Recommended Etsy Sellers

Some other awesome Etsy Sellers I have bought from recently and love. Ok, all sellers I have dealt with have been awesome, but these have really gone above and beyond:

For Perfumes and scents:
thescentdiva

For Stamps and Stamping:
sugarskull7
RobertoSand

For Knitted goodness:
FeltedFinery
brokenhallelujah
crochetroo
suncreationsemporium
sandyssundries
dorkdesigns

For Body Works:
brikeney

For Pottery:

JeffGuerrero

brookhousepottery

redhotpottery

For awesome hawaiian Shirts:
curiouscatclothing

For help with banners, logos, ad boxes, or whatever from the most patient person EVER:
Thompsondesigns

For jewelry (but only after you check out ME, lol)
Finestra
georgiedesigns

And for Absolutely beyond lovely trees:
byapryl

I am SURE I have forgotten some of the other wonderful sellers I have dealt with. Etsy is really the place to be and to shop for handmade, vintage, and supplies. You will not go wrong with any of these sellers, so check them out!.

Absolute Wonderfulness! Etsy Seller: Maylee's Garden

I absolutely must gush about an etsy seller I just received a bunch of bath and body products from. First, let me preface this gush with the stateent that I have ALWAYS gotten excellent customer serveice and excellent products from sellers on Etsy. I will even list some more of my favorites after this post, since I LOVE Etsy so much. But this woman is just awesomeness, so I have to gush.

Libby at Maylee's Garden

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5841305

I ordered some bath salts from Libby. I asked her for a custom, since she doesn't list them, but they are awesome if you can convince her to make you some. I felt sooo smooth and refreshed taking a bath with her lavendar salts. Yummy.

I also go some pink sugar bath salts and soap. Well, i finally broke into them this evening. I was feeling cruddy as I fight a sinus infection, so I poured my bath salts in and grabbed my new soap, and climbed on it. And all I can say is WOW! The whole bathroom smelled like cotton candy (which I LOVE) from a little teaspoon of salts, and the soap smelled soo wonderful. It left my skin smooth and fresh, and no residue-y feeling!

Also, in the bottom of my box, Libby threw in a few surprises. I got a small sample of another awesome smelling soap, and a few washes worth of her own handmade laundry detergent. All I can say is wow.

Please, check her site out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5841305 (in case you missed it the first time)

Organization

Organization is not my forte. I have the stereotypical "creative person" home and workspace. I am lucky I have gotten it to presentable. However, with all of the longer hours I have been putting into my work, I have really been finding the "bin" method of organizing my beads, findings, and wire to be, well, extremely inefficient. I hate having to dig through bins to find a string of beads. It's great when I want to be "inspired". I pull out 5 random strings of beads, and jsut go form there. Bue, when I have a specific idea, finding that one string I am looking for takes forever! So now, i have spent two days organizing, and there is still so much to do! Gah!

I did pull out a bunch of strings that inspired me, though, so maybe tomorrow after my appointments, I will take some pictures of the things I did in-between the organizing. New wire wrapping designs and some hearts for the holidays. wahoo!!

Craft Shows

I have never done a craft show. I have all of the "how to do a craft show" books, but I have never actually gotten up the nerve to apply and try to do one. That is about to change.

This year, there is a craft show that is being held by a big promoter in this area, and it is LESS THAN A MILE FROM MY HOUSE! If I can get in, how much easier could that be? I would be close to home, so if I forgot anything or screwed anything up, I could just call my husband or my uncle (who lives a mile away and is an engineer) to help me or bring me something I forgot.

So, I am biting the bullet. I am clearing out a space in my attic to set up my 3-year-old 10x10 tent for the first time ever. I am finding tables, and I bought display pieces. I am sewing up table cloths. I am taking picture after picture to try to get good pieces for the jury. I am debating paying a professional, even.

It's an exciting and scary time. Wish me luck!

Working on the Website

So, I have a free-standing website along with my etsy store. Up until recently, it has really been more if a "new age" type of store with a few jewelry pieces, and some other stuff. Not much. realy, I guess the site was more of a place holder than anything else.

But, now it is a real online store (Albeit an empty one). I got a great logo from Renee Thompson at Thompson Designs on etsy, and I incorporated it into my whole site. I think it looks really professional, and I can't wait to get a bunch of my creations up and onto the site.

You can check it out at:

http://www.coquiainjelfire.com

I am hoping that by March, it will be full of beautiful Jewelry. My goal is a minimum of 100 pieces I can be proud of on each site (Etsy, and Coqui). That is 200 beautiful pieces to choose from! Right now, I am at 89 and 2, though I have about 30 pictures waiting to be taken. So, lots of work to do!! Yay!

Huh?

I've been re-taking photos, editing, and renewing old listings along with making , photographing, and listing new items. However, I've been noticing a trend:

For every 10 pictures of "pre-listed" items I take, I am finding one item that is in the "listed" bin that hasn't actually made it online. How did this happen? I know I tend to be messy, but I am usually on top of things like this.

Ah well, more things to list and less things to edit. I guess it's a blessing in disguise. Or, at least, that's how I am choosing to look at it.

Valentine's Day Hearts!!

Gorgeous Pink Celtic Heart Keychain
For that woman in your life who just doesn't wear that much jewelry. I love this keychain. It's a good thing I have a keychain I love, otherwise, this one would never have gone on sale. It's so hard to list things sometimes, since I purposely make things I love!

Tangerine Hearts Earrings and Pendant Set

I love this earring design! Every once in a while, I come up with something amazing. Like my purple leaves set, this is a gorgeous copper swirl earring and pendant set. I love that this is enameled copper, so no worries about metal allergies, and I figured out how to best utilise my front-to-back drilled beads! Gorgeous!

More heart stuff soon! I have been focusing too much on my new pendants!

Delving into New Arenas....

So, I am in the process of filling out applications for my first craft shows. It's scary. One show is juried. Even scarier. Can my jewelry hold its own in a jury selecion? How about my photography? Should I hire someone? It's all so overwhelming. fortunately, it DOES look like all of my business paperwork is in order.

On a good note, I am finally figuring out my photo editor. better pictures! Yay!

And, I designed a new pendant that I love! Wahoo! Pics and listings later. Still trying to edit the pictures I took, and get those things listed.

Exciting times.

New Stuff!!

Purple Copper Swirls Earrings and Pendant Set!
How pretty is this little set? The pictures really don't do it justice. I made myself a pair of these earrings using some green leaves similar to these purple ones. Soooo pretty. The pendant is too little for me to wear (darn my huge shoulders), but would be perfect for a delicate person!


New Onyx and Copper Cuff bracelet!
Isn't this gorgeous!! I am so excited about it! The only reason this is for sale is it's just a little bit too small for my enormous wrists!

Blue Water Dragon Keychain

This Keychain is great! I love this dragon charm! On a nice heavy-duty keychain. Nothing flimsy about this piece! So great, and just in time for Valentine's day!

More as soon as I edit the pics!! Yay!

Taking pictures....

Taking pictures so they showcase my work has got to be the part I dislike the most about selling online. I could spend all day every day creating new and interesting pieces of jewelry. But takin ggood pictures of them? Gah!!

My son was home sick from school today, and every time I tried tot ake a picture, he chose that time to run into the room and "need" something. Even when I thought he was sleeping or watching a movie. I never got the FIRST thing I was photographing pictured.

Thank goodness his cough is finished. Now I shoudl be able to get some pictures of the new stuff I finished and get it listed.

Here's some coming attractions:

Onyx and Copper bead wrapped Cuff bracelet (A new favorite)
New design leaf and heart copper long hook earrings
All new design: bead-on-a-wire pendants
and so much more!!

I'll do my best to get lots of pictures up tomorrow after I get home from the post office!!

My house is insane.....

I'll bet you didn't know that a bin full of legos when dropped over the second story balcony onto a wire tree, both shatters the gemstone beads on the tree AND sends legos all over the house. AND it can be done in the 10 minutes that Mommy is in the bathroom and Daddy is taking the recycling out.....

I bet you don't know WHY they did it any better than I do, either.......

Of course, I just sold the piece five minutes before I went to remove it from Etsy.....bleh.

Like I said, Murphy's law rules here.

Getting things done...Not an easy thing to do!

As I've focused more and more on this business being a "BUSINESS",a sopposed top a hobby, I have found out some interesting things. First and foremost: Murphy's Law rules at my house. Anytime anything NEEDS to get done, that's when something catastrophic is going to happen to keep it from happening. NEED to get to the post office? No worries, the sky will dump 6 inches of snow instead of the predicted dusting. NEED to finish that highly intricate ring before the post office closes, so it can go out TODAY? How man times do you think you'll screw it up? This works for the husband (HHBG), and myself.

As one of my resolutions going into this new year was to get something done EVERY DAY, I have found myself making a number of "assembled" items. Some days, it's 5 minutes before I collapse of exhaustion, and I am putting together a keychain and wondering where my day went. Yet, other days, I somehow find the time to spend 2 hours making a tree or wrapping up an intricate ring. I wonder why this is?

One thing I HAVE found is, as I have found myself short on time, I am getting quicker at things that I apparently just needed practice on. Like making wire wrapped bead links (Or whatever they're officially called). The first time I made my own "chain" of beads all on their own little wire wrapped link, it took me HOURS! Literally. It was almost 4 hours start to finish to make one necklace. I finished and sat there wondering HOW people do it. FOUR HOURS!!

The next time I made a "chain", it only took me three hours. That's a 25% reduction in time. Sweet. Now this last time I worked on links, I didn't make a whole necklace chain, I did some single bead earrings and a keychain. All told, it was 7 bead-links. I did everything in about 20 minutes! Wahoo! I wasn't rushing, and they look just as good as the ones that took forever.

Check the new things out!!

I think they look pretty darn good! It's pretty hard to sell the froggie pieces. I love me some frogs. I named my alter ego and jewelry making self after frogs! I even have frog cabinet and drawer pulls in my kitchen.

Ok, enough crazy non-linear posting. Enjoy, and seeya soon!!

Pricing

Ah, yet again that old demon pops up. I was highly frustrated last night when I went to check on my views and noticed how many views I am getting, yet I can't seem to make a sale. I ended up asking about it in the etsy forums. I was thinking my pictures still sucked (they are still too dark), my taste is bad, my shipping too high. What I was NOT expecting was : "Your prices are way too low".

People said that my prices made them wonder if there was something wrong with what I was selling that I was trying to hide! I was so surprised. My husband thinks much of my stuff is overpriced, so I usually price at a happy medium.

So, I am doing an experiment. I marked almost everything in my shop about 10% higher than usual (Some things on the high end, I just left alone). Let's see if it helps sales. I know it's a rough time of year, and the jewelry market is saturated, but it's worth a shot.

Well, off to try that ring pattern I screwed up 6 times yesterday again!

New awesome items!

Oh man! I am loving this new camera! I have been so inspired to work and list! No more concerns that, no matter how gorgeous something is, it will look like poop. Wahoo! Gee....can you tell I'm excited?

So, what have I done recently? WELL!

I have some really adorable new rings! Check out the new wrapped bead ring:

Is that not the most adorable thing ever?? I made a whole bunch of rings out of different polymer clay flower beads! They're sooooo cute! I feel like I have a garden on my finger when I am wearing them. So much fin, and they are SO light!

I also made another one of my trees! This time, I tried out gemstone chips instead of my regular round beads. Tell me what you think:

I love how the tree looks like it's bending over from the weight of the leaves! I am depating whether or not to hang a charm from the side spiral. maybe a sun or a moon.....or an apple. I'm going back and forth with myself.

I also have some new fun earrings, a new bookmark I had to convince myself to sell, a few pendants, some new gemstone rings, and so much more!! Go check it out!

Nasty weather

The absolutely horrendous weather is messing with my mind! I have a bundle of new items I want to get listed, and all kinds of things I need to take new pictures of, but the weather has been so bad, I can't get any decent pictures! GAH!! It's so dark, I have had the lights on all day while I worked, and I have huge picture windows. Bleh.

I literally have a pile of 15 new things just waiting to be photographed and listed....

Maybe it's time to try making a light box again....

What a Difference!

Wow. I never would have believed it, but what a difference a new camera and picture editing software can make! my store looks so different, and so much better! I am so excited!

Ok, off to keep creating!

New Look!

I am completetly revamping the look of my etsy site. I took a bunch of pictures today in natural indirect lighting, and spent HOURS editing the photos, cropping, and moving. I listed a few of the items today after I changed all of my sections and I am about to change my announcement.

So, now I have 6 Sections:

ArtfullyArranged Accessories: This is the accessories I made by basically assembling commercial beads and charms together with findings to "create" something.

ArtfullyArranged Jewelry: same premise as above, but jewelry. This is where my charm earrigns now can be found, along with my charm and single bead items.

Bead on a Wire: This is mostly single focal gemstones with simple wire wrapping and a sophisticated look.

BeautifullyBeadedNStrung: This is all the beaded jewelry I make. Mostly necklaces strung on accuflex.

WireWrapped Jewelry: this is my fancier wire wrapped jewelry. My trees, wrapped rings, gemstone pendants, etc.

I am excited to keep updating the look and to see where it goes from here!

New Creations!

Ok, I still have to work on my picture taking!! This is rough. I tried a hand-made light box, but to my dismay, it stinks. I need to read the manual for my camera. Jewelry is fun. Taking pictures is hard and frustrating.

I am in the process of downloading a photo editor, but here are some rough pictures of my recent creations, soon to be available in my etsy store!

This is a beautiful bracelet made from some resin foiled beads and soem gold plate beads and spacers.

This ring is interesting. It's the first one like this I ever made. I think it came out cool. a huge howlite stone wrapped in copper wire. This brings a whole new definition to "big ring"!

This is a fun yet simple little Quartz nugget pendant. I wish I could figure out how to fix this stuff. Gah. Pictures!!

If I could crop this picture, you's be able to see this gorgeous blue lace agate ring better. This was actually a HUGE mistake that I salvaged, adn I think came out really well.

I have about 5 other items, but they don't even have a single salvageable photo! gah! It's so cold outside, but I think I will brave the cold tomorrow and take a billion more pictures. But here's an idea of what I have been working on.

New Toys!!

I just got my shipment from Fire Mountain Gems! I am so excited!! I love the random grab-bags and surprise gems and focal pieces!! Now to convince myself to let things go!

I DID make something today. It was just a little ring, and my little girl claimed it. Figures. I also finished somethign that has been waiting to be finished until I got my shipment, so hypothetically, I could say I did two things today. pretty cool.

Pictures tomorrow!! Wahoo!