BEADS!

I know, I'm supposed to be working on that whole incense thing. I am... just... very slowly.

Anyway, in other news...
I finally acted upon a desire I've had for a while now.
I've seen some amazing lampwork bead sets on Etsy and I've always thought it would be fun to incorporate them into my jewelry. It would certainly give my stuff a splash of color! And, since I don't have the space or location to do the lampworking myself (*looks wistfully and apologetically at her torch and glass collecting dust*) then I thought I'd hook up with one or more of these amazing artists and get some beads from them.

So I contacted one today and told her how much I loved her beads and what my intentions were if I purchased her beads.
I know people that make these bead sets expect the buyer to use the beads in jewelry or something. But I don't know how many of those buyers plan to sell the finished pieces like I do. So I thought I'd do the right thing and ask. Couldn't hurt, right? And at the very least, I'm complimenting someone.

I think this will give me a little kick in the pants that I need to get passionate about my jewelry again. It ebbs and flows, that passion.
Or maybe, it will just make me pine for my own torch and make me angry that I don't have a place to melt glass myself. Maybe it will give me a kick in the pants in THAT aspect of my life.

A new venture?

Okay, so that new craft I was going to attempt... mentioned it in my last blog post... remember?
Well, I bit the bullet and ordered a smattering of supplies. Smattering. What a word. It doesn't sound very pleasant. Kind of like a combination of "smelly" and "splattering". Like diarrhea. "Wow, after I ate that kung pao chicken, I experienced the worst smattering in recent times."

Okay, that's gross. I'm done digressing and I apologize for it.

Anyway, my supplies are on their way and I'm wicked excited about it! They're actually on a FedEx truck right now en route to my apartment. Any moment now, it will be delivered. Thank goodness today is a short day at work. I fully plan to go home and check out all my goodies. Maybe even make something!

It's really pathetic how eager I am for it to arrive, even though I'm not there yet to open it. Seriously, it's lunch break at work and I'm sitting here playing on the web and I've got a browser tab open to the tracking page on the FedEx site. I keep refreshing the page every now and then hoping that the status will change from "In Transit" to "Delivered". Gotta love package tracking.

So yeah, keep an eye out for another update after I've had a chance to play with everything. I really think I'm going to go ahead and do this. I've already created a banner for my future new Etsy shop. I actually think I like it more than the banner for my current Etsy shop!
But like a good business woman, I'm going to take my time researching, experimenting and perfecting before I offer anything to the public. Patience, my dearies.

Crossroads

So, I've come to crossroads with my business. Actually, it's more of a self-imposed fork... or even a branch.
It could be because I don't have time to list items and promote as much as I should, but I'm not seeing as much attention/sales in my Etsy shop as I would like to. So I've been trying to think of ways to bring more customers in.

Alright, I should explain the REAL reason. Got time?

I am at a point in my "real" job/career where I think I'm burnt out. I need a change. Long story short, I thought about buying a bakery franchise and having fun with that. And I think I would. But my boyfriend pointed out that I would have to be there EVERY DAY, even on weekends, and would I enjoy it enough to do that? So, without intending to, he basically talked me out of it.
Instead, I would like to go back to my original dream of quitting my job and just focusing on my own business. The problem is, selling jewelry doesn't get you many return customers. Don't get me wrong, I DO have repeat customers and I love them dearly and appreciate their business. But I just don't get as many as, say, a candle shop, or a seller of baked goods. My product is not "consumable". People don't buy come back for more because the first one is used up.
So I've been thinking of things that I am good at (or would be good at) making. Things I enjoy myself. Consumable things.
I am still trying to think of something jewelry related, but until I am hit with that stroke of genius, I'm considering some non-jewelry related items.
Of course, then the question becomes: Do I create a new Etsy shop for the new items or just try to sell them along with my jewelry? Because I am not looking to replace my jewelry (though, if the new stuff sells well enough, maybe I will!) and the point of it is to get customers in the shop more frequently, so perhaps I will just add the new stuff to the jewelry and if it really takes off, I can set up another store.

I'm probably going to keep the details and specifics to myself for the time being. I don't want to make it public and then end up not doing it. I'd feel like a royal ass. I guess I'm just thinking out loud here, and wondering if anyone has come across a similar situation. I'm sure there has.

Then there's another part of me that thinks I just need to list more jewelry. Add more things that I've got waiting in the wings. I just wish I had the time for that.
Of course, you could say, "Well, if you don't have time for that, then how on earth are you going to have time for this new, special, secret stuff?"
Well, so far, this new, special, secret stuff is something that can be made easily. Photographs are not key, so I don't have to wait for a day off with good lighting. So that's another positive of the new, special, secret stuff: it doesn't require as much time as my jewelry does.

Anyway, I do have plans to purchase a small quantity of supplies and materials for the creation of the new, special, secret stuff, to give it a try. So eventually there will/might/should be a blog post about the experimentation. Stay tuned!

Etsy did the right thing, the Etsy community did not.

Well, that Gift Guide button is gone. Etsy apologized and confessed it didn't think about how it might affect the influx of customers to people's shops.

Sure, I'm glad. What I'm NOT glad about is being a part of a community where some/most of its members fly off the handle so ridiculously. I know I can behave rashly on occasion, but c'mon people! That's the beauty of the internet. You can write something and take time to think about it before sending it. I bet 90% of those people would have never behaved as they did or said what they did if they were saying it in person. I guess that's the downfall of the internet as well... people say things without thinking about the actual person with feelings that's behind what they're mad at.

I wonder how it was decided to put that button on there. Was it one persons idea? I bet they call out of work the next few days. Probably feel like an ass.

Should I go there?

I'm debating on whether or not I even want to bring up the recent development of, and the volatile response to the addition of the Gift Guide button on Etsy storefronts.

But seeing as how I just did, I guess I'll just give my opinion while I'm at it.

I agree with most of the angry people. Etsy can do what they want with their site. That's the ultimate point, I guess. But they have given us our own space to list our items. We pay them to list our items. We pay them when those items sell. Seems like a fair deal.
Up until now, that space that they gave us was nice and cozy and we were allowed to do with it what we wanted. Etsy has fun coming up with guides and articles and showcases and treasuries and labs and educational stuff. They've got links to that stuff all over the place. EXCEPT on our pages.
Sure, you could get to any of those places from our pages, but it wasn't in your face, so our pages could continue to be our cozy little storefront where we did our best to greet our customers with quality, handmade items in the hopes that they would stay and browse and buy something.
But the addition of this Gift Guide button is a little bit of an intrusion. And to make it so obvious and garish just intrudes even more. All the work we did in our store (as well as the endless work we do outside of our store to get customers IN our store) is for nothing because now those customers are lured away by this glowing beacon of a button.
A poster in the forums had a good analogy. She compared it to two vendors at a craft show. She said it wouldn't be fair for one vendor to put a neon sign that advertised her booth in the other vendors booth. It would be even more unfair if the sign-placing vendor was getting paid by the other vendor to have a booth there.
So, basically, I agree with all the angry people.
Having said that, I could present the alternative and much less popular view:
It's Etsy's site. They can do with it what they want. We only pay them for two things: 1)the ability to list an item for sale. 2) The code for the checkout process.

We don't pay them for all the nice little conveniences they create for us to make listing our item easier. We don't pay them for all the work they do behind the scenes creating things that they think will bring buyers to the site. I would go so far as to say that we don't even really pay them for the page that we call our store. We just pay them for the space it takes to show the item listing itself. Everything around that (the sections, the hearts counter, the feedback system, the conversation system, our profile, our policies, our favorites, the banners and avatars, featured items, vacation mode, batch sorting and shipping, forums and chat, etc.) is extra. Our $0.20 is for the listing only. The 3.5% of the sale price is for the checkout process.
If they really wanted us to be able to completely customize our store appearance, then they'd make it like Blogspot and make every aspect of it customizeable. But they don't. Everyone's shop looks the same. Why?

It's our ITEMS that are meant to attract the customer.
Not a customizeable layout. Not a colorful background that we made ourselves. Not embedded music or a news feed.
This is not Facebook. This is not Twitter. This is not MySpace. This is not Blogspot.
This is Etsy. It's where people come to buy our handmade items, not the "handmade" website on which they're sold.
If our items can't keep the attention of our customer and prevent them from straying off to that orange button in the upper corner, then there's something wrong with our items.

So for all those people that are boycotting Etsy, and refusing to list or relist or renew items because they don't want to give Etsy any money until they remove that Gift Guides button because they say it's ruining their sales, I have some advice.
You'd likely have a better case if you continued as you normally would. Because if that Gift Guides button truly does negatively affect your sales, you need to be able to prove it. You need to be able to say, "Look, I did what has proven to generate sales in my shop in the past, but ever since you added that button, my sales have plummetted." If you have always renewed, relisted, or listed and you suddenly stop, who's to say that THATs not the reason your sales have dropped?

So quit bitching, people. I'm guessing that if you stopped wasting time complaining in the forums and used that time to promote your store, make more items, take better pictures, and just relax, you'd keep making sales. Possibly even more than normal.

Starflakes!

It's that time of year again! My Starflakes are pretty popular at the Wakefield show and I'm in Starflake-making mode. I just hope I can make enough to be able to list some on Etsy as well.



They're about 1.5" in diameter and are made with anodized aluminum. I've got lots of fun colors. I'm actually trying to figure out an easy way to give my Etsy customers ideas of what colors are available so they can customize their own ornament.

I call them Starflakes because I can't decide if they look like snowflakes or stars.

Here's another photo.
Whatcha think?

Just an update

Not much to blog about today. Just a few little bits...

I'm planning to start working on some items with turquoise in them. I've already got a bracelet made with some Swarovski accents in turquoise tones. I've also got some turqouise beads that worked perfectly in my flower chain items from several months ago.
The reason I'm focusing on Turquoise is because it is (one of) December's birthstones and rumor has it, Etsy will be posting items with turquoise in them for their December shopping guide.

I also would like to get some photos of my Starflake ornaments. I might just make a listing on Etsy for them. The thing is, they come in tons of different colors and color combinations, so I'll have to figure out a way to show the color choices and have the customers design their own.
Another problem is that my Starflakes sell pretty well at the Wakefield show I'm doing in early December and so it'll be tough to make enough to sell in both places. I'll have to get Rob working on more for me, as well as bring some rings to work on during my lunch break at the hospital.

So little time...

Well, the Twitter thing is working out, I suppose. No sales since I joined and I totally expected that. My problem is I don't have enough time in the day. I'd like to be able to get pictures of more items so I can list more, rather than just relist the stuff I already have pictures of.
Sure, I have two hours of lunch break where I can sit here and follow Twitter and forums and this blog, but because I'm not able to create new listings, or take new pictures, I have nothing new to report in these places. I have yet to post a Tweet about a new listing because I haven't made any new listings. And that's one of the big reasons I joined Twitter.
Really, the only thing I am able to do here on my lunch break (especially with the internet connection being as slow as it is) is create more items. Which is fantastic, don't get me wrong. I'm sure many people don't even have that luxury.

I suppose that I'm just going to have to wait until these next two shows are over. Then I will have time to take pictures and the like. As it is now, any spare time I have at home is spent getting my inventory ready and creating signage and checking my supplies/displays, etc.

And since I don't have anything new to report, all I can post about is depressing stuff like this! Sheesh.

Hearts Do Not Equal Sales

I just hit the 100 hearts mark for My Etsy Shop!

I know, I know, a heart isn't a sale. You don't even need hearts to get a sale. But whatever. I've been on Etsy for nigh on two years now. I've been pretty passive about promoting myself, so I'm certainly not complaining.

And, following up from my last blog post, I have Twitter to thank for it. The last three hearts came today after I was more active on my Twitter page.

We shall see if these hearts amount to anything.

I like people.

Okay, not really. I mean, that would go against everything I am. I suppose it'd be more accurate to say that I'm happy with some people at the moment.

My Etsy shop has been conversation central. None have resulted in sales, but one is about a recent sale, so there's that.

One conversation was initiated by myself. I discovered a shop that has a really cool promotion. The shop is NomadCraftsEtc. and they make lampworked beads and pendants. Lampworking is near and dear to my heart and once I get a place that can accommodate such a craft, I will get back behind the torch and try my hand at it again.
So I was pretty happy to find out that if you join their mailing list, the kind folks at Nomad Crafts will send you a fee lampworked bead every month. Now, I'm sure these beads aren't huge masterpieces. Probably not anything that could serve as a focal bead or pendant... but still. These are beads that take a little bit of effort to make. The glass is expensive. It takes up resources to have the torch burning. I might only take a minute or two to make the bead, but I seriously doubt these beads are just single color wraps. Well, I HOPE they're more than that anyway.
So I had a few convos back and forth with them and they seem very nice and I look forward to my newsletter and bead.

Another conversation was from a recent buyer. She got her bracelet today and is very happy with it. And thusly I'm very happy about that! To give myself props as a reward for another happy customer, I shall now link you to the bracelet in question. Sneaky me. Of course, as fast as those things are selling, we'll see how long that link lasts.

Thirdly, I got a convo from a fellow jewelry seller asking about the dog in my logo. I've had this question at least once before, if not twice. She asked if it was a Shiba Inu. No, I responded, it is an Akita. Now I won't lie and say that I like Shibas. I really don't. But that's just personal preference. Am I mad when people think it's a shiba? No. It's probably my own fault that people think that. The anvil and the dog are proportioned so that it makes the dog look like a smaller breed... like a shiba or a spitz. But alas, it is my akita. Will I change it? Hell no. This person said she liked the logo in general and thought the dog on the anvil was appropriate for my shop name. And so, I shall now give HER some props and link you to her shop called Moonlight Beadworks.

It'll be interesting to see how long my goodwill towards others will last.







....not long apparently.

Bestseller

So, I think I have a new bestseller.
My current bestseller is a sterling silver byzantine necklace done in 20g 1/8" rings. Gotta say I like it too.
But, move over sterling, 'cause there's a new fave in town.
My small byzantine bracelet done in all titanium. I'd show you a picture of an example, but I'm not at the computer with the pictures so I can't upload one at the moment. And I can't link you to a listing of one on Etsy because I can't keep them in stock long enough.
Last year I had listed one with nice deep blue connector rings. Gorgeous. Someone bought it for her boyfriend. Then I listed one with pink connector rings. That sold as well. Then the lady who bought the first one came back and wanted another for her father. That was awesome, I love doing custom stuff! Then I decided that I should remake some of the items that have previously sold on Etsy and relist them. So I started with the pink titanium bracelet. I had intended on doing the blue one next when the pink one sold. Not three days later.
So, here I am on my lunch break, trying to crank out another pink bracelet to list and I have every intention on making a blue one when I get home. Assuming those stay for a little bit, I'll take a chance and try green. Then maybe brown or purple. Perhaps I should just stick with a few colors? I know pink and blue do well, but I'd hate to limit myself to just those.

Anyway, it's nice when you have something that you like and really enjoy making and everyone else seems to like it, too!

Life has a funny way of...

...making it impossible to update your blog.

Okay, so I can't blame it all on life. A small bit of it was my laziness on my part as well. But I have gone through some big crap in my life recently, but now that I'm back in the game, I can make a feeble attempt to keep this blog somewhat updated.

What's new with Iron Dog?
I've got a show coming up at the end of this month. It'll be outdoors. I had sworn off outdoor shows a while ago. Okay, maybe not outdoor shows in general, just one show and one of the several reasons for dropping it was that it was outdoors.
I invested in a canopy/tent. Hopefully, the wind and weather will behave for me and things will go smoothly.

I have a new helper!
My boyfriend surprised me by showing a decent level of interest in what I do. He even asked me to teach him a few things and before I knew it, he'd made 15 items for me. I suppose I'll need to start paying him somehow. He also seems more than willing to come with me to shows and help out that way. Good thing, too, since I'll be needing it with all the new procedures I'm adopting.

Procedures? Yeah, so according to state law, I need to have sales tax listed seperately on my receipts. Up until now, I had just lumped sales tax into the item cost and rounded up to the nearest dollar. That way, I didn't have to bring coin change with me to shows. Just bills. Lots easier, but I wasn't writing out the sales tax on the receipts. I plan on keeping my prices rounded, but I made a cheat sheet to look up how that price breaks down into item price and sales tax so I can note it on the receipt.
Also, I plan to get mobile broadband on my laptop so I can process credit cards on the spot through Propay. Before I'd use the imprinter to make the receipt and wait until I got home to actually process the cards. But at that point, if the card were declined, I'd be SOL. I used to ask for Driver's License to verify the cardholder as well as write down their address and phone number so I could get ahold of them if the card were declined. But I found out that that is a big no-no. So, rather than try to find a way around getting the customers info, I just decided to go all out and make it so I can process cards on the spot. Easier, faster and safer for everyone.

Bah! Enough of the technical stuff. What sort of new pretties have I made? Well, I'm still on a titanium kick. I had an issue with my anodizer, but thanks to my electrical engineer of a brother, it's back up and working full speed.
I've also taken a leap and invested in some gold rings to incorporate into my jewelry. I'm still hesitant to make anything completely gold. Not sure why, but I think it's because I, myself, do not prefer gold jewelry.

I dropped out of that gallery I was showing at. I didn't like the way it was being run, but mostly I was having difficulties scheduling my shifts around my new work schedule. So, I decided to give it up. Sales had dropped off anyway, but it has freed up inventory to put on Etsy and in shows.

Speaking of Etsy, I really need to get some more items up there. With the show coming up in a few weeks, I'm hesitant to put things on Etsy that I will be bringing with me to the show. Knowing my luck, an item would sell on Etsy the same moment it sold at the show. I'm thinking of saving my easy-to-reproduce items for Etsy to help reduce that fear.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll be back with something a little more exciting. Maybe even some pictures, too.

Free Shipping!

Okay, so the Yart Sale thing didn't quite pan out for me. But I am going to continue to offer free shipping for the first five orders placed in my store.
I understand that it takes a leap of faith to order something from a store with no sales, so I'm rewarding that trust with free shipping.

Getting Juried!

So I finally called to schedule a jury to look at my stuff. Wasn't necessarily due to laziness that I put it off. I honestly would tell myself in the morning to do it. But I thought that even though I know the lady works from home, I should wait until later in the day. Thinking it might be too early to call before 9am. But then I'd forget, because something or someone distracted me. And when I remembered it'd be dinner time and I'm NOT calling someone when there's a chance I'd interrupt dinner. And then I'd forget again after that. Next morning, lather, rinse, repeat.

But I finally remembered to call this morning! Spoke with Kathy. She's very nice and seems very excited to see my work. She said that they normally would have had a jury meeting already scheduled for this coming Wednesday. But since no one needed to be juried, they didn't schedule it. But she said she's so excited about seeing my stuff that she's going to immediately call all the jury members and make sure they come Wednesday after all. Nice!

So, I just gotta get stuff together. Clean it up, maybe run it through the tumbler. Whew. I'm excited!

Wednesday, June 18th, 7:30pm. Jury Day.

Oh, and I found a blog that lists all the etsy sellers that accept RME. Submitted my info for inclusion. Yay, RME!

To Yart or Not to Yart...?

Etsy is full of catchy (and kitschy) slang. "Destash." "I hearted you!" "PIF"

I promised myself I wouldn't adopt any of it. Well, it wasn't really a promise, just a internal decision not to use any of it. Especially not in any of my listings or descriptions, shop wording, etc. Not that I think it's stupid, or unintelligent. It's kind of cute. But I'm not guaranteed that my customers will know what "destash" is. So, rather than alienate and confuse them, I just decided to avoid the slang.
But there's an event going on now, started by a seller. She calls it a Yart Sale. Combining the words yard and art. The idea is for sellers to participate in the Yart Sale and offer discounts or other attractive offers.

Well, I haven't had any sales. And while I'm forcing myself to remain patient and knowing that it is a rare occurrance for people to make sales within the first two weeks of their shop opening, I decided a little promotion certainly couldn't hurt.

So, I joined the Yart Sale and I'm offering free shipping on all orders received during the sale... which is going on now through June 20th.
Wish me luck!

Etsian Linkage

Are you a fellow Etsian with a blog of your own? Want your blog to be listed in my link section?

Beg.

You'll find I'm pretty accomodating.
I don't require that you link my blog to yours in return. But if you want people to think you're nice, you would.

New Toy Chew Toy

Apparently, blogging is the thing to do.
Apparently, everyone's got one.
Apparently, it helps get the word out about what you do.
Apparently, I'm one of the few people remaining without a blog.

Apparently.

Okay, that's not true. I've got a blog. I've got two blogs, actually. One right here on Blogger. Yeah, well, this one is going to by my "professional" blog.

This is where I will discuss my doings. My creative juices. My attempt to be remembered for what I make and what I do.

What do I make and do?
I make jewelry.
I write. I try to write anyway. Oh damn, wait, I take that back. There is no "try", only "do". A wise man whom I respect deeply once told me that. No, he isn't short and green. Though, he is bald. And he IS a Jedi Knight. He's also the one with whom I am writing.

So yeah, this is the place where I will talk about those things. Just remember I didn't invite you here, you came of your own free will. And if I did invite you here, well, that probably means I respect your opinion. I'll write another post while your shock wears off.