Etsy Finds - Handpainted Glass Sunflower Pendant

This hand painted glass sunflower pendant by LewesiaGlass is absolutely stunning! I love the colours and the way the light shines through it. This piece would also make a beautiful sun-catcher. :)

(click the image to view item)

Learn more about Lynn and her painting techniques in this feature I did on her - Featured Artist- LewesiaGlass.

Featured Artist - CelticKnot

The Etsy forums are a wonderful place to meet talented artists and kind, warm people. I met one such lovely person, Kristine, from CelticKnot a few months ago and have subsequently purchased a pair of her gorgeous earrings as well as two jars of her origami Lucky Stars. :)

Kristine is currently having a really great sale to raise money for a camera. She has tons of beautiful things ready to list in her shop once she's able to take photos of them. So be sure to stop by her little corner of Etsy to check it out. :)

I recently interviewed Kristine, here are my questions and her answers. (Click the photos to view the items.)

What first interested you in jewelry and origami, and how long have you been doing each?

I first became interested in making jewelry during the summer of 2007. My husband was in the Navy at that time and was away on a deployment for several months. I needed a way to pass the time and satisfy my creative side. I researched how to make earrings and dove straight into it. Since then I have been making earrings, bracelets, necklaces, keychains, bookmarks, wine glass charms, cell phone charms, and zipper pulls.

I have been interested in origami for many years, but I was an admirer rather than a creator. I absolutely love stars, so I was extremely excited when I discovered origami lucky stars. In the one month since I made my first star, I have made thousands and they are filling up every possible container in my apartment. They’re very addictive!

What is your favourite colour to work with?

I love to work with silver, blue, and emerald green. Rainbows are frequently seen in my shop.

What style of jewelry do you prefer to make over the others?

I love to make all styles of jewelry, but I would describe the majority of my jewelry as vibrant and fun. My favorite earrings to make are shooting stars and cherry blossoms, and my favorite necklace is my planetary necklace.

What type of jewelry do you, yourself, wear most often?

I wear my gorgeous engagement and wedding rings, a diamond star necklace given to me by my husband when we were dating, and a variety of my own earrings. I love to wear shooting star, Celtic knot, cherry blossom, and rainbow helix earrings. I have recently started making memory wire bracelets, and I have been proudly wearing them.

How did you first discover Etsy?

I was first introduced to Etsy by a friend several years ago. She recommended the site to my in-laws who had a candle business at the time.

What convinced you to sell on Etsy?

I fell in love with Etsy immediately and opened an account when I was encouraged by family, friends, and strangers.

Are you happy with how your shop is going?

At the moment, things are very slow because I no longer have a camera. I have a ton of beautiful earrings and bracelets and lovely lucky stars that I can’t wait to add to my shop. I am currently having a 30% off sale to help buy a camera.

How much time would you say you spend each day on your crafts?

I spend several hours a day on my crafts. I love to make earrings and lucky stars while watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy every evening. I also spend a lot of time in the forums talking to wonderful Etsians, helping to answer their questions, and promoting my shop. Chances are, if you see me in the forums, I’m typing and making lucky stars at the same time. Like I said, they’re addictive!

What advice do you have for new sellers?

My advice for new sellers is to believe in yourself and your crafts. Do not undersell your items; your time, creativity, materials, and talent are worth a lot! Good pictures are essential. Use all of your picture slots; they are very valuable. Photograph your items at different angles, and use size references, whether they are in the picture or described in units within the description. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! Get to know your fellow Etsians. Etsy is the nicest, friendliest, most creative and diverse community in the world. I love Etsy!

If you enjoyed this post, check out the Artist Feature I did on jessijewels. :)

My Hard Work Paid Off....

I discussed in one of my earlier blog posts titled "Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket " that I was creating jewelry to sell to a local bookstore who likes to showcase items by local artists. They bought a batch from me back in May, and were ready for more, so I worked nearly steadily through the whole month of July and into August creating a much larger order.

The tagging and labeling of the pieces actually took longer than creating them, I think! But I finally got it all done and had quite a bit to show for my hard work. :)

The most I made of any one thing was earrings, since they sold quite quickly at the bookstore last time. Here's a few photos of the different earrings laid out on the earring cards I worked so hard on:





This is a shot of them altogether so you can get an idea of how many there were:

A sampling of bracelets:

And all of them together.

A sampling of necklaces (I love the cherry and rose quartz one on the left, but they didn't buy that one):
And all of the necklaces together.


Although the bookstore didn't buy everything, they probably purchased about 3/5 of everything I had created. After my hard work with labeling and tagging, I couldn't bear to remove the tags and photograph the remaining items for my Etsy shop, so I've been finding other ways to use them.

Yesterday I packaged up 4 pairs of earrings, 3 necklaces and 2 bracelets to donate as prizes to a hand mowing competition in Nova Scotia. Sponsors of the competition will get a mention in the cross-country magazine Rural Delivery, which should provide some good exposure for my little Etsy shop. :)

The rest my dad will take down south with him to the town we used to live in to see if the health food store, which sells jewelry, might be interested in me as a supplier.

And when it comes to new items for my Etsy shop, I guess I'll just have to dive back into my bead supply and come up with some new designs. Oh, the humanity. ;)

As Luck Would Have It....

No sooner do I write a blog post about always missing the Treasury than I manage to snag one! :) My luck has changed, whoo!

ANGELic


These are some very talented artists. Take a moment to check out these items and the shops they come from. :)

Top row:
Left - Paris Angels Photomontage
Middle - Memorial Custom Pet Purse
Right - High Heraldry
Second row:
Left - Loved Beach Angel Mermaid
Middle- Rainbow Peace Angel
Right - Orange Feather Angel Wings
Third row:
Left - firefly - necklace
Middle - Angel Heart Glass Necklace
Right- ACEO Lilac or Black Angel Print
Bottom row:
Left - All Dogs Go To Heaven
Middle - Flame Angel
Right - Aurora Hot Angel

Polishing and Caring for Sterling Silver

I love working with sterling silver. It's beautiful, classic and best of all, quality. But as with any silver product, it will tarnish over time and with exposure to air, light and skin oils. This can be a frustrating process, watching your lovely pieces of shiny silver turn brown. I became quite frustrated with it myself, both with my finished jewelry and with my sterling wire supply, so I researched sterling silver polishing on the internet.

You can use regular silver polish on it, but I have sensitivities to chemical products like that, so I searched further for a more natural solution, and found two.

The first is a slightly more complicated method, but works very well in a hands-off fashion.

-Line the inside of a small bowl with tin foil.

-Put 1 tsp each of salt and baking soda into the bottom of the bowl.

-Fill it with tap water as hot as you can run it, stirring to dissolve the salt and baking soda.

-Add your sterling jewelry to the solution, making sure that the pieces are touching the tin foil as well as each other.

-Leave for about 5 minutes, then pour off the hot water and rinse well. Pat dry.

The second method is more time consuming, depending on how many pieces you're polishing, and it requires more hands-on involvement, but it seems to last longer and is, in my opinion, superior.

-Pour a bit of baking soda onto a plate.

-Make your fingers wet and dip them into the baking soda.

-Rub the paste gently on the sterling silver until it's shiny again.

-Rinse well and pat dry.

I've tried a couple of different brands of baking soda and have found that Arm and Hammer is the very best. It cut my polishing time down in half and worked twice as well as the President's Choice brand. :)

Note: use caution with pieces that incorporate dyed beads, beads covered in a coating or foil (I made this mistake with pink seed beads that had a fine coating), or pearls, which can be delicate. If you're the creator and have some spare beads of the type used in the jewelry, test the method on them alone before polishing the finished piece. If you've purchased the item and don't have spare beads, consider asking the seller about their polishing method if you're unsure.

Store the polished jewelry in a dark, airless place. I generally keep mine in a sealed plastic bag (with the air pressed out) in a tin container with the lid on, but I have found that some earrings I stored in a small plastic container with the lid on remained shiny for a very long time.

I wrote up care instructions cards in Print Shop with the second method, and I print them onto pre-perforated business card paper I buy at Staples. I include one in all of my Etsy packages. :)

Featured Artist - jessijewels

Jessi is a 32 year old graphic designer who works in the art department of a catalog company. She lives in southern Connecticut with her husband of 7 years, and creates handcrafted jewelry and cards in her spare time. She enjoys gardening, shopping at flea markets, and spending time with family and friends.

She joined Etsy in January of this year, and has been a seller for about 6 months. I have personally purchased a pair of earrings and a card from her, and was absolutely thrilled with the quality and creativity. :)

I recently interviewed Jessi, here are my questions and her answers.

What first interested you in jewelry and card making, and how long have you been doing each?

I've always loved jewelry and I've been into art for as long as I can remember. I graduated Elementary School and High School being known as the Most Artistic (kinda funny since I can't draw worth beans!). I won a gold key for an art piece in HS and also designed the cover for our graduation booklet. I was chairperson for the National Art Honor Society and every year held a workshop to involve kids with art projects.

I'd have to say that I first became really interested in making jewelry about 7-8 years ago, before I was about to get married. I was looking for ways to save money and decided that I would attempt making the earrings and necklaces for my wedding party (to save more money I hand painted each clay pot that I used as wedding favors, put together all the flower arrangements for the centerpieces, and added my own touch to the invitations... proof that if you do more, you can save more when you're planning a wedding. :)

I started making scrapbooks before I got into card making. It all started around the same time (7-8 years ago). My first one was a "me & mom" scrapbook that I presented to her the day that I got married.

Which is your favourite, if you had to pick between the two?

I can't really choose one over the other. I constantly switch between the two crafts so they stay interesting to me. "Some days are diamonds and some days are scrap." Of course, having two very different crafts that I can go between at all times makes for twice the mess though! I think it really helps keep the ideas flowing and it's only work if you get bored doing it and I never want that to happen.

Which have you had more success with?

I have had quite a bit of success with my jewelry. Every year my aunt and I have a jewelry party and we both make out really well. I've also had jewelry at an art gallery, and sold some pieces at an annual fair/flea market that's in town. I've never sold my cards before joining Etsy, but I am proud to say that people have been scooping them up! For the past 6 years or so, I have been making all of my Christmas cards and I always get such great feedback from friends and family. They tell me that they look forward to getting my cards every year. I'm kind of afraid that I'll never be able to stop making them by hand or they'll come after me!!!

What is your favourite colour to work with?

I don't have one! I use silver more than gold because that's what I personally like best. In order for me to sell something I have to like it. That means the style, color and items used. I use all types of colors and gemstones, glass, crystals and metals. New and vintage. Dainty and bold. They say "variety is the spice of life" so that's what I shoot for. I like silver best but I make some copper, brass and gold colored items as well.

What style of jewelry do you prefer to make over the others?

I guess I'd have to say earrings because I can usually bang them out pretty quickly if I get myself on a roll. Bracelets and necklaces are usually more time consuming especially if they're intricate.

What type of jewelry do you, yourself, wear most often?

One thing that everyone knows about me is that I wear silver. I always have AT LEAST 5 sterling bracelets on my left wrist. And I have silver earrings in each of the 7 holes in my ears. I LOVE sparkles and love to wear them on occasion, but for the most part I tend to wear natural stones and crystals.

Is your favourite colour to wear the same as your favourite to work with?

Nope.

How did you first discover Etsy?

I had never even heard of Etsy until I typed "sell handmade jewelry" into the Google box and it popped up. I kinda just stumbled upon it. -Guess it was luck!

What convinced you to sell on Etsy?

After scoping out how Etsy worked, researching it and asking questions in the forums, I decided the first step would be to purchase something and see how it goes. So that was exactly what I did. I found everyone to be friendly and helpful and my order went through and arrived without a hitch. Then I was hooked. I ordered some more items... and some more, and then decided it was time to jump right in and set up my own shop.

Are you happy with how your shop is going?

I think if you were to ask just about anyone, they would probably say the same thing. I do like my shop. I think it's orderly and detailed, easy to understand and a comfortable & friendly place to be in. Just like with anything in life, some days are better then others. Sometimes it feels as though you’re selling things left and right and then next thing you know you're having a dry spell that lasts weeks.

How much time would you say you spend each day on your crafts?

It's different all the time. My husband would say I spend too much time; on my cards especially. It can literally take me hours to think up something and make it happen when it comes to my cards.

What inspires you with jewelry making?

I am most inspired by the "in" colors and seeing what is popular at the moment. I look at magazines and websites to see what's new.

What inspires you with card making?

Occasions- birthdays, anniversaries, etc. There are so many things in life to celebrate or to be thankful for. I want to have a card for everything. I like to use fun stickers, bright colors and papers. I want to get as much use as I can from the items that I have on hand.

Are you involved in any street teams?

I belong to the CT Etsy Street Team, a team specifically for Connecticut Etsians. I also belong to EtsyGreetings.

How has being involved with them changed your Etsy shop and/or you?

Being a part of a team makes me feel like I belong somewhere. A team gives you goals to look forward to, ideas and promos and outlets to sell your items at. They give you that little bit of structure you need in life. :)

Would you recommend teams to other Etsy sellers?

Yes! I have recommended that people join teams. If for no other reason than for the support and friendships you will get from them.

What do you wish you had known when you started selling?

How addicting Etsy is!!! Making treasuries has become a favorite of mine. The couple of threads that I HAVE to check in on everyday. I don't know what I would do without the group of great friends that I've made on "the hug" thread. Of course GenuineArticle, along with SosoRosey, LewesiaGlass and SallysCreations have been the ones that have been there all along. Helpful, supportive and always a friend. A special thanks to all of them and to all of the new shops that I've met along the way.

What advice do you have for new sellers?

My advice to newbies would be to give it time. It usually takes a while to get your shop out there and noticed and to make that first sale. The other thing is to promote your shop the best you can. Put up fliers locally, hang around in the forums, join teams and B&Rs and be social. Good luck to all of you, and most of all, Have Fun!!!

_________________________

Jessi has also had success selling at a local art gallery and at flea markets and craft shows.














She has a vast array of supplies and loves to do custom work. This photograph to the right is just her natural stone collection.

She also has a large collection of vintage beads, as shown below, in addition to glass, crystals, buttons, sterling and charms.

Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

When I first started selling online, pretty much all of my free time was consumed with setting up my Etsy shop, learning about taking product photos and writing good descriptions, and trying to figure out as many of the Etsy "tricks" as I could to make my business successful. It wasn't long before I got into the swing of things and managed to trim down the time it takes me to list a new item from 45 minutes to 15, learned how to photograph an item using 12 shots per piece rather than 50, and had enough practice with creating jewelry that it didn't take me forever to make a pair of earrings.

Once I had a system in place, I found that I had more free time on my hands. And when I thought about what I wanted to do with that time, I realized that photographing and listing the items and promoting my Etsy shop were not the activities that really called to me. I just wanted to make more jewelry. Jewelry that didn't have to be photographed, measured, written about and promoted. The perfect outlet for that came when my dad was in the bookstore at the college he works in, noticed that the woman there has jewelry displays by local artists, and brought up my name. She was very excited to get in more product, so I started making earrings like crazy, and my mom and I beaded a bunch of necklaces and bracelets.

The bookstore woman wanted a little placard with a short bio on us and our business, and a bunch of business cards to put out in addition to the jewelry. It took me a few weeks to get it all together. Learning how to design and print off earring cards took awhile, and making little tags and attaching them to each of the necklaces and bracelets was time consuming, too. Once I had a boxful ready to go, I handed it to my dad and he took it in for me. The woman was over the moon, and bought almost all of it to put out in a little glass display case with only my jewelry in it.

That was back in May. She didn't need anything for June, which was too bad because I'd been hoping that a good sale like that could be a monthly thing, but she does want more product now in July. Apparently, my earrings just flew off the shelves, and now the only items left in my display are a few necklaces on leather cording. It seems that they're not the leather cord crowd, so I'll stick to tiger tail necklaces with this order.

Because the earrings did so well, I'm making them the majority of this order. She bought 9 pairs before, but considering how well they've done, she wants a lot more this time. So I have about 14 pairs made so far, and I'm hard at work on many more.

I love the freedom that comes from knowing that I won't have to photograph, measure, write about and promote these creations. I can make whatever design I want, try it out a couple of different ways without thinking about how similar the internet listings would have looked if I listed three pairs of garnet earrings that look so much alike, and I can concentrate completely on making the earrings without worrying about whether or not they'll photograph well. All I have to do is create them, print off and label the earring cards, and attach the earrings. I can make them look fabulous without thinking about the settings of my camera, and the customers will be able to clearly see what size and colour they are without the mystery that the internet lends to one's pieces.

And best of all, the college bookstore gets WAY more traffic than my Etsy shop. Try as I do to advertise, renew and list, I'm still competing with thousands of other sellers. There are hundreds of thousands of pairs of earrings on Etsy. The college bookstore has me and about three other artists. So at any given time there are probably only 100 pairs of earrings to choose from. And there is also the factor of the impulse buy. You're in the shop for a totally different reason, but you see the shimmering rainbow of labradorite calling to you from a display case called Genuine Article. In person, $20-30 doesn't seem like a lot of money, especially when you can pick them up and twist them in the light. And you also have the added bonus of removing the postal service from the equation. Pick the earrings up, take them to the counter, pay for them and take them home. You could put them on right away, if you wanted. Instant gratification.

So all in all, selling my product to a local store has been an amazing addition to my online business. I have had, and am continuing to have, an incredibly positive experience, and I definitely recommend it to others. Find a local shop (or 2, or 10), take in some of your product and ask if they're interested in selling it from their store. If you choose a location that's appropriate for whatever you make, and they're open to local artisans, you just might wind up with them being your very best customer yet. :)

See the fruits of my labour.

The art of photography.

I've heard a lot of artists in the Etsy forums say that they love to design and create their pieces, and they adore their shops and really enjoy selling online, but they hate photographing their items. I completely agree. I've struggled a lot with my photography. I love creating jewelry, I'm always pondering new designs, pairing beads together in my mind and thinking up names for my future creations. I want all of my pieces to find loving homes, and I know as an online seller and shopper that good photographs are the most important tool when selling over the internet.

Online shopping has its advantages. You can do it in your own time, pop in and out between work or chores, view a wider selection of items than there tends to be in any one regular store, and easily compare similar pieces. But the biggest drawback is that you can't pick up, turn over and feel the object. It can be hard to get a sense of size, true colour, or quality. This is where photos become crucial.

Unfortunately, most people who spend their time sewing, potting, sculpting, painting, making jewelry, etc, aren't spending their time learning to become world class photographers, and we can have a very hard time creating photos that are as incredible as our handcrafted items.

As with all aspects of my business, I want my photographs to be the very best they can be. I want them to have the "lust factor," as my mother calls it. That almost indescribable quality that compels you to click on an item photo no matter what it's a photo of.

The first thing I tried was a homemade light box. I found a tutorial online that described how to cut the top and sides from a cardboard box, cover the spaces with thin paper and aim lights into the box to illuminate the object. Those photos came out quite dim and a bit grainy looking, like so:


I quickly realized that though some people seem to have success with it, this method wasn't working for me. It was suggested to me that one of my items might photograph better on a dark background, so I laid out black paper on the cold stove top, turned on the hood range light, set the camera to flash and gave it a try. It seemed to be an improvement, so I spend a lot of time trying to perfect the technique, using PhotoShop to lighten the pictures where necessary. This is what that looked like:


Even though this seemed to be an improvement on the light box, the photos had an almost surreal quality to them. The black background was a bit stark and didn't help to give any depth or proportion to the items. I had about 30 items in my shop at that time, all photographed this way. They certainly didn't inspire "lust" in me, so how could they do so to my larger audience?

It was at this point that I started to understand why there is such a wide spread opinion that indirect nature light is the best method for photographing one's products. I decided that it was time to give the method a try. After experimenting with several backgrounds, including white and coloured paper, my sister, Natashia, tried an item on a weathered wooden bench that our aunt had given us as a housewarming present. The pale gray wood provided an interesting visual and some perspective to the pieces. Combined with the indirect natural light (the bench is in the shade of the garage) it created photographs that make it look like you can reach out and pick up the items.


Very pleased with this presentation, I set about rephotographing my entire shop. It took a few weeks, but I finally got all of my items changed over and was able to add more (I'm up to 79). I did need something a bit different for the first photograph of my earrings, and that was quickly remedied with a small house plant that I take outside with me.



I love the way that the natural backgrounds in natural light convey such a friendly, summery feel to my whole shop. And they do the most justice to the jewelry that I work so hard on. Now I just have to worry about what I'll do come winter..... ;)

My Journey With Jewelry

Ever since I was a little girl I've loved to draw, paint and create. I was a girly-girl, so jewelry was right up there on my list of favourite things. For birthdays and Christmas, my parents would get my sisters and me crafting kits that we just adored. One of my favourites was a "make your own clay beads" kit, which we had a ball turning into gaudy necklaces and bracelets that we thought were just beautiful.

A few years after that, my Girl Guide troop was taking apart old VCRs to learn what they look like inside and I found a spool of copper wire that the Guide leader let me take home. I'm sure that it just looked like trash to her, but I thought it was beautiful. I twisted several strands together and made bracelets and rings out of it. I wasn't very good at tucking the sharp ends in, though, so no one was terribly interested in wearing my creations.

Later, I discovered more tasteful jewelry, falling in love with a tiny beading store in the mall. I had a horrible time choosing what to get, there were bins and bins of shiny, colourful beads, charms and clasps. I finally settled on glass beads, leather cording and animal charms, and made necklaces for me and both my sisters.

Not long ago, my younger sister was at Micheal's and found crafting kits for making your own freshwater pearl necklaces and bracelets. She bought a kit for us both on the condition that I string hers for her. That was how I learned about tiger tail wire and crimping, a technique that I'm quite fond of.

When I first read about Etsy and started setting up shop there last January, I bought a bunch of different beads online. As it turned out, I had no concept of size and 4mm beads will absolutely not thread onto 1.5mm leather cording. Leather cording had been my main focus, but since I suddenly found myself the owner of many tiny beads I had to reevaluate. Enter the tiger tail.

Not long after that, I discovered the art of wire wrapping through online video tutorials. It took quite a bit of practice, but it's now my absolute favourite technique.

Collecting appropriate supplies and findings took me a lot longer than I thought it would, so I wasn't able to actually start listing on Etsy until February 20th. I had my first few sales within the first week, bought by some darling women I know from a message board that I moderate. It wasn't long after that that I had my first sale to a stranger, which was a fabulous feeling. :)

Since then, my Etsy sales have been up and down, with the biggest "high" coming only yesterday when I sold 3 things in one day for the first time ever! I have my fingers crossed that this is the start of more consistent sales.

So that's sort of the history of my jewelry career up until now in a nutshell. (A nice big nut shell. ;)