Sunday, December 2, 2007

The Sugared Plum Boutique

Come to another fun holiday show and find the perfect gift for everyone on your list! The Sugared Plum Holiday Boutique will take place in Herriman, Utah on Dec. 14-15, 2007. I will have a booth there selling my books and jewelry. There will also be many other great Utah artisans selling their handmade goods. Check out the details and see who's participating by visiting the Sugared Plum blog.

Holiday Goodness Giveaway

Learn how you can win a $20 gift certificate from Becky Sharp Designs! If you have a blog, you can enter. Find out how on my friend Ann's blog right HERE.

I would also like to report that the Holiday Open House in Salt Lake City at Central Book Exchange was a success! Many women came and loved my jewelry! They purchased some for themselves and as gifts for others. I received many comments about how perfect the jewelry is for people that are normally hard to buy gifts for. I even sold two of my hand-bound books. Overall, I am very pleased. Thanks for everyone's support!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Holiday Open House

Any woman who loves books and jewelry and who is going to be in the Salt Lake City area this Friday, November 30th, is invited to a Holiday Open House at my sister's book store. The store is called Central Book Exchange, located in Sugar House on 1100 E across the street from The Soup Kitchen. The open house is a "girl's night out" to eat, mingle and shop for great holiday gifts, including all of the books at the store, and featuring stained glass jewelry by me! It will go from 7-10 pm and it will be a lot of fun. So come see us on Friday night!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

First Sale on Etsy!

Yeah! I finally made a sale on Etsy, a necklace and a book! I am so excited to break through the newbie barrier. Maybe now people won't be so hesitant to buy from me. It really is wonderful to be picked out of the endless sea of merchants on Etsy, where there is SO much to choose from, and so much competition. The day got even better when I made a sale on my main website, also: two necklaces that were new listings. I just love it when people like something that I've created. It makes me even happier when those people then wear the jewelry proudly, or use the book for something important. I never thought this could be so fulfilling! Thanks for listening to my happy ramblings!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Website Updates

My 25% off sale is now 30% off! And I've added an awesome new feature to my website: Design-a-Pendant. Check it out!

Monday, October 22, 2007

New Sale

I've gone ahead and discounted all of my plain glass pendants, necklaces and earrings. Pretty much all of my original items are now 25% off. The sale doesn't include anything I've added to the website this month, such as wire & glass jewelry. It also doesn't include books, chains, or gift certificates. The point of this sale is to move out some of the older inventory to make room for new designs. So take advantage of it while it lasts! Thanks!

Update on Etsy

Well, I've had several items listed on etsy for a week now, and no sales. I think my prices might be too high for that market...there is SO much competition on that forum. You almost have to post something new every day so that people will see your shop, and have low prices as well. So, I did a bit of research on other etsy shops similar to mine. I ended up having to lower my prices just a tad and lower my shipping prices also.

Feel free to get in on the bargains at www.beckysharpdesigns.etsy.com. It might help to have someone buy something there anyway, so I can get some feedback as a seller on etsy. People might be hesitant to buy from me, being a new seller with no sales and no rating. I appreciate everyone's support.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Etsy.com

I've listed a few of my items on Etsy.com, which is a HUGE hand-crafted sellers' market. I'm trying to get my name out to a wider audience...even international! Hopefully, this will help. I have to pay a small fee for every item listed, and when it sells, so my prices are a bit higher than on my main website. So please continue to purchase directly from beckysharpdesigns.com since you already know about it.

Mainly, I've written slightly more detailed descriptions of my products on Etsy, so check it out if you feel like it: www.beckysharpdesigns.etsy.com

There's also tons of other cool handmade items on Etsy, pretty much anything you can imagine, made by people all over the world. Another great reason to check it out.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Success!

I have solved my attribute picture problem! It was an accident how I stumbled on to the solution, and it's backwards from the way the program is supposed to add images, but it works nonetheless. So now I have little pictures of each chain style on each product info page. I am SO excited, as I have been frustrated by this bug in the program for two months now. Detailed pictures of each chain style can still be viewed by clicking the "View Chain Styles Here" link found at the top and side of every page.

More Sales to Come

The weekend sale went very well. I had a lot of help from friends and family who were spreading the word about the sale and my website! So thanks everyone! I had a lot of hits on the site this weekend, which means people were looking. That's a start.

I plan on moving a lot of my older inventory into the "Specials" section very soon, so be on the look out! I'm developing a new line of jewelry that I think will be a beautiful addition to the products already listed. There will be more wire wrapped glass and a lot of wire overlays and filigree. The level of intricacy and craftsmanship will be vastly improved. I will also be adding different finishes to the solder, such as copper, black, and antiqued. I am constantly learning new techniques and trying to improve the quality and uniqueness of everything I make. So out with the old, in with the new!

In addition, I will be offering leather cords and new chain styles. And if I can ever figure out how to fix the bug in Zen Cart and add images to my product attributes, I will create a design your own pendant page. Customers will be able to select the shape, size, and glass color of their very own custom pendant. Wish me luck on that one...I can't seem to get an answer from anyone at Zen Cart about my image problem.

So keep checking the website for new additions. I plan on getting the first new things on the site by the end of this week. Thanks again for your support!

Friday, October 5, 2007

Desktop Images by Sharp Photography

I've been working hard to learn HTML. It might as well be Greek. It is however becoming easier and easier the more I do it...like anything I suppose. But I have a sneaking suspicion that I've barely scratched the surface of web design. I know basic page layout, text formatting, image insertion and linking pages. When I successfully linked my first page I felt like I had performed some amazing feat...I was extremely proud of myself! Then a couple days later I realized that what I had done wasn't all that profound. In fact, it's pretty basic. Oh well, at least I had a moment when I felt like a web designing genius.

So, to practice my new skills, I've added a link to a page of free desktop images; photos taken by my husband and myself (aka Sharp Photography.) We took macro photos of the flower beds that I slaved over all summer long. I personally think they are the most gorgeous flowers ever, but that's my opinion. I've edited all the images to several different screen resolution sizes; hopefully you can find yours. I'm providing them to you because I love to share photography, and I wanted an excuse to design more web pages. So enjoy, and wish me luck on this whole HTML thing.

The link can be accessed from the Becky Sharp Designs homepage, the sidebar of this blog, or right here. Happy downloading. :-)

Saturday, September 29, 2007

What is Art?

I'm not really going to answer that question. I already wrote a paper about it in college, and I think I exasperated the subject. Anyway, is there really an answer to that question? Let me know if you have any ideas.

I'm not really sure what this blog is for, other than to ramble on aimlessly about what I'm doing to produce art these days. I finally discovered my passion in stained glass and bookbinding. Now the trick is to actually make money doing it.

That's it for now...later I will post pictures of new projects, ideas, etc. In the mean time, I'll try my best to keep the motivation alive.