my friends, so once I'm done with those I should have the technique perfected by then. My goal is to have the first set for sale this week.

I'd like to give my customers options...I was of thinking offering them in groups of three, four, and five. Your thoughts are appreciated--tell me what YOUR favorite number of stackable rings would be!

Sponsor Spotlight & Promo Tactics

So, that lovely little blog, Modish, has advertising opportunities where you can buy a spot for an ad as well as be included in the Modish Sponsor Spotlight. The wonderful Jena put up the Sponsor Spotlight: Simply Wired today. I like how she went with the pink theme! I've been loving that color lately. I'm hoping it will drive some traffic to my Etsy storefront.

In other news, have you heard about Indiepublic? I was sad to hear that it is for sale, but I hope a wonderful buyer will snag it up! I have an ad on their site, too--at a pretty reasonable rate, to boot.

That brings me to a recent discussion on Etsy about marketing/promoting/advertising, posted by littleputbooks. She asked about the "free" promotion activities that we all participate in, and whether or not they're worth it...and whether or not we're all chasing our tails. I have to say that when I first started hanging out in the Etsy community back in June, I hung out a LOT in the Forums. And I mean a LOT. And then when I set up my shop in October I STILL hung out in the Forums, and then I joined things like Indiepublic, Everything Skwiggle, and Talent Database. I already had my Flickr account set up, so I hung out there quite a bit as well. I also set up Simply Wired Custom Jewelry: The Blog. It was quite a bit of work, but I didn't mind.

Then I started realizing that I'd need to back off a little bit for several reasons:

1. I wasn't creating enough. Too much of my focus was being spent on marketing.


2. I think I really was running around in circles and chasing my tail.


3. When the holidays came I was really busy filling orders, and I realized that it was much more fun than doing all of these promotional activities.

My solution was to change my marketing plan and determine what activities to focus on. Aside from shifting focus to creating more inventory and working on metalsmithing techniques, I've narrowed my marketing plan down to the following:

1. Relist often. Very often. With the amount of new sellers, as well as how saturated the jewelry category is, I've found I can afford to relist about 6-10 times a day.


2. Keep the blog. I like to write, and I like to read other blogs.


3. Keep my Flickr account. I like to post pictures and I like to look at other people's work. What's nice about Flickr is that you're not really allowed to blatantly promote, so it kinda keeps the community focused on giving feedback to others without saying "look at me!! look at me!!" I dig it.


4. Continue to be a volunteer for The Etsy Mini Blog. It's a beautiful site that promotes Etsy sellers and their products, all conveniently placed in one location. It's like a high-end shopping guide! And yes, I'll plug it here--it's free to join, and yes, it's free promotion for your shop. So, go there now and join--it's fast and easy.


5. Use paid advertising if the budget allows. I use Project Wonderful and I've paid for spots on Modish as well as Indiepublic. I will probably rotate the sites I choose to place my ads on, but the effort is low and it does increase traffic.

So what will become of this new plan? I don't know...but does anyone? For every single seller there will always be a different strategy depending on your product, your market, and of course--your budget. My sales haven't been through the roof, but my views have increased significantly. I have also been featured in a Treasury at least once a week for the past couple of months, which is very flattering (thank you, beautiful Etsy Treasury Curators!), and Paint It Pomegranate made it to the front page. Wheeeeeeee!

Looking forward, I'm excited to be creating more than sitting in front of my computer. I'm interested in re-examining my goals and seeing where I am versus where I thought I'd be at this point. We shall see...

Giveaway Winner!

A real quick post for those who participated in my Springtime Giveaway...the winner is Bebemiqui! Bebemiqui keeps a lovely little blog over at http://bebemiqui.blogspot.com/, go ahead and give her a visit!

Thanks to all of you for participating; stay tuned for another one coming in the next month or so. These are so much fun to do!