Spring Craft Shows, Etsy- April Report, New Creations

Hi everyone! It's been about a week since my last blog entry and I just wanted to catch up.

I'll start with my upcoming craft show this weekend in Manahawkin, NJ. The show will be held on May 3, at the Southern Regional High School, starting at 10am. Shows at this location do very well traffic-wise. It's located on a major road in Ocean County (Route 9) and in past shows in Manahawkin, I've been able to compete well against other jewelry vendors.

I have added some hair accessories for this show (Inexpensive, fun and colorful) along with some pretty earrings in a price range that will attract younger girls. I've done very well selling many lower end items at this type of show and it's always been the difference between a weak show and one that wasn't too bad. I find Mom's love the lower end items for the little girls, especially when they are buying one of my sea glass items...it's easy (on the pocketbook) to make their daughter happy with a small $5 pair of earrings or $4 hair-tie.

The weather is supposed to be overcast for Saturday, with a chance of rain...hopefully the weather doesn't prevent the traffic from coming to the show!

As April winds down, it's been another slow month on Etsy. Sales haven't been coming as fast and furious as they did in January and February, but they still trickle in. The positive about Etsy is the changes to the site that are being made...IMO, these changes will benefit my shop and items. The changes will allow my items to stay on or near the top pages of the category longer, no that they will be removing the supplies from the jewelry sub-categories.

This change makes a lot of sense, as buyers will know be able to see what they are searching for, rather then 7 straight listings of supplies. It can't possibly be a good thing for a buyer who's looking for bracelets, to see listing after listing of loose buttons, and other supplies for making bracelets. It certainly isn't good for a seller's items when they quickly get pushed off the top couple of pages, because a supply seller has put on a half-dozen button listings.

Once again, I have several new sea glass creations for this weekend's show, along with already mentioned hair accessories and lower-end earrings ( I say lower end because of the price point, not the looks or quality) I also have a few new polymer clay pendants ready for this show and I'll soon be starting a couple with etchings, to be hand-painted. These pieces that were very popular last year.

That's it for today's blog, I'll somehow update between my boys baseball games later this week...I hope : )

til next time...

R