Slow, slow, slow...

Do you ever have those days where you ask yourself: "Why is it that I am doing this again???" I'm talking about this whole jewelry business thing. Don't misunderstand; I LOVE what I do. I'm not planning on stopping any time soon! But some days (or weeks) are harder than others.

Recently the economy has been going down the toilet, as most of you already know. But I told myself I wouldn't give up. I've continued to work as if nothing is different. I have made several new pendants and have daily updated Etsy, 1000Markets, and my main website. Granted, there's always more that I could be doing. I'm not too savvy when it comes to marketing. I really do the bare minimum: Facebook, Twitter, my blog, etc. BUT, it seems like I have not been making my normal amount of sales each month. At first I thought, maybe people are just being cautious, and not spending money. But as I scan other shops, I see sales everywhere!

Ok, I should stop the pity party. I have to confess that right before I planned on writing this post, I got a sale from my Etsy shop. Yippie! It had been almost three weeks since my last one. That is quite a dry spell for me, especially with how much listing I have been doing this month. At least I know the buyers are still out there.

So, I will keep plugging along, because that is what you have to do in a business. Someday I will discover the secret to successful online selling. It could be that I just don't have adequate time or energy to invest at this point in my life. I have to remind myself that it's OK. I do have two cute little boys to take care of every day. I can't spend every waking minute on the computer!

If any of you have any easy, non time consuming tips you can share, I would love you forever! In the meantime, here is my latest creation. I love, love, love these colors of glass!

Custom Design

I love to get special orders from customers. It's easy when they request a previously sold item, or if they want something in a different color. But sometimes, custom orders can be particularly challenging if the customer really doesn't know what they want. They give me a few guidelines, but ultimately tell me that I'm the artist, and to use my best judgment. I don't know why this intimidates me so much. I design things from scratch all the time without anxiety. I guess it's because if I make something on my own, and it doesn't turn out like I'd plan, I just scrap it and move on. But when there is a customer on the other end waiting for some fabulous creation, I really feel the pressure. It's good for me, though. I have to force myself to be inspired, even when there is no inspiration there.

Recently, I was asked to make a pendant (a gift for the customer's wife) using birthstone colors for three different months. One of the months also happened to be their wedding anniversary. First, I had to check the months and see if I even had glass similar to these colors. Thankfully, I lucked out there. I had three transparent colors similar to amethyst, ruby, and blue sapphire. The colors would have looked better in opaques, but the closest stained glass store is an hour away. So I used what I had. The next step was to design a pendant that would combine the three colors in an attractive way. I've done two-piece pendants before, but never three. I tend to avoid multi-pieces in general because smoothing out the solder between glass pieces is very difficult. So this was definitely a challenge.

Attempt #1



The overlapping rings were to represent the wedding anniversary. I felt like it was a clever idea, but it ended up looking too cluttered, especially with all of the uneven solder seams underneath. I could tell that I just wasn't "feeling" this pendant, because the craftsmanship wasn't quite up to par, and it didn't really represent my signature style. So I scrapped it and tried again.


Attempt #2

This second one felt more like me. The shapes are more modern, and my soldering was much smoother. I scrapped the "rings" idea altogether and just went for spirals. I decided that I shouldn't try to cram too much symbolism into one pendant. In the end, what matters is that the customer is happy, AND that it looks pretty around the recipient's neck.

Painting as therapy...

"Squares" - acrylic on canvas board

I used to paint highly detailed, labor intensive still life's and master studies in oils. This type of work usually only caused anxiety and frustration in me. I would get to a point during the painting where I wanted to throw my brushes across the room and slash a large hole in the center of the canvas. (I'm sure all of you painters out there have been there...) Nevertheless, I would always trudge through the frustration and finish the painting anyway, sometimes happy with the results, sometimes not.

Those days are over...for now, at least. Lately, when I feel like painting, I squirt a bunch of random colors out, grab my palette knife, and have fun. It's such a release for my mind to not have to think about what I'm doing. I love letting the color and texture take over. The process really does put my mind at ease. And even if I don't produce a great masterpiece, I still end up with something that's fun to look at. Which, in my opinion, is the whole point of visual art.

Bookbinding as therapy...

Ahhh, yes...I'm making books again. I took a long break from bookbinding due to my recent obsession with promoting my glass jewelry line (which I will continue to do also, btw...I know, I'm crazy). But I really need to make books for my peace of mind. There is something very therapeutic about the cutting, folding, gluing and stitching of a book. And then when you are finished, there is this amazing sense of accomplishment as you hold it in your hands, open and close the covers, and feel the smooth blank pages just waiting to be filled by someone (other than me, of course). For some reason, I don't actually want to write in my books. I do have one that I kept as a journal, though I rarely write. Shame on me...

I just needed a little inspiration to get started making books again. I happened to meet a fellow Etsian who makes the most amazing marbled paper in bright, vibrant colors. So I went ahead and bought some full sheets from her Etsy shop: PersistenGreen. These are some examples of her paper.

The very day that the paper arrived in the mail, I went to work. I already had some textblock paper cut and folded into 5x7 sections. I just had to trim the edges, cut the covers, punch some holes, glue on the marbled paper, and stitch it up with some bright orange thread. And voila! Here it is:

A Valentine Giveaway!

My friend Jess and I are in cahoots to give away this lovely necklace for Valentine's Day. Check out her blog to find out how you can enter for up to five chances to win this pendant. And receive 25% off your first order from my website just for entering the contest! Good luck!

An honest review: Selling Venues

There are some great new venues for selling hand-crafted goods online. Some are established and many more of the websites are still in the Beta phase of their design, so they are offering free sign-up, free listings, etc. It's a great opportunity to open up shops all over and get more exposure. Here's the run-down of the different selling venues I have come across, and their pros and cons (in my opinion):

1. www.ETSY.com - est. 2005, for selling handmade, vintage, and supplies
--Free to open a shop, $.20 per listing, 3.5% commission per transaction, uses Paypal (who also charges a commission)
--Pros: well established website, large customer base, very friendly and helpful forums (unlike any I have ever seen)
--Cons: very competitive - over 308,000 sellers, check-out is confusing - results in non-paying buyers
--My Etsy URL's:
-----www.shortfusejewelry.etsy.com
-----www.beckysharpdesigns.etsy.com


2. www.ARTFIRE.com - est. 2008, in Beta, for selling handmade, vintage, and supplies
--Free to open a shop, free to list, no commission (during Beta phase), optional $7/month for life account with added benefits, uses Paypal
--Pros: no risk because it's free, set up similar to Etsy (use your same shop graphics, etc.), provide shop stats through Google Analytics with verified account
--Cons: still very rough and doesn't "look" as nice as Etsy, many hiccups in site programming, for example: tagging, search engine, and shipping profiles do not work properly, many features say "coming soon", forums are pretty confusing to use
--My Artfire URL:
-----www.shortfusejewelry.artfire.com

3. www.1000Markets.com - est. 2008, in Beta, for selling hand-crafted goods
--Free to open a shop, free to list, 5.5% commission per transaction, uses Amazon payments (fee included in the 1000Markets commission)
--Pros: Juried site - only top-notch sellers allowed, beautiful platform - very streamlined site with virtually no hiccups (that I have found), more artistic and less "crafty", contains juried Markets that contain similar merchants - higher chance of being seen, shop stats provided for free
--Cons: very new site - small customer base, only uses Amazon payments which isn't as common as Paypal, and thus can't support international sellers or customers
--My 1000Markets URL:
-----www.shortfusejewelry.1000markets.com

4. www.ShopHandmade.com - est. 2008, in Beta
--Free to open a shop, free to list, no commissions (paid by sponsors during Beta phase)
--Pros: no risk because it's free, and supposedly, they save 25 sq. ft. of endangered rain forest for every item sold, other than that, I haven't found many pros on this site
--Cons: shops are awkward, strangely organized, distracting and slow java scripts, many hiccups in programming, no forums or community support, little activity on the site
--My ShopHandmade URL:
-----www.shortfusejewelry.shophandmade.com

There are other sites as well. I had a shop at Mintd (based in Australia) for a short time, but it was even more awkward and badly designed than ShopHandmade. After reading a couple of the forums there, and noticing that many threads had posts that were two months old, I discovered that the site is basically stagnant (not well-maintained or promoted), so I closed up shop.

And of course, there's eBay, but I feel that it is not the best site to respectfully sell fine art. I think e-Bay looks and feels like a flea market. So, I choose not to sell there. Although, I'll gladly buy supplies there.

I've heard of Trunkt.com, which is a juried site which is very reputable. But, they deal mainly with connecting artisans with wholesale buyers. That doesn't work too well with small time producers like me.

So, that about sums up my list of selling venues! After reviewing all of these sites, I can clearly see that besides my personal website, it would be best to promote my Etsy and 1000Markets shops. Etsy has already proven itself to me, since I have had over 100 sales in the last year. And 1000Markets has the most potential for future success as I see it. I hope this has helped any of you that are considering opening up more stores! It has certainly helped me to sort this all out in one post.

Don't drool on your keyboard...

My second treasury. I must have been really hungry when I created this theme. Did you know that people sell baked goods on Etsy!? Handmade indeed...

View it full size HERE to see ooey gooey detail. It will expire Thursday night.