Newest Necklace

Made of lovely African Jade!! I love the mix of greens and browns in this stone. I used 3 different shapes to give this necklace texture and dimension.

Reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream... yum!

Featured Artist Friday #2

Today's artist has made art out of something I never would have imagined would be art. His vision is unique and his work is breathtaking to me.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62703311/beet-blue-5-x-7

That, my friends, is a beet root! I really think that this just goes to show that beauty is everywhere in nature if we simply look for it.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/37722918/crystal-creek-stream-bed-8-x-10?ref=pr_shop

I could show you his whole shop. I really do just think his work is amazing and hope you do as well.


Name: Danny Mullendore
Website(s): www.etsy.com/shop/danielm1154


Tell us a little about yourself?
I am a 5th generation Jackson Hole, Wyomingite. My family was among some of the first homesteaders of the valley in the late 1800s. I grew up with a western background that led me to professional bull riding. I rode bulls for about 16 years before I entered college. Currently, I am earning my PhD in plant cell biology. I am specializing in the sugar conducting cells of plants with an emphasis on microscopic structure as it relates to function (see www.plantcell.org/content/22/3/579.short if interested). My micrographs on Etsy were taken after I was a teaching assistant for a Plant Anatomy course. I have been married to my lovely wife for five years this August and we have an annoying (but worth it) Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Willis, who is scared of blue coolers.

What do you do?
I am a student of plant cell biology. I enjoy cooking, which is good because my wife does not cook at all. My wife and I enjoy gardening and mushroom hunting.


Where do you get your inspiration?
My wife offers me the most encouragement. She is the one that suggested I share my micrographs on Etsy.


Who has been one of your biggest influences?
My Grandpa has been influenced my life greatly. He was wise, kind, hardworking and always had time for all of his family. I miss him dearly.

If you could have dinner with one person from history who would you choose and why?
Willie Nelson, I am a sucker for old country music and braids. The man is a genius!

Double Purple

Several of my pieces have found new homes recently, including a double strand necklace made of 2 shades of purple. This necklace was lots of fun and I thought the colors were lovely. I am glad for it to have found a home :)

On other fronts, I went to the fair today and had a good time. I'm full of donuts and fried pickles. Odd combination, I know, but I had to pick my favorite items that you only get at the fair. And those were it. I looked at lots of booths and ended up finding a birthday present for my dad. Its a really cool hand carved P51 Mustang (airplane) model. I hope he likes it. I thought the work was really well done. The seller doesn't have a website yet, but should soon! I think they will make an awesome addition to online craft sales.

And I made 500 fans on my Facebook site! There will be a celebration for this milestone announced very soon.

Now, I'm going to go chew some antacids and hit the hay. 

Mama's Coffee Shop

is hosting a huge give-away to thank their 2,000 fans. The winner will receive over $800 worth of merchandise. Included in this huge assortment of goodies, is one of my necklaces:

There's so much other stuff to win, its crazy! So.... if you aren't a fan already, go check it out.

Mama's Coffee Shop Giveaway

So many stones...

so little time. The more I shop for beads, the more variety of stones I find. Most of them are classified as semi-precious.  The selection gets overwhelming at times. I see so many that I like and I can't buy them all, so I have to work on picking out what I think will appeal to others.

Recently, I decided to try something new to me. It's called African Jade and the colors are really pretty. But I know its not really jade, so I decided to find out what it is. Thanks to Wikipedia, I found out it's grossular (which doesn't sound very pretty at all). Basically, African Jade is actually a member of the garnet family. I never would have guessed that from the coloration of the stones, minty green to forest green with some brown accents.

I'm including some pictures of the stone below.

I think the colors will go well with silver or copper findings. I am planning a necklace and will post soon.

Amazonite and Tourmaline

and I'm in love with it. I just finished this necklace late this afternoon and I love it. I think the pale blue and black go really well with the black of the nickel colored metal beads.

Auctions and Giveaways: Good for your business?

Do you think they help your business or hurt it?

I've been doing some of both lately to work on increasing recognition. However, I wonder if they cheapen people's opinion of your goods. I am on the fence. I know several people who have had great success in selling online that recommend them. I know several other people that are frustrated by people always seeming to want free things from them.

If you give your items away very early in the promotion of your page, you are risking creating an idea in the consumer's mind that your products have no value. If auctions and give-aways are one of the ways to increase recognition, how do you avoid de-valuing your item to the consumer?

Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this whole thing, but I remember reading a book in Consumer Behavior that talked about this topic. You have to create value to your products in the consumer's mind. If they see no value, they will not purchase it.

Photography Lessons

Yesterday I read a blog from a fellow online seller (who will remain anonymous) bashing everyone for having poor photography. The blog made me a little on the mad side. Yes, there are lots of shops out there with less than stellar photography, but bashing them in a blog does not help.

If you are regular readers, you know I have recently been working on photography for my shop. I've had a lot of help from several sources and I think my photography has improved dramatically. I want to share some of those tips here so that those who are struggling can improve.

#1 - use NATURAL light, but diffuse it somehow. What this often means is photographing during daylight hours (1pm to 3pm is my best time), but don't take the photos in direct sunlight. Try a shady area or photographing inside close to a window. The point here is you want to photograph your work in natural light to show the colors best, but you do not want to wash the color out by shooting in bright direct sunlight.

#2 - If it is a small item, such as jewelry or hairbows, find the macro setting on your digital camera and use it. This setting is specifically designed for close up shots, which you need to show the detail of your items.

#3 - It is very likely that your photographs will need some editing. I am not talking about spending a ton of time on each photograph, but spending a minute or two will have a huge impact. You do NOT have to buy Photoshop or an expensive software program. I use Picassa, which is 100% free. Pay attention to the fill light on your photos, I almost always have to increase mine. This just brightens the overall photograph. Do not be scared to play around with all the settings to see what effect they have.

#4 - Remember to keep your background unobtrusive. This means don't photograph your items on your carpet or really bright backgrounds or wrinkled tablecloths.  I try to use light colored scrapbook paper since my items are small.

Before:

After:



See the difference? I spent about 2 to 3 minutes more on the second photograph. The first one was washed out, over lit, and the background was wrinkled and distracting. I like to use books to photograph the whole piece shots of my necklaces. I also take several other shots to post on Etsy. Including at least one close-up on each item.

Featured Artist Friday

Today we're going to talk to one of my favorite artists. Not only does she make amazing stuff, she's a great person as well. Her genre is Steampunk, which I have fallen head over heels in love with. Meg writes, "Steampunk is a sub genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy."

How did I meet Meg? By buying something from her amazing shop.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/76051772/steampunk-silver-ox-filigree-honeycomb

In my talks with her, I've found out that she does all her own plating of the metals as well as all of the other special metal finishes you see in her shop. So, with no further ado....

Name: Megon, but my friends call me Megs <3
Business: Broken Wings®
Website(s): www.MegsBrokenWings.etsy.com
                         www.wix.com/megsbrokenwings/MBW
                         www.facebook.com/MegsBrokenWings


Tell us a little about yourself?  I'm turning 34 on July 23.  I have 2 beautiful baby girls (11 & newly 6) and an amazing husband of 13 years!  He's my lobster... 


What do you do? Currently, I'm a full-time law student.  Every moment I don't spend with school work, I spend with my daughters on their summer break!

Where do you get your inspiration? Through my jewelry, my biggest inspiration comes from my childhood struggles.  I love to imagine beautiful things and sharing those things with others.

Who has been one of your biggest influences? My husband, by far.  he has been my soul supporter, even when things looked impossible!  He stands by what I believe in and we live our lives through Jesus <3

Of everything you've made,do you have a favorite item? Which one, and why?  DAVID.  I have a picture of my father, the only one actually, that has the notorious oranges from the 70's.  I was heating brass one day and saw the same color scheme in the wings I was making that I knew were in the picture.  The first piece I made, of course, I kept for myself!   

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61190148/david-angel-rainbow-patina-wing-pendant

Paper Bead Project

As promised, today I worked on the paper covered beads. I bought a kit at the craft store because I wanted to try this out. It was not as hard as I thought it might be, but is sort of tedious. The starting materials are pictured below:

The kit included the 18 wooden beads, the various papers, and the paste. All you need is scissors and a paint brush. The first step is to cut the pieces of paper into smaller pieces that measure 1.5 inches by 2 inches.

You measure these around the bead to make they will wrap around the bead without overlapping. If there is excess, you trim it off. Then you cut the paper so that it looks like a child's drawing of a Christmas tree.

You then coat the backside (non printed) liberally with the paste. The instructions say you can use a paintbrush, but the paste is too thick for that. I used my fingers as that seemed easiest. Then, you wrap the paper around the bead with the jagged edges facing the bead hole. You smooth the paper so that the seam where the edges meet is almost invisible.

From there, you can either trim the excess off or stuff it down the bead hole. I elected to stuff it in the bead hole using the small end of my paint brush. My results are below:

As you can see, my bead is not perfectly smooth. However, for my first try I figure it wasn't too bad. You will also note lots of paste smeared all over the table. This is not a neat project. Once the glue has completely dried, I will be spraying the beads with an acrylic sealer to protect them and add some shine. I will try to remember to post the completed project!

Fabric covered beads

I love them... I think they look really cool. So, I am going to try to make some of my own. Well, not fabric, but origami paper covered ones. I was wandering around the craft store the other day (because it was wayyyy too hot to go back out to the car) and found a kit that teaches you how to do it.

Planning to try it tomorrow and see how it goes. I was thinking I would make something for my mother for her birthday. I bought plane tickets to visit home at the end of August, which is right after her birthday.

I will post pictures of the process and the end results, as well as my thoughts on both.

Hotter than...

you can fill it in for yourself. It's supposed to get to 98 here today with a heat index of 117. That's just unheard of in Minnesota!

My first custom order was delivered today and the customer was thrilled, which made me so very happy. In a small way, it makes me feel a little bit better about everything. Trying to sell online is discouraging at times. The only way to measure feedback is by sales and I haven't had many of those yet. So, I feel a little more reassured and confident by the customer loving the custom orders.

Taking a little break today from jewelry making and photography to do some other things. So far today, I've made two loaves of zucchini bread. Next on the list is canning tomatoes! Then tomorrow, it's back to photography. I have so much stock to get posted in my shop it's crazy.

Lazy Sunday

Aren't Sunday afternoons the perfect time to be lazy? I haven't done much today. Took some pictures, but haven't edited them or posted them yet. I spent most of the day yesterday updating my Etsy shop and am really pleased with how everything is coming along.

I'm feeling less stressed about the photography aspect of selling online, which is great. That means I am actually starting to have a little fun with it.

I have signed up to do some more auctions on Facebook, as well as  give away. The item for give-away is pictured below :

I think it's a really fun piece. The light purple really sparkles in the light... almost iridescent. The item is going to be up at QT Pie Creations real soon.

And right now... I have 2 items up for auction at my friend Jeraly's. You should check out her fan auction!

Featured Artist Friday

is postponed until next week. My first victim... I mean spotlight artist seems to be having some internet problems, so we haven't been able to connect to get the questions answered.

On another note, it is rainy here and it's making me super sleepy.

Sorry guys! I'm really bummed about not getting this article posted today.

Tomorrow...

is the first Featured Artist Friday. I am very excited about it. I have also gotten three more artists that have agreed to participate. I think it will be fun to get to know some of the artists a little bit better.

Hoping for good weather tomorrow so I can get some more photography done. Posting my favorite from yesterday below:

I love the greens in this bracelet. I think they are very pretty and I love how it photographed on the map background.

Photography

I am feeling a little more comfortable with it now. I tried again today. One friend says its still too dark, but everyone else seems to think its okay. I am going to buy a cheap tripod because I'm still getting a little blurring, but overall its better.

Posting a few of todays shots below:

First Custom Order

So, I received my first custom order, which is super exciting! But I'm also a little nervous about it. The lady gave me pictures of 2 pairs of earring she likes. One pair, I can get pretty close to (I think). They are a drop earring with a fleur-de-lis in the middle. She wanted them in gold instead of silver, which proved complicated. I could not find a gold fleur-de-lis link for this item, so I am planning to improvise on this and hope it goes well.

The other pair she requested are silver and abalone. The picture she sent shows silver twists with abalone at the very bottom. She said she just wants silver and abalone together. I hope she likes what I have planned. I placed the order and threw in a few extra things I've been drooling over.

I will be sure to post pictures when I'm done.

On a side note, I got a new camera in the mail and have been working on photography. Its slow going!

Craft Show

I know it's been awhile since I posted and I'm sorry for neglecting my readers. I participated in a craft show on the 4th of July in the very small town in which I live. There were tons of people there and traffic to my booth was decent. However, my sales were lackluster. People commented heavily on how pretty or beautiful or nice my stuff was, but they never even looked at the price tags. They just weren't there to shop.

My one saving grace was the ton of stretchy bracelets I had made to sell for $1. Those went like hotcakes to girls from 6 to 76. I do not think I will do this market again as it really just wasn't the right place for my goods. I noticed several other vendors who did not seem to make many sales either. I talked to one other jewelry vendor who said her sales were bad too. She also said I shouldn't have sold the bracelets so cheap. LOL

Below is a shot of my entire booth and my significant other, who sat with me all day to keep me company.

One thing I did learn from this craft show is to organize my earrings by price per level of the display piece. So, all in all, it wasn't a bad experience... just a long, hot day for not much profit. Other pics of my booth included below.